Speaking of denial, I’ve always found this familiar journalistic defense to be particularly stupid…
“Criticism of CNBC is way out of line,” NBC head Jeff Zucker said at the BusinessWeek media summit at McGraw-Hill’s headquarters just now. … The press didn’t cause us to go to war in Iraq, he said; a general did. The press missing the financial crisis didn’t cause it. “Both are absurd,” he said.
What’s absurd is the notion that the press merely observes current events without influencing them, especially when it comes to politics, and especially especially when it comes to economics, both areas where public perception is at least as important as the “facts” on the ground.
With a head up his ass response like that, I’d argue that Zucker shouldn’t have any influence. But unfortunately, he does. And yes, his networks do hold some responsibility for helping President Bush cheerlead us into a war in Iraq and an economic bubble at home. I mean, if his argument is that missing the financial crisis had absolutely no impact on the severity of the crisis itself, does that mean uncovering and predicting the crisis early on would have had no impact too? And if so, what exactly is the point of journalism?
Nobody ever says anything about the rating agencies – Standard and Poor, Moody’s, Fitch – that put “AAA” ratings on this CMO and CDO shit that investment banks were buying and selling without any concern about the products being shit. Pension funds, municipalities, charities, endowments – they were all looking for streams of income promised by these asset-backed securities, and the investment banks were happy to sell them shit. The only problem the investment bankers had was getting past the “AAA” hurdle.
No problem – they just bribed, cajoled and pressured Standard and Poor, Moody’s, and Fitch to put the “AAA” label on shit that was below investment grade (“CCC-“). Once they got the “AAA” rating, it was easy to sell dog turds and call it a tender, juicy ribeye.
I want everyone to pause and think about what Goldy is saying, because he may not even realize it, but he is indicting himself, too. Every time Goldy comments, or doesn’t comment on some debacle, he is partially responsible for it. Those are his own words!
2 True. There’s a principle in science that says you can’t observe any phenomenon without perturbing it in some way–energy and/or mass gets extracted along with the information.
At times, though, it’s possible to make a decision as to how you’re going to influence the system. You can either say that the Emperor’s new suit looks wonderful on him, or tell him he’s naked.
The press might not have “caused” the crisis by not reporting on it, but a lot of individuals might have been able to cut their losses had they been warned from credible sources that this was coming.
But golly gee-whiz…if the press had started saying “Hard times are coming, folks. Better grab what’s yours!”, their advertisers might have been rather unhappy about it.
@4,
“Credible sources” certainly wouldn’t include Jim Cramer or any of the other stock gurus on the tube.
Never, never take advice from somebody on TV who’s trying to hype a stock. They don’t know what they’re talking about.
Yeah, notice the “denials” of Tim TurboTax Geithner when he knew of AIG bonuses?
Notice how the press entered into denial mode covering this Democratic AIG mess up until they had to cover it?
Toooooooooooooo
Damnnnnnnnnnnn
Funnnnnnnnnnnny
Notice there is no denial by the press on their reaction if Bush made the Special Olympics comment? How about if Ann Coulter said it. It would be a Chris Matthews/Keith Olbermann week moment!
One never has to deny Democratics get “special” treatment by the libtard MSM.
@7,
So what else is new?
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@ 10. Moderators, is the spam filter not working?
Yes, I agree. How cum the fool @12 is posting.
@9
Looks like someone forgot to take their Risperdal.
@1 You expect Wall Street — of which the ratings agencies (not to mention stock analysts) are part — to be self-serving.
You also expect journalism to serve as a watchdog over self-interested institutions.
Both failed us miserably.
@2 Come to think of it, why didn’t you, the self-appointed moderator of this blog, warn us?
@7 Leave it to puddinghead to equate Obama’s lame self-deprecatory joke about bowling in the Special Olympics with Ann Coulter’s “joke” about incarcerating liberals in concentration camps and executing them. Putz probably thinks the Gulag and Holocaust were funny, too.
@11
You got me after 3 months on HA lying has rub off on me.
Thanks
HA TEAM
Besides It’s funny!
There has got to be a special Golden Goat award just for this post alone.
WOW. Just… WOW.
@ 18 may just be a damage control post in an attempt to make Pubbydub not seem so much like a 3 year old in comparison.
@19 He no doubt has insight into the workings of a four year old’s mind.
He’ll win his own Golden Goat someday. Who was this week’s winner?
@20 It didn’t work.
The thought has occurred to me many times that Truth is just one sockpuppet among many. I imagine the Troll Guidebook discusses “Really Stupid Persona” in the chapter on sockpuppetry. Or in the case of manoftruth, “Jew-Hate Persona”.
@15,
No, I was just mentioning that nobody has said much about the rating agencies. CNBC’s David Faber had a pretty good story about the credit default swap mess and the CDO/CMO asset-backed mess, and a lady from S&P said the rating agencies were putting “AAA” ratings on “CCC-” shit.
The stuff was below investment grade, but S&P, Fitch and Moody’s were selling it like it was primo shit. It wasn’t.
A hedge fund manager in Houston figured it out when he talked to some of the whiz-kids who were packaging-up those mortgages and debt instrument and selling them to pension funds and endowments. These kids were right out of B-school and didn’t know shit from Shinola. The hedge fund manager went short and was up 600% last year. Not bad, considering anybody long just about anything had his ass handed to him.
5 ““Credible sources” certainly wouldn’t include Jim Cramer or any of the other stock gurus on the tube.”
You got that right, man!
Fool@17. Where did Puddy say that muttonhead? Why do you lie so much Pelletizer?
Puddy said
The fool called the dumb bunny is truly delusional.
Steve, why are you dealing with surreal amerikkkan. No lefty uses (TM) except headless. That’s his signature trademark like clueless wonder uses LMAO.
surreal, you claim you’ve used it before this week. Let’s see the post. Show it to Steve so you can prove me a liar cuz Puddy don’t believe you.
@24, that includes you too, being incredibly moronic.
Gosh, I have seen Pubbydub use “LMAO” several times… it makes you wonder… is “clueless wonder” (whoever that is) actually a puppet of Pubbydub?
Or is Pubbydub a puppet of “clueless wonder”?
The mind boggles at the possibilities!
surreal amerikkkan: Being around you Truth has been soiled by your “wonderful” personality.
Oh and Pubbydub @ 26
Nope, i never said that.
So now, you show me the post where I said I used it before.
The delusional ball is in your court now.
Oh, and Pubbydub, if you are going to post this
I said “I use it also”… as in my previous post.
But dig deeper, Pubbydub.. spend hours trying to find evidence for your delusions.
Have fun!
The more time Pubbydub spends hunting down phantoms, the less time he has to annoy anyone else but his poor, lamentable family.
Oh Damn! I am certain Headless Lucy must have used the word “lamentable” before!
Pubbydub, find more information on Headless Lucy’s use of the word “lamentable”… you just might be onto something big!
Sorry surreal amerikkkan, your excuse doesn’t wash.
That’s all you said.
So provide evidence you have used it before this thread. I suggest a week because Google would have cached it. Google it and post the http://horsesass.org/?p= location. I doubt you can.
That’s why you are dancing, spinning, shucking and jiving here. You know you are busted and now it’s face saving mode fool.
Puddy don’t play dat.
Or better yet, send Goldy a $100 towards the Goldy Fund, and ask him to post the last octet of your IP Address and headless lucy’s IP Address. That’s fair.
BTW fool, Puddy uses LMAO to join in the lefty ridicule of the monomaniacal one, your good friend. I see you know the clueless wonder to as you called him by name.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahahaha LMAO
Hey-it’s seven years to the day since Goldy’s good buddy Dan Savage wrote his famous “Say Yes to War on Iraq” essay ridiculing the anti-war liberals, and calling for killing Iraqi children for their own good.
Yes he did! Google it!
Poor puddypud! Still here huh. It must be awful to be you.
34 has been deleted for being off-topic. See Goldy’s policy of protecting his war monger friends.
Goldy’s buddy, the war monger, Dan Savage is running for Mayor. Will Goldy support his candidacy?
@19
Monday night I will Repent for my sin.
Even though mine is small compared to
ha team.
If any of you ha team had to Repent for you sins it would take months perhaps years.
God Bless
@ 33 lets review:
Oh and Pubbydub @ 26
No I never said that. Show me where I said that I had used it before this week.
And Pubbydub, you have failed to provide that evidence.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Oh, and Pubbydub, using “The Truth” as your sockpuppet is getting old.
Dear HA Ladies and Gentlemen, belatedly but with the usual great pleasure, I would like to announce this week’s winner of the Troll of the Week Award (aka The Golden Goat). Unlike the past couple weeks, we just did not see fervent scurry for the Goat. Sure, we had The Truth posting his usual nonsense, and probably setting a record for off-topic deletions for a week. We also saw Mr. Cynical posting the repetitive drivel that earned him the Goat last week. And, we saw a few of our other favorite trolls appearing periodically to fling some dung around. But, we just did not see the elbow-throwing, chest-bumping, get-down-and-dirty free-for-all that marked the last couple weeks’ competition. Rather, we saw one competitor take a big lead and just run with it. Simply, he lapped the field, then lapped it again. Man, we witnessed a blowout.
We all know him; we all love him. For years, he has kept us amused with a mixture of self-adulation, self-righteousness, and self-delusion that comes only with years of immersion in the deepest trenches of wingnuttery. We love him for the way he proclaims “victory” when his allegedly vanquished foe did not even know a competition was occurring. We love him for providing links that fail entirely to support whatever nonsense he might be spewing. We love him for providing us an example of how to be the perfect Christian, the perfect family man, the perfect American. (Just ask, or actually you don’t even have to ask, and he’ll tell you how charitable he is.) He also, let us not forget, has a perfect memory, according to him. We love him for his sock puppetry. We love him for assigning derogatory nicknames to other posters, which results in none of us knowing whom he’s talking to or about. We love him for the sheer volume of his posts, causing us to wonder: how the hell could someone be so talented at multitasking that he can be a superstar at his job, marriage, and church, and still constantly posting on HA? I hang my head in shame, recognizing I could never even reflect, let alone produce, the light that shines off this week’s winner of the Goat.
He’s earned it. None of us are surprised. We’re all grateful to him. And, the Goat goes to—
Puddybud. Dammit, you did it, man. With that beautiful wife of yours that you always tell us about, pop a bottle of bubbly, then kill the thing and have that wonderful marital sex you brag about. Call your kids. Update your curriculum vitae to identify yourself as a Golden Goat winner. Puddy, from the bottom of my heart, I offer you my congratulations. Cheers!
Amazing performance. His only competition was his own sockpuppets.
42
Wasn’t it? It was like a number 1 seed getting to play 16s through all 6 games to the end of the NCAA tournament. Puddy’s performance this week will be talked about for generations. Damn, he’s good.
I wouldn’t have given to him because I thought he was trying too hard. I though it would have been better to wait a few more weeks THEN we would have seen batshit right wing insanity the likes of which have never been seen ANYWHERE.
Oh well we were were spared. Now the chump will rest on his laurels and just be a plain annoying fool.
PL – nice writeup.
@44 Proud Leftist is doing a great job as the Awards Committe Chair and Master of Ceremonies.
Anybody want to guest host next week?
I nominate Art Fart for guest host. He has very keen insight into the madness of these fools.
Congratulations, Pubbydub!
Pubbydub has really raised the bar for other HA trolls. I expect the competition to get pretty fierce next week. Every troll trying to out-troll the next.
Bound to be very exciting!
And very, very annoying.
How many more mistakes can you afford. Not only that he has hit his head so many times getting on and off his chopper. The name of the chopper is medic one. He has actually tried to gain access into the wh through a closed window thinking it was a door? His trip to England you know where PM gave a beautiful historic gift from the people of England.The loser gave him 50 DVD from the employees of Acorn. LOL!