Is it just me, or is that headline just a bit rhetorically over the top? (No, the last link doesn't make a moral analogy, just an analogy in the rhetoric.) "New low"; "right-wing media minions" (why not "nattering nabobs of negativism"?); "fearmongering" -- just a bit much for a credible debunking, it seems to me.
This is especially so when part of the fearmongering that is supposedly debunked is actually not bunk at all; here's the response the site (Media Matters) gives as to the Obama praise song incident:
Conservative media fearmonger about unauthorized YouTube video of school kids "praising" Obama
The Drudge Report: "SHOCK VIDEO: School kids taught to praise Obama ..." On September 23, Internet gossip Matt Drudge linked to a YouTube video purportedly showing "[s]chool kids taught to praise Obama." The video, showing young schoolchildren in New Jersey singing a song about Obama, provides no evidence that the children or their parents consented to having the video posted on YouTube.
America's Newsroom: "Many parents ... just don't want this sort of political cheerleading, if you will, in the classroom." On Fox News' America's Newsroom, hosts Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly aired the video and asserted that "many parents" don't want kids "singing praises" to Obama. Before showing the video, Hemmer said: "It is one thing to have kids say the Pledge of Allegiance, but we're not sure what's going on with the videotape now online when students are singing praises to the president and why some parents are saying, not with my kid." Later, Kelly teased the video by saying, it's "getting attention on The Drudge Report website this morning. It shows young children singing the praises, quite literally, of the president." She continued:
KELLY: Well, information posted with the clip says that it is from the Bernice Young School in Burlington Township, New Jersey, but the school won't exactly confirm that for us. In fact, they won't confirm anything for us. We have made multiple attempts to ask them about these students, about this tape and how this came about. We are hoping that they can get back to us shortly, so that we can clear this up.
Already we're getting a lot of emails from our viewers. It went on from there -- you saw a clip of the children singing. Then came a bit of a chant by the children where they praised President Obama for all his great accomplishments, saying, quote, "You're number one. Hooray, Mr. President, we're really proud of you." And on and on it goes.
You know, many would have no problem with this. Many parents would, and just don't want this sort of political cheerleading, if you will, in the classroom. We just don't know the details behind the tape, but it certainly caught our attention and we're trying to find out from, again, from this school, which we have multiple calls into. The B. Bernice Young Elementary School, Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington, New Jersey. And as soon as we have it, you'll have it. [America's Newsroom, 9/24/09]
The Fox Nation: "School Children Sing Songs of Obama's Glory." On September 25, the allegedly fair and balanced TheFoxNation.com posted the video with the headline "School Children Sing Songs of Obama's Glory." fearmongerkids2
Beck: Song sounds like "a hymnal for a dictator." On the September 24 edition of his radio show, Beck said: "I want to show you, and tonight I'm going to play the tape for you, of indoctrination that is going on. We've been going through all of this indoctrination for the last few days. Tomorrow, I do a full hour live with moms, and their children, and we're going to talk a little bit about things they're concerned with -- and indoctrination I know will come up. Play this, this is -- do we know where this is from? Elementary School in Burlington, New Jersey. The B. Bernice Young Elementary School. The woman who did this is, I believe, an activist, she's the principal, or the teacher. I don't have her name here. But listen to -- this is -- these are elementary school children, and they are singing a song for Barack Obama." After Beck played audio of the video and read the words out loud, he said it sounded like "a hymnal for a dictator. ... Does anybody see what's going on? Does anybody see what's going on?" Later, Beck said: "This is indoctrination. This should horrify the American people." [Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Show, 9/25/09]
Beck also promoted the video September 24 on his Twitter feed: RT @keepthemhonest: How young does Obama target (more indoctrination video) http://is.gd/3C1Qc @glennbeck #tcot
Burlington Township School District superintendent: Song is from Black History Month activity, and the "recording and distribution of the classroom activity was unauthorized." The school board's superintendent wrote in a letter to parents that "[t]he video is of a class of students singing a song about President Obama. The activity took place during Black History Month in 2009, which is recognized each February to honor the contributions of African Americans to our country. Our curriculum studies, honors and recognizes those who serve our country. The recording and distribution of the class activity were unauthorized."
Really, that's it for the site's explanation for why this story is supposedly "fearmongering": The event took place during Black History Month; it "honors and recognizes those who serve our country"; and the video was "unauthorized" (note that the "unauthorized" meme makes its way even into the section header). Move along, folks, nothing to see here, nothing to fear, just regular honoring and recognition of public servants, plus the video of the event was unauthorized, which is somehow very important.
Related Posts (on one page):
- Some Thoughts on Multiple Blog Posts:
- "The Principal of a New Jersey Elementary School "
- "New Low: Beck and Right-Wing Media Minions Fearmongering About Kids to Attack Progressives":
- "School Children Singing the Praises of President Obama" (Apparently as a Public School Class Project):
The revolution will be authorized.
well I'm kinda surprised that you consider such a restrained headline on the part of Media matters to be "over the top". Not even close to being over the top for the source.
And forget about your debunking argument, MediaMatters has said its bunk to be debunked and by Monday that will become the conventional wisdom in the press. Expect Jon Stewart to mention it Monday or Tuesday as a joke (taking the MediaMatters position).
Maybe you don't visit these sites much, which would be to your credit, I guess. But maybe also a reason not to bring up the results of your occasional visit. There are lots of these daily.
"Unauthorized"? To me, that says it all about the statist mentality of Obama supporters.
BBB
That never occurred to me. I was "plastered on the evening news" at least half a dozen times from elementary school to undergrad.
Frank Cross: I only ran across this headline because I did a Google News search for "Bernice Young," looking to see which other major news sources had covered it. It struck me as amusingly ridiculous, so I thought I'd blog about it; and then I saw that the post was weak on its substance as well, so I noted that. If I run across something similarly ridiculous on a conservative site, I'd happily blog about it, too. I have indeed blogged in the past about rhetorically excessive and substantively unsound things I've seen on conservative sites.
I'm going to keep doing this, and if people feel that I'm somehow not proportionally representing the misdeeds on all sides of the aisle -- even though, as I mention, I do often criticize conservative excesses as well as liberal excesses -- that's no concern of mine.
Maybe you haven't watched Glenn Beck. I give you credit if that is the case. But I have, and he is always talking about how he is scared, and how you should be too.
I think that what Glenn Beck does can be accurately and fairly described as fearmongering. It is night and day between his discussion of such topics and your discussion of such topics.
Nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can write that can't be run.
Nuff said...
O certainly, and I wouldn't dream of denying you that freedom. My only point is that, just because you can, doesn't make it a good idea. [Insert expression here about wrestling pigs in the mud, or any of a hundred other proverbs/expressions.]
Even if you want to focus on instances of hero worship that take the form of video recordings of elementary school children coached to sing hymns to Obama, this isn't the first.
Of course it's very important, in a telling way. It demonstrates that they're mostly upset about getting caught, like the recent ACORN lawsuit trying to stifle the whistleblowers.
'Hostage situation' portrays killers as Christians
If it were a song about Dubya you wouldn't think it was just silly, you'd be foaming at the mouth.
Suzy: Wow, that is interesting. Apparently there is something to the idea that the school is advancing a very peculiar agenda.
Really, do you just assume I'm some kind of liberal or opponent merely because I think the whole thing is equal-opportunity dumb, as opposed to lock-step agreement with what a certain group of "conservatives" are saying about it?
And the outrage here about a song I couldnt't even understand the words to, by the very same people that engage in grotesque Reagan hagiography each and every day, seems a bit manufactured.
Cheers,
Never mind that the video that was shown was the ACORN employee herself claiming that she shot and killed her husband. It of course is one thing to allege that someone committed murder, that requires a high level of fact checking before making an allegation like that on the air. But when somebody is making a voluntary admission (even though false), then I think any news outlet is fairly entitled to run with it. Especially since it was just a side topic of the video, and was not the main subject.
That was an excellent link and it seems incontrovertible.
Now, zuch, that wasn't too hard for Curmudgeonly Ex-Clerk to come up with Media Matters flagrantly lying in a pretty short time.
Zuch, you said, "I have the same opinion of Mark Levin, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck ... and I'd say that in my experience, these three hacks are far the worse for peddling false information." Your examples please? You only have to come up with one for each of them and if they are doing it all the time, that really shouldn't be too hard. However, I would expect the same level of proof that Curmudgeonly Ex-Clerk provided. Nothing like the original video tape which showed that Media Matters had to carefully edit Glen Beck to come to its conclusion and totally lie about what he said.
Back to the song. Are you aware that the hymn was sung to the tune of a Christian spiritual? The second one was set to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Also, perhaps you missed the Pledge of Allegiance video put out by the "artists" of Hollywood. Didn't the the NEA or Dept. of Education help with that one? I don't recall for sure. It was shown once, as far as I am aware, in Salt Lake City and the Principal had not reviewed it. She apologized. While it had some good moments, it ended with asking the children to "Pledge to Serve Obama". So, that is at least two, now. Combine that with the original version of Obama's speech to all school children and the corresponding lesson plans for reading Obama's words and writing about how they, the children, can "help" Obama, and a pattern just may be emerging here.
I think the "serve Obama" part bothers me the most. We "serve" our God or our Lord, we "serve" our country, we used to "serve" our kings and queens but we fought a rather bloody war to not have to "serve" any man or woman. Now, yeah, I am finding all of this kind of creepy.
Waiting for your response and examples. I am ready and willing to be educated on the lying of Beck, Leven, and Hannity.
Waiting for your response and examples. I am ready and willing to be educated on the lying of Beck, Leven, and Hannity.
Nick
one of many,
The only problem is that Jon Stewart is a comedy show, not a news show. That you would think he is a news show speaks volumes about the sorry state of journalism in this country today.
And the outrage here about a song I couldnt't even understand the words to,
</blockquote>
Song 1:
Mm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said that all must lend a hand
To make this country strong again
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said we must be fair today
Equal work means equal pay
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said that we must take a stand
To make sure everyone gets a chance
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said red, yellow, black or white
All are equal in his sight
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
Yes!
Mmm, mmm, mm
Barack Hussein Obama
Song 2:
Hello, Mr. President we honor you today!
For all your great accomplishments, we all doth say "hooray!"
Hooray, Mr. President! You're number one!
The first black American to lead this great nation!
Hooray, Mr. President we honor your great plans
To make this country's economy number one again!
Hooray Mr. President, we're really proud of you!
And we stand for all Americans under the great Red, White, and Blue!
So continue ---- Mr. President we know you'll do the trick
So here's a hearty hip-hooray ----
Hip, hip hooray!
Hip, hip hooray!
Hip, hip hooray!
P.S. Bonus trivia points for anyone who can name the next line in the following song, "Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight..."
And, your point is?
Even worse, Beck actually did say (missing from the Media Matters clip through an inadvertent editing error*) "
* it must be an accident and Media Matters must be able to prove that. Given the publicity the story has received there is no way an independent press would not crucify Media Matters for making so distorted an edit and then criticizing Beck unless they could prove it was accidental.
One of each. Okay.
Glenn Beck:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/22/glenn-beck-bible/
Levin:
http://mediamatters.org/research/200807090009
Hannity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IalNDTTtk2U
http://mediamatters.org/research/200908190033
But I'm sure you won't accept any of those as lies. Anyhow, it's a stupid question. You can't be a pundit for either side without lying, or relying on some unreliable source's lie, or misstating something, etc, etc...
What's always a good indicator to me of how serious a person is, is how convinced they are that they (and their pundits) are always right. Someone who thinks that Keith Olbermann always fact checks everything he says before saying it, is kidding themselves. Sames holds true for people who believe everything Glenn Beck says. Trouble to me seems to be that a lot more people listen to, and believe, Glenn Beck than listen to Olbermann. I could be wrong, but hey I'm willing to admit that.
You gave it a good shot. I will give you the Bible thing re Adams and, maybe Roosevelt, as he was in a hurry after McKinley's death and was sworn in on the fly. He did use a Bible the 2nd time around. It is a rather obscure footnote in history, but if you want to call it a lie, I'll give you that.
Did you happen to go to the sources listed in any of these articles? Some don't even talk about the items mentioned so why they are listed as sources is anyones guess and others are opinions or transcripts in which Beck gives his opinion based on the facts. They say, Beck lied. But, to agree that Beck lied, you have to agree with their version. They do not go into the actual facts at all. To assume he lied assumes he is incorrect in his assessment. To call them a lie, you have to believe that the subjects are cut and dried, which, in the items listed, they are not. Examples from your sources include polar bears and the presumed behavior of employers re tax law and health care and the total tax burden of the US taxpayer compared to the rest of the world and so on. The devil is in the details. In all of the so-called lies, listed by your sources, there are many other opinions and you have to assume the sources listed are absolutely correct, which I am not willing to do.
None suggest a concerted and blatant cutting and pasting of transcripts to make a factually incorrect statement as Media Matters did.
Of course, this is simply a timeless tool used by activists of all stripes. Sometimes it is a preposterous accusation (claims that AIDS is a CIA plot come to mind) simply used to stir up hate and discontent. Other times it is not.
Unfortunately, the reader's preconceptions tend to shape his or her reactions.
If you have a comment about spelling, typos, or format errors, please e-mail the poster directly rather than posting a comment.
Comment Policy: We reserve the right to edit or delete comments, and in extreme cases to ban commenters, at our discretion. Comments must be relevant and civil (and, especially, free of name-calling). We think of comment threads like dinner parties at our homes. If you make the party unpleasant for us or for others, we'd rather you went elsewhere. We're happy to see a wide range of viewpoints, but we want all of them to be expressed as politely as possible.
We realize that such a comment policy can never be evenly enforced, because we can't possibly monitor every comment equally well. Hundreds of comments are posted every day here, and we don't read them all. Those we read, we read with different degrees of attention, and in different moods. We try to be fair, but we make no promises.
And remember, it's a big Internet. If you think we were mistaken in removing your post (or, in extreme cases, in removing you) -- or if you prefer a more free-for-all approach -- there are surely plenty of ways you can still get your views out.