What’s with all these Hitler comparisons???

Since the begining of the semester, every couple of weeks I see the crazy LaRouche supporters up and down Commonwealth Ave. holding signs and handing out pamphlets with a picture of President Obama with a Hitler mustache. First off, I think that picture is disgusting. Comparing our president to Hitler? What was that thing called???…oh yeah, the Holocaust.

Comparisons like this keep popping up all over the place. When I was on Politico.com today I saw a headline that said, “GOP Tweets clip of Hitler praising Pelosi.” Of course I had to click it to see what it was about.

Apparently the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) tweeted (yes they have a twitter) this Tuesday morning`: “Funny Video: Moonbattery: Hitler Reacts to ObamaCare Maneuvers.” The video is a clip from the the 2004 movie “Der Untergang,” which depicts the final days of World War II and Hitler’s life. In the clip, according to the fake subtles, Hitler praises Nancy Pelosi for sharing his views of health care reform and for not caring about the American people.

This and all the other Hitler comparisons are in bad taste. They’re not even clever or funny.

Yeah, we get it, if Hitler = bad and Obama = bad then that means Obama = Hitler…or something stupid like that. HAHA!!! SO FUNNY!!!

I think the GOP are the only people who find Carlos Mencia funny.

So, of course, because if they didn’t they would look like even bigger assholes, the NRCC apologized:

(From Politico.com)

UPDATE: NRCC spokesman John Randall says they have pulled down the Tweet and offered a mea culpa:

“We saw the video this morning and thought, like other parodies, that it was funny,” Randall just told me. “In 20-20 hindsight, we realized it was in poor taste and pulled it down… I don’t want anyone to think we’re comparing Democrats to Nazis and to Hitler.”

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These are the only people that can make comparing people to Nazis funny.

Politico.com Bias?

Is Politico bias?

Hmm…this is a tough one…I’m still trying to figure this one out.

Lets look at some info:

Politico’s President and CEO, Fred Ryan, is a republican and former Assistant to President Ronald Regan. He is also the chairman of the Board for of Trustees of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation.

Politico is also primarily funded by the Allbritton Company, which has been known to have some right-wing connections.

But during the 2008 presidential election, Politico was attacked for being too tough on Sen. John McCain and not tough enough on Barack Obama.

What’s going on?!?!

Since I’m just a blogger, let’s do some unscientific tests to see where Politico is on the political spectrum.

Time for some Word Clouds!!!

It’s simple. One story, three word clouds (one from the conservative media (Fox), one from the liberal media (MSNBC), and one from Politico.com), comparison.

Story: Senate votes against government-run health plan

Fox: Senate Finance Committee Votes Against Government-Run Health Insurance Plan

MSNBC: Senate panel rejects health ‘public option’

Politico: Public option fate in Obama’s hands

(Word Clouds compliments of Wordle.net)

hmmm…. they all look the same to me.
Wow, that didn’t work. And I spent a lot of time making those word clouds…

Well, since I’ve been going on Politico.com every day since Sept. 3, it looks pretty unbiased to me. They have conservatives and liberals writing for them and it still seems to be balanced. If after reading their stories for almost four weeks and not finding any significant biases, that has to tell you something.

When I was first assigned to follow Politico I was sure the site was going to lead either to the right or the left. I wasn’t expecting it to be impartial.

The site is all about giving you the latest information on politics without a hidden agenda. But this is what I think as of now. Maybe it will change later on this semester.

YAY for POLITICO (so far)!!!

I want to leave you a nice quote from the Politico story I posted at the beginning of this blog from editor-in-chief John F. Harris and executive editor Jim Vandehei of Politico on media bias:

“the subject of ideological bias in the news media is a drag. The people who care about it typically come at the issue with scalding biases of their own. Any statement journalists make on the subject can and will be used against them. So the incentive is to make bland and guarded statements. Even honest ones, meanwhile, will tend to strike partisans as evasive or self-delusional.”

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Check out another story Politico did here on media bias back in June.

Obama called Kanye a “jackass”

He called him a “jackass”…off the record of course.

Good job Terry Moran of ABC for twittering that statement.

Here’s what he said:

Terry Moran Twitter

And here’s the audio:

CLICK ME!!!

Obama’s ‘Make or Break Speech’

Tomorrow, Obama will be addressing Congress on healthcare reform and the media is saying that his speech will “make or break” his presidency.

According to The Boston Globe, Obama’s approval rating right now is at it’s lowest it has been during his whole presidency, 53%.

Traditional media sites have been covering the story by using political pundits and op-ed writers who have been making assumptions and giving their own opinions on what Obama is going to say and how it will affect the future of his presidency.

Politico.com, using multimedia to their advantage, complied multiple clips of pundits talking about what they thought about the speech and created a four-minute video out of it. The clips came from big television news networks like: CNN, MSNBC, ABC and CBS. Politico basically gave a quick and simple overview of what everyone was saying about Obama’s speech.

I wish all news would cut the BS and just go straight to the point like Politico did.

Politico.com\’s Pundits on Obama Video

Politico.com–My thoughts

Because I’m not really into politics, Politico.com is the last website I would ever go to. The first time I ever typed it into my web browser was three days ago when I was assigned to track it. But surprisingly, I like it.

Even though I don’t follow politics that closely, I appreciate the amount of unbiased information and news the site has to offer on the subject (though their blogs and op-ed pieces are entertaining). It has every bit of information you would ever need or want to know about politics.

Their media page is pretty good–they have a lot of interesting photo/audio slide shows and video clips from different television news outlets.

I think it’s really funny that they have a political gossip page. It’s like the “E! News” for people who are obsessed with politics. It’s pretty lame. I want to meet the people who get pleasure out of watching “autotuned” youtube videos of senators and other political officials.

Something that I also thought was weird was their “Politico 44″ section–basically a twitter page that gives you minute-to-minute updates on Obama, his family and administration. They call it, “A living diary of the Obama Presidency.” I say it’s really creepy.