Tweety kicking some ass last night got me thinking. Have we seen a real change in the media and how they handle wingnuts? Olbermann is now tied in the ratings with O'Reilly and the Republican brand is in the toilet. Is this giving the traditional media more backbone?
Or is it that this Presidency is coming to an end. Did the media treat this President differently because we're at war? Maybe they don't feel the same reverence to McCain because he isn't the standing Commander in Chief? Or maybe some of the blush came off the rose when Rumsfled was exposed as totally incompetent. The one thing most of the media thought the Republicans could do effectively was run the military. These days, I'm hearing them report the facts, that our military is being systematically destroyed by this administration.
Is it that Karl Rove is gone and they aren't as afraid to tell the truth these days? They don't fear the retribution he would typically unleash on their "un-American" behavior.
Are they as sick of the direction this country is headed as we are? After all, members of the traditional media are citizens too! (No matter what we may think based on their spinelessness for the last 5 years, it's true.) Do they understand that they were complicit in taking us down this path? Are they making amends? I'm too young to be sure but is this why the traditional media was perceived to be liberal for many years after the Nixon Administration? Could Bush have caused a seismic shift in how the press now views Republicans and their talking points? When's the last time they gave Coulter the floor? Limbaugh is being scorned for tampering with elections. Last night, Olbermann called Hannity's talking points racist. Wow!
Perhaps they see this administration as being completely and totally incompetent. Welcome to the party! With the American public rating this President so poorly, I suppose the odds are in our favor that the media, reflecting the same attitudes of the public at large, would start to turn on them.
Does my view simply reflect the emergence of MSNBC as a counter to Fox? Or am I misguided, a product of the fact that I get the vast majority of my news from MSNBC and I'm therefore just not as aware of how skewed the traditional media still is?
Whatever the reason, all I can say is I welcome the new attitude and hope it's truly becoming pervasive. I applaud it! I see it reflected a bit in the way the Democrats are acting as well. A bit cockier, a bit more forceful... Like they've grown a pair in the last few months. Calling "bullshit" on this President was always their responsibility, now they're actually doing it! Bravo!