Friday, May 11, 2007

//reposted from the letters section of this blog: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/05/11/quotes/index.html


Re: Re: Joe Klein

Glenn:

duffolonious:

I don't think he is differentiating left-wing bloggers from Rush Limbaugh as far as "things just went too far". I don't see that in the section you quote.

My point here is that long before bloggers emerged, the various components of the right-wing noise machine -- the Rush Limbaughs and Matt Drudges and Fox News -- were viciously attacking the supposedly "Liberal Media" on a daily basis with the most personal and insulting sorts of assaults.

And the Joe Kleins and company didn't unleash these angry outbursts then. They did the opposite. The apologized and desperately tried to figure out how to appease those criticisms.

The angry pushback happened only since blogs began attacking with a much different narrative.

I get that (you made those comments before); but frankly I still don't understand how that works. Maybe it simply does come down to money (and career).

Glenn:

duffolonious:

I'm not sure who these "left-wing bloggers" are? You? Andrew Sullivan? Are these bloggers the new "liberals"? Another bad but vague sect. He specifically states Limbaugh after all.

That's a different question altogether, and I've given up trying to constantly make the point. I think the world has basically become divided into two broad political categories (at least for now) -- those who are supportive of the Bush regime and the prevailing power structure that surrounds it, and those who are opposed. The latter group is called "liberal." That is how I would define the "liberal blogosphere."

Sorry about making your repeat yourself, that question was meant to more rhetorical than anything else (as in he's so vague in who he's attacking, he may as well be saying "Americans don't know America, I know America!".

And the point you bring up about the two kinds of Americans - those who are with Bush and those who aren't; "left" and "right", respectively. This brings up the interesting point that the US Ambassador to the UK (former Clinton official) brought up when in the UK - that he loves the UK political system because they are "all Democrats" (pro-choice, progressive taxes, etc, etc). So I'll make the bold statement that the basic mechanics of America have given us the current administration - when there are only two major parties this is what will eventually happen. I don't see this happening in any established parliamentary system. Most of which have like 4 or 5 major parties. The Republican strategist on Lou Dobbs even talked about America moving to a parliamentary system.

I think have 3 or more major parties will solve all of America's greatest problems - seriously. Even the issues you bring up with the Beltway media.

This is certainly something that I would like to see more consideration of. Because to get right down to it - America is broken (debatable). I'd like to do more research into this; because I think it is worth debating.

I notice that my posts are kind of incoherent ramblings, but there are so many issues ... I think the above is the root cause.

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