Friday, August 7, 2009

Americans Attacked by the Media And Their Own Government

Health care reform is a very emotionally charged debate. It's been a long time since the American people have been so up in arms about legislation. While people protest and shout down (mostly) Democratic representatives, anyone who protests the legislation is being called all kinds of names. This comes from the media covering the issue, the Congressional representatives pushing something people don't want, and even from the White House itself.

[Updated 8/14/09 to add more references at the end of this list]
[Updated 8/17/09 to add even more references at the end of this list]
[Updated 8/18/09 to add even more references at the end of this list]
[Updated 8/20/09 to add *even more* references at the end of this list]


  • Robert Gibbs, White House press secretary, called protestors "Brooks Brothers" protestors (1). He says protesters are nothing but "good TV". Video here.

  • Dick Durbin (D-IL) says protestors are the same as "birthers", who deny Obama is a true American citizen. Journalist Paul Krugman from The New York Times agrees (2).

  • Gail Collins, also from The New York Times, says people who are against health care reform are "people who appear to have been sitting in their attics since the anti-tax tea parties, listening for signs of alien aircraft. But on the bright side, they’ve finally got something to distract them from the president’s birth certificate." (3)

  • Joan Walsh, writer at Salon.com, while admitting she doesn't understand the health care legislation, calls Republicans "crazy" and "zealots" and that "nothing Republicans do can surprise you" and that conservative commentator Bill Kristol is a "chickenhawk". Obama, meanwhile, is "a model of certainty and persuasion." (4)

  • Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) say the protestors are "are the non-organic product of 'tea-baggers,' 'birthers,' and the conservative fringe." (5)

  • Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Brad Woodhouse says, "The Republicans and their allied groups - desperate after losing two consecutive elections and every major policy fight on Capitol Hill - are inciting angry mobs of a small number of rabid right wing extremists funded by K Street lobbyists to disrupt thoughtful discussions about the future of health care in America taking place in congressional districts across the country." (6) This, apparently, is only bad if the people are being organized by conservatives. It's perfectly okay if left-wing groups do this (7).

  • Robert Gibbs, White House press secretary, said that opposition is being organized by a small group seeking to "manufacture anger." (8).

  • Henry Reid (D-NV) says protesters are trying to "sabotage" the democratic process. He denied they reflect a genuine grass roots effort and held up a piece of astroturf (9).

  • The White House has asked American citizens to report anything "fishy" about health care reform to it using the address flag@whitehouse.gov. John Cornyn (R-TX) says, "By requesting that citizens send 'fishy' emails to the White House, it is inevitable that the names, email addresses, IP addresses, and private speech of U.S. citizens will be reported to the White House." (10). Although the White House denies it is collecting names, by law it is required to keep that information (11).

  • White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina said, "If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard." (12)

  • Rachel Maddow on MSNBC calls protesters "rent-a-mob" (13).

  • Ann McFeatters at Scripps calls protesters "lynch mobs (14).

  • Gene Lyons at The Daily News Tribute calls protesters "lunatics" who are "peddling grotesque and preposterous lies" (15).

  • Michael Wolff at Newser calls protesters "nutters" and "the stupids" (16).

  • Melissa Bradley, chair of the Tides Foundation, calls protesters non-progressive and calls for the far left to "link arms, step into our power and fight back" (17).

  • John Cook at Gawker says crazy GOP supporters want to kill Obama and shed blood (18).

  • Sara Robinson from Campaign for America's Future calls protesters fascists, teabaggers, goon squads, thugs, hate talkers whose methods are modeled after Hitler (19).

  • Steven Weber at The Huffington Post says protesters are emasculated mad men. They are "consumo-zombies, mass victims of Stockholm Syndrome, are fighting not for their own rights but for their captors' profitability" (20).

  • James Clyburn (D-S.C.) compares protesters to "people who unleashed dogs and spat on civil rights demonstrators during the 1960s" (21).

  • Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a self-described socialist, said the lies to disrupt the health care debate need to be countered and a "progressive" news outlet needs to be established to further Obama's message (22).

  • The New York Times editorializes that the protesters are irritable white people (23).

  • Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) calls protesters "evil mongers" who are using "lies, innuendo and rumor" to drown out rational debate (24).

  • Chris Matthews, an anchor for MSNBC, said protesters are racists who are "upset because we have a black president" (25).

  • Katie Couric blames "fear and ignorance" for the town hall protests. Video here

  • David Stout at the The New York Times calls protesters "unknowledgeable" with "groundless assertions." (26)

  • Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) would rather take a phone call than address concerns from constituents (27).

  • Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) says town hall meetings are not "representative of America" (28).

  • David Gregory compares town hall protesters to Tim McVeigh (29).

  • Time'sJoe Klein says the protests are a "celebration of ignorance" (30)

  • The Washington Posts'sRichard Cohen accuses Sarah Palin of McCarthyism for her resistance to ObamaCare, and suggests a new term: Palinism(31).

  • Author Kai Wright, on Guy Raz's National Public Radio show, says the anger over health care is really misplaced racism against a black president (32).

  • Jonathan Alter at Newsweek says the nation is now made of two parties: the Obama Party and the Fox Party. He says the Fox party is "noisy and practiced in the art of simplistic obstruction" and "the Party of Hell No!" (33).

  • Paul Begala calls Sarah Palin "half a whack job" (34).

  • Representative Eric Maasa (D-NY) says "I will vote adamantly against the interests of my district" if the health care bill contains a single payer option, which he supports (35).

  • Democratic leaders say the health bill will not pass without a public option, no matter what the people want (36).

  • At The Washington Post, E.J. Dionne says, "It's about the politics of the jackboot" and says protesters are engaging in "intimidation backed by the threat of violence." (37)

  • Contessa Brewer at MSNBC lamented about a man carrying a semiautomatic rifle on his shoulder and a pistol on his hip, saying, "there are questions about whether this has racial overtones....white people showing up with guns." She failed to mention the man she described was black (38).

  • David Shuster on MSNBC, when interviewing Virginia Democratic Congressman Jim Moran, asked, "Is this putting our president in some sort of danger because of some wacko that will see this stuff and say, ‘oh, yes, it’s fascism and the way we dealt with Adolf Hitler was to try to kill him, so therefore, let’s do this with our president.’" (39)

  • Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) asked one of his constituents during his town hall meeting, "On what planet do you spend most of your time?" (40)



And now left-wing groups are starting to organize like they did for Obama's campaign. Groups like the AFL-CIO, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Council of La Razza, Health Care for America Now, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now and the Service Employees International Union are encouraging activists to contact representatives to plan ways to preempt opposition (41).

Something to note when reading these articles is the slight bias presented in the articles. For example, Democrats are "for health care reform" while anyone against it are "opponents of health care." In addition, Obama and the Democrats are heroic and progressive while conservatives are crazy and on the fringe. This is one of the common strategies used by liberals and Obama in particular. It was created by the radical Saul Alinsky (42). I will leave it to you to research media bias on your own and stay alert to it as you listen to the news and read the paper.

The fight over health care is far from over. It is every American citizen's civic duty, whether for or against this, to get informed and get involved in the process.

========================================================================
1. Krugman, Paul (2009, August 6). "The Town Hall Mob". The New York Times.
Retrieved August 7, 2009, from The New York Times

2. Krugman, Paul (2009, August 6). "The Town Hall Mob". The New York Times.
Retrieved August 7, 2009, from The New York Times

3. Collins, Gail (2009, August 5). "Barack's Progress Report". The New York Times.
Retrieved August 7, 2009, from The New York Times

4. Walsh, Joan (2009, August 7). "To Win This Healthcare Plan, Obama Must Define It". Salon.com.
Retrieved August 7, 2009, from Salon.com

5. Stein, Sam (2009, August 4). "Durbin, Schumer: Town Hall Protestors Are 'Birthers' 'Tea Baggers', And 'Fringe'". The Huffington Post.
Retrieved August 7, 2009, from The Huffington Post

6. Rhee, Foon (2009, August 4). "Democrats Deride 'Astroturf' Efforts By Healthcare Foes'". The Boston Globe.
Retrieved August 7, 2009, from Boston.com

7. Wyatt, Kristen (2009, August 6). "Pelosi: Protests Won't Derail Health Care Overhaul". The Associated Press.
Retrieved August 7, 2009, from California AP News

8. Pulizzi, Henry J (2009, August 4). "White House Brushes Off Health-Care Protests". The Wall Street Journal.
Retrieved August 7, 2009, from The Wall Street Journal

9. "Top Democrat Denounces Health Care Protests". (2009, August 6). The Associated Press.
Retrieved August 7, 2009, from Yahoo

10. Condon, Stephanie (2009, August 5). "Sen. Accuses Whiet House of Creating 'Enemies List'". CBS.
Retrieved August 7, 2009, from CBS News

11. McCormack, John (2009, August 6). "Gibbs: 'Nobody Is Collecting Information', But Of Course 'Fishy' Emails Will Be Saved By the National Archives'". The Weekly Standard.
Retrieved August 7, 2009, from The Weekly Standard

12. Budoff Brown, Carrie (2009, August 6). "White House to Democrats: 'Push Back Twice As Hard'". Politico.
Retrieved August 7, 2009, from Politico

13. Heather (2009, August 4). "Rachel Maddow on GOP Thuggishness at Town Halls: This Is Called Hooliganism". Video Cafe.
Retrieved August 7, 2009, from Video Cafe

14. McFeatters, Ann (2009, August 13). "Lynch-Mob Mentality Stirs Health-Care Debate". Scripps.
Retrieved August 14, 2009, from Scripps

15. Lyons, Gene (2009, August 14). "These Days, the Lunatics Are No Longer on the Fringe". The Daily News Tribune.
Retrieved August 14, 2009, from The Daily News Tribune

16. Wolff, Michael (2009, August 13). "The Nutters Are Coming to Get You". Newser.
Retrieved August 14, 2009, from Newser

17. Bradley, Melissa (2009, August 14). "Speaking Power to 'Truth'". Huffington Post.
Retrieved August 14, 2009, from Huffington Post

18. Cook, John (2009, August 13). "GOP: Pay No Attention to Our Crazy Supporters Who Want to Kill Obama". Gawker.com.
Retrieved August 14, 2009, from Gawker.com

19. Robinson, Sara (2009, August 13). "7 Ways We Can Fight Back Against the Rising Fascist Threat". Alternet.org.
Retrieved August 14, 2009, from Alternet

20. Weber, Stephen (2009, August 13). "Mad Men". The Huffington Post.
Retrieved August 14, 2009, from The Huffington Post

21. Stein, Sam (2009, August 13). "Clyburn: Town Hall Protests Like Horrid Anti-Civil Rights Demonstrations". The Huffington Post.
Retrieved August 14, 2009, from The Huffington Post

22. Poor, Jeff (2009, August 14). "Vermont Senator Rips Fox: 'Nothing More Than an Arm of the Republican Party'; Demands Progressive TV Network". News Busters
Retrieved August 14, 2009, from News Busters

23. Urbina, Ian and Seeleye, Katharyn (2009, August 11). "Senator Goes Face to Face With Dissent". The New York Times.
Retrieved August 14, 2009, from The New York Times

24. Zimmerman, Eric (2009, August 13). "Reid: Protesters Are Evil-Mongers". TheHill.com.
Retrieved August 14, 2009, from TheHill.com

25. Dickens, Geoffrey (2009, August 11). "Matthews Charges Town Hall Protesters 'Upset Because We Have a Black President'". News Busters.
Retrieved August 14, 2009, from News Busters

26. Stout, David (2009, August 12). "For Lawmakers, Health-Plan Anger Keeps Coming". The New York Times.
Retrieved August 17, 2009, from The New York Times

27. Van Susteren, Greta (2009, August 14). "Let Me Apologize To You". Fox News.
Retrieved August 17, 2009, from Fox News

28. Stephanopoulos, George (2009, August 16). "Specter: Town Hall Meetings 'Not Really Representative of America". ABC News.
Retrieved August 17, 2009, from ABC News

29. "David Gregory Compares Town Hallers to Tim McVeigh" (2009, August 17). Fox Nation.
Retrieved August 17, 2009, from Fox Nation

30. Balan, Matthew (2009, August 17). "Time's Joe Klein: ObamaCare Protests a 'Celebration of Ignorance'". News Busters.
Retrieved August 18, 2009, from News Busters

31. Cohen, Richard (2009, August 18). "Palin's Red Menace". The Washington Post.
Retrieved August 18, 2009, from The Washington Post

32. "Is Anger Over Health Overhaul Jim Crow 2.0?" (2009, August 15). National Public Radio.
Retrieved August 18, 2009, from NPR

33. Alter, Jonathan (2009, August 15). "Health Care as a Civil Right". Newsweek.
Retrieved August 18, 2009, from Newsweek

34. Bell, Shannon (2009, August 15). "Paul Begala: 'Palin's About Half a Whack Job'; He Should Know". The Admonition.
Retrieved August 18, 2009, from The Admonition

35. Picket, Kerry (2009, August 16). "Rep. Massa: I Will Vote Against the Interests of My District". The Washington Times.
Retrieved August 18, 2009, from The Washington Times

36. Kornblut, Ann and Perry Bacon (2009, August 18). "Public Option Called Essential". The Washington Post.
Retrieved August 18, 2009, from The Washington Post

37. Dionne, E.J. (2009, August 20). "Leave the Guns at Home". The Washington Post.
Retrieved August 20, 2009, from The Washington Post

38. Drennen, Kyle (2009, August 18). "MSNBC: ObamaCare Protesters 'Racist', Including Black Gun Owner". News Busters.
Retrieved August 20, 2009, from News Busters

39. Drennen, Kyle (2009, August 7). "MSNBC Hosts: Town Hall Protests Are Threat to Obama's Life". Media Research Center.
Retrieved August 20, 2009, from Media Research Center

40. "Rep. Frank, Critics Face Off at Town Hall Event" (2009, August 19). Fox News.
Retrieved August 20, 2009, from Fox News

41. Carpenter, Amanda (2009, August 6). "Memo: How to Beat the Right-Wing Mob". The Washington Times.
Retrieved August 7, 2009, from The Washington Times

42. "Saul Alinsky" (2009, August 4). Wikipedia.
Retrieved August 7, 2009, from Wikipedia

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