tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post3312367445818301452..comments2024-03-19T01:14:23.371-04:00Comments on the daily howler: FACTS AND LEGENDS: Little crowd on the prairie!<b>bob somerby</b>http://www.blogger.com/profile/02963464534685954436noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-43651730177455118722012-03-02T10:27:46.975-05:002012-03-02T10:27:46.975-05:00I moved to Florida 32 years ago from Pennsylvania....I moved to Florida 32 years ago from Pennsylvania. I'm glad I did overall but when people asked me right from the beginning what I missed the most. It was the trees. Those giant trees and the beautiful canopy they provided. I had to get to used to my new geography but the missing trees was the most difficult. I don't want Romney to be president but I "got" what he was saying.Frednoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-72774173587169450042012-02-27T15:11:03.347-05:002012-02-27T15:11:03.347-05:00Also, they're paid the same either way.Also, they're paid the same either way.Robhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10719212263455435772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-13335526980153388742012-02-27T09:42:07.601-05:002012-02-27T09:42:07.601-05:00@ flipyrwhig: zing!@ flipyrwhig: zing!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-40788244771885219342012-02-27T04:04:23.092-05:002012-02-27T04:04:23.092-05:00Remember how you guys guffawed about teleprompters...Remember how you guys guffawed about teleprompters in an elementary school classroom? That was precisely what you're complaining about now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-11361658615765205302012-02-26T15:22:34.711-05:002012-02-26T15:22:34.711-05:00And if my grandma had wings she would fly. But sh...And if my grandma had wings she would fly. But she doesn't and she can't. And that's the way the world is.dannyinlanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-16861593026615245242012-02-26T15:20:09.135-05:002012-02-26T15:20:09.135-05:00A classic example of an image reinforcing the mess...A classic example of an image reinforcing the message.dannyinlanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-31892103781166266782012-02-25T20:06:10.070-05:002012-02-25T20:06:10.070-05:00Mass trees lean leftMass trees lean leftPJnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-18523115794392298232012-02-25T19:19:41.807-05:002012-02-25T19:19:41.807-05:00Much of the eastern U.S. tends to grow the same ki...Much of the eastern U.S. tends to grow the same kind of deciduous forest. Off the bat, I wouldn't expect Michigan and Massachusetts to have conspicuously different tree heights. That's why Romney's statement felt odd to me when I first heard of it.<br /><br />I still don't know if Romney feels Massachusetts trees are too short or too tall.David Tomlinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-86934793315020418102012-02-25T18:54:19.739-05:002012-02-25T18:54:19.739-05:00Democratic politicians call out Republican policie...Democratic politicians call out Republican policies all the time. It's the pundits who would rather talk about trivia than engage in a substantive discussion on policy.<br /><br />Why? Because it's just a whole lot easier to talk about bungled optics or "decipher" troubling body language or jump on awkwardly-worded comments. Explaining public policy in a way the public would find persuasive and comprehensible, on the other hand, is intellectually challenging work. And they simply don't care enough to make the effort.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-64621596887064171082012-02-25T17:44:53.875-05:002012-02-25T17:44:53.875-05:00Aside from being vapid, the media criticism wasn&#...Aside from being vapid, the media criticism wasn't even fair. Several reporters faulted the Romney campaign for showing empty seats. But, that campaign didn't show empty seats (at least, not on TV.) These reporters created a new view, not one that Romney's team had created, and then criticized Romney for the view they themselves had created.<br /><br />As you can see from this <a href="http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/at-a-romney-speech-1200-people-and-65000-seats/?scp=1&sq=romney%20speech%20detroit&st=cse" rel="nofollow">photo</a> in the NY Times, the Romney team had set up a screen with the attendees and Romney in front of it, so the TV viewers wouldn't have seen the empty seats.<br /><br />I'll add my usual whine: the media doesn't do this sort of thing to President Obama.David in Calnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-4785352157728126182012-02-25T16:34:32.836-05:002012-02-25T16:34:32.836-05:00Empty stadium for an empty suit.Empty stadium for an empty suit.Fidonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-28154797992388792072012-02-25T16:33:08.470-05:002012-02-25T16:33:08.470-05:00I certainly agree with Mr. Somerby that the mainst...I certainly agree with Mr. Somerby that the mainstream media's continuous failure to focus on the <b>substance</b> of what these GOP candidates are pushing is deplorable, and should be strongly criticized.<br /><br />But I also wonder if he's too dismissive of the psychological (affective) effects of stagecraft, presentation, and spectacle. I believe there are numerous studies out showing how powerfully effective such things can be, particularly on our unconscious or on subconscious levels.<br /><br />Brain scientists have also shown how powerful language can be on our we think and act, often in contrast to what we deem our rational understandings and control of it. So I wouldn't completely dismiss the discussion of that empty stadium, though as you say, Romney's plans, which Barbaro and Shear glide over in today's <i>New York Times</i>, really deserve a discussion, since they would blow a huge hole in the deficit, further burden the states with fixed costs, and primarily benefit the wealthy in terms of lowering federal marginal tax rates. This is not a prescription for growth, economic fairness or any sense of a society as we've come to know it.<br /><br />My main question always is: why won't Democratic or liberal or progressive politicians call these horrible plans out more? Why are they always so silent? What am I missing? They can walk and chew gum at the same time, so is it that they fear their wealthy supporters will stop funding them? I just don't get the silence, especially given how Republicans' plans have failed so miserably over and over in economic terms, and we have the example of the last Democratic president not only creating 22 million jobs and turning the country around after another Bush drove it into a ditch, but Clinton also presided over a budget surplus and began paying down the debt. <br /><br /><b>So why are Democrats--I get the GOP's lies, and the media's complicity in them--so silent about demonstrable, tangible history?</b>Pharaonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-30179312719301700632012-02-25T16:10:11.853-05:002012-02-25T16:10:11.853-05:00It would be nice if political coverage was somethi...It would be nice if political coverage was something other than theater criticism. Way too often the major questions are "how will this look?" and "how will Americans think this looks?". I know there's that famous Reagan-era quote about how the important thing about a politician's TV appearance is what it looks like with the sound off, but, you know, turn the damn sound on, media people.FlipYrWhighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12738420816947638407noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-69260880081654349842012-02-25T11:59:39.684-05:002012-02-25T11:59:39.684-05:00Yesterday's event in Ford Field is what happen...Yesterday's event in Ford Field is what happens when optics (yes, there, I said it) collide with a unsubstantive speech. I have no problem with the media hammering Romney's campaign on this.dannyinlanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-69463445728212625412012-02-25T11:45:47.859-05:002012-02-25T11:45:47.859-05:00and another thing...
you say, "People who ha...and another thing...<br /><br />you say, "People who hate look for ways to hate. They aren't happy until they find one." <br /><br />r u seriously impugning the character of the people fighting the reich wing? u ever heard of hate radio? its been dominating the airwaves hating on liberals (their code for 'non-realamericans') for over twenty years. and theres many times more people listening to them on the radio than all the cable networks put together.<br /><br />like a hammer the hate has to be very prudently used, appropriately directed, at the the reactionary elements and the moneyed interests behind them... not at the various factions which are or could be part of the resistance, which unfortunately so often has happened in the last forty years since the new (so-called) 'left' took over the peoples party.<br /><br />remember the star trek episode where kirk got spit into two separate people? one was all sweetness and light but no will power and the other was the opposite. guess which one the democratic party is now since they largely gave up on labor forty years ago? labor should be reintegrated back to its former place of prominence within the democratic party.talking baboonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-61714606256274109862012-02-25T11:31:12.085-05:002012-02-25T11:31:12.085-05:00Michael Shear of the New York Times showed that he...Michael Shear of the New York Times showed that he could be just as inane as Chris Matthews. http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/at-a-romney-speech-1200-people-and-65000-seats/?scp=1&sq=romney%20speech%20detroit&st=cseDavid in Calnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-71435608866010872092012-02-25T10:46:55.861-05:002012-02-25T10:46:55.861-05:00Granted our media have done a lousy job coming up ...Granted our media have done a lousy job coming up with questions for the Republican "debates".<br />But most of the answers have been just as bad.<br />To many campaign managers and voters, stagecraft IS far more important than the words.<br />Bob, why do you keep demanding that others describe objects with your preferred symbols?<br />It ain't gonna happen.<br />Pols, pundits and reporters are out to please voters, publishers, and editors, not critical readers.gravymeisterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16075831177588700301noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-27886418250577450772012-02-25T10:41:32.075-05:002012-02-25T10:41:32.075-05:00it seeems to me that tv and print journalism shoul...it seeems to me that tv and print journalism should have separate grading scales. i agree that some print people should exercise much more restraint on their style-over-substance knee jerk superficiality. but on tv one only needs to sample the pbs political shows to see how dreadfully boring actual fair and balanced substance-based coverage can be. pbs can get away with it because they dont have to worry about ratings.<br /><br />secondly you got fox out their lying at a mile a minute. superficiality is at least more honorable than falsehoods, relatively. its a good thing, not a bad thing, that that msnbc is out there politicking. consider the alternative of completely unchallenged fox cable dominance. the situation is bad enough as it is.<br /><br />perhaps romney did say some things said which could have been more effectively used than the optics of the situation. if so then the howlers analysis would be better taken in at least this particular situation. but he didn't specify what they missed. all he said was romneys “ridiculous budget proposals”. but without getting into the nitty gritty of them, it would seem mr. somerby himself fell victim to his own lament of style-over-substance.talking baboonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611810694571930415.post-65265547711037848932012-02-25T08:47:57.393-05:002012-02-25T08:47:57.393-05:00Re: your closing paragraph.Re: your <a href="http://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMi1mY2RlNGYxNzMxYzc0ZDU2" rel="nofollow">closing paragraph.</a>Vast Left-Wing Conspiracyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04890243061275519791noreply@blogger.com