I’ve often heard liberals say that when tyranny comes to America, it will come in the disguise of religion. They are wrong of course; when tyranny comes to America, it will be sold to us as fairness and equality. Case in point:
Some critics are seizing on comedian Jon Stewart’s attacks of CNBC to launch an online petition drive urging the network to be tougher on Wall Street leaders.
The liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America and some economists are behind the effort, launched Monday. They’re asking CNBC to hire economic voices with a track record of being right about the current crisis and do more to hold business leaders accountable.
Mmmmkay … Media Matters wants CNBC to dismiss anyone who has not been “right about the current crisis.” Really? As if CNBC doesn’t care whether or not its own analysts are dependable? As if CNBC’s viewers don’t already keep an eye on the accuracy of its content? As if any analyst, financial or otherwise, is always right about everything, all of the time?
This is so simple — which may be why the propagandists at Media Matters don’t understand it. CNBC is the best-known cable TV network whose programming is exclusively dedicated to financial news and analysis. Their main competitor is Bloomberg News, which is widely regarded as the most comprehensive financial news and analysis service in the industry. CNBC knows their competition. Since they are a cable TV network, they are of course somewhat personality driven. But if their information was worthless, they would not be able to compete with Bloomberg. Yet when you walk into the offices of any financial firm, you are always greeted by a sea of small television screens — even in the elevators — displaying CNBC.
If Media Matters, which is funded by billionaire George Soros, doesn’t like the job CNBC is doing, then no one is stopping them from starting their own financial news network. They could call it Finance Matters. If Media Matters and its founder, David Brock, thinks that they are saving average Americans from corporate greed, then let them put their own neck out on the line. Heck, let them hire Oliver Willis as their chief financial analyst. After all, he’s made a career (perhaps the most inexplicable in the entire blogosphere) by continually asserting that all conservatives are stupid. Now that would be entertaining.
And as for accuracy and accountability, why not start with our own government? I’d put Jim Cramer’s out-of-context “BUY BEAR STEARNS!!!” remarks up against “We do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac and particularly Fannie Mae under the outstanding leadership of Frank Raines” or “I don’t think we face a crisis; I don’t think that we have an impending disaster” any day. What say you, Mr. Brock?
The Obama White House propaganda machine is in the midst of an unprecedented assault on free speech. They seem to be attempting a piecemeal take-over of broadcast media by creating phony “outrage” aimed at specific broadcasters, and then demanding, in the name of “fairness,” that those broadcasters be taken off the air. Funny, I thought that dissent was the highest form of patriotism. Whatever happened to the maverick spirit of Hillary Clinton?
I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration somehow you’re not patriotic. We should stand up and say, we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration.
During the Bush years, conservatives rightly criticized partisan liberals masquerading as “objective” journalists. And we criticized entertainers and others who lashed out at President Bush in some of the most vulgar, hate-filled, unhinged rants ever directed at a President. But despite the hysterical claims of liberals, the Bush White House never attempted to launch coordinated efforts to censor its critics or take broadcasters off the air.
Vulgarity and unhinged hatred aside, dissenting voices are essential to democracy. Unless we stand firm against these blatant attempts at censorship, we are going to end up with a heck of a lot more disturbing “change” in this country than most people ever bargained for.
