{"id":4746,"date":"2011-01-04T17:17:22","date_gmt":"2011-01-04T17:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/?p=4746"},"modified":"2011-01-04T18:24:31","modified_gmt":"2011-01-04T18:24:31","slug":"why-journalism-is-dying-pt-oh-i-lost-count","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/?p=4746","title":{"rendered":"Why Journalism Is Dying: Pt&#8230;  Oh, I Lost Count."},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Why%20Journalism%20Is%20Dying%3A%20Pt...%20%20Oh%2C%20I%20Lost%20Count.\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>Dana Milbank has written an article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2011\/01\/03\/AR2011010304274.html?hpid=opinionsbox1\">on the recent RNC chair debate<\/a>, noting how the vetting process shows nothing more than an &#8220;ideological cleansing&#8221; of the Republican party&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Well Duh, I&#8217;ve been writing about that for years! And history shows that after a party loses power, as happened to Republicans in 2006 and 2008, they tend to sway toward their more polar political wing. \u00a0Milbank writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Instead, the debate turned into a series of litmus tests of Republican loyalty&#8230;. They demonstrated how ideologically homogeneous the party has become.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Isn&#8217;t that what typically happens at these things? Aren&#8217;t they SUPPOSED to be looking for someone that most closely represents the party&#8217;s mainline views? He notes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Norquist and Carlson, serving as cardinals of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, administered a long series of loyalty checks, and the candidates were nearly dissent-free. Abortion? All opposed. Lower taxes? All in favor. Gay marriage? All opposed. Cutting spending? All in favor&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>Asked what viewpoints should lead somebody to be evicted from the Republican Party, Wagner [one of the RNC chair candidates] offered several, including pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage and anti-gun rights. Anuzis [another candidate] said a Republican official should be excommunicated if he or she votes against the platform more than 20 percent of the time. &#8220;If you&#8217;re pro-abortion, pro-stimulus, pro-GM bailout, pro-AIG,&#8221; said Priebus, &#8220;guess what? You might not be a Republican.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So &#8211; the big tent is dead. That&#8217;s not news as it died some time ago. At least they&#8217;ve stopped pretending. What strikes me about this paragraph, is that, if you put the shoe on the other foot, and examine the process for choosing a chairperson for the DNC, do you really think you&#8217;re going to end up with a winner, much less a viable candidate, who doesn&#8217;t tow the party line? Do you really think we&#8217;re going to see a Democrat chair candidate who is pro-life, against taxing the rich, against gay marriage, against the bail outs? Do you really think that candidate has a chance in HELL to win that contest?<\/p>\n<p><object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"450\" height=\"370\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.liveleak.com\/e\/527_1205782611\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"450\" height=\"370\" src=\"http:\/\/www.liveleak.com\/e\/527_1205782611\" wmode=\"transparent\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p>And PS. Don&#8217;t look now, but the next generation of GOP&#8217;ers <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gaypatriot.net\/2011\/01\/04\/the-welcome-gay-conservatives-find-on-the-right\/\">is not the homophobic crowd<\/a> the press would have you believe.<\/p>\n<p>PPS. Andrew Sullivan <a href=\"http:\/\/andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com\/the_daily_dish\/2011\/01\/the-logical-extreme-of-litmus-politics.html\">writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The RNC debate was like something out of Orwell, apparently.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I think that qualifies for one of Sullivan&#8217;s fabled awards, probably <a href=\"http:\/\/andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com\/the_daily_dish\/awards.html\">a Moore<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Why%20Journalism%20Is%20Dying%3A%20Pt...%20%20Oh%2C%20I%20Lost%20Count.\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>Dana Milbank has written an article on the recent RNC chair debate, noting how the vetting process shows nothing more than an &#8220;ideological cleansing&#8221; of the Republican party&#8230; Well Duh, I&#8217;ve been writing about that for years! And history shows that after a party loses power, as happened to Republicans in 2006 and 2008, they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56,27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4746"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4746"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4751,"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4746\/revisions\/4751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}