Inside The Beltway Definition Problem

A great debate took place on MSNBC's Morning Joe the other morning. It is a prime example of how "inside the beltway" definitions and how the corporate media and it's pundits characterize individuals is totally devoid of actual facts. Glenn Greenwald of Salon Magazine and MSNBC's The Last Word host Larry O'Donnell debated whether liberals were relevant to our politics here in America and the effect the 2010 midterms has on this philosophy. In my opinion during this debate Larry O'Donnell epitomizes what is wrong with the thought process of pundits "inside the beltway". Here is a video link to this debate.

This debate further plays into my thought that the corporate media over the last few years have given a platform to individuals that would ordinarily be called extremist and given them a label of conservatism. With every extreme piece of rhetoric, the more corporate media has seemed to fawn and clamor to get the latest interview with these types of individuals. Who are examples of this extremism? Does the names Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, and Dick Armey ring a bell anyone? How many times have you turned on cable news and seen the same clip of some nonsense "palinism" played every hour on the hour?

Examples of their extreme rhetoric? Here are just a few.

Newt Gingrich: Citing a recent Forbes article by Dinesh D'Souza, former House speaker Newt Gingrich tells National Review Online that "President Obama may follow a "Kenyan, anti-colonial" worldview."

"The idea that a congressman would be tainted by accepting money from private industry or private sources is essentially a socialist argument."

"The secular-socialist machine represents as a great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did."

Sarah Palin: "Canada needs to dismantle it's public health-care system and allow private enterprise to get involved and turn a profit."

Palin denies global warming and opposed listing polar bears as an endangered species because it might prevent off-shore drilling. Sarah Palin is suing the US government over listing the polar bears as an endangered species.

Dick Armey: "Hillary Clinton bothers me a lot. I realized the other day that her thoughts sound a lot like Karl Marx. She hangs around a lot of Marxists. All her friends are Marxists.

Could anyone just a few years ago imagine that individuals that spout this type of rhetoric would routinely appear on programs like Meet The Press, Face The Nation, or ABC This Week? Yet they do. Because the corporate media having them on as guests on what were once highly regarded news shows, they have in effect "normalized" these extremist and their rhetoric.