Last night WaPo editor E.J. Dionne and Ezra Klein, who sat in for Rachel Maddow spoke on how the use of false equivalency breaks the system for any one who wants to compromise. It only dilutes the issues, which the media and the talking heads have been using adnausem pre and post 2012 elections.
False equivalence is a logical fallacy which describes a situation where there is a logical and apparent equivalence, but when in fact there is none.
A common way for this fallacy to be perpetuated is one shared trait between two subjects is assumed to show equivalence, especially in order of magnitude, when equivalence is not necessarily the logical result. The pattern of the fallacy is often as such: If A is the set of c and d, and B is the set of d and e, then since they both contain d, A and B are equal. It should be noted though that d existing in both sets is not required, only a passing similarity is required to cause this fallacy to be able to be used.
Watch as Klein and Dionne illustrate the point of how the Democrats, particularly President Obama and House GOP are not equal when it comes to the pending manufactured “fiscal cliff” fiasco:
.Obama: Blame Republicans if There’s No Fiscal Cliff Deal
By Daniel Politi
Posted Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012, at 12:16 PM ET
SNIP
The message Obama was trying to send in the interview was clear: I’m the reasonable negotiator, willing to compromise, points out the Wall Street Journal. Even though Obama had said on Friday he was “modestly optimistic” that a deal would be reached, “we don’t yet see an agreement,” he told NBC’s David Gregory. Obama said he still holds out hope that “over the next 48 hours … people recognize that, regardless of partisan differences, our top priority has to be to make sure that taxes on middle-class families do not go up. That would hurt our economy badly.” The president emphasized that failing to reach a deal before the new year would “obviously … have an adverse reaction in the markets.”
SNIP
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2012/12/30/video_president_obama_meet_the_press_on_nbc_for_fiscal_cliff_deal_pressure.html
LOOKIE HERE MITCH MCCONNELL!
Unemployment benefits for two million Americans are set to expire this year. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) refuses to allow a vote on the extension because he wants to see the benefits coupled with the extension of tax cuts for the rich as well as certain spending cuts.
Last month, the Democratic staff of the House Ways and Means Committee released a report looking at how many Americans would lose their benefits if they unemployment insurance was not extended. According to their research, as many as 24,000 Kentuckians will lose their benefits this week because of McConnell’s obstruction.
The state’s unemployment rate remains a very high 8.2 percent, and there simply aren’t enough jobs for everyone who is unemployed.
https://boldprogressives.org/24000-kentuckians-set-to-lose-unemployment-benefits-because-of-mitch-mcconnells-obstruction/
The GOP are being butts and have been since our beloved President took office. I KNOW what time it is! (frown)
The bs about both sides do it needs to stop now. Everyone with a brain know it’s republicans who are the ones committing economic treason against their own country in order to hurt the black President. Those bitches!
NO
NO
NO
Both sides DO NOT do it.
There is only ONE party committing ECONOMIC TREASON AGAINST THIS COUNTRY.
The Republicans.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=G4ukBbVhFLw
CALL CONGRESS NOW: 888-344-0683
I’ve been saying the rejection of this BS narrative is why all of us obviously have jumped to MSNBC, the rest of the drama queens babbling for their share of Sunday morning theater won’t listen to us but… when a respected “think tank” of their own puts them on blast, heads turn… Thomas Mann & Norman Ornstein book on the abuse of the truth hiding behind “false equivalence ” when viral so maybe, just maybe the bobbleheads of MSM might find there way back to relevance again.
Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem.
By Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein,
Rep. Allen West, a Florida Republican, was recently captured on video asserting that there are “78 to 81” Democrats in Congress who are members of the Communist Party. Of course, it’s not unusual for some renegade lawmaker from either side of the aisle to say something outrageous. What made West’s comment — right out of the McCarthyite playbook of the 1950s — so striking was the almost complete lack of condemnation from Republican congressional leaders or other major party figures, including the remaining presidential candidates.
It’s not that the GOP leadership agrees with West; it is that such extreme remarks and views are now taken for granted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/lets-just-say-it-the-republicans-are-the-problem/2012/04/27/gIQAxCVUlT_story.html
Yep! The tipping point for me was all the neocon nonsense that took us to invading Iraq watching MSM sit on there hands over regurgitated info that already had been proven false over WMD,s, death, carnage in the aftermath now it’s imploding as fast as the GOP!
Thank you, Rik, for the hat tip!
The Media Ignores Facts in Order to Push Republican Lies on Fiscal Cliff
By: Sarah JonesDec. 28th, 2012
The AP is assisting Republicans with their desperate meme that Democrats are to blame for the failure to avert the Fiscal Cliff that Republicans built with previous refusals to compromise.
In an article this morning, the AP reported on Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer’s appearance on NBC’s Today show in which he said he was “encouraged that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is getting “actively engaged” in talks to resolve the problem.” Schumer told Today that a deal may be “closer than people think.”
That’s a nice quote from someone who is trying to negotiate with the other side. No mention of the humiliating Republican failure in the House.
But with what did the AP end their story? A Republican quote blaming Democrats.
Yes, for real:
Appearing on the same show Friday, Republican Sen. John Thune noted a meeting later Friday among President Barack Obama and congressional leaders, saying, “It’s encouraging that people are talking.”
The South Dakota senator said, “I think in the end we will get a deal, but the question is the timing of that.”
He also said the two sides are at stalemate because, quote, “Democrats haven’t been willing to discuss the issue of spending.”
That’s helpful, eh? To end with this quote gives it a nice punch. They felt no need to offer their readers facts or context.
Democrats haven’t been willing to discuss spending? First of all, Obama already cut spending by a trillion dollars (1.7 trillion if you count the interest) as a part of the Budget Control Act in 2011. In fact, discretionary spending levels will hit their lowest level as a share of GDP since the early 1960′s.
So, Democrats were willing to discuss spending. They already discussed spending. In point of fact, in the last ten years, Democrats have consistently been more fiscally responsible than Republicans; e.g., the Obama Administration’s spending is the lowest since the Eisenhower Administration.
http://www.politicususa.com/media-plays-republican-shell-game-fiscal-cliff-ignoring-math.html
The media was complicit in the bullshit polls showing Romney has a chance of winning without any voters other than WHITE MEN!
their silence during the election…
the pushing of polls that were absolute BS….
they are clowns, and should be treated as such
Yep! Ezra Klein used the word anodyne in his Washington Post article and he was dead on. The MSM deliberately avoids stating the truth in order to maintain “good relationships” with both political parties, but they’re doing a disservice to the American people. They lead Americans to believe that both parties are responsible for the dysfunction in DC, when it’s clearly the republicans’ fault. The media stenographers’ failure to reveal that the polls showed PBO winning the election led many republicans to believe that Romney was a shoo in, when he wasn’t. Romney didn’t win anywhere near 270 ECVs, he didn’t win 210 ECVs, yet, he and Ms. Ann were measuring the Oval Office windows and shopping for new curtains. They truly believed their own BS that it was “their turn,” and that Romney was destined to be POTUS #45. If the MSM had told the truth about Romney lying about everything, he probably wouldn’t have won 206 ECVs.
Tell the truth, majiir. Trust, if PBO hadn’t gotten out of D.C. and did interviews with local stations around the coutnry, and campaigned for himself, and thank God for OFA, and his cmpagin staff, the media would have gotten away with their hack jobs. Fortunately, the president’s GROUND GAME remains a GAME CHANGER in politics!
And did you notice the media today tried to talk over POTUS, while he was addressing them and the country. Pathetic pieces-o-shit.
What the republicans have wanted for over 60 years is to destroy/weaken Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other parts of the social safety net. I read on Think Progress today that two republican senators, Corker and Alexander from TN, have written a bill that would raise the retirement age for Social Security, cut Medicaid, and partly privatize Medicare. Their plan is to use this bill to negotiate with the president on raising the debt limit–never mind that neither of these programs have squat to do with raising the debt limit. They’re just despicable assholes. Their own St. Ronny said that raising the debt limit has nothing to do with Social Security.