When I was in college a long time ago, I read a book called “Subliminal Seduction,” which chronicled how Madison Avenue tricked your sub-consciousness into craving vodka (as if a trick were needed there..) by placing sexy silhouettes inside ice cubes. For some reason that reminds me a lot of Matt Drudge and the ever-popular Drudge Report, except Drudge isn’t quite so subliminal in his mind games. By harnessing the power of the Internet, in the mid-1990s before anyone else thought of it, to reordering the news into the “Holy S---!” headlines that people crave rather than the eat-your-peas stories on trade or budget negotiations that were fed to you by the editors of the New York Times, Drudge became the leading influencer of the news cycle from a laptop in some undisclosed location around South Beach.
Even more remarkably, Drudge has become indispensable in America’s newsroom – packed with at least self-described liberals – despite a conservative world view that he promotes not in a heavy-handed way that would push those influential readers in a way, but by using placement, pictures and the well-timed big shot to nudge the nation’s news cycle to the right. Today, Drudge does less and less “original reporting” (if that’s what you can call his famed Monica Lewinsky “scoop”) and succeeds more by serving as a Rorschach test of how the right-wing is trying to subliminally seduce America.
Except that ever since President Obama’s largely successful speech to Congress last week, the message from Drudge and from the conservative echo-chorus that is conducted daily by Rush Limbaugh has become increasingly less subliminal and more shrill, and their toxic tone is one that should alarm all Americans. It can be summed up: “Black people are running amok in Obama’s America – emboldened by an African-American in the White House, they are now here to beat up white folks, cheat them out of their hard-earned money, and impose “black nationalism"! White people need to be very afraid.”
I don’t believe that allegations of racism should be tossed out lightly, and I’ve cautiously watched this narrative unwind over the past couple of weeks. Today, there can be no doubt. The lead story on the Drudge Report for the entire day until about 2:30 p.m. – on a day in which two tabloid evergreen stories, the murder of a beautiful young Ivy League college student and a round-up of terrorists in New York City just after the 9/11 anniversary, were in the news – is about a fight on a school bus. A non-fatal (thankfully) fight on a bus, that happened to involve black kids beating up a white kid, and was captured of course on video.
Drudge’s typically sedate headline: “White Student Beaten On School Bus: Crowd Cheers.”
Now, I noted that the story was removed as a lead item right around 2:30 – coincidentally, the story also changed from an original version in which the police declared that the fight was racially motivated. It’s still a fluid situation, but right now, the world of America’s newsrooms has been “ruled” (in the famous words of ex-ABC/Time’s Mark Halperin) for most of today by a kids' fight on a school bus. The article also gets into racial history of Belleville, Ill., which is probably not the part of the story that Drudge was interested in hyping:
Belleville has had a long history of racial turmoil, with a past that includes police harassment of black motorists, cross burnings and discrimination in city hiring.
The divide began a century ago, in 1903, when a black man was lynched by a mob of 5,000 people in the town square, set on fire and dismembered.
The divide began a century ago, in 1903, when a black man was lynched by a mob of 5,000 people in the town square, set on fire and dismembered.
No matter -- let's not let history interfere with Drudge's "Blacks Gone Wild" narrative for the day, his layout of stories and photos that might seem willy-nilly but in fact usually has all the deliberate care of a $10,000 wedding planner. Thus, right below the screen shot of punching black students, we see the headline "POLITICO: So far, Obama's failing miserably," which is in fact an opinion piece, which it would have to be since the actual news of the day (not linked on Drudge) is that the president's approval rating is climbing again. But as you ponder Obama's alleged failure, it is the photo of rampaging young blacks that you see.
On the left. we have medley that includes a campus rape (the suspects are black), mixed in with a story about a principal in trouble for not showing Obama's speech, leading up to a photo of a black man, Kanye West, disrespecting a white woman, Taylor Swift, brought full circle by Obama again calling West "a jackass" (which he in fact was...).
Drift back to the center for a series of increasingly hysterical headlines about the ACORN scandal, which involves a few rotten employees of a community organizing group (Obama was a community organizer, remember?) caught giving tax-cheating scam advice -- did I mention the ACORN workers were predominantly black? Do you remember all the fuss in the right-wing media about million-dollar white collar tax-cheating advice-givers at banks like UBS? Me neither.) Clearly, today's Drudge Report is a narrative, and that narrative is all about race, and a social fabric that Drudge and his readers are convinced (based, of course, on a series of scare headlines) is coming apart.
Think I'm a little paranoid. I still probably wouldn't be reading about this if I hadn't spent a little time in the car this afternoon, enough time for Rush Limbaugh, the de facto leader of the Republican Party who has worked tirelessly to infuse race into discussions about Obama, playing tag team with Drudge, as he so often does. As I started the engine, the radio host and his caller were prattling on about the all-important school bus assault, and Limbaugh said the story is a perfect illustration of what he called "Obama's America."
That alone would be beyond outrageous, the allegation that the mere presence of a black president -- who just last week spoke to students urging them to study and act responsibly -- is encouraging kids to fight on a school bus. But that was just a small part of Limbaugh's show today, which was all about race. He harped on a Newsweek article that he claims shows that racism is pre-determined (just as liberals always argue that homosexuality is pre-determined, don't you see....so...I guess racism is OK, after all -- all-righty, then), and of course the massive left-wing conspiracy that is ACORN, the corn-rowed people who are the real ones trying to rob the middle class, and not the Wall Street types who so rarely get even a mild rebuke from Limbaugh, except when they vote for Obama. I thought he was done -- but then Limbaugh said "remember how I asked earlier today if Obama's brother is still in the hut" (not making this up) and read all of a lengthy article about Obama's relatives in Kenya.
Look, there's a lot to talk about with a new president such as Obama, who has a lot of policy proposals on complicated issues like health care or climate change, and so there's a lot there for a thoughtful conservative critique. But that's not where the conversation is going right now -- it's all about the shiny black object. Fox News and its out-of-control Howard Beale, the seriously unanchored Glenn Beck, have spent most of the last several weeks focused on two issues: ACORN, and mid-level Obama officials like now-departed so-called "green jobs czar" Van Jones. Jones -- did I mention that he is black -- and ACORN have both shared a common mission, bringing a dose of political power to poor, mostly urban people who have not had power. And make no mistake, what really scares Beck, Fox News and the vast right-wing media is not the petty fraud of some ACORN employees or a few nutty things that Jones said in his more radical past, but the fact that they will succeed in their legitimate mission of empowering American citizens.
There's something else that the right wing finds alarming, and that is Obama's relative success in speaking to the American public in a calm and persuasive manner, as he did last week. I think it is this frustration, the worry that while it's mostly a vast work in progress that the president may not be "failing miserably" as Drudge and some Politico op-ed writer allege but showing signs of success, that have led to the new more overtly racial tone, dragging the current discourse to a low level that didn't seem possible. And so -- as Maureen Dowd concluded, also reluctantly -- I can't help but feel there was a racial edge to ex-Strom Thurmond acolyte Joe Wilson and his exasperated "You Lie" at the president. It plays right into the toxic narrative that is building on Drudge and talk radio and Fox like a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico.
Obama's post-racial America? Good grief, were we really that naive, and so recently? I can honestly say that America right now, on the ides of September 2009, feels more racial, at least to me, today than it has any time in a generation, since I was living in New York City in the era of "Do the Right Thing." And the "Racial America" of Matt Drudge, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and far too many of their millions of "dittoheads" is going to keep getting even more racial -- if we don't call them out.
(Special thanks for the screen grab to Vance Lehmkuhl, environmental blogger extraordinaire)
Posted by Will Bunch @ 4:31 PM
Permalink |
130 comments
Comment removed.
If there's one thing the marginalized minority can't stand it's the truth. Witness Joe Wilson himself upset at the (true) report that Strom Thurmond fathered a child with an African-American woman. He just doesn't want it to be true, so nobody should mention it. The truth is that the GOP has just about destroyed this country financially and morally after eight years of rubber stamping huge government expansion, reckless military adventurism and tax cuts for the wealthiest paid for on the backs of the average working American. They've been sowing for quite a while and they now reap the whirlwind. What was the 9 12 "march" by a few dozen loons with crudely made signs with even cruder messages about? Hating Americans First. We're not in a post-racial America. But we should certainly have learned our lesson about what "conservatives" really mean.
Wow! Double wow!!Let's see if I understand this. A white guy calls Dear Leader a liar and it is a racial epithet (also see Mike Lupica and Maureen Dowd). According to some politicians (all dems btw) if you oppose Obamacare you are a racist. Let's go back to November. If you don't vote for Bambam you are a racist. Republicans can't stand a blackman (isn't he half white-or is that the bad part?)according to Chris "Tingles" Matthews.Drudge shows the video of some black kids beating the snot out of a white kid (or would you prefer cracker?)and that is stirring race hatred? What alternate universe do you live in? Disagree with a black man and you are automatically a racist? It can't be substantive disagreement? Calling someone a racist is like asking the question "when did you stop beating your wife?". Yeah, sometimes things are about race. Deplorable but true. For some (like the looney left) it is all race all the time. As Dr. King said (and I paraphrase)it should be about the content of character and mind, not the color of skin. I don't think the left was listening. Or learning. And stop using it as an excuse for ideas and words you dont like or bad behaviour. After all, Limbaugh is just an entertaier. Right? And I'm calling YOU out on your utter hatred for those that don't agree with your wrong headed view of the world. Really childish.
Please note. Joe Wilson also accused Thurmond's daughter of lying when she came out with the facts about her father. He was absolutely outraged that a black woman would accuse Thurmond of committing adultery with a black woman. No wonder the loons are lining up to support a loon like Wilson. But there is no racism involved. LOL!
And of course, the slew of racist signs at the "tea party" protest couldn't, in any way, be construed to mean that racists demagogging the health care debate. Oh. No. Not possible.
All that said, Will, Drudge did at least link an article that outs the frauds who posted pictures of a march from 10 years ago and claimed that it was a picture from the "tea party" march - and he posted a link to an article that reports that 63% of doctors support the public option. Last week he actually posted a link to an article that was about how the Arctic temperatures are at a 2,000 year high. Drudge is fair and balanced. LOL!
Comment removed.
Liberals are being hurt by the fact that their views are so foreign to real Americans. Boo hoo more crying from the left.
Real Americans are just becoming empowered now and we no longer have to be told what to think by liberal jokers like Will.
Will, the marxist, can't handle the truth....
"so are the facts in doubt that a white kid was beaten and the bus cheered?" . . . . Let's put it this way.....if Will were to devote a blog entry to Santorum being a failed Senator, are the facts in doubt? He did lose his Senate seat, after all. However, that doesn't stop Will's detractors from calling him obsessed with Santorum, would it? But Drudge can't be obsessed with the racial make-up of kids fighting on a school bus, making it his headline, because he's only telling the truth? What, is he suddenly the school newspaper reporter for Belleville High?
Will, your boss at the Pollit Bureau called and said they love your communist propoganda-keep up the good work, comrade!
Comment removed.
"Will, does your arguement hold up that "conservatives are racist" if we voted for Lynn Swann in the past PA governor election?" . . . . . . The sad thing is that we have to label the likes of Drudge, Beck, Coulter, Limbaugh, etc as "conservative", because that's what they claim to be. I don't think real conservatives are particularly racist, no more than liberals anyway. Keep in mind that the old "states' rights" argument was invented by southern Democrats opposed to desegregation. "States rights" has nothing to do with conservatism, as States can be government oppressors as much as Washington, but it needed to be called "conservative" for lack of any other twisted logic. Thus was born the American neo-conservative (or fascist).
Liberals are being hurt by the fact that their views are so foreign to real Americans. Boo hoo more crying from the left......REAL Americans?!? You mean like you, Sarah Palin, Joe Wilson and Rush Limbaugh. I'm sorry, REAL Americans don't question another American's "realness."
130 comments | View All Comments | View All By Latest
About Will Bunch
Will's book: Learn about it here and purchase it here.
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
E-mail Will by clicking here.
PLEASE COMMENT WITH PASSION...
...but not with racial slurs, potentially libelous allegations, obscenities or other juvenile noise. Such comments will, at our discretion, be deleted in their entirety, and repeat offenders will be blocked from commenting. ALSO: Any commenter advocating killing any government official will be immediately banned.
Thanks.
- Atrios
- Kiko's House
- Suburban Guerilla
- Booman Tribune
- All-Spin Zone
- Philly (Dragonballyee)
- Afro-Netizen
- Rowhouse Logic
- MyDD
- Bad Attitudes
- Billmon
- iFlipFlop
- CorrenteWire
- upyernoz
- Tattered Coat
- Fables of the Reconstruction
- Slacktivist
- Citizen Mom
- The Next Mayor
- Philly Future
- Philadelphia Will Do
- Philebrity
- Young Philly Politics
- Phillyblog
- Welcome to Phillyville
- Phawker
- A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago
- Keystone Blog
- Philadelphia - America's Hometown
- BlankBaby
- Above Average Jane
- Phillyist
- Metroblogging Philadelphia
- The Clog
- Josh Marshall
- Daily Kos
- Juan Cole
- Oliver Willis
- Andy Borowitz
- War and Piece
- Wonkette
- BuzzFlash
- Raw Story
- Cursor
- Crooks and Liars
- Swing State Project
- Kevin Drum
- Talk Left
- AmericaBlog
- Hullabaloo
- Mad Kane
- Think Progress
- Jesus' General
- The Carpetbagger Report
- Majikthise
- Echidne of the Snakes
- David Sirota
- Glenn Greenwald
- TBogg
- Fire Dog Lake
- Taylor Marsh
- Matthew Yglesias
- Jon Swift
- Drudge Report
- Beer Leaguer
- The 700 Level
- Dick Polman
- Balls, Sticks and Stuff
- Shallow Center
- Philling Station
- Phillies Nation
- A Citizen's Blog
- The Good Phight
- Romenesko
- Editor and Publisher
- Pressthink
- Buzzmachine
- The Inksniffer
- Media Bloodhound
- Eat the Press
- Mickey Kaus
- Media (Huffington Post)
- Blinq
- The Corner
- Instapundit
- Andrew Sullivan
- Free Republic
- James Taranto
- Blonde Sagacity
- ScrappleFace
- Blogorrhea
Blog Roll
Get it now
- February
- January
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- January 2008
Archives
Philly.com Promotions
- News | Sports | Business | What's Happening | Restaurants & Food | Entertainment | Living | Marketplace | Jobs
Site Services:
Classifieds:
- Jobs | Cars | Real Estate | Rentals | Marketplace | Celebrations
Partners:
