I only speak for myself, but am sure that others out there are increasingly having this experience. Unexplainable bouts of anger at the site of Hilary Clinton insulting us with her machinations. Various and sundry television personalities eating it up like it’s devil’s cake. The feeling must be what one feels during road rage, but only in the confines of your home.
I'm writing this because I otherwise have no outlet for my frustration at turning on the news; as nightly I come home only to hear the propaganda spewing forth from the puppets they call journalists. They talk down to us because they think we don't get it, we don't know, we're too stupid. Clinton is the "comeback kid," despite all rational evidence to the contrary. To them, we are sheep, and they the shepherds.
In the immediate sense, this starts with the Clinton campaign. She herself is an incredibly intelligent, articulate woman; however, she assumes we are not (more likely, her campaign does). They first feed the journalists nonsense about this primary; painting their own self-portrait, and feed it to whomever will listen. And listen they do; more appropriately gobble it up like an eager child. It is subsequently delivered to us almost verbatim, without commentary, insight, or thought; although most often presented in a manner suggesting that this is their own original reporting, and that the topic is, in fact, newsworthy. This seems much akin to the 4th grader plagiarizing the encyclopedia and presenting it as their own original report. More surprisingly, while the 4th grader’s teacher (or anyone else reading the work) almost invariably "knows" that something is amiss and takes action; nobody ever calls the press out for similarly childish behavior.
I know there are those who present intelligent "analysis," such as Olberman, Maddow, some PBS commentators (and NPR), and most often, the BBC; but are others not frustrated to turn on CNN and hear them talking at length about Jeremiah Wright, the Weather Underground, and how Hilary Clinton is now a "real threat" after Pennsylvania. I had hoped we hit a tipping point of sorts last week with the ABC charade, but I fear that they rather, have set the standard for "tough journalism" that will be thematic in this presidential campaign. Thus, rather than rebuke the nefarious style of Fox News, we have others providing their own imitation. What this means is that instead of trusting that we "get it," that we "understand" and can "comprehend;" they are tending to assume we do not – that they can pass off anything upon us. It was encouraging to see papers, the Kos community, and commentators on the ABC website express their displeasure, but this must continue for anyone to actually take notice, and God forbid, take us viewers seriously, talk to us knowingly rather than talking at us unintelligently.
This is not just about the reporting of the Democratic primary, but of China, human rights in general, gas, the economy, crime, etc. However, it has been a nightly frustration to see journalists play "dumb" and give us verbatim the spin coming out of a particular camp, without actually giving us the reality or some genuine insight. I guess at this point I expect Hannity and fixed news to report outlandish propaganda as "real reporting," but fear that their "style" is becoming a contagion of sorts (if you need evidence, take the aforementioned ABC debacle). So, while this has provided me the opportunity to vent my frustrations in having attempted to educate myself tonight by watching the "news," I also express hope that the Kos community and other similar netroots locales speak up; as maybe we can get the pendulum swinging in the other direction.