Blockk Blockk Blockk Blockk
  • News Portal
  • World Desk
    • Sign In
    • Submit Content
    • Register
  • All Content
    • Edited
      • Topics
        • Agriculture
        • Culture
          • Arts
          • Children
          • Education
          • Entertainment
          • Food and Hunger
          • Sports
        • Disasters
        • Economy
        • Energy
        • Environment
        • Government
        • Health
        • Media
        • Science
        • Spiritual
        • Technology
        • Transportation
        • War
      • Regions
        • Africa
        • Americas
          • North America
          • South America
        • Antarctica
        • Arctic
        • Asia
        • Australia/Oceania
        • Europe
        • Middle East
        • Oceans
          • Arctic Ocean
          • Atlantic Ocean
          • Indian Ocean
          • Pacific Ocean
          • Southern Ocean
        • Space
      • News
      • Commentary
      • Analysis
      • Advisories
      • Source
    • Flatwire
  • About Us
  • Site Map
  • Contact Us

Latest Stories

... loading images
Discrimination Alters Brain-Gut 'Crosstalk,' Prompting Poor ...
Discrimination Alters Brain-Gut 'Crosstalk,' Prompting Poor Food Choices And Increased Health Risks | University Of California, Los Angeles
Post-Vaccine Vaginal Bleeding Rates Associated With All ...
Post-Vaccine Vaginal Bleeding Rates Associated With All COVID-19 Vaccine Types Across Reproductive Ages | Justin Jackson
Are NFTs Really Dead And Buried? All Signs Point To 'Yes' ...
Are NFTs Really Dead And Buried? All Signs Point To 'Yes' | John Hawkins
Hermit 'Scribblings' Of Eccentric French Math Genius ...
Hermit 'Scribblings' Of Eccentric French Math Genius Unveiled | Juliette Collen
More Banks to Fail? Not in North Dakota | Ellen Brown
More Banks to Fail? Not in North Dakota | Ellen Brown
BOOKS: ‘Capitalism Is Dead. Now We Have Something Much ...
BOOKS: ‘Capitalism Is Dead. Now We Have Something Much Worse’ | Carole Cadwalladr
Ghosts of the Past: For Israel, War on UNESCO is an ...
Ghosts of the Past: For Israel, War on UNESCO is an Existential Battle | Ramzy Baroud
Artificial intelligence (AI) | Wikipedia
Artificial intelligence (AI) | Wikipedia
Blockchain | Wikipedia
Blockchain | Wikipedia
NASA's First Asteroid Samples Land On Earth After Release ...
NASA's First Asteroid Samples Land On Earth After Release From Spacecraft | Marcia Dunn
Our Digital Twins Will Help Diagnose And Treat Diseases ...
Our Digital Twins Will Help Diagnose And Treat Diseases | Thomas Gull, University of Zurich
US Farmers, Tech Tycoons Square Off Over Plans For Utopian ...
US Farmers, Tech Tycoons Square Off Over Plans For Utopian City | Glenn Chapman
Falling Solar Power And Storage Prices Make Global Climate ...
Falling Solar Power And Storage Prices Make Global Climate Transition Cheaper Than Expected | Ulrich von Lampe
Why the Next Crypto Bull Run Will Be Like Nothing We've ...
Why the Next Crypto Bull Run Will Be Like Nothing We've Ever Experienced | Solo Ceesay
Human-Driven Mass Extinction Is Eliminating Entire Branches ...
Human-Driven Mass Extinction Is Eliminating Entire Branches Of The Tree Of Life | Stanford University
The Untold Story of the Abuse of Palestinian Women in ...
The Untold Story of the Abuse of Palestinian Women in Hebron | Ramzy Baroud

Rise of the Obamabots: Stifling Liberal Dissent Under Obama (Ted Rall)

More items by author
Categories
Edited | All Content | Commentary | North America | Asia | Middle East | Culture | Arts | Government | Politics | Media | War | Commentary -- WNT Original
Tool Bar
View Comments

ted-rallMay 17, 2011 (Information Clearing House) -- After they called the presidency for Obama, emails poured in. “You must be relieved now that the Democrats are taking over,” an old college buddy told me. “There will be less pressure on you.”

That would have been nice.

In the late 1990s my cartoons ran in Time, Fortune and Bloomberg Personal magazines and over 100 daily and alternative weekly newspapers. I was a staff writer for two major magazines.

Then Bush came in. And 9/11 happened.

The media gorged on an orgy of psychotic right-wing rhetoric. Flags everywhere. Torture suddenly OK. In a nation where mainstream political discourse was redefined between Dick Cheney on the right and libertarian Bill Maher on the not-as-right, there wasn’t any room in the paper for a left-of-center cartoonist. My business was savaged. Income plunged.

My editor at Time called me on September 13, 2001. “We’re discontinuing all cartoons,” she told me. I was one of four cartoonists at the newsweekly. “Humor is dead.” I snorted. They never brought back cartoons.

McCarthyism -- blackballing -- made a big comeback. I had been drawing a monthly comic strip, “The Testosterone Diaries,” for Men’s Health. No politics. It was about guy stuff: dating, job insecurity, prostate tests, that sort of thing. They fired me. Not because of anything I drew for them. It was because of my syndicated editorial cartoons, which attacked Bush and his policies. The publisher worried about pissing off right-wingers during a period of nationalism on steroids.

Desperate and going broke, I called an editor who’d given me lots of work at the magazines he ran during the 1990s. “Sorry, dude, I can’t help,” he replied. “You’re radioactive.”

It was tempting, when Obama’s Democrats swept into office in 2008, to think that the bad old days were coming to an end. I wasn’t looking for any favors, just a swing of the political pendulum back to the Clinton years when it was still OK to be a liberal.

This, you have no doubt correctly guessed, is the part where I tell you I was wrong.

I didn’t count on the cult of personality around Barack Obama.

In the 1990s it was OK to attack Clinton from the left. I went after the Man From Hope and his centrist, “triangulation”-obsessed Democratic Leadership Council for selling out progressive principles. Along with like-minded political cartoonists including Tom Tomorrow and Lloyd Dangle, my cartoons and columns took Clinton’s militant moderates to the woodshed for NAFTA, the WTO and welfare reform. A pal who worked in the White House informed me that the President, known for his short temper, stormed into his office and slammed a copy of that morning’s Washington Post down on the desk with my cartoon showing. “How dare your friend compare me to Bush?” he shouted. (The first Bush.)

It was better than winning a Pulitzer.

It feels a little weird to write this, like I’m telling tales out of school and ratting out the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. But it’s true: there’s less room for a leftie during the Age of Obama than there was under Bush.

I didn’t realize how besotted progressives were by Mr. Hopey Changey.

Obama lost me before Inauguration Day, when he announced cabinet appointments that didn’t include a single liberal.

It got worse after that: Obama extended and expanded Bush’s TARP giveaway to the banks; continued Bush’s spying on our phone calls; ignored the foreclosure crisis; refused to investigate, much less prosecute, Bush’s torturers; his healthcare plan was a sellout to Big Pharma; he kept Gitmo open; expanded the war against Afghanistan; dispatched more drone bombers; used weasel words to redefine the troops in Iraq as “non-combat”; extended the Bush tax cuts for the rich; claiming the right to assassinate U.S. citizens; most recently, there was the forced nudity torture of PFC Bradley Manning and expanding oil drilling offshore and on national lands.

I was merciless to Obama. I was cruel in my criticisms of Obama’s sellouts to the right. In my writings and drawings I tried to tell it as it was, or anyway, as I saw it. I thought -- still think -- that’s my job. I’m a critic, not a suck-up. The Obama Administration doesn’t need journalists or pundits to carry its water. That’s what press secretaries and PR flacks are for.

Does Obama ever do anything right? Not often, but sure. And when he does, I shut up about it. Cartoonists and columnists who promote government policy are an embarrassment.

But that’s what “liberal” media outlets want in the age of Obama.

I can’t prove it in every case. (That’s how blackballing works.) The Nation and Mother Jones and Harper’s, liberal magazines that gave me freelance work under Clinton and Bush, now ignore my queries. Even when I offered them first-person, unembedded war reporting from Afghanistan. Hey, maybe they’re too busy to answer email or voicemail. You never know.

Other censors are brazen.

There’s been a push among political cartoonists to get our work into the big editorial blogs and online magazines that seem poised to displace traditional print political magazines like The Progressive. In the past, editorial rejections had numerous causes: low budgets, lack of space, an editor who simply preferred another creator’s work over yours.

Now there’ s a new cause for refusal: Too tough on the president.

I’ve heard that from enough “liberal” websites and print publications to consider it a significant trend.

A sample of recent rejections, each from editors at different left-of-center media outlets:

• “I am familiar with and enjoy your cartoons. However the readers of our site would not be comfortable with your (admittedly on point) criticism of Obama.”

• “Don’t be such a hater on O and we could use your stuff. Can’t you focus more on the GOP?”

• “Our first African-American president deserves a chance to clean up Bush’s mess without being attacked by us.”

I have many more like that.

What’s weird is that these cultish attitudes come from editors and publishers whose politics line up neatly with mine. They oppose the bailouts. They want us out of Afghanistan and Iraq. They disapprove of Obama’s new war against Libya. They want Obama to renounce torture and Guantánamo.

Obama is the one they ought to be blackballing. He has been a terrible disappointment to the American left. He has forsaken liberals at every turn. Yet they continue to stand by him. Which means that, in effect, they are not liberals at all. They are militant Democrats. They are Obamabots.

As long as Democrats win elections, they are happy. Nevermind that their policies are the same as, or to the right of, the Republicans.

“So what should I think about [the war in Libya]?,” asks Kevin Drum in Mother Jones. “If it had been my call, I wouldn’t have gone into Libya. But the reason I voted for Obama in 2008 is because I trust his judgment. And not in any merely abstract way, either: I mean that if he and I were in a room and disagreed about some issue on which I had any doubt at all, I’d literally trust his judgment over my own. I think he’s smarter than me, better informed, better able to understand the consequences of his actions, and more farsighted.”

Mr. Drum, call your office. Someone found your brain in the break room.

Barack Obama and the Democrats have made it perfectly clear that they don’t care about the issues and concerns that I care about. Unlike Kevin Drum, I think -- I know -- I’m smarter than Barack Obama. I wouldn’t have made half the mistakes he has.

So I don’t care about Obama. Or the Democrats. I care about America and the world and the people who live in them.

Hey, Obamabots: when the man you support betrays your principles, he has to go -- not your principles.

(Ted Rall is the author of “The Anti-American Manifesto.” His website is tedrall.com.)

back to top
  • Created
    Tuesday, May 17, 2011
  • Last modified
    Wednesday, November 06, 2013

World Desk Activities

  • Report
Francis M Goodwin
Francis M Goodwin ▶ Editorial -- Blockchain & Crypto 02/10/2023
  • Report
 

www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/10/02/bankman-fried-s…

FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried Saw Missing Billions as ‘Rounding Error,’ Biographer Michael Lewis Says
FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried Saw Missing Billions as ‘Rounding Error,’ Biographer Michael Lewis Says Michael Lewis revealed management failings at crypto exchange FTX and a multi-billion-dollar plan to keep Donald Trump from running for office again, in an interview… www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/10/02/bankman-fried-saw-missing-ftx-billions-as-rounding-error-biographer-says/
Francis M Goodwin
Francis M Goodwin 02/10/2023
  • Report
 

medicalxpress.com/news/2023-10-katalin-karik-drew-…

thumbnail

Nobel in medicine goes to two scientists whose work enabled creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19

  • Report
Francis M Goodwin
Francis M Goodwin ▶ Editorial -- Blockchain & Crypto 01/10/2023
  • Report
 

www-forbes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.forbes.c…

‘Flashing Red Warning’—$33 Trillion U.S. ‘Debt Death Spiral’ Could Suddenly Trigger A Bitcoin Price ‘Vicious Circle’
‘Flashing Red Warning’—$33 Trillion U.S. ‘Debt Death Spiral’ Could Suddenly Trigger A Bitcoin Price ‘Vicious Circle’ www-forbes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2023/10/01/flashing-red-warning-33-trillion-us-debt-death-spiral-could-suddenly-trigger-a-bitcoin-price-vicious-circle/amp/?amp_js_v=0.1#webview=1&cap=swipe
  • Report
Francis M Goodwin
Francis M Goodwin ▶ Editorial -- Blockchain & Crypto 01/10/2023
  • Report
 

www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/09/29/whe…

Where Liquid Staking Meets Tokenization
Where Liquid Staking Meets Tokenization The crypto industry is changing rapidly, and liquid staking stands at the forefront of this transformation. www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/09/29/where-liquid-staking-meets-tokenization/
Francis M Goodwin
Francis M Goodwin added a video. 29/09/2023
  • Report
 

Sonny Saul Trio:  Intergalactic Suite, recorded live 9/1/2023

Sonny Saul Trio: Intergalactic Suite, recorded...

  • Report
Francis M Goodwin
Francis M Goodwin ▶ World News Trust Project 29/09/2023
  • Report
 

www.niemanlab.org/2023/07/openai-will-give-local-n…

OpenAI will give local news millions to experiment with AI | Nieman Journalism Lab
OpenAI will give local news millions to experiment with AI | Nieman Journalism Lab Some of the funding will go to form a "studio" within the American Journalism Project; the rest will go to about 10 of AJP's grantees. www.niemanlab.org/2023/07/openai-will-give-local-news-millions-to-experiment-with-ai/
Francis M Goodwin
Francis M Goodwin 29/09/2023
  • Report
 

phys.org/news/2023-09-mouthwash-dogs-additive-pome…

thumbnail

Mouthwash for dogs: Water additive with pomegranate helps to keep canine teeth healthy

  • Report
Francis M Goodwin
Francis M Goodwin ▶ World News Trust Project 29/09/2023
  • Report
 

www.niemanlab.org/hubs/business-models/

Business Models  |  Hubs  |  Nieman Journalism Lab
Business Models | Hubs | Nieman Journalism Lab www.niemanlab.org/hubs/business-models/
  • Report
Francis M Goodwin
Francis M Goodwin ▶ Editorial -- Artificial Intelligence 29/09/2023
  • Report
 

www.economist.com/briefing/2023/09/27/how-microsof…

How Microsoft could supplant Apple as the world’s most valuable firm
How Microsoft could supplant Apple as the world’s most valuable firm It hopes to seize on AI to transform the future of work | Briefing www.economist.com/briefing/2023/09/27/how-microsoft-could-supplant-apple-as-the-worlds-most-valuable-firm?utm_medium=social-media.content.np&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=editorial-social&utm_content=discovery.content
  • Report
Francis M Goodwin
Francis M Goodwin ▶ World News Trust Project 28/09/2023
  • Report
 

www.theguardian.com/media/2023/aug/30/manchester-m…

Manchester Mill newsletter eyes expansion after £1.75m valuation | Regional & local newspapers | The Guardian
Manchester Mill newsletter eyes expansion after £1.75m valuation | Regional & local newspapers | The Guardian Startup considers cities including Leeds and Glasgow for new versions of its paywalled local media model www.theguardian.com/media/2023/aug/30/manchester-mill-prepares-for-uk-expansion-after-valuation?_hsmi=76769268&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--2SxuaW2Axl1BHKIamPkywITYo6r-0bBCoIY6QB5Xo9Tr5dgheWB1i28OXqqLr0UPOzzIYSWuuDlJRz-dH9WKkare06C1LWxgyEPOC3i4SuHaXJ2E

Community Videos

  • Sonny Saul Trio:  Intergalactic Suite, recorded live 9/1/2023 01:25:30
  • David Bowie - Under Pressure (Live) 1996 • TopPop 04:07
  • Chumbawamba - Tubthumping 03:34
  • ZZ Top - La Grange (Live From Gruene Hall) | Stages 04:38
  • Exmagma - Goldball   1974  (full album) 35:06
  • Digital News Report 2023 | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism 02:20
View all videos

Blogs & Submissions

  • More Banks to Fail? Not in North Dakota | Ellen Brown
  • Israeli ‘Coup’ and the Death of False Democracy | Ramzy Baroud
  • The Other Side of the West Africa Upheaval | Ramzy Baroud
  • ‘Bread and Circuses’: Musk, Zuckerberg and the Art of Distraction | Ramzy Baroud
  • The Twisted Israeli Logic of Murdering Palestinian Children, and What Can We Do to Stop It? | Ramzy ...
blue-flag-thumb2_50x50Our side's flag is a thin, airlight blue, drifting almost unseen against the sky. Our military march is a meadowlark's song among the dandelions.
--Ken Kesey, The Real War 
 
Welcome to the World News Trust social news network. We are dedicated to your privacy and the highest standards of journalistic excellence. Help us build a great news service. Visit our World Desk community to register or log in. See you there.
 
 -Francis Goodwin, World News Trust founder
‘Bread and Circuses’: Musk, Zuckerberg and the Art of ...
‘Bread and Circuses’: Musk, Zuckerberg and the Art of Distraction | Ramzy Baroud
What Are Smart Contracts? | Bing
What Are Smart Contracts? | Bing
Climate Conflagration: Maui to Montana | Amy Goodman & ...
Climate Conflagration: Maui to Montana | Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan
Best Way To Enter News Stories Into A Blockchain? | Bing
Best Way To Enter News Stories Into A Blockchain? | Bing
War By Other Means: Short-Selling JPMorgan | Ellen Brown
War By Other Means: Short-Selling JPMorgan | Ellen Brown
Israel’s Slippery Slope | Nouriel Roubini
Israel’s Slippery Slope | Nouriel Roubini
How To Stop And Reverse Global Warming | Bing
How To Stop And Reverse Global Warming | Bing
US and Israel: Is the ‘Unbreakable Bond’ Finally Breaking? ...
US and Israel: Is the ‘Unbreakable Bond’ Finally Breaking? | Ramzy Baroud

Electronic Frontier Foundation

  • Is Your State’s Child Safety Law Unconstitutional? Try Comprehensive Data Privacy Instead
    October 03, 2023
  • EFF And Other Experts Join in Pointing Out Pitfalls of Proposed EU Cyber-Resilience Act
    October 03, 2023
  • The State of Chihuahua Is Building a 20-Story Tower in Ciudad Juarez to Surveil 13 Cities–and Texas Will Also Be Watching
    October 03, 2023
  • GAO Report Shows the Government Uses Face Recognition with No Accountability, Transparency, or Training
    October 03, 2023

The Intercept

  • White House Faces Calls to Stop Ex-Guantánamo Detainee’s Forced Return to Russia
    October 03, 2023
  • Rep. Josh Gottheimer Headlines No Labels Call While Eyeing Run for Higher Office
    October 02, 2023
  • Amazon and Google Are Finally Facing the Music
    October 01, 2023
  • New Group Attacking iPhone Encryption Backed by U.S. Political Dark-Money Network
    October 01, 2023

VTDigger

  • Ex-Brattleboro police officer banned from working in Vermont law enforcement 
    October 03, 2023
  • ‘The chickens coming home to roost’: Balint and fellow Dems join hardline Republicans in ousting Speaker McCarthy
    October 03, 2023
  • 7 sentenced in connection with 2019 fatal shootout in Burlington
    October 03, 2023
  • 2 days of food, music in Montpelier will celebrate businesses’ return after floods
    October 03, 2023

Mountain Times -- Central Vermont

  • October’s eclipse
    October 03, 2023
  • Your weekly horoscope, Oct. 4-10, 2023
    October 03, 2023
  • Your weekly horoscope, Sept. 28 – Oct. 3, 2023
    September 28, 2023
  • Great Gulf announces design team for village at Killington Resort
    September 28, 2023
  1. You are here:  
  2. Home
  3. All Content
  4. Edited
  5. Rise of the Obamabots: Stifling Liberal Dissent Under Obama (Ted Rall)
Copyright © 2023 World News Trust. All Rights Reserved.
Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU General Public License.