December 20, 2012

"At News Conference, Reporters Skip Past Gun Control and Face Instant Criticism."

The reporters wanted to get back to the fiscal cliff.

Is it "unbelievable" and "shameful" that the press corps wanted to talk about the fiscal cliff? Or has the Newtown massacre been a diversion from the fiscal cliff?

I use the word "diversion" here with circumspection. The word connotes amusement and entertainment, and the murder of children is terrible and serious. Nevertheless, our fixation on something is not immunize from criticism on the ground the thing we are focused on is terrible and serious. Our fascination with it may be morbid and prurient.

This is the 4th definition of the word "diversion" in the OED: "The turning away of the thoughts, attention, etc., from fatiguing or sad occupations, with implication of pleasurable excitement; distraction, recreation, amusement, entertainment."

What is the fatiguing/sad occupation and what is functioning as a diversion? The media and the American public were energized by the massacre and spurred into to producing/consuming copious media. Politicians, including and especially the President, seized the opportunity to demagogue massacre.

So I would honor the professionalism of the press corps in dragging our attention back to the fatiguing and sad occupation of attending to the federal budget.

63 comments:

garage mahal said...

Enough about dead kids. How are we going to starve seniors?

rehajm said...

Tokyo Rose never deviated from the agenda. Baghdad Bob never deviated from the agenda. Get with the program, fiscal cliff question askers!

Anyways, good to see the press policing itself. Let's the president's staff deal with 'more important' matters.

Chip S. said...

Thank goodness for this thread.

I'd been finding some of garage's recent comments reasonable, and was starting to question my sanity.

Paul said...

The fiscal cliff can hurt the Administration

Oh, look a squirrel!!!

And Congress as you note Harry Reid just adjourned the Senate and won't take up the House bill to stop the crisis.

Oh, look a squirrel!!!

Thus they want to discuss the shooting.

Oh, look a squirrel, a squirrel, a squirrel!!!

And forget the tax increases coming.

Anonymous said...

The press corps knew the sound of a can being kicked down the road when they heard it. A blue-ribbon commission headed by the guy who was supposed to make sure there was no waste and fraud in the stimulus spending?

They decided to ask real questions.

Renee said...

Our local reporter, who was sent down to report on Newtown came back with some own soul searching on being a journalist. Instead of interviewing residents and people who knew the victims, who had a dozen reporters all looking for a story, he turned the reporting on himself and other journalists. Pictures and all, and how the media just swarms likes bees into a town.

"I’m still disgusted by my industry. I have truly been reminded why I plan to continue in journalism. I believe in journalism, at least the way that I do it, and that’s why I don’t plan to quit. I will not leave this profession to the people whose rush to be first leads them to ignorance of ethics, accuracy, and decency."


Let's talk about the fiscal cliff, and leave Newtown alone. Let's them be.

Drago said...

garage: "How are we going to starve seniors?"

Well, we could fully institute the lefties dream of government run healthcare and then simply put the seniors on the "pathway".....

If the libs in Britain can kill off 130,000 elderly each year then just imagine what garages pals in the US can do!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2161869/Top-doctors-chilling-claim-The-NHS-kills-130-000-elderly-patients-year.html

John Cunningham said...

I think first of a diversion as a tactic in war to hide the main effort, as in "diversionary attack."

jacksonjay said...

"Never let a crisis go to waste" Rahmbo

traditionalguy said...

The shooting spree by an odd schizophrenic can turn into a total victory lap for the Actor-in-chief Obama. He can show us his love for people and incite disarmament of his foes that prefer reality to his fantasy du jour.

While the Fiscal Cliff is Obama's long planned crash of the USA into a serious Depression accompanied by a mega inflation designed to eliminate the dollar valued assets of Americans and demand a world UN currency.

That is all about to ripen into a mega victory for the world Marxist/Enviros. So please STFU and don't spoil this moment!

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The "cliff" was getting old and boring.

The massacre... on the other hand, was the godsend needed to incentivize "some perspective" on the old boring fiscal cliff.

Shanna said...

Let's talk about the fiscal cliff, and leave Newtown alone. Let's them be.

Indeed. Actually, I don't want to talk about any of it. It's christmas time.

Somebody should watch them, though, because the holidays are the 'ram through crap nobody wants' season in congress now.

Hagar said...

I would not give these people too much credit.

Sandy Hook was last week's sensation. The "fiscal cliff" is the next Big Thing. Oh boy!

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Goodness, if this past week has done anything, it should just give us some perspective. I mean, if there's one thing we should have after this week, it should be a sense of perspective about what's important...

These ungrateful republicans... people are dying of starvation in Africa and kids are dying in school massacres right here at home... and they are still unwilling to eat what I'm feeding them.

Known Unknown said...

Actually, this is one instance where I think Obama would have been entitled to re-direct the questioning, and not answer any fiscal cliff questions.

Cincinnatus said...

Its really amusing to watch Obama and the White House whine when the press shows the tiniest, least modicum of doing their job.

And its disgusting how quickly, the press drop their eyes, and sulk back to the corner like whipped puppies.

Peter said...

The massacre has happened, and thus cannot be made to un-happen.

But the fiscal cliff has not happened yet, and thus something might still be done to avoid or mitigate it.

So, which subject is more worthy of attention?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Lets see if this works... in terms of what somebody as opposed to someone else saying them.

"Goodness, if this past week (9/11/2001) has done anything, it should just give us some perspective. I mean, if there's one thing we should have after this week (9/11/2001), it should be a sense of perspective about what's important..."
George W Bush.

Headline - Bush Scorns the American people.

I believe people are not listening to Obama when he speaks... they watch him... and that's it.

Big Mike said...

Do I understand the administration to be saying that it can only deal with one thing at a time?

damikesc said...

Enough about dead kids. How are we going to starve seniors?

The same media who felt it was vital to coordinate to ask Romney questions is upset when somebody asks Obama questions.

As for who will starve seniors --- if things aren't reformed now, you. If you hadn't been fighting reforms for decades, the pain inflicted would've been markedly lower than it will be. The longer we wait, the worse it will be.

Actually, this is one instance where I think Obama would have been entitled to re-direct the questioning, and not answer any fiscal cliff questions.

Disagree. The kids are already dead. He doesn't need to constantly wave theor bloody shirts.

edutcher said...

Sounds like the syncophantic press actually knows what the public wants, not what they told us it wants for a month after the "election".

Levi Starks said...

What did I get from the news conference?
If you're earning $990,000 dollars a year Obama thinks you can afford to pay more taxes.
And that's what taxes are all about....
Paying what you can afford.
I suppose I wouldn't be so disgusted if there were even the slightest chance that increased taxes could even slow the rate of growth if the deficit.
It won't
Obamas idea of fair taxation is holding taxpayers up by their ankles, and shaking them. If any money falls out of their pockets then obviously they had more than they needed.
It's just so very difficult believe that we've fallen to this level of envy and hatred of success in our nation.

ricpic said...

Gun control feeds the state; going over the fiscal state feeds the state; we all belong to the state: so it's all good...I think.

ricpic said...

Going over the fiscal cliff, not the fiscal state. An understandable error for one drunk on the state.

Anonymous said...
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Known Unknown said...

Paying what you can afford.

Every citizen has the opportunity to pay more than they are taxed, and thus, what they can afford.

Anonymous said...

Those who can, do.

Those who can't, teach.

Those who are pathetic posers with a pathalogical need for publicity, but not one scrap of logic or intelligence in their pea sized brains, report on it.

"Ann, I'm here in [place] standing in front of [location] where you can already see the [things] are [description of condition] from the [event or characteristics of event]. Authorities say it is not yet clear how many [things] will be [statement of condition], but some say the full impact of this [event] could be with us for many [time period]s, and even well into the next [larger time period]s and beyond.

Anonymous said...

The seriousness. Ah, the seriousness..

Big Mike said...

Now that I think of it, I just realized that any reporters living in high tax locations -- like New York City -- are going to be hit hard in their wallets if we go over the fiscal cliff. No wonder they wanted to ask about it.

Anonymous said...

This is what I can't stand: another teachable moment for Obama to hector us about as our great moral leader.

Meanwhile the economy rots, various cliffs loom, and the lives at Benghazi Obama could have saved are ignored.

Anonymous said...

Garage, death by cat food.

Alex said...

Enough about dead kids. How are we going to starve seniors?

Garage proves himself an unserious troll yet again.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

garage mahal said...
Enough about dead kids. How are we going to starve seniors?

You are one despicable piece of shit garage. It's bad enough that Obama attempts to use the tragedy in Connecticut to push through his continuing spending madness combined with job killing soak the rich tax increases, but at least he is somewhat subtle about it.

Did having hundreds of thousands of people seeing you get shown to be a stuttering idiot on instapundit push you over the edge?

Seriously, I wish nothing but the worst upon you. May karma pay back your vile typings with interest.

Fuck you.

Robert Cook said...

The fiscal cliff is a fraud

The fiscal cliff is a diversion

The fact-free fiscal cliff debate

I Callahan said...

What's the matter, Robert Cook, the Pravda not left-wing enough for you that you had to link to Counterpunch?

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

The 'fiscal cliff' is not a natural feature of the terrain. It is the creation of legislation passed by Congress and signed by the President.

Not even can it be called an 'unintended consequence' of these laws. The 'fiscal cliff' is the exact and explicit result our elected legislators and executive intended to create.

For the press, or the public, to expect a solution to come from the same crew of clowns, is .... insanity.

Paco Wové said...

..."shameful" that the press corps wanted to talk about the fiscal cliff...

The Shaming of the True

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

But since we as a society, as lead by the MSM, seem to believe morality can be achieved by legislation...

Lets begin with laws to eliminate violence from movies and TV. Let's begin to reduce our 'national obsession with guns' by a law to prohibit showing firearms in movies or television. Laws should follow to prohibit depiction of edged weapons, then physical violence of any sort.

We should eliminate violence in schools, beginning with re-naming of any teams such as the 'Fighting Irish' or those with a warrior connotation such as Trojans. No school should be allowed to have a carnivorous beast, such as bear, lion, tiger, etc., as mascot.

Only with laws such as these can we hope to eliminate violence from our society. And Hope is what it's all about.

furious_a said...

Enough about dead kids. How are we going to starve seniors?

Flip that around, seniors dying under ObamaCare and, perversely, children's futures being mortaged to pay for it.

That's better.

Dante said...

Drago,

That link would be funny, like next it's Soylent Green, except that it's so incredibly dark and worrisome.

miss j said...


Your writing is not clear.

You discuss the reaction ("energized") and actions ("spurred" and "producing/consuming") of the American public and the actions ("seized" and "demagogue") of politicans.
Are you implying that these groups of people found pleasurable excitement from the massacre? "Pleasureable excitement" is a state that few members of those groups would think they had found from the massacre and thus it is pretentious for you to ascribe it to them.


In any case, your opening paragraph was not about those two groups of people. The headline, the quutation and your first two sentences imply that
the press corps were diverted by the Newtown massacre. However you do not ever explain how they received pleasurable excitement. Do you consider them to be part of the American public who "produced" media? If so, how is that a notable "pleasurable excitement" when that is there regular occupation?

miss j said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

We have to be able to multitask. Besides, it's not as if men, women, and children are not murdered ever day, throughout the day, by the thousands. What makes this incident special is the place and numerical concentration of lives lost.

We cannot run trillion dollar account deficits and continue to devalue both capital and labor without consequences. The so-called "fiscal cliff" (without an operating budget) has and will affect every American, and everyone around the world who uses or denominates their debt in dollars, especially natural resources and specifically energy (e.g. oil).

We may still have an opportunity to save the surviving children. Well, at least the ones who walk and talk anyway.

Joe Biden, for once, said it correctly: this is a big deal!

Also, we cannot discuss further restrictions of Constitutionally recognized rights until we address the million aliens who illegally enter this nation annually, the federal government supply of guns to cartels and terrorists, and measures to address criminals who ignore the laws.

re: Second Amendment

In the worst case, we can purchase (or recovery) the guns sold by the federal government to arm cartels south of the border.

Perhaps we should consider restricting the federal government's access to guns. They have repeatedly demonstrated that they cannot be trusted to keep and bear Arms. They have a record of murdering innocent people and losing control of guns in their possession to psychopaths, sociopaths, and both common and organized criminals.

Danno said...

This just shows the pack mentality of the MSM and their eagerness to pursue any liberal political issue that comes along, so that is why so many are salivating at the Newtown School massacre and cannot switch back to the fiscal cliff just yet.

Big Mike said...

@Inga, I've heard of old people living alone and eating cat food because that's all they could afford. I don't think that's funny, and I don't think you're funny either.

Paul said...

Meanwhile in TEXAS...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GUN_TOTING_TEACHERS_TXOL-?SITE=TXTYL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Texas town, with one school, allows their teachers with CHLs to pack heat in the SCHOOL!!!

Sam L. said...

Well....Given that the fiscal cliff affects us all, directly, and soon, I's going for "YES!, Boy, Howdy!, and You Bet Your Sweet Bippy!"

SH said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
SH said...

SH said...
Federal Budget? We still do those?

(this is sarc / snark since most people watching the MSM probably don't know we have not had one for awhile.. since telling them might make dems look bad or take a lot of energy to blame on republicans somehow)...

Anonymous said...

Yes Mike, exactly and no it's not funny at all, not one bit. It's your party that wants SS on the chopping block.

damikesc said...

Yes Mike, exactly and no it's not funny at all, not one bit. It's your party that wants SS on the chopping block.

Your party wishes to kill it by neglect.

Anonymous said...

Looks like your Party is imploding tonight, poor Boehner.

Moneyrunner said...

Via the DiploMad
Obama. OK, to my chagrin, he's President, and modern Presidents see themselves as consolers, grief counselors, and dispensers of teary hokum. But this one, really? This one talking about gun violence? This is the President who to make political points against the NRA and those who defend the second amendment had his administration ship thousands of weapons to some of the most violent and best organized criminals on the planet, the Mexican drug cartels. He sought to blame the violence in Mexico on Americans' right to keep and bear arms. The result? At least two dead US agents and hundreds of dead Mexicans, including teenagers and children. Yes, children. Children with parents who grieve as much as the parents in Newtown do. The grieving American parents, however, know that the man responsible for their children's murders is dead; the grieving Mexican parents, on the other hand, know that the man responsible for their children's murders got re-elected to a second term as President of the United States--in large part thanks to the votes of Mexicans in the US. It seems that the lives of Mexicans only count when they emigrate to the US and vote Democrat.

Alex said...

Inga - those ultra red state GOPers who won't go along with the Plan B know their seats are safe. It's RINO seats that are in danger.

cubanbob said...

Want to get Zero back on the fiscal cliff? Just be manly and ask him about fast and furious and the several hundred dead Mexicans plus agent Terry. Throw in a question of how an ATF agent's personal hand gun was found next to the body of a Mexican beauty queen and it will fiscal cliff and starving the old folks until the cows come home.

Maybe Inga can tell us what in the budget can be cut besides defense.

Known Unknown said...

Looks like your Party is imploding tonight, poor Boehner.

Boehner is a stiff and has been from day one.


Known Unknown said...

It's your party that wants SS on the chopping block.

Elaborate.

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jr565 said...

This post pretty much demolishes the anti gun argument point by point in such a devastating fashion there's no real reason to even comment further.

I suggest some feller and the other anti gun zeolots read it to see all their notions disabused of their validity and revealed to be the rankings of emotional people without a clue.

http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/an-opinion-on-gun-control/

Bruce Hayden said...

There are two reasons that they want to talk about guns and not about the Fiscal Cliff.

First, the Administration has done essentially nothing about the Fiscal Cliff except to reject everything that the Republicans in the House propose. They have not dealt in good faith, making offers, and then when the Republicans appear ready to accept them, move the goal posts.

They get what they want if nothing is done. Evil defense gets cut, but not really their own programs that much. All the new entitlements (some 5% or so of GDP) are ignored. And, the evil millionaires and billionaires (and the rest of us) are going to pay a lot more in taxes. What is there not to like. Oh, and the MSM has made sure that the Republicans are the ones looking bad, despite the President not negotiating in good faith, and Harry Reid not dealing at all.

The other side is that, as one Obama advisor pointed out, it is advantageous not to let a crisis go to waste. Gun grabbing legislation isn't going to pass once everyone calms down and puts the recent school shootings behind them. They are trying to ban the most popular long gun in the country (almost half the rifles sold last year were AR types), and ban something that can be constructed in garages (higher capacity magazines). Besides, the incidence of this sort of weapon being misused is extremely low, in relation to the number owned by the American people - almost all of them are lawfully used. And, they can't ban semiautomatic handguns, because they constitute most of the handgun market any more, and esp. of non-Saturday Night Special type handguns, and because of Heller, etc.

The gun grabbers are desperate right now for something, some legislation, and know that in a couple of months, their window of opportunity will have closed.

Known Unknown said...

It's your party that wants SS on the chopping block.

Elaborate.


Hmm. Should have expected the silence.

Jason said...

This is crazy to be happening. Congress is just not functioning right now. I'm just going to go back to what I do which is booking hip-hop artist and dealing with my music booking agency. lol

Jason
Music Booking Agency