A book for our time: Manufacturing Hysteria

Manufacturing Hysteria, by Jay Feldman, is a must-have book.

We think of the anti-immigrant movement, the hatred of Muslims, or the depredations by the Pentagon and other federal agencies against the rights of speech and assembly to be unique to our age. They are not.

If you can’t afford the time or money for the book, listen to his talk on C-Span.

Added: if, like me, you’re a compulsive book buyer, you may also want to look at a recent book on the new deal by LAT writer Michael Hitlzig.

Bradlee Dean And The Catholic Church

Last week, the folks of the Dump Bachmann blog got screwed by YouTube, which canceled their video accounts — and for a short while, their Gmail accounts as well.

Why? Apparently because Bradlee Dean cowed YouTube, which is owned (just as is Gmail) by the huge and deep-pocketed Google, into doing his bidding. Here’s what YouTube told the Dump Bachmann people:

We have disabled the following material as a result of a third-party notification from You Can Run But You Cannot Hide Intl. claiming that this material is infringing:

Bradlee Dean on the Catholic Church
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TJS5fUxlOk

As DB’s Ken Avidor noted back in March, Bradlee Dean Smith is known for abusing copyright laws in order to silence critics:

“This is a case where people don’t want you to see something that’s embarassing to a politician they like, so they’re trying to make it go away,” Avidor says. “It’s Orwell’s memory hole.”

It’s interesting that the video YouTube cited as the reason for their giving the death penalty to Dump Bachmann is one where Dean is, according to those that have seen it, caught telling his devoted fans that Catholicism is riddled with perversion and “old guys checking out your daughters”.

This is not the sort of thing that Dean wants to have floating around as he tries to make nice with the local Catholic hierarchy in the first stages of the plan to ramp up their push for the anti-gay, anti-marriage-equality “Bradlee Dean” ballot measure — that’s the one that was supposed to have been added to the 2012 ballot on the same day he performed the invocation that went so disastrously that it nearly scuttled the bill and caused Republican House Speaker Kurt Zellers to have it struck from the official record. (Gee, wonder if YouTube will now suppress videos of that as well?)

Right-Winger Julie Mason Doesn’t Like It When People Point Out Right-Wing Media Bias

From http://www.bettyconfidential.com/ar/ld/a/What_it_is_like_to_be_Julie_Mason.html

So here we have Julie Mason, who covered the White House beat for the Houston Chronicle since the first term of Bill Clinton, but who after being laid off in October of 2008 went to the extreme-right-wing Washington Examiner to continue her White House coverage, and has now since February of this year been writing for Politico, which is known for being funded and run by Reagan Republicans and other right-wingers.

Which is why it’s a little amusing (and by “amusing” I mean bile-inducing) to see her get all shirty when one of her targets points out that a lot of US media is biased towards the right wing and/or Republicans:

President Obama’s remark to Ed Henry of Fox News on Thursday that, “I didn’t know you were the spokesperson for Mitt Romney” set off heated discussions this week around the White House briefing room.

Henry declined comment on the matter. But reporters were left wondering — is this how the administration is going to respond to criticism from Republican opponents going forward — by casting aspersions on journalists who ask questions?

That’s right, folks: Pointing out what everyone knows about right-wing bias in American media is “casting aspersions”. Charming, eh?

This isn’t her first slapback at politicians and other media critics who she obviously sees as insubordinate. Check out her snotty comments on the media obsession with ridiculous (and usually right-wing-planted) non-stories such as the “flag pin” bogosity:

To many in the press corps, Obama is just naïve for characterizing things like flag pins, the patriotism of his former pastor, and subversive activities committed 40 years ago by a guy he sort of knows as “distractions.” When he noted that the debate was nearly half over before an actual policy issue was mentioned, they were dismissive. Appearing on MSNBC the next day, Julie Mason of the Houston Chronicle said with a mocking tone, “It seems like he wants to live in this sort of perfect, high-minded political world where things like flag pins don’t matter, but they really do. These things create perceptions. Everyone is saying he didn’t do well. I have to agree. I don’t think he did much for himself at all.” The “everyone” to whom she was referring was no doubt the rest of the political reporters.

Better adjust that tiara a little bit, Miss Desmond, so you can be ready for Mr. DeMille’s closeup.