Did you hear about Ted Cruz? Man went to Cancun while Texas froze…because of course, if he’d stayed in Texas, the snow and ice would have melted, and the power would have been restored within minutes. Well, that’s how the media would like you to view the situation. A couple of weeks ago the story broke that Cuomo and his office really did lie about the number of nursing home deaths and the governor’s responsibility for those deaths. That’s not a good look for the Dems however, so while it was reluctantly covered, the media went searching for something shiny with which to distract the American public. Again. Lucky for them, Texas froze, and Cruz went on a planned vacation with his family. Phew! If Cruz had been a Democrat, you KNOW that Cancun trip would never have come up on mainstream media except to claim “fact-checking” (Nancy in hair salon throws owner under the bus, Newsom in French Laundry, mayor of San Jose in Mexico, on and on. Rules for thee, but not for me and never covered by the press).
Rodeo clowns distract the bulls from a cowboy who’s fallen. Their job is to give the cowboy time to get up and get out of the way. The mainstream media distracts us from the stories that make a difference. Their job is to keep major stories away from the public.
The American mainstream media has been working hard in the distraction trenches for the last several decades. They’ve been working especially hard since 2016. Their masters in the Democratic Party have even deigned to get down in the trenches with them and have been working side-by-side with the media to get Trump. This has been a group effort. We’ve had four plus years of things like:
“Trump said something mean on Twitter! REEEEE!”
“This means he’s clearly violating the law! Or inciting something! REEEEE!”
“Um, excuse me, but Nancy Pelosi…”
“She did NOTHING, you misogynist!”
“Um, I’m a woman, so that doesn’t really work…”
“You are a self-hating woman! Quit looking at Pelosi and look over here at ORANGEMANBAD!”
You could fill in Hunter Biden for any of that as well. Or Eric Swalwell, a.k.a. Bang Bang Fang Fang, sleeping with a confirmed Chinese spy while he is on the Intelligence Committee. There are a million more stories in the swamp that is DC.
I am constantly reminded of the scene in Wizard of Oz when Toto pulls the curtain back and we seen the charade that is “Oz, The Great and Terrible”. Only the media and the Democratic Party are completely covering for each other and each one throws out something designed to get the rest of us to look elsewhere whenever something even mildly questionable happens. Dorothy ran back over, picked up Toto and closed the curtain.
The characterization of the January 6th “incursion” at the Capitol Building is the most recent big example. Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed by a Congressional security officer. She was unarmed. The officer shot her in the neck. There’s been zero commentary about the hair-trigger response of that officer to a small, unarmed woman approaching him. In contrast, the screaming when Officer Brian Sicknick died was probably heard in the next galaxy. But just a few days ago, the NY Times admitted that Sicknick wasn’t murdered as they first claimed. It has since come out that he likely died of a stroke. While tragic for his family, his death was NOT caused by “right-wing extremists” beating him with a fire extinguisher. That story was a complete fabrication.
Sicknick’s death was used to distract from Babbitt’s murder. The second impeachment of Trump was used to distract from the insane multitude of executive orders that “Biden” is putting out (scare quotes because I don’t believe for a minute that he is mentally competent enough to create EOs). Now we’ve got blanket coverage of Ted Cruz going to Cancun. And the outrage has been stoked because somebody at United violated their privacy policies and published his itinerary. United has said they are investigating and that when found (if…) the individual will be fired.
The media appears to believe that its job description is to throw shiny objects in the path of an American public it believes to be one hundred percent populated with ADD-afflicted individuals. The problem (for them) is that we’re not that easily distracted. At least if we don’t want to be distracted.
And therein lies a problem for us as citizens. A great many people want to be distracted. They don’t want to think about what’s really going on in DC or in Congress or in the White House. They want to think that everything is now “back to normal” and that they can finally relax. But this isn’t normal, and they know that, but can’t bring themselves to peer behind the curtain. It’s hard to learn that those you trusted have completely and totally betrayed you (although why anybody trusts government is beyond me). We are approaching the one-year anniversary of “two weeks to flatten the curve”. One year. Still think the government has your best interests at heart? Why?
Oooh, shiny! Look! Ted Cruz went to Cancun!
Now we’re getting distracted from infringements on speech and other liberties with concerns over vaccines and vaccine roll out. Meh. Liberties, who cares? YOU COULD DIE OF SOMETHING THAT HAS A 99.7% SURVIVAL RATE!! WEAR TWO MASKS!!
Just today NBC and CBS tried to call out the governor of Florida for prioritizing the vaccine roll-out for the…wait for it…elderly! Like was supposed to happen. I guess using the proclaimed recommendations is somehow bad now? But don’t look at New York’s problems with the vaccine! DeSantis is a Republican…go after him! Cuomo is a Democrat…look! Over there! Shiny!
As citizens we have a responsibility to pay attention to what government at all levels is doing. We also have a responsibility to hold politicians and media accountable. Yes, it’s difficult when the media has set itself up, with the help of Big Tech, as the sole arbiters and gatekeepers of what information makes its way out of DC. There are multiple sources of information if you simply take some time to look. Again, yes, Big Tech is colluding with mainstream media and Democrats to block any stories that make them look bad. Don’t believe me? Go look at what Facebook did in Australia.
But we MUST keep asking and we MUST keep looking and researching and going around, over, under to get the information we need.
Do not allow the media to distract you. Note the shiny object thrown in your path but investigate it later. It will certainly need investigation if for no other reason than to debunk a story, but don’t let it tempt you from your current path. If a story is described as HUGE by the usual suspects, start looking for what else happened. What are you being distracted from? Where’s Toto and what is he revealing?
Rodeo clowns, I like that. I’m gonna have to start using it.
Go for it!
Squirrel!
Can we please quit calling them “Main Stream Media” and call them State Media so people will start to realize they are being manipulated by the government. Labels matter which is why they are “progressives” and we are “deplorables”. It generates subconscious perceptions and perceptions are reality!
Good point for the media. We could keep MSM abbreviation only be clear that it stands for Major State Media. Whaddaya think?
As for “deplorables” vs. “progressives” I’d argue for keeping “deplorables.” Americans have a tradition of embracing insulting names with pride. We took on “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and managed to turn what the Brits thought of as a witty insult into a patriotic rallying cry. We can do the same with “deplorables.”
I would argue that there is a difference between State Media and Government Media.
Government Media serves the government, and then the government (if it’s doing its job properly) serves the state (which for these purposes means the citizenry in collective).
State Media serves the state directly, and as such has no allegiance to the government.
The distinction matters because State Media will (as a general rule, there will be exceptions) hold the government to account for its actions, but Government Media will always operate on the principle that the government is always right. (Naturally many Government Media organisations lie and call themselves State Media organisations.)
As I’ve said elsewhere, I don’t KNOW if the media is/are a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Dem Party, or if it’s the other way round, but it’s OBVIOUS to me that they are in CAHOOTS! (This line is not copyrighted. It is free gratis. Use it where you find it appropriate. Expand on it, if you wish.)
I think that the whole “Politics is Hollywood for ugly people” thing applies. Celebrities want to be politicians because they have power and politicians want to be celebrities because they are popular and good-looking. Just put media in for celebrities and you’ve got it.
“Munch and Pump” as a Covenience store/service station was actually the _second_ thing that came to mind, dirty old man that I am. We have a chain of service station/convenience stores here in Montana called “The Town Pump”, so I have somewhat of an excuse.