Mendelson's Memos: Rachel Maddow discusses the people behind those 'grassroots' townhall hecklers.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Rachel Maddow discusses the people behind those 'grassroots' townhall hecklers.

Needless to say, this hasn't exactly been a 'cry of the people' uprising that it's intended to resemble.

7 comments:

Sabina E. said...: not a surprise... the right wing crowd doesn't give a shit about the people.; August 6, 2009 at 4:54 PM
Kyle Leaman said...: @Deaf Indian

You realize that in saying "the right wing crowd doesn't give a..." you commit the ad hoc errors that this post is about?; August 6, 2009 at 5:47 PM
Razorgeist said...: You tell em Rachel!; August 7, 2009 at 2:11 AM
Kyle Leaman said...: It's all about politics and being able to dismiss things. Clearly not all the hecklers and problems are due to 'corporate sponsors', but thats enough to be able to dismiss the behavior at the town halls. There may be legitamacy in correcting the "popular uprising" storyline, but it's not grounds for a complete dismissal, like what occured and is still occuring with the tea parties. Republicans do it; they did it with war protests, immigration marches, and several other things. This is less about finding the 'truth' and more about dismissing the other side, which both talking heads are doing. Of course, it definately doesn't add up to a new discourse or anything resembling a change in political dialogue.; August 7, 2009 at 11:35 AM
Kyle Leaman said...: Sorry, I forgot to put this on my other post.

"To talk about these townhall events as some organic outpouring of average american folks who have concerns about healthcare, is to be willfully blind as to what is going on, which is professional PR operatives generating exploitative, manufactured, strategically deployed outrage in order to line their own pockets" - Rachel Maddow

Rachel makes several erroneous assumptions that you might've missed. 1) People must organize themselves (maybe through twitter or facebook, I don't know) without any help from corportate sponsors, or else they are just being manufactured.
2) Organizing folks for rallies is somehow dishonest and manipulative. (Didn't Obama ORGANIZE for a career? Was he manufacturing outrage then? What about ACORN and the big organizing pushes for the Obama campaign? Organized and deployed outrage right?)
3) These corporate sponsors although headed by very rich and powerful people don't represent the legit interests of middle americans. So if moveon.org or George Soros helps to sponsor something, it automatically invalidates its ability to be for the "middle class"?
4) These corporate sponsors are doing it to get rich. She throws the "lined their pockets" bit out there without any backup. Apparently Rachel can divine their motives. Are these people who are going to the rallies donating money to the sponsors or something? Conservative corporate sponsors are in it for the money, but liberal corporate sponsors are in it for the beliefs right?
5) Nearly all the rabble rousers are people who are being deployed and ginned up rather than simply having political disagreement and outrage. How does Rachel know what percentage of the folks at these halls were "ginned" up? Seriously, she doesn't know what percentage of those at the rallies are real Americans with real disagreements who heard about the rally through a source (who cares if it was a conservative source?) She is guessing and she should say it as so.

There is terrible misinformation coming from all sides of this debate. That she tries to hide behind, "We just want simple health care reform and the right is ginning up mobs and inciting riots through propaganda" is just as naive and manipulative as the Republicans she is attempting to lamabast. Rachel is just as partisan and biased as someone like Hannity, but I don't think that she knows it. Nor her supporters me thinks.; August 7, 2009 at 2:58 PM
Razorgeist said...: You tell em Rachel!; May 13, 2011 at 10:49 AM
Kyle Leaman said...: @Deaf Indian

You realize that in saying "the right wing crowd doesn't give a..." you commit the ad hoc errors that this post is about?; May 13, 2011 at 10:49 AM