April 17, 2008
"The Clear Loser Is ABC"
Tom Shales speaks for me. Although really, we are all losers when these sorts of stupid trivialities are the only things the moderators care about.
When Barack Obama met Hillary Clinton for another televised Democratic candidates' debate last night, it was more than a step forward in the 2008 presidential election. It was another step downward for network news -- in particular ABC News, which hosted the debate from Philadelphia and whose usually dependable anchors, Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, turned in shoddy, despicable performances.
For the first 52 minutes of the two-hour, commercial-crammed show, Gibson and Stephanopoulos dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia that already has been hashed and rehashed, in the hope of getting the candidates to claw at one another over disputes that are no longer news. Some were barely news to begin with.
Emphasis added.
UPDATE: Greenwald analyzes the press responses and concludes:
Let the David Brooks, Roger Simons and Marc Ambinders band together and self-righteously defend this trash. As always, it's vital to remember that they don't actually speak for anyone other than the discredited journalist class of which they're members.
Posted by jnfr at 07:36 AM | Comments (0)
March 10, 2008
The Media Loves McCain
Loves, loves, loves him. And his ribs too.
Personally I think every reporter who was there should be fired.
Posted by jnfr at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2007
Buying the War
Tonight's "Must See TV", Bill Moyers presents Buying the War, a report on the media's complicity with the selling of the invasion of Iraq.
9 pm Eastern on your local PBS station.
UPDATE: "Buying the War" also can be viewed online in its entirety.
Posted by jnfr at 05:17 PM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2007
Reality strikes Fox News
I'm sure this is what Fox News meant to use as their caption:
With apologies to Crooks and Liars.
UPDATE: Dems win the Senate vote on the withdrawal language.
Posted by jnfr at 03:29 PM | Comments (0)
June 09, 2006
YearlyKOS Friday
Well I'm cranky cause the feed for the science panel is not working and I wanted to see that panel. AAR has the feeds mixed just as they did last night, and are also only showing two of the three panels. Grrr...
Some of the panels, and the lunch address, will be show on C-Span3. Try the link if you don't get that channel locally.
More later. They better have things working for the CIA Leak panel.
UPDATE: The science panel is showing now on the Room 3 feed, but it keeps breaking up and the video is bad.
UPDATE: C-SPAN has moved the Plame panel to C-SPAN 2. And will be covering Barbara Boxer at lunch, then the metaKos panel in the afternoon.
Posted by jnfr at 09:25 AM | Comments (0)
April 26, 2006
Tony Snow: Beats Workin'
It's true enough that the jokes about Tony Snow are just gonna write themselves. Good times ahead, I'm sure.
But the best thing I learned today is that Tony Snow is in a rock band, named Beats Workin'. This guy must be a hoot in real life.
What do you get when you combine four lawyers, a realtor, a business executive, and a radio and TV political commentator, some oldies, a dance-crazy crowd, and a whole lot of fun? We're not sure, but we know it.......Beats Workin'
Posted by jnfr at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)
September 09, 2005
A great day for the free press
CNN just reported that they've received a restraining order, allowing them access to anything they want to cover. No government agency is going to hide things from them without a fight!
Posted by jnfr at 06:06 PM | Comments (0)
June 11, 2005
Cheerful news
Amid all the bad news from Iraq and the economy, one piece of really good news reached me today. Apparently the media are starting to notice that Bush is a very unpopular President, and most people dislike nearly all of his programs. Now that's being reality-based! Way to go, MSM.
Posted by jnfr at 10:10 AM | Comments (0)
March 16, 2005
Dan Rather was right
You know, one thing that still burns me about this forgery story is that the underlying story was correct, but no one seems to care. And really, the underlying truth of how Bush evaded his military duty is the most important issue of it all. The secretary who typed up memos for Killian said she hadn't typed these particular memos, but that she had typed some that said the same things in different words. That fact is always glossed over by the fanatical right-wingers who would defend Bush to the death (as long as its not their own), and who have taken such joy in Rather's disgrace.
James Goodale has an article in the latest New York Review of Books where he hits hard on that correctness and criticizes the CBS report on the incident.
Lost in the commotion over the authenticity of the documents is that the underlying facts of Rather's 60 Minutes report are substantially true. Bush did not take the physical exam required of all pilots; his superiors gave him the benefit of any doubt; he did receive special treatment and Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Killian, Bush's commanding officer, was unhappy with the loss of ANG's investment in him when Bush informed Killian he was leaving for Alabama. Before the broadcast, Mary Mapes, the CBS producer of the program, confirmed the facts in the documents with retired Major General Bobby Hodges, who had been Killian's superior in the ANG. Later Hodges told the panel he did not think the documents were authentic, but did not disagree that the facts were substantially correct.
Add to this the fact that no one knows for sure who the forged papers came from, and it's hard not to stray into frootbat/tinfoil territory. But then it's easy to entertain tinfoil theories in any story where Karl Rove may be involved. He's really capable of anything.
I know that the country has moved on from the issue of Bush's lies and evasions in this matter, and the truth of it all will probably never get the hearing it deserves. But Bush's lack of character was clear in his actions back then, as it is clear in his actions now. Even though it's not a central issue any more, it ought to be.
Posted by jnfr at 05:23 PM | Comments (0)
January 27, 2005
Yet another episode of paid propaganda
Posted by jnfr at 06:23 PM | Comments (0)
January 26, 2005
Conservative talk show host for sale
This is amusing, but really, what's one more?
Posted by jnfr at 08:29 PM | Comments (0)
December 18, 2004
Bill Moyers and NOW
I've spent the entire day trying to rip off my DVD of last night's episode of Bill Moyer's NOW, which was on media consolidation, and how the right wing has used the media. It's essential watching, and it's not available on PBS's site, nor will it be rerun any time soon. So even though I've never done this before, I burned it to DVD from my TiVO and then after a laughably long time finally got it into an MPG file. Unfortunately the file ended up as 594 megs, and I don't have that kind of bandwidth. So I'm still learning. But if you have a chance to see this, you really should. And if I can figure out how to stuff it into a smaller file size, I will. Because I wouldn't normally rip off copyrighted material, but until PBS puts it online I would do so. It's a show everyone should see.
This was Moyer's last NOW, by the way.
Posted by jnfr at 11:16 PM | Comments (0)