Restitutor Orbis

My new piece, "Back to the 30’s: National Socialist and Republican Discourse 1" has been published by ProgressiveNation. It is the first in a series of articles examining the similarities between National Socialist and Republican discourse and making a comparison between tactics used by the Brownshirts (Storm Troopers) and the Tea Party movement.

The Right has made a lot of fuss about President Obama being a liar, about breaking his campaign promises. If you go ahead and fact check these claims, you don't get the same result the Right insists on. What you get instead is a mixed bag. Less than a year into office, I really don't think it's all that bad. Yes, I'm disappointed about some things, but I'm happy about others. But as Odin says in the Words of the High One, "don't praise a day 'till it's over." Until President Obama has had his chance, it's really not right to issue a verdict.

If you're interested, go to PolitiFact.com's Obameter. Here is a brief peek at their findings:

Tracking Obama’s promises
55
Promise Kept
14
Compromise
7
Promise Broken
17
Stalled
156
In the Works
266
Not yet rated

This comes directly from Media Matters for America's newsletter:

Hopping on the misinformation band-Wagoner, GM-style

The media failed and they failed hard this week when it came to news that General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner had resigned at the request of the Obama administration. ABC's Diane Sawyer claimed

of the resignation: "[S]omebody said it's like The Apprentice, White House-style." We're not sure who Sawyer's "somebody" actually is, though it is worth noting her comments were far from the worst on the subject. Take, for example, Fox News' Andrew Napolitano, who said

that the resignation was "an absolute power grab, and it's the road to fascism" and that "this is Mussolini on the Potomac."

Worse still, many in the media falsely described Wagoner's resignation as unprecedented. A Washington Times editorial labeled

Wagoner's departure from GM just that way -- as "unprecedented." At no point did the editorial mention that the government had required AIG, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac in September 2008 to replace their CEOs as a condition of receiving government funds during the Bush administration. Similarly, the Los Angeles Times and CNN's Lou Dobbs uncritically repeated

Sen. John McCain's false claim that the government's Wagoner decision was "unprecedented." Despite the facts to the contrary, MSNBC's Chris Matthews called

McCain's assessment "very correct," while Fox News' Steve Doocy actually claimed

"the last president who fired a CEO was Putin" and conservative leader Rush Limbaugh said

the White House had sought Wagoner's resignation as "payback for the unions."

As does this, regarding Obama's budget:

Media fail to reconcile facts in coverage of president's budget

Throughout Obama's presidency (and even before it started), media figures have tried to pin the blame

for the current economic situation on Obama by disappearing the Bush administration's role in their reporting of economic issues and repeatedly referencing the "Obama recession" and the "Obama bear market." Nonetheless, a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll

indicates that, as ABCNews.com reported

: "Part of Obama's advantage in dealing with the economy is that, while blame and anger are in great supply, he escapes both. Eight in 10 Americans blame the situation on banks and other financial institutions for taking on too much risk; as many blame large business corporations for poor management decisions. Seventy-two percent blame consumers for taking on too much debt; 70 percent blame the Bush administration for lack of needed regulation. Just 26 percent, though, blame the Obama administration." Media Matters released

a compelling online video this week contrasting the punditry of media figures with the recent poll -- be sure to check it out

.

Additionally, numerous media outlets advanced the false notion that it would be unprecedented for congressional Democrats to use the budget reconciliation process

to pass major policy initiatives, or failed to challenge conservatives making such claims. On Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier, correspondent Molly Henneberg falsely claimed

that "[r]econciliation was last used in 2001 by Republicans to pass the first Bush tax cuts." After Media Matters and others pointed out that Republicans used reconciliation to pass several of President Bush's major initiatives after 2001, Baier apologized

for Henneberg's "error" three days later. The Washington Post also allowed "moderate" Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) to criticize the use of the reconciliation process without noting

his votes to use it to pass Bush's tax cuts. The Hill ignored the GOP's use

of the reconciliation process in forwarding Republicans' complaints that it "was never intended to ram through major legislation."

Because so many media figures and outlets promoted a number of falsehoods about the president's budget

plan, Media Matters released a debunking

of three major myths repeated in coverage of the proposal, including the false suggestion that Obama's proposal would increase taxes on a large percentage of small businesses and the previously mentioned falsehood about reconciliation. The debunking also noted that media outlets have engaged in a pattern of criticizing Obama for addressing health care in the budget or elsewhere given the size of the current and projected U.S. federal debt without addressing the president's response that health-care reform is essential to the long-term economic and fiscal health of the country.

So much (once again) for the myth of a "liberal media elite." This country's media outlets are center-right. The people are center-left. But the Republican Party, especially its base, continue to further the myth of a "liberal media elite" that exists only in their minds. In fact, as Media Matters demonstrated during the 2008 elections, the media was soft on the Republicans. Even now you find more Republicans, more conservatives, being interviewed, even on MSNBC, than Democrats. And the Republican Party even has its own network, FOX. Efforts by Republicans to label MSNBC as a Democrat station fall flat when you consider right-wing clowns like Chris Matthews and Joe Scarborough, who belong on FOX, and Pat Buchanon, also a conservative Republican.