The inimitable Mr. Cranky is firing on all cylinders right now in his review of Iraq war coverage. (Via High Industrial.) Regarding Fox News, I’m surprised Dick Cheney doesn’t call to tell them to tone it down a bit…it must drive the audio technicians nuts to keep having to pod down all that goose-stepping in the background. Mr. Cranky’s been hit-or-miss as the years have gone by, but this piece is Onion-esque to the extreme.
Category: Media
Freedom of the…oh, never mind.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia accepts a free speech award…while muzzling the press. War or no, the blatant examples of conservative doublethink lately are getting outrageous. In loosely related news, the FBI track down a long-lost copy of the Bill of Rights. Think they could let Ashcroft take a gander before they return it to NC? The Attorney General seems to have gotten caught up somewhere around the Second Amendment.
Bill, you Ignorant Slut.
CBS and Sixty Minutes pull off a coup…Starting this Sunday, President Clinton and Bob Dole revive Point/Counterpoint. I’m very curious to see how this comes off. (Guess the Viagra and Pepsi contracts have dried up.)
Roll Call.
Slate queries various pundits on the Iraq war, including Mark Bowden, Alan Brinkley, Nicholson Baker, and Spike Lee. In a related story, forget Vietnam or WWII. Neal Gabler of Salon has found a more pertinent historical corollary to Iraq in the Spanish-American war. The McKinley-Bush comparisons are eerily apt, particularly when you factor in Karl Rove’s hero, Mark Hanna.
Resignations Aplenty.
Along with Kissinger’s resignation today from the 9-11 commission (Sorry, Walter), Mary Matalin has left Cheney’s office in order to spend more time with family. Must be a relief not to have had a veep heart attack on her watch.
Pride of New Hampshire.
Hmm…maybe John Kerry has a better chance in 2004 than I first thought. For one, Dem leaders are starting to publicly beg Gore to stay out of the election. And you know Kerry’s got the Gore crowd worried when Marty Peretz’s Gore Republic starts trying to undercut Kerry’s strengths, such as Vietnam service and foreign policy credentials. More importantly, in a recent New Hampshire poll, Gore is only beating Kerry by three points, 31 to 28. Obviously, being from nearby Massachusetts helps, but if Kerry can pull a McCain-like bounce out of the NH primary without having to spend too much money… Update: In a related story, Joe Lieberman is also starting to make his move.
Shoot the Messenger.
A day after receiving dismal approval ratings in the NYT, Al Gore lashes out against the GOP media-industrial complex. He had an excellent point…until he started railing about his own coverage.
Native Dems.
In South Dakota, one of the few victories for Dems last Tuesday, Native Americans made the difference. Reading this reminded me of a story I heard the other day. A friend of a friend who hosted our election night viewing had had some dealings with Crossfire host Robert Novak in his prior job. (I had met Novak a few times back in the Carville days, but he always just scowled at me like I was the help.) When this fellow mentioned Native Americans, Novak barked, “I’m a Native American. They’re Indians.” And you wonder why the Lakota voted overwhelmingly Democratic.
The Right-Thinking Warbot.
Paging Fox News…LinkMachineGo has discovered a robot that randomly detects lefty media bias for you. This might just be the worst thing that’s ever happened to Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly.
Worthy of Cliff Barnes.
Ticked about the coverage of his son in the Dallas Morning News, outgoing House Majority Leader Dick Armey tries to use legislation to take a hit out against the paper. If, as usual, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, I’d guess the DMN would be well in their rights to pick on Armey Jr.