I’vr had the privilege of many years of debating politics and social philosophies, beginning in college, without once identifying any one in the group with political labels. We debate ideas, not people, and we speak as individuals, not representatives of political tiribes.

I highly recomment that old fashioned approach, because it has the advanage of making thinking more felxible. If you represent only yourself, it’s easier to stay focused on a single topic, without feeling the need to do battle with a whole system of thought (the opponent’s political tribe).
It’s also easier to move to the right or to the left on separate issues, because there is no concern about betraying one’s own political tribe. It’s liberating!

I sense that this craze for assigning political labels to everyone, pigion holes and stereotypes everyone.
Not only that, but it pigeon holes petrifies one’s own thinking.

It seems to me that these days “liberal” and “conservative” are increasingly becoming relative terms and your comments reinforce that perception. I bring this up because most people use the terms “liberal” and “conservative” relative to the average American or based on discrete political, social and economic philosophy and policy positions. If Shaun, who would likely be viewed as left-of-center relative to the average American, is viewed by you as a right-winger, then that tells us you are probably WAY to the left from the median. It makes me wonder whom you might consider more left-wing than yourself. I think it also explains why everyone here who “knows” Shaun based on his writing would not consider him conservative at all.

I also find the idea of “Potemkin liberals” quite amusing. I gather these supposedly GOP executives are stacking the news organizations with liberals, which makes their news coverage…well…conservative? Is that your argument? Sorry, doesn’t make much sense to me.

I don’t really get your point, but I’ll check out those blogs.

The blog I mostly read, the one I referenced multiple times, is the Daily Howler. As I said, read it for a month, to understand where I’m coming from in this thread. You won’t watch the news the same way.

-bjb

Remember folks: just accepting received “wisdom” and trying to choose a point in the middle of heated debates is the heart and soul of moderatism. Don’t actually think about anything!

As I’ve said this whole thread, his calling MSNBC democratic-leaning means that Shaun is either ignorant, or a right-winger in liberal’s clothing. MSNBC has a clear Republican bias.

But I guess pretending that there is still some parity in the news between right- and left-leaning content is the price one pays to be considered a “reasonable” “moderate” around here.

But it just makes you either (a) ignorant, or (b) a right-wing stooge. How is this not clear? I’ve repeated myself like five times now, and all I get back is “you can’t be serious that goes against teh conventional wizdum lol”. Give me a break.

I think I’ve heard it all folks.

Don’t tell but these sites are amongst my favs.
http://larison.org/
http://www.reason.com/blog/show/122069.html
http://www.beliefnet.com/blogs/JWalking/
http://globalparadigms.blogspot.com/
http://globalparadigms.blogspot.com/
http://www.4pundits.com/
http://lewrockwell.com/
http://www.amconmag.com/aboutus.html
It’s not always a good idea to only read The Progressive, The Nation or The Fifth Estate(Detroit). Guess what group isn’t included in the list above.

April 1st isn’t for another 4+ months… Upside down day, perhaps?

Ideas, not false left/right dichotomy bullcrapola, please. Sensationalism and shallowness is the modus du jour and you’d be hard-pressed to not find it across the board of cable news offerings.

Outside of Lou Dobbs, I’m not sure how populist CNN really is coming across… I still hear more “Clinton News Network” criticism than anything else. Unlike you, Shaun, I DO yearn for the good old days of Bernie Shaw and John Holliman reporting from under a table in the Al Rashid while Peter Arnett went hopping around on rooftops like a lunatic with his VW-sized “portable” sat dish

AT TMV, you must be polite. Don’t call us (or our visitors) names – we don’t like to ban anybody but name-calling forces us to consider it.

I don’t care why Shawn’s gotten pilloried. Rightwingers, if you haven’t noticed, are insane.

Shawn’s posts reflect an odd sort of right-wing bias. You have to read the Daily Howler for a month to understand. He’s what we’d call a “potemkin liberal” – his personal politics may be leftist, but when it comes to media commentary he carries water for the right.

If you think I’m going to let up on your right-wing-masquerading-as-moderate BS just because of a few hard words you must really think I’m a moron or a coward.