A Question

Saturday 11 February 2012 - Filed under Uncategorized

When does continuously and purposefully misstating the basic facts concerning the ruling in the Citizens United case by left-leaning members of the media make the transition from “distortion” to outright misinformation, fraud, and propaganda? Dan Abrams:

One of the beauties of the transfer of power from major media operations to individuals, bloggers and tweeters is that they — we — can all serve as a sort of fact-checking peanut gallery. So it’s hard to imagine that, in this day and age, the mainstream media could repeatedly misstate the holding of one of the most significant Supreme Court decisions without being roundly excoriated. Not a matter of opinion or a partisan viewpoint, but, simply parroting a mistake or lie about the holding in that crucial ruling.

[. . .]

There are two media myths and inventions that are most commonly cited.

Myth 1: The Court invalidated disclosure requirements in political advertising, thereby allowing donors to remain anonymous.

Wrong. The Court ruled just the opposite and upheld, by an 8-1 vote, the McCain-Feingold requirement of identifying donors.

Myth 2: That the Court’s ruling in Citizens United opened the door to wealthy individuals like Sheldon Adelson to pour millions of dollars into PACs.

Wrong again. The Citizens United ruling had NOTHING to do with the ability of individuals to spend their money to support candidates. That had been decided back in 1976, when the Supreme Court decided that the First Amendment protected the right of individuals to make unlimited independent expenditures supporting or opposing candidates for federal office. In Citizens United, the Court ruled that corporations and unions were entitled to the same rights. It wasn’t that long ago, after all, that the Swift Boat ads, legally paid for by individuals, soiled John Kerry during the 2004 campaign.

The answer, so long as it conforms to the larger agenda of the mainstream media, is never. They’re peddling a lie, and they know it. But since that lie both gets fellow leftists foamy at the mouth and conforms to their own protectionist agenda of keeping the media, and, outside of the political establishment, only the media, in a position to publicly opine on politicians or particular planks in a platform, they’ll continue to peddle their lies, truth be damned. Those at The New York Times or The Washington Post or MSNBC simply cannot tolerate the idea that now I have the ability to actively participate in wide-scale political speech by pooling my meager resources together with others who are like-minded so that we can add our own opinions and ideas to the larger public political narrative. We can now take an active role in political discourse, rather than simply being recipients of their crafted message. And the media just can’t have that. So continue to lie they will.

2012-02-11  »  madlibertarianguy