Baucus, SFGate, and the Problem of Media Propaganda

We'd written a while back on Senator Max Baucus' (D-MT) pretty obviously drunken tirade on the Senate floor, and had also reported on a beyond-poor defense mounted by his staff minions via the ever Democrat-sympathetic media.

Well, here's another lamebrain defense of Baucus via (predictably) the online service of the Bay Area's reliably lefty San Francisco Chronicle, SFGate:

The issue of Max Baucus not drunk on Senate Floor is turning into a war of words pitting "Max Baucus not drunk on Senate Floor" forces versus "Max Baucus drunk on Senate Floor" believers.

This blog, by some dude I guess we should all know about, named Zennie Abraham,  starts out with this ridiculous lede, clearly favoring the "not drunk" narrative by listing it first. Second of all, if you check the links, they're bogus.

The first link is to a series of Google search results headed by Abraham's own opinions defending Baucus--cleverly set up to appear first in order of importance.

The second link is to another Abraham blog entry attacking the majority of sane people who, upon viewing the linked YouTube video, will clearly conclude that Baucus is drunk. But here's an additional problem: in the linked YouTube video appearing on Abraham's own blog entry, Abraham himself begins the video by instructing us that Baucus is not drunk before going to the actual video which pretty much proves that he is! How's that for sophistry? Look at the unadulterated video here and decide for yourself.

Abraham proceeds to blather on about this:

Senator Max Baucus (D - Montana) had launched a spirited debate against Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker on Heath Care Reform. In the process, his tired, angry, articulate tirade was such that online Conservatives activists elected to make a charge that Max Baucus was drunk.

The fact is that Max Baucus was not drunk and correct in his attack against Republicans who did not break ranks to join Democrats in backing Health Care Reform.

Here we see a classic lefty rhetorical trick, stating flat out that something is true while never proving the assertion. "The fact that Max Baucus was not drunk" is in fact no fact since no fact is ever proved by Abraham.

Abraham excuses Baucus by declaring him "tired" and "angry," and asserting that his inarticulate tirade was "articulate." Meanwhile, anyone viewing the unadulterated portion of the video will, within seconds, conclude precisely the opposite. Having declared Baucus "not drunk," however, Abraham now blames the drunk meme on evil Republicans. I.e., we get the usual Democrat two-step. First, declare as true the opposite of an obvious reality. Second, denounce Republicans and/or Conservatives as perpetrating a "lie" which is, in fact, an obvious truth.

The rule here, a classic Gramscian-Marxist ploy, is that if you shout a falsehood long enough and loud enough, you can make it become the perceived truth.

To prove my point, Abraham concludes his worthless blog propaganda entry with the following sentence:

So Max Baucus was right. It does take courage to support change. And Max Baucus wasn't drunk.

I would like to think that the general public--stung by its massive boo-boo in drinking media kool-aid and electing avowed socialists to control both the executive and legislative branches of our government in 2008--is beginning to learn how to navigate through this kind of rhetorical crap. Their tactics have not varied much from how the Soviet Union twisted and controlled information during its long reign of terror over Russia and its satellites. Declaring things so over and over again does not make them so. And a lie re-told in five different ways is still a lie.

And Max Baucus was drunk.