Contrary to the implication of your comments, Prof. Cole, I don't seem to recall any adamant liberals like Olbermann on national television, certainly not during primetime hours, before or after deregulation or the merger wave started. American capitalism as a whole is politically, economically and socially conservative compared to most of its counterparts, and has been for a very long time. Hence, I wouldn't expect anything substantially different in the corporate media.
As an example, recall that late journalist Edward R. Murrow, reknown among liberals for having gone after Joseph McCarthy in the 1954, was initially in the late 1940s one of the leading journalistic purveyors of the Soviet and domestic communist menace stalking America. The irony was that by the late 1950s, CBS and others had found Murrow's "controversial" exposes too much trouble, and his career headed downhill after that.
Have to give it this time to the Tucson area sheriff. Flipped to Fox News tonight just as Geraldo was giving the sheriff a hard time for "going beyond his duties" (or some such phrase) by talking beyond the crime and investigation itself. Fox is obviously very defensive about effectively getting put in the political crosshairs by Loughner. Were the perpetrator a leftist or Muslim, they would have had some law enforcement types on 24/7 talking about it.
I wouldn't be surprised if a million American right wingers and libertarian types would like to overthrow the U.S. government. After all, some of the conservative Republicans have pretty much intimated they do. Of course, the call to (violently) overthrow the constitutional government of the United States is illegal and is liable to end one up in the FBI's crosshairs, if not in jail. Hence, I wouldn't expect many to put it that publicly. Aside from the right wingers, I would guess that there's a million in toto children of the '50s and '60s - white, black, Latino - who wouldn't mind seeing capitalism overthrown, however little they are currently acting on it.
It's well known that the Pentagon has plans for war with probably every country and definitely every region on earth. What's important is that someone of Mullin's position said it out loud. But how much was his saber rattling aimed at Iran? No doubt some, but the current Administration isn't totally whacko like the last; they know that 'limited war' could quickly become unlimited in ways they can't predict or control. I wonder if Mullin's comments weren't more for Israel's leadership, to say to them, "we're in charge here." Israel's right-wing leadership has been itching to pull the trigger. Part of letting them know that's not acceptable is by preempting them, doing one's own saber rattling.
In any case, there's a lot to be said for the Iranian leadership to put aside its religious qualms and actually develop nuclear weapons. It's worked for the North Koreans, among others.
Contrary to the implication of your comments, Prof. Cole, I don't seem to recall any adamant liberals like Olbermann on national television, certainly not during primetime hours, before or after deregulation or the merger wave started. American capitalism as a whole is politically, economically and socially conservative compared to most of its counterparts, and has been for a very long time. Hence, I wouldn't expect anything substantially different in the corporate media.
As an example, recall that late journalist Edward R. Murrow, reknown among liberals for having gone after Joseph McCarthy in the 1954, was initially in the late 1940s one of the leading journalistic purveyors of the Soviet and domestic communist menace stalking America. The irony was that by the late 1950s, CBS and others had found Murrow's "controversial" exposes too much trouble, and his career headed downhill after that.
Have to give it this time to the Tucson area sheriff. Flipped to Fox News tonight just as Geraldo was giving the sheriff a hard time for "going beyond his duties" (or some such phrase) by talking beyond the crime and investigation itself. Fox is obviously very defensive about effectively getting put in the political crosshairs by Loughner. Were the perpetrator a leftist or Muslim, they would have had some law enforcement types on 24/7 talking about it.
I wouldn't be surprised if a million American right wingers and libertarian types would like to overthrow the U.S. government. After all, some of the conservative Republicans have pretty much intimated they do. Of course, the call to (violently) overthrow the constitutional government of the United States is illegal and is liable to end one up in the FBI's crosshairs, if not in jail. Hence, I wouldn't expect many to put it that publicly. Aside from the right wingers, I would guess that there's a million in toto children of the '50s and '60s - white, black, Latino - who wouldn't mind seeing capitalism overthrown, however little they are currently acting on it.
It's well known that the Pentagon has plans for war with probably every country and definitely every region on earth. What's important is that someone of Mullin's position said it out loud. But how much was his saber rattling aimed at Iran? No doubt some, but the current Administration isn't totally whacko like the last; they know that 'limited war' could quickly become unlimited in ways they can't predict or control. I wonder if Mullin's comments weren't more for Israel's leadership, to say to them, "we're in charge here." Israel's right-wing leadership has been itching to pull the trigger. Part of letting them know that's not acceptable is by preempting them, doing one's own saber rattling.
In any case, there's a lot to be said for the Iranian leadership to put aside its religious qualms and actually develop nuclear weapons. It's worked for the North Koreans, among others.