Watch the media try to fuck up the Torture investigations for us!

[FrenchieCat]

That's what they like to do.....

They want to make all things political,
even when they aren't.

So I hope those without patience pounding their fist on the table,
understand that without an approach that includes media manipulation,
we can always lose when we should have won.

Political calculations with this kind of a media
is a necessity....not a luxury.

So the next time it appears that Pres. Obama is making a move,
give him the chance to at least do a little bit of maneuvering,
before jumping all up and down on his ass.

[babylonsister]

1. Yet that very same media was bemoaning the fact that

prosecution was supposedly off the table. Face it, Frenchie, we can't win with them or without them. We need to stop paying so much attention to those that talk out of both sides of their face.

[HopeOverFear]

2. I know suddenly yesterday the media acted like it had grown a conscience

when every other time they're trying to tear Obama down. Fuck those two faced bastards.

[FrenchieCat]

4. Unfortunately, they still have great power to shape the debates.

I wish the President would have strung this Terrorist issue out just a bit longer,
and let the media commentators hang themselves with their own words.

Had the media's bemoaned Obama's statement of not prosecuting torture a few more days,
They would have said much that would have forced them to shut their big fat traps
once Obama would have said what he did today.

Guess it is a delicate balance between having to hear it from the net roots,
and allowing the corporate media to trick themselves out of an issue.

Wish we, on the Left, would sometimes allow this President to play rope-a-dope more.
He does it for a very specific reason....and we should know that by now.

[butterfly77]

36. I know what you mean...

they always want him to put his cards on the table to early. I like it when he lets the media speculate and speculate until they paint themselves in corner.

These are the same people talking heads ie., media who thought they could run his campaign by running on televison everyday telling their versions of what he was or was not doing and some of the newly awaken don't really realize how the games are played..

[Fire1]

33. I'm more concerned about this 'truth commission'

compromising criminal prosecutions, i.e., Iran-Contra scandal/Lawrence Walsh.

[FrenchieCat]

37. Yeah....well, no one said any of this was going to be easy......

as there is a difference between what we might want versus what we might get.

Just remember that there is a media working in this country, that is not after the truth.....
and they have shown this over and over again.

That's why I never understood why everyone believed that President Obama could just throw
Bush/Cheney in jail. Nothing is going to be that easy....and if we think so, we are setting
ourselves up to be greatly dissappointed. The most that we can hope for is that the media filter
won't be able to assist in whitewashing what happened....but of course, President OBama
cannot give us any guarantees. Afterall, Obama isn't even close to being a Messiah with magical powers....something I believe some folks forget sometimes, as they demand everything under the sun
from this President.

[Fire1]

40. Agreed and yet we're the ones who think he walks on

water! The irony of it all! Unbelievable.

[cliffordu]

35. That's right. Exactly right.

[rufus dog]

3. Not to accuse you or understating a fact but

I think we are going to see some AMAZING, EXTRAORDINARY, efforts to fuck this up. It is a very black and white issue and I think they are going to behave like the ASU Administration. They will take a bad situation and make it much worse.

Edit to add: As I type the Press corps is working on Gibbs to make it a Obama versus Cheney issue.

[FrenchieCat]

5. and to make it about Obama changing his position,

as opposed to fucking torture!

[alsame]

7. Unbelievable...I'm watching too and the 'press' are acting like

fools. They are so hysterical about parsing the President's words, what Rahm said on Sunday, did Prez talk to AG, etc.

Apparently, these are bigger issues than the torture itself.

[FrenchieCat]

11. It is shameful....this media of ours!

Always on the wrong track.
You can bet on them everytime.

[tridim]

6. We must never forget that Faux IS BushCo

They will fight this to the very end and probably beyond.

[FrenchieCat]

8. Oh....it's just not Faux!

And one can tell that by watching the Reporters with Gibbs right now.

[Supersedeas]

17. Spot on -- it is not just FOX. None in the Corp Media want to touch the morality of 183 trips to

the waterboard.

[FrenchieCat]

19. Oh...they wanted to touch it yesterday......

before understanding that Obama wants to touch on it too!

[Supersedeas]

24. Obama has done the smart thing -- as has been pointed out -- it would be obstruction of justice

to do otherwise (Turley was right) -- the President has conceded and is putting the issue of illegality into the hands of the Department of Justice (as he should have from the very beginning). He could not just assume that laws were not broken and direct the DoJ not to prosecute. The President has to step aside to allow the process to run its course.

It should also be noted that the President has an obligation under 18 USC 2441 to ensure compliance with the War Crimes act. There is no better way to ensure present and future compliance than to hold past lawbreakers criminally accountable.

[butterfly77]

38. Especially that damn..

Ed Henry on Cnn and Chuck Todd

[Cha]

9. They're so fucking predictable..

they try and fuck up Everything..that's why Prez Obama and Team are doing their homework and trying to work straight through and running circles around them.

[FrenchieCat]

10. Yes, but many here want to believe that the media doesn't have a role.....

and act like President Obama can just do anything, and not be undermined.

They should realize that when he is undermined, then so are we.

[Cha]

22. I realized it back before the midterm

elections in 2002 and had them cancelled. From reading DU I see it's only gotten more blatant and therefore worse.

Those who don't see what the corporatemedia has done and is continuing to do to our country are either willfully ignorant or they need to get a clue.. fast.

Without our corporatemediawhores there would have been no bush or the War on IRaq.

[Supersedeas]

41. there is so much substance in those Memos and in the Senate Armed Services Comm Report

yet, it's like a white-noise media freeze on WHAT IS IN THE REPORTS THEMSELVES everywhere on television with very rare exceptions.

If they paid as much attention to the substance in those documents as to Sec. Clinton's confrontation with Dana Rorhbacher about former VP Cheney's request -- then we'd have more confidence in the Media.

But pictures of a semi truck tipping over and Dana Warbucks getting Cheney's back clouded out everything substantive.

[shraby]

12. The whole investigation should be in open

televised hearings. The networks will make money from the viewership and we could see all that went on straight from the perp's mouths.

[monmouth]

14. I remember the McCarthy hearings (yes, I was a kid though) and as

a kid I was enthralled. My teacher that September could not believe I knew so much about Kefauver (sp?) and Joe McCarthy. I also mentioned to her that he was a drunk! I was admonished with a smile...LOL.

[vaberella]

13. They just might. So far their working hard to take away O's credit and

give the pressure to everyone around him. No one wants to admit he's intelligent. However, I think the Pres is smart enough to mess with them. He did it through the primaries so I won't be surprised today.

[FrenchieCat]

16. Our President won in spite of the media.....

because the people saw through them.
Hope voters haven't forgotten the shit
the media pulled throughout the elections.

[vaberella]

20. Yup...I was surprised by the American people when this election was won by Pres O.

I'll give them the credo too...I won't underestimate the American people.

[MarjorieG]

15. With Obama, not changing position but changing whatever emphasis that day. And press attributing

to Obama what Rahm said as a change of mind.

All that matters is painting Obama badly. That's all they know how to discuss quickly and simply. Wrestling with an issue and all sides hard.

edit. don't mind with the comparison to Cheney, who insists it works, when we can say and quote others saying it doesn't. When sinks in more to the ends justifies means crowd, we're left with immorality.

[FrenchieCat]

18. The Media is so transparent.....

and of no use to us.

[mmonk]

21. Yes, (except those considered more alternative such as

Greenwald or Amy Goodman or a few cable people such as Olbermann).

[Supersedeas]

42. it is like we are rationed two minutes of truth and force fed 23 hours of pro-torture propoganda

[FrenchieCat]

43. It does appear that way.....

Which is quite sickening.

[Life Long Dem]

23. I don't think anyone should jump the gun...

but I see it here all the time. Most of the time when he is given the time and you put the whole picture together you can see why he did what he did. And I've seen this many times as have most who have had some patience. I'd say the patience enough to know you won't be wasting your time.

[meli224]

25. media

is already trying to frame this as President Obama giving in to the "left" pressuring him

[asphalt.jungle]

28. well that's the strategy. make independents think it's a political witch hunt

from the left and it's tainted. and the blowhards on the left will gladly help them frame it as such because their egos are so HUGE they want to take credit for MAKING the president change his mind even though the previous time he spoke on the issue he never ruled anything out other than good faith CIA officers being punished.

[FrenchieCat]

29. Aye. That's why I wish Barack Obama would have just waited it out a bit more

and gotten more media on record acting like they wanted investigations (since he said he didn't) prior to opening up that door.

[FrenchieCat]

26. CNN has started already.

Concentrating on saying that Obama succumbed to pressure.

[FrenchieCat]

27. Kick, cause it is truer today than it was yesterday.

[ErinBerin84]

30. yep, MSNBC and CNN have been bad today

They are focusing all on "WHY did he CHANGE HIS MIND?" storyline, instead of focusing on the Armed Services report. And they keep saying "Well, NOW Obama politicized it, didn't he?" They are too much. Sure, the white house fucked up a little, but if the networks had been doing their jobs in the first place, they would have reported on the Newsweek article saying that Eric Holder was considering appointing outside counsil for Bush officials, which came out on Saturday and was only reported by Rachel on Monday night.

[FrenchieCat]

31. Actually, I don't think the WH fucked up a little....

I think they needed to have on record their hesitancy to open the Pandora's box. Had they been gun-ho from the beginning, they couldn't deflect the charge that they were going political on these investigation. In addition, I think they needed Obama to reassure the CIA.....who afterall continues to work on our behalf to keep us safe, as well as keeping this President safe.

I think the WH played it exactly the way that they felt they needed to; act like this is not something they necessarily wanted to do, but that public outrage forced their hand....as did the information that came out.

So I think that the President needed to be on record as this being something that he wasn't hankering for, but decided that it was best in terms of the rule of law.

[ErinBerin84]

32. well,

at least we got to see Ed Henry act on Monday like he was just positively clammoring for investigations, right? Because we knew that wouldn't last. And people like Savanna Gunthrie keep saying "Well, one would wonder just WHAT charges COULD be leveled against Bush lawyers, but anyway.." Uh, Savanna? Just report and leave the other stuff to the lawyers.

[butterfly77]

34. Kick &Recommended!

[WeDidIt]

39. Won't happen.

Holder's no dummy.

He'll pursue a quiet investigation for a while.

Then he'll have Obama appoint a special prosecutor.

Political crap taken out of the equation ipso facto.