Submitted by EricLykins on Tue, 2010/03/02 - 3:54am

"The public is clearly part of the news process now (and if you've seen the comment section at KnoxNews that should terrify you)" and the news is, EIGHT percent of Americans believe that their members of Congress deserve reelection. However, envision a very near future where politicians will always, maybe, almost tell the truth because they can't hide in front of the cameras anymore, and the ninety-two percent of us that are reasonable people won't live in a scary and unfair world in which government is some mysterious creature living up in the hills that only comes down for feeding time because we finally decided to get together to go to those hills and see how ugly that creature's balls were, and found ourselves.

I really want you to click those two links above about how television changed the physical properties of politics and what you're about to do to those people next. Do it before clicking "continued..." as most of the links after the break are there primarily for my own amusement, except this one.

What we were doing during the Sunlight Live coverage was pushing data out to the public to inform them while simultaneously interfering with the canned messaging of the political actors by showing the facts and information that lives behind their words and actions.(*1) My colleague Kerry Mitchell calls this “data jamming,” a la “culture jamming.”

And this is where C-SPAN’s coverage provides a useful service. With the help of online communications, C-SPAN’s raw coverage allows for the viewer to interact, undercut and interfere with the messaging coming from politicians(**2) while the video is streaming live. Senator Lamar Alexander can quote from a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) document and President Obama can argue back about the facts of the CBO report. That’s all you’ll get on television. But,



continued...
with researchers and reporters manning the desk at Sunlight Live we could pull the CBO report up almost instantly and search for analysis of the very point of disagreement between Alexander and Obama. You don’t have to wait to find out who’s wrong, you can know during the event. Other data helps explain the motivations or biases that lawmakers may have. Links to lobbyists, campaign contributions from interested parties, biographical information, previous news stories about their involvement in the health care reform process. All of this helps to disrupt the pre-packaged image that politicians want to transmit to the audience, which is mega-phoned through the television media.(***3)

(*1) "interfering with the canned messaging of the political actors by showing the facts and information that lives behind their words and actions."?
Yes, for shizzle. Ya wanna bitch or be the revolution?
(**2) "interact, undercut and interfere with the messaging coming from politicians"?
I'm pretty sure he meant that as well and might be dangerous. Ya wanna rollerskate all night or go home and get it on?
(***3) " disrupt the pre-packaged image that politicians want to transmit to the audience, which is mega-phoned through the television media"?
In the exuberant and youthful words of Kyle Broflovski, that's fucking sweet.
P.S. Tea is for ninnies. Consider rebranding.
elemental, terrifying?
Sunshine Week 2010 begins the ides of March. look out!
"You Can't Do That on Television"

In one episode in which the studio has been taken over by Communists, uttering the word "freedom" would send a cascade of red slime pouring over whoever said it.

67
vote
EricLykins's picture

repealing obstructionism

Let's go ahead and co-opt that "repeal" message that Lamar and Marsha are pushing by pointing out that after the House passes the Senate Health care bill and sends it to the President to sign into law we plan to pass a smaller bill to reconcile/repeal some of the worst provisions in that Senate bill (since they couldn't accomplish that in conference committee). "Let the Republicans vote no on repealing the Nebraska exemption and explain that." (hat tip to blackton, quote is from first comment on article at link) Let's also repeal the omission of the public option while we're at it.

R. Neal's picture

Some good news that hasn't

Some good news that hasn't gotten much attention:

House votes to strip health insurance companies of antitrust exemption

The bill...

We'll see what happens in the Senate.

EricLykins's picture

Repeal Lamar!

That's our low-hanging fruit of a repeal for which we wouldn't need the reconciliation process anyway (that I wrote about Feb 3). Let 'em vote against that.

I sent this post to a bunch of people as a facebook message and the first response from a former candidate for Governor of Tennessee made my day:
"Lamar - Hahahahahahahahahahahahahah. Jokes on you."

Virgil Proudfoot's picture

Lamar! has gone Goober!

It's kind of sad to see a former president of the University of Tennessee appealing to the goober constituency, but that's what's happening. Lamar! probably knows that he's lying about healthcare reform, but he also knows that most voting Tennesseans depend on Limbaugh and Fox News for their misinformation.

What a sad, ugly, demeaning role for a guy that's actually pretty bright, for a Republican.

EricLykins's picture

What a sad, ugly, demeaning

What a sad, ugly, demeaning role for a guy that's actually pretty bright, for a Republican.

That is absolutely true, but such is life for the country's #3 Republican. But wait, there's more:

Opponents of wasteful government spending might want to turn their eyes to the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (H.R.3221). This bill promises to end government subsidies to the student loan industry saving billions.

Of course, it's the #3 Republican's job right now to call ending unwarranted taxpayer-subsidies that go to banks to give families a $10,000 tax credit for four years of college and increasing Pell Grants "a threat to the free market."

#RepeaLamar!

Flossy's picture

agree

I wish the middle man had been cut out of my GOVERNMENT FUNDED student loans so I would not be paying interest to a bank and instead would pay back into the actual system that lent me the money for my fine education.

EricLykins's picture

Your statement makes a lot

Your statement makes a lot more sense than Alexander's summation of "threat to the free market" and "another Washington takeover."

Even the President and his press secretary are giving clarity a try today:

"if they truly believe that less regulation would lead to higher quality, more affordable health insurance, then they should vote against the proposal I’ve put forward."

"We've been doing this for a year. This is a process that has incorporated Republican idea after Republican idea. . .and looks a whole lot like a Massachusetts plan except we actually do something about cost," (Did he finally pull the TennCare rug out from under Congressman Blackburn? Only if it works.)

"I don’t believe we can afford to leave life-and-death decisions about health care to the discretion of insurance company executives alone. I believe that doctors and nurses like the ones in this room should be free to decide what’s best for their patients."

Better late than never.

EricLykins's picture

It's going in, middle man

It's going in, middle man out:

The Senate parliamentarian notified Democratic leaders that, in order to meet the reconciliation requirements, both the Senate health and finance committees would need to produce $1 billion in deficit savings each over the next 10 years, Conrad said.

With health care alone, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee would not be able to show the items within its jurisdiction save at least $1 billion. By inserting the education package, the committee would satisfy the reconciliation instructions, Conrad said.

It slipped by everybody on the HELP Committee that there was a "save a billion dollars" requirement in the reconciliation instructions. Oops. Maybe they were hypnotized by the ghost of Ted Kennedy (former HELP chair) while Kent Conrad slipped an ace into the deck.

Lamar! is on that committee and might have caught the oversight if he weren't too busy firing up the "Repeal It" campaign. On the other hand, Conrad is known for not explaining the instructions well. Alexander could use this as an excuse to take the fake outrage to the next level and punch Kent Conrad square in the jaw before the weekend talk shows. If it looks real enough, the lenders who just got cut out might not feel so sold out.

Some new survey results, unrelated The charts show more conservative interest in an area that Democrats need to start acting like they invented.

Stick's picture

Fragmentation = Alternate Realities

I'm not sure that we can take much away from the Pew findings... Individuals are indeed gathering their news across platforms, however the range of information they are actually accessing is becoming increasingly narrow. The key concept of our era is "audience fragmentation".

EricLykins's picture

You say "fragmentation," some

You say "fragmentation," some would say "not have my proud cultural history (that I discovered this year on the Inter-Tubes) tainted by your wicked sorcery." Welcome to the information bubble, and position yourself for the crash.

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