Beto O’Rourke
One step forward for Democracy.
Finally, someone displays the appropriate level of affect when referring to Trump! Beto O’Rourke apparently has had enough of the media’s crap and Trump’s crap and didn’t mind saying so, and that is exactly what is called for at this moment in time.
My personal view is that most of the blame for the nation’s current problems lies at the feet of the corporate media who prefer to repeat lies and promote false controversy at the expense of the country because…ratings ($$$).
It is a very big deal that candidates are starting to talk about the complicit media. This is a taboo subject. There are no political rewards for doing it. Howard Dean tried it in 2003 when he told Chris Matthews that one of his first acts, if he were to become president, would be to break up big media, and look what happened to him. They say his campaign was already dead but they made sure Howard Dean stayed dead by broadcasting the famous fake Dean scream over 700 times in just a few days.
Nonetheless, by my count, Beto O’Rourke is the third 2020 Democratic candidate to make a public statement pointing out the role the corporate media plays in the nation’s seemingly unsolvable problems.
Elizabeth Warren refused to do a Fox News town hall. In doing so, she correctly pointed out that Fox News is “propaganda for profit.”
Fox News is a hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racist and conspiracists. It’s designed to turn us against each other, risking life and death consequences, to provide cover for the corruption that’s rotting our government and hollowing out our middle class. – Elizabeth Warren
Steve Almond of WBUR:
“Warren recognizes that Fox invites Democratic candidates to appear “not to expose Fox viewers to new ideas or policies, but as a corporate ploy to keep advertisers from bailing on their increasingly unhinged propaganda…. Fox pulls in an average of about 3 million viewers, or 1% of our total population, and that core audience happens to be the most ideologically intransigent viewership in America. Its viewers are also among the most misinformed in America.” Link
Mayor Pete Buttiegieg actually did a Fox News town hall and called out Fox anchors Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham for their divisive, hateful rhetoric while he was on Fox News doing the town hall. That’s what I call bold leadership.
It is encouraging to see Beto and the others step up and give them hell. They deserve it. The corporatized mass media system in this country is now just a gawdy carnival of parrots and panderers, and worse, a disinformation system that needs to change if we are going to save the democracy and the planet.
Beto’s remarks can be heard on the audio below. Make a donation to keep his campaign alive.
