Professional wrestling

There is an article at Salon about the Democrats who appear on Fox News.

There is some more commentary on it here.

It's probably about time that everyone read The Science Of Coercion by Christopher Simpson. It's a great, skinny little book that covers propaganda during the post-WWII period. After reading it you'll understand what you're watching when you turn on your TV. Like I say, it's a skinny book, but it's not an easy read. It's not an easy read but it's worth your while.

Between now and the time you get your copy, remember that when you see Hannity bitch-slapping Colmes nightly, it's because that's what's supposed to happen. Colmes isn't there to offer an alternative to Hannity. He's there to lose. Like professional wrestling, although the plotlines for wrestling tend to be more complicated. An even better metaphor would be the Harlem Globetrotters. Remember the team they always played against. Night after night these chumps would go out on the floor and fall for the same tricks. They would always lose. They would always be the fools. Sure, they got a paycheck, but not for their basketball skills. They were paid to lose.

When Fox hustles out a feminist to give the "other side" of a political debate, expect to see the screechiest, most wild-eyed feminist. Likewise for other representations of the Left.

But the process is not only for Fox. These faux representatives of various political and social groupings who wander across the public landscape doing damage to what they represent are often working against the interests they are supposed to represent. Whenever you see one of these false leaders, it's time to suspect something is amiss.

Think Tammy Bruce. Many of us first saw Tammy Bruce during the O.J. Simpson trial, bad-mouthing African American women. Bruce describes herself as "a pro-choice lesbian feminist Democrat" and a "classical liberal author and political commentator." Her Talk Radio Network bio says "[h]er most recent public political experience was serving on California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Transition Team." Talk Radio Network is the bastion of such liberals as Laura Ingraham and Michael Savage. Why would they want a classical liberal like Bruce? Because she isn't.

You weren't really fooled, were you? Tammy is one of the rotating heads that appear on Fox News.