The Obama Hate Machine
The Lies, Distortions, and Personal Attacks on the President---and Who Is Behind Them
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3.8 • 44 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In Toxic Talk, Bill Press exposed the ways in which the extreme right-wing media has done an end run around the American voting populace by exerting a disproportionate control over open political debate. In The Obama Hate Machine, Press returns to show how the Right has taken rhetoric to slanderous new levels in attacking the nation's forty-fourth president.
But presidents have always been attacked like this, right? Wrong. As the author shows, while presidents and presidential candidates routinely have been subject to personal attacks, the outright disdain Obama's extremist opponents have for the facts has inspired an insidious brand of character assassination unique in contemporary politics.
Obama was born in Kenya . . . Obama sympathizes with Muslim terrorists . . . Obama is a communist who wants to institute death panels and touch off class warfare…The extent to which these unfounded assertions have taken hold in the American mindset shows just how ruthless, destructive, and all-powerful the right-wing machine—hijacked by extremists in the media and fueled by corporate coffers—has become. The author reveals how corporate interests such as the infamous Koch Brothers continue to steer political coverage away from fact-based dialogue into the realm of hysteria. Bill Press also observes this phenomenon is not limited to the airwaves and provides an "I Hate Obama Book Club" list, calling out the scores of anti-Obama tomes—and even some from the Left—that have helped drag politics even deeper into the mud.
In his characteristic on-the-mark arguments sure to appeal to anyone on the Left or in the Center, Press shows how the peculiar nature of Obama-hating subverts issue-driven debate and threatens not only the outcome of the 2012 election but the future of the American democratic system.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Radio talk show host and political commentator Press explores the money-and media-fueled propaganda machine currently being used to weaken President Obama. In the introduction, Press discusses the origins of some of the most prevalent charges against Obama, namely that he is a Muslim, a Socialist, and not an American born citizen. An interesting outline of the history of presidential criticism Thomas Paine famously accused Washington of being either "an apostate or an imposter" provides an appropriate context for the current discussion. Press goes on to summarize more than sixty of the anti-Obama books published since his election, noting how frequently critics choose "not to challenge his policies but to undermine his personal credibility." And, of course, Press dedicates ample space to the Koch brothers, the notoriously anti-left billionaires that the author believes are the masterminds behind the "Hate Machine." Press also lambasts the mainstream media for their complicity in fueling anti-Obama rhetoric and laments that journalists are content simply to repeat claims (sans commentary) made by fringe Republicans as if they were facts. This book provides an unsettling glimpse into the unsavory side of corporate interests and an irresponsible media.
Customer Reviews
Huh?
Obviously never paid attention to the Left during the Bush years. Didn't really like Bush 43, but he was dragged just as badly. The media on both sides has only been following the example set by politicians themselves.
Brilliant!
Mr. Press supplies the evidence for what so many Obama supporters, like myself, have known all along. The bigoted right wing are willing to sacrifice the needs of the American people to further their warped mission of ensuring that President Obama is a one term president. It is sad, pathetic and will certainly backfire. Thank you, Bill Press for helping to expose the real agenda of the right wing.
Fact or Fiction?
This book portends to offer a balanced approach to the subject. But the author is woefully one-sided. He fails to honestly tackle the "hate-machine" that eminates from the left of the political spectrum. In fact, the very label "right-wing extremists" is telling. It indicates that unless you fall lock-step with prevailing opinions on the left, you're ideas are "extreme" and "dangerous." It's worth noting that nearly all of the deadling political acts of violence have occurred from members of the left (albeit deranged), and not from these fictional "right-wing extremists."