The Obama Hate Machine: The Lies, Distortions, and Personal Attacks on the President – and Who is Behind Them by Bill Press is published by Thomas Dunn Press in 2012.
If I could outline the book briefly, there are three main topics:
- There are lots of nasty things said about Barack Obama that aren’t true
- The Koch brothers organized and paid for the Tea Party
- The media no longer report facts, but rebroadcast what “newsmakers” say.
There is a lot of material supporting that simple outline.
I think most people reading this blog are well aware of many things said about Barack Obama that aren’t true. We focus on a narrow slice of that rhetoric, crank claims about the President’s birth; however, we see “creeping socialism” (as a topic) and Obama associations. Mr. Press gives lots more examples, and points out why they shouldn’t have been taken seriously by anyone.
The section on the Koch brothers and their billion-dollar tentacles in conservatism and the Tea Party in particular, through a mind-boggling list of front groups, is impressive in scope; however, I gather that this material is not original to Press, but the work of others (properly attributed).
Finally, Press says that the media today don’t make judgments on the truth of what they report, but report whatever the newsmakers say and what other newsmakers say against it. He gives the example of Sarah Palin’s “Death Panels” that got widespread coverage in the press, despite the fact that there was no truth in it. This hands off approach, says Press, lets hate speech and misinformation echo instead of being snuffed.
It’s a big book and it documents a real phenomenon. Conservatives won’t believe a word of it; progressives already know most of it (except for the Koch details). The book only had a couple of errors about birther-related statements. You might like it. I thought it was, on a scale of crap to enlightenment, rated OK.
Doc, have you read The Obama Haters by John Wright?
http://www.amazon.com/The-Obama-Haters-Right-Wing-Campaign/dp/1597975125/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331670458&sr=8-1
No, I haven’t, but the write-up on Amazon sounds a lot like the book being reviewed here.
I’ve read Wright’s book and I’ve flipped through Press’. They are similar, but Press’ looks a lot more comprehensive.
[Rather than deleting this off-topic thread hijack, I have moved to the book review, since the things in it fit right in with the kind of anti-Obama rhetoric that is the subject of the book. Doc]
It’s the numbers themselves that are out of whack…cut too close for accurate placement by proper stamp.
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Huckabee’s son hung a dog, and tortured it to death. He stopped the state police investigation. Romney tied his dog to the roof of his car, for 12 hours. Why would I vote for people who enjoy animal cruelty?
I will remember all of this, every time I go into the voting booth – and that you can believe in.
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And the only time Obama appeared to be interested in voting other than present, and at least twice, was to vote for leaving a living child to die (known as infanticide) when he/she fought to live through an abortion….and left even in a soiled utility room to complete the original plan for it to be killed…and even in a hospital where his minister mentor was on the board of directors. Of course he also thinks the worst SCOTUS ruling was to save children from the monstrous “procedure” of sticking the child about to be born alive with a sharp instrument in the head and sucking out the brains. And the current FLOTUS solicited funds for hubby on the deaths of those little children suffering such barbaric and horrendous amount of suffering….medically proven such suffering of the most vulnerable was increased due to most delicate nervous system at that stage of life. I remembered THOSE decisions when I went into the voting booth the last time! And of course there’s our dear “grandmas”, still spry and mentally as capable as those younger who will from now on, under Obama”care”, by his own admission, be given pain masking pills rather than profitable surgery for longer life. He doesn’t care much for either end of the human life spectrum. Maybe he has a few other things confused besides his 57 states and the “Austrian” language of the Austrians!! Dumbo added on to Mr. Cruello. Sick indeed! God help us!
Yes, you’re lies and misrepresentations are sick.
Do you truly believe this stuff, or is any lie fair game as long as it hurts Obama?
As I recall, what you describe isn’t true. It was another one of those lies concocted during the 2008 election. Since you didn’t bother to give a citation, I won’t bother with it further.
OMG! It’s the Death Panels. Run away. Run away.
Do you actually believe this stuff?
Twinkies do not antiquate. An antiquated twinkie is a mythical object. This troller is perhaps, an honest-to-god troll.
I’ve read several bestiaries, but haven’t come across a listing for “twinkie troll”….wait ….. wait…. it’s coming back to me .. !
http://gottrolled.blogspot.com/2011/12/troll-twinkie.html
Until you earn a degree in biology, I will not deign to discuss any of your drivel of a rant.
One thing I will discuss is this: Anti-abortion violence – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-abortion_violence
Also, since you are angry about Rev. Wright, let me quote some gems of wisdom from Rev. John Hagee:
– The anti-Christ will be Jewish, as was Karl Marx, as was Adolf Schicklgruber, (the little dictator’s real name).
– He has blamed the Holocaust on Jews themselves.
– “It was the disobedience and rebellion of the Jews, God’s chosen people, to their covenantal responsibility to serve only the one true God, Jehovah, that gave rise to the opposition and persecution that they experienced beginning in Canaan and continuing to this very day… Their own rebellion had birthed the seed of antisemitism that would arise and bring destruction to them for centuries to come…. it rises from the judgment of God upon his rebellious chosen people.”
– “I learn from the Bible that the children of Israel were punished by God for their iniquities.”
– Hagee has blamed American economic problems on the fact that the Federal Reserve System is controlled by “a group of Class A stockholders, including the Rothschilds.” In the same series, Hagee further asserted that the Rothschilds, who are Jewish, were part of a wide-ranging conspiracy of “international power brokers based in Europe.”
– In his book “Jerusalem Countdown,” Hagee claims that Adolf Schicklgruber was born from a lineage of “accursed, genocidally murderous half-breed Jews.”
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hagee
– And this from Jerry Falwell: “The anti-Christ is walking among us in the shape of a male Jew.”
Now, provide a link of Reverend Wright’s rant against Jewish people. I’m waiting.
Bill Frist killed his pet cat, so he could dissect it for medical school.
You have so much mixed up. First of all, you are doing exactly what you say the conservatives, Republicans, Tea-Party and anyone who dares say anything against Obama. You make giant generalizations and put out nasty stories hoping to discredit anyone except an Obama follower. You make ridiculous hate statements and assumptions. I never knew anything about the Koch brothers and I think Obama is the worst president we have ever had – I am highly educated and I am a conservative Republican voter. Everyone in my family is an MD or PhD and we all are conservative Republicans. I don’t hate Obama – I hate what he does and what he has done to this nation. You are just another spin doctor trying to degrade anyone that disagrees with Obama. We love our dogs and cats and most Conservatives do. You sir are just another type of paid Obama political blogger trying to create WHITE GUILT SYNDROME and further the divide in our country.
What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.
~Abraham Lincoln
Please kindly use the quote button to direct your particular complaint against an individual to whom you take issue with, and not this entire blog.
That’s breathtaking. You accuse others of making ridiculous statements and assumptions, and a few sentences later that it exactly what you do. Bravo!