If a report falls in a forest…

August 7, 2006

To update an item from late last week, [tag]Democrats[/tag] on the House Judiciary Committee issued a sweeping indictment Friday of the Bush White House’s casual approach to law-breaking in a [tag]report[/tag] called, “The [tag]Constitution in Crisis[/tag].” Carpetbagger regular Hark emailed me with a question about the media’s reaction to the report so far. Needless to say, it’s not inspiring.

Using Lexis-Nexis and Google News, it appears that the only mainstream media outlet — literally, the only one — to even mention the release of the report was CNN, when Jack [tag]Cafferty[/tag] devoted 200 words to the subject on Thursday.

“Well, somebody has finally worked up the nerve to say it out loud. We have a constitutional crisis in this country. So says Congressman [tag]John Conyers[/tag] of Michigan. He’s the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. And in an upcoming report, he describes what he calls an alarming pattern by the [tag]Bush[/tag] [tag]administration[/tag] of operating outside the law and with no meaningful oversight by Congress.

“Conyers says the Bush administration may have broken a total of 26 separate laws and regulations, including misleading Congress and the American people about the decision to go to war in Iraq; manipulating intelligence about the justification for the war; encouraging torture and degrading treatment of prisoners in Iraq; allowing inappropriate retaliation against critics; and approving unlawful domestic surveillance.”

As far as I can tell, this was the only reference to the report in any mainstream news outlet. It’s worth taking a moment to ask why.

To be fair, the timing of the release wasn’t ideal. A Friday afternoon in August was probably not the way to maximize exposure for the report.

Regardless, this is a well-documented, thoroughly-researched report from congressional Democrats about the Bush administration possibly violating over two dozen federal laws and regulations — some of them multiple times. And yet, nothing in the AP; nothing in any of the major dailies; nothing on ABC, CBS, or NBC. Not one word.

Two quick thoughts: one, many of us frequently feel like congressional Democrats need to be aggressive and go on the offensive more, but let’s not forget, even when they do, much of the media blows off what Dems have to say. Over the weekend, the AP ran a 1,000-word puff piece on how the GOP base considers Dick Cheney “a rock star,” but the AP managed to blow off the Conyers document entirely. It’s an extra challenge for the party when Dems are aggressive but the public never hears about it.

And two, if Dems accuse the administration of criminal activity, and it’s widely ignored, does it really make a sound?

It’ll make a sound if Conyers gets to subpoena those Republicrooks.

They’ll say “WITCH HUNT!?!?!?!”

Hurry up and die, media whores.

The blogs will bury you.

  • insofar as we can treat the mass media as a collective entity, there is only one word for it: chickenshit.

  • Who told Conyers to release that document on a Friday afternoon? How dumb can you get?

    Now that the milk is spilt, is there a chance the event could re-staged, say this afternoon or tomorrow? Say, with a little hoopla for once? At least it would get some publicity when the GOP savage machine savages us for re-issuing the report. But I’ll bet the Democrats don’t even have the imagination or courage to pull that off. Jesus, what dummies.

  • I have no sympathy for Dems right now. No, Repubicrooks (as opposed to decent Republicans) don’t get all the attention, they take all the attention by acting in a coordinated way. They issue a report and then bring it up repeatedly through all their other operatives.

    Forget the Lexis search on media reporting on this report—that only tells us what we already know. I’d be more interested in a search on how many Dems made comments in the press since the report was released—comments on anything, any time, any format–and failed to mention the report. That’s how Republicrooks get attention.

    You frame the debate, or you lose. But you don’t whine when the media doesn’t do the job for you.

  • Democrats act like domestic abuse victims. They roar and posture with tiny clenched paws like the cowardly lion when threatened, but bumble and cower away every political advantage. They have grown comfortable in the role of being the outraged but ineffective oppostion, and don’t project an image of competent leadership. In a dysfunctional relationship, both the dominant abuser and the submissive victim play a part. The Dems need a good therapist to reclaim their powers and overcome their fears.

  • Dems are just going to have to be much better at marketing this stuff. When it was released, my impression was mostly of largeness. A huge, impressive chronicle of ShrubCo’s insults to the public good but without an easy handle to grab hold of.

    The presentation of the report on a Friday was self defeating enough, but it was as if the title itself, “Constitution in Crisis” was supposed to do the work of making people sit up and go to the window and yell out that they “weren’t going to take it anymore”. It’s a shame that such an impressive piece of work wasn’t given some bunting and a champagne bottle across the bow to provide some color and a sense of importance.

    The public knows this administration is corrupt. But it’s hard to keep up with it all even if you read 6 or 7 good blogs and listen to NPR and read the paper. I forward a very reasonable amount of stuff to my friends who are intelligent, curious and caring people. But most of them pick and choose and for the most part, pass on lots of it. I’m sure that almost none of them know about Mr. Conyers report and if I sent them that slug of info we first saw on Friday, they would shrug and shake their heads and say give me something I can use.

    I wrote Congressman Conyers on Friday and complimented his work and that of his staff. It’s a great thing they’ve done. But we’ve got to get better at putting some pizzaz into events like this and some tasty meat on the bone for people to dig into right off the bat.

  • It’s worth taking a moment to ask why.

    Why? Why the hell did Conyers release it on Friday afternoon?

    Besides, didn’t Conyers show up in F911? His credibility is suspect…
    [/sarcasm]

  • eadie – Do the Dems HAVE any operatives? As far as I can see, the MSM is a bought & paid for outlet for the Republican’t talking points.

  • Give ’em time, people; give ’em time to read the blasted thing. It’s a gargantuan tome to wade through, that report. Let them read it, and then try to digest their feeble attempts to shut it down—the blogosphere won’t let it happen. Sooner or later, if the big boys don’t do theit jobs, some little squirt of a journalist will break it for them—and leave them all sitting in the dust….

  • I would say that unless the news is critical to the point of being offensive and controversial, will the big news outlets care to “Make it News. Look at Ann Coulter and the venom she excretes. The News was all over it. I would care to bet that the republicans don’t say much about it simply for this reason. Don’t create interest by criticizing it.

  • Nobody reported on the Conyers report for the same reason Arlen Specter and other Congressional Republicans (as well as a number of weak-kneed Democrats) don’t challenge Bush. Basically, they know what’s going on is illegal and unconstitutional, but because they don’t know if they’ve got the political power to thwart Bush, they’re leery of having a “constitutional crisis” – *and* *LOSING*.

    It’s like playing hide and go seek – as long as you don’t look for something, you won’t find it. And if you really don’t want to find it, close your eyes, stick your fingers in your ears, and say “BLAH BLAH BLAH I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” over and over again.

    Actually, I think that’s *exactly* what the political-media establishment has been doing for a few years now.

  • NRO has in as “the Democrats’ Roadmap to Impeachment.” It’s also starting to flicker to life in the media—San Jose Mercury News….

  • The report is long. Someone must actually read it, interpret it, and prepare short comments for the TV hairdos. Therefore, it cannot be a story.

    The effect of releasing it on Friday underscores the above point.

    The 95 Theses, the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence may or may not have been released on a Friday, but they got coverage — which again underscores the above point.

    The U.S. Constitution may have been released on a Friday, but we can’t know that now that the Bush administration has made it a classified document.

  • I downloaded the full PDF and saved it to a disk – just part of the little library of subversive materials (F911, Why We Fight, Robert Greenwalds documentaries, Crashing the Gate, How a Patriot Would Act, Conservatives Without Conscience – stuff like that – even V for Vendetta) that I’m collecting for my kids, and someday grandkids if I have any. Just a secret little time capsule for a future when these kinds of materials might be banned, just to let them know WE KNEW! WE TRIED!

    As eadie said above, I’m more pissed at the weak kneed Democrats who said nothing about this. I really had no expectation that the media would do anything but try to sweep it under the rug, but where o where is Good Ole Hillary? Where’s Kerry? Where’s that old mediawhore Biden? Mr Byrd? Do you still have a pulse? Hell, if Lieberman wanted to try to salvage his pathetic campaign and establish some last-minute bona fides, HE could have made a stink about it. I bet the media would have covered THAT.

    But no.

    Crickets.

    How long can a guy like Conyers be expected to battle this behemoth with absolutely no support? Thank god we have him, but really, how long can we expect him to fight the fight all by himself?

  • remember guys, big media is owned by wealthy corporations that have leaders who have no interest in disturbing the power structure that now exists…first, these corporations, to a large extent, *created* that structure, and, second, that structure is VERY good to them. They feed it, it produces for them, and so it goes.

    Big media will NEVER turn against a thoroughly corrupt GOP and limp- noodle centrist democrats. NEVER. The days when a Walter Cronkite could freelance about the Vietnam war on national TV are long over. These days, employees of big media do exactly what they’re told, and they know the score perfectly well. They’re not going to do anything to upset their corporate bosses.

    Look what happened in the 60s. A whole country convulsed by corrupt politicians and a bloody, failed war. The result? Nothing…except the undying enmity of the fascist wing of the republican party, which worked 30 years to get back into power, and succeeded beautifully, by understanding that A) American voters are so ignorant they barely know where the sun rises in the morning, and B) by deregulating media said media could be monopolized, and, thus, brought within the prevailing power-structure.

    You think big media’s gonna change now? Hah. It’s not in their interest to change. Their interest lies in staying snuggled right up to power.

    And don’t be surprised, if the Dems take over congress in 2006, there are no investigations, no impeachments, no prison sentences, no NOTHING. Because the power center in the Dem party ALSO likes to stay snuggled up to corporate power.

    If Conyers tries anything in a Dem congress, rest assured, big media will find a way to crucify him, and anyone else who tries to bring Bush, Cheney, Rove and Rumsfeld to some kind of justice. Won’t happen guys. The system is sewed up tight.

    And do remember, as Jay Hansen says, the United States of America is a stealth-plutocracy. Politics–governance–is merely camouflage. Our country was set up to run this way on purpose. Bringing the current corruption in the White House into the light would expose the whole thing.

    Won’t happen. Not now, not ever. Nixon getting busted was an anomaly, and even he would have gotten away with it if he hadn’t taped his conversations..and kept the tapes. Without the tapes, he would never have resigned, and likely would never have been impeached.

    So, unless someone can come up with some tapes of meetings between Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld and Condi, Bush will ride off into the sunset with his fat gov’t pension, and a cushy job with an oil company. Cheney will do the same, to his mansion in Maryland.

    There just ain’t no justice.

  • Eadie’s point(4) is key here. What are the Democrats doing with this report? Sweeping it under the rug like the MSM? I don’t know, but I suspect they’re running away from it. In the past they’ve distanced themselves from Conyers.

    chas(17) makes the point that it’s not the Republicans we’re up against, it’s the corporate establishment, that includes all the Republicans and most of the Democrats. More and more that seems to be the case, and explains why the Dems don’t fight. Fight what? They’re on the establishment team. They’re fighting us, guys. Not the Republicans.

  • Releasing this on a Friday enables everyone to say “We tried, but it didn’t ‘take’ – Oh! Look! A woman with large breasts!”

    The media and the establishment, both Democratic and Republican, are all about bread and circuses, and there’s precious little bread these days.

  • The Democrats must learn the Republican secret of repeating.
    The Democrats must learn the Republican secret of repeating.
    The Democrats must learn the Republican secret of repeating.

    REPEAT 1,000 more times. Maybe they’ll catch on.

  • It wasn’t just that it was released on a Friday. It was the Friday before the Lemont/Lieberman faceoff in CT. Is there any oxygen for anything else?

  • No more tears.
    You won’t get anywhere with blanket statements like “the Americans barely realize the sun rises and sets in the morning.”. That pisses them off.

    You also won’t get anywhere if you show your obvious obsession with Bush and them. You make yourselves look like the raving fools that Fox News depicts you as, and you take -pride- in it. You pretend the majority of Americans feel the same way you do, and that any other scenario must be a lie, a pollution of politics, or criminal.

    The Democratic party is in shambles. One half of them are whining about the corruption and evil that is a shadow government and a collective of soulless industrialists, trying to infect the planet with pollut-..wait, wrong Ted Turner cartoon.

    The other half is so convinced that America wants gay and tran rights, that they put that on the front of their political vehicle like a rednecks hood ornament. Packaged deal, and it’d seem many will go to great lengths to keep it from happening; even SIDE WITH A CROOK. Take the hint, and shut the fuck up about protecting a transexuals right to teach in a public school and punishing students for not calling Mr. Teachman a Ms. Teachman.

    I’ve heard it all. I’ve heard wild conspiracy theories about Bush, I’ve heard somewhat convincing forays about Bush and co.’s evil inner workings. And you know? Half of your party spews acid, the other half spews base. Your own zealous affiction with PROVING Bush wrong makes you look like obsessive dicks to middle America. A dog that won’t leg go of the bone, and a dog that blames America’s apathy on stupidity, ignorance or innocence.

    I’m 22. I was 17 when Bush was elected president. And since then, not one of you jackadaws have convinced me that you, as a party, have any goals that appeal to me. I’m an agnostic/scientific mind, not a christian. And yet, because I happen to feel differently then many left-wing moonbats on issues, I wind up with all sorts of bigoted assumptions about how I think and how I operate, with no quarter given or chance for explination for my beliefs. And then not respecting my beliefs, if they differ. Irionically, I find more Democratcs that’re like the progressive version of Ann Coulter, then conservatives with the personalities and characterization of Joseph Lieberman.

    The Democratic party -IS A JOKE-. And it makes me giggle.

  • Man, I wish we’d decide if “the media” is liberally biased or the tool of the current right-wing administration. It’s really starting to give me a headache…

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