Checking in with politics and the media

I am really scared these days. Even while Democrats all over the country--heck, even in Idaho!--are showing impressive poll numbers, with takeover of the House and Senate hovering between possible and probable depending on the hour, seemingly. My fear, though, takes the form of a rational paranoia, if you will, concerning electioneering fraud. When the Master of Evil Karl Rove says on NPR that the interviewer (while questioning Rove on what losing either or both houses of Congress might mean to the Administration) is "entitled to [his] math", while Rove is "entitled to the math", that scares me. I don't buy that Rove is simply keeping a stiff upper lip for the benefit of his troops. What that statement told me is that these guys know they aren't losing, because they have rigged the game. Everything else is playacting for the rubes. And those rubes are us.
While interviewing the Lord of Darkness (backstage edition) might have been a coup for Robert Siegel personally, the absence of any balancing voice betokens NPR's complete co-optation by their Administration overlords. Siegel is supposed to be the reporter, not the Democrats' champion, so his presence alone means nothing. That he came across--to me, at any rate--as a sputtering buffoon ("B-b-but the polls I've seen say your wrong! Why won't you comment? Waaaah!") instead of a journalist ("So, Karl, are you claiming that all of the polls the public sees are wrong? Why are you seeing other, and different, polls of Congressional races? Aren't you supposed to be a representative of a separate branch of the government, representing the whole country? Are the taxpayers paying for these other polls?" etc.) makes his voice even more shrill and inconsequential. Just the way the Evil Forces want things.
This is what right-wing control of the media sounds like, folks. All of the familiar places where you used to get your "information" (let alone commentary) are seriously compromised in favor of the Republican Party, and if you are relying solely on the mainstream media--and even public radio--for your hard news, you are no longer well-informed, no matter how many versions of the same story you read/hear. I mean, sometimes they make their obeisance to the ruling junta obvious, such as when NBC refuses to air an ad--an ad, for Chrissakes!--for the Dixie Chicks' new documentary, because it "cannot accept these spots as they are disparaging to President Bush." I'll let you all count the ways this blatantly partisan (and fundamentally stupid--what are Bush's numbers at this point? That's right, that'd be using my math, not the math . . .) behavior violates the Constitution or various FCC regulations. But most of the time, the media is more subtle in its iniquity, like when an interview with the supremely partisan architect of all that is wrong with America today airs without a legitimate challenge from anyone to provide even a whisper of another side to the story. Oh, wait, that's not subtle either, is it?