MEDIA-PUNDIT CHRONICLES:running record of the media’s / pundits' missteps.
FINE PRINT DISCLAIMER: we will not note much of what KEITH OLBERMANN sez because everything he says would qualify. Also, this area will make note of only a few of the "go to the center" comments...because so much of our site is dedicated to defeating that myth.
So, peruse a couple days worth and enjoy our chronicle of bias, ignorance, arrogance and lack of understanding.
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Mar 6: MORT KONDRACKE on FOX SPECIAL REPORT: (of course, when Charles Krauthammer is on the panel, Mort appears foolish simply by being there): talking about the Florida and Michigan delegate debate, whined "Why should these states not count? It's not fair. They should count. A do-over would be the most fair thing to do. You ought to win the popular vote and do so fair and square." Uh Mort, fair ain't the question. The Democrats made their own rules and by the rules, these states should not count. I mean, I hope they do...but this is politics...a blood sport. Do overs and what is fair...sounds like kindergarten.
Mar 5: MIKA BRYZENSKI, who must have the lowest IQ of any pundit (and that's saying something) just asked Howard Wolfson of the Clinton campaign if Hillary would "fight to the bitter end" and if so, "wouldn't that hurt the party." Uh Mika dear...Hillary just won huge primarys last night. Perhaps this morning was not the best time to bring up the "fight to the bitter end" subject. I wonder if MSNBC will stick with Mika til the bitter end....and she totally runs all 17 viewers away from Morning Joe.
Mar 5: RACHEL MADDOW, on the MSNBC election panel for God knows what reason, except that her voice is much deeper than that of Chris Matthews' said that Barack Obama needs "to show more substance" in reaction to attacks from Hillary's campaign and in prep for McCain's campaign. The word "substance" was talking about, shall we say, "fortitude" or man-hood. Which is very interesting, coming from Maddow, who is exactly what you probably thought she was.(verified on all her websites...) And to quote that famous Seinfeld show..."not that there's anything wrong with that."
Mar 4: BRIT HUME, who we thought would never make this section, stepped deep into the misguided media template Sunday on FOX NEWS SUNDAY when he said "if the conservatives don't want a President Obama or a President Clinton, they ought to get off McCain's back and let him campaign as whatever he wants to and campaign from the center." Brit Brit Brit. Very disappointing. And BTW...what the hell were conservatives doing but letting McCain campaign the way he wants when he lashed out as us...as in the Cincinnati apology?
Mar 3: Everything MIKA BRYZYNSKI said this morning on MSNBC. Sorry...I couldn't type fast enough to keep up. Mike Kryzezewski had his 800th win this weekend...I think Bryzyznski had her 800th idiot moment. Can we just call her Dummy B?
Feb 29: DIANE SAWYER, coming up with the revolutionary idea that perhaps media bias does occur: "Have we used boxing gloves on Hillary and kid gloves on Obama? Have we been unfair?" Yes, much like you have been doing to conservatives for oh, 50 years.
Feb 27: JOE SCARBOROUGH on MORNING JOE (MSNBC) on the McCain-Bill Cunningham controversey. "Does Bill Cunningham really think he will drive people away from Obama by mentioning his middle name?" Uh, Joe, no. He was trying (in vain) to drive conservatives TOWARD McCain by warming up a partisan crowd for a rally. A small rally...probably with an audience about the size of yours.
Feb 24: JAY CARNEY, TIME MAGAZINE'S Washington Bureau Chief, after being asked on CNN if B. Hussein Obama, based on a study of his legislative record, is "as good as he (Obama) says he is: CARNEY: "In some ways, he is, because there's not much of a record to go by." Obviously those unwashed among us outside the beltway simply do not have the nuance to make such deep and meaningful analyses....
Feb 22: MIKE BARNICLE and many in the cable media today are explaining that all of the talk show hosts criticizing the New York Times article and procedure related to the McCain-lobbyist story are simply "great entertainers" who don't "know anything about the process of getting a print journalism story" into print. Of course, this slow process along with the arrogance behind it could be why print is losing market share by the minute to all instant media...radio, TV, internet...etc. I say Mike Barnicle and the print industry are NOT "great enterainers" nor are they fair or accurate...nor do they have any idea how irrlevant their jurassic industry is becoming.
Feb 21: MIKA BRZYZENSKI asking "am I naive" this morning...so we don't know whether to congratulate her on knowing she's naive...or slam her for being naive. We'll choose door number 2. She was trying to figure out how the anti McCain talk show nation will handle this New York Times story on McCain...since talk show nation does not like the NYT either. Let me help you out Mika. The talk show take will be, among other things, a see I told you so on the media suddenly turning on McCain once he had the nomination all sewn up.
Feb 20: BILL PRESS...first sighting of this long time cable lib talking head..and sure enough he made the chronicles: He was responding to a McCain charge (via TUCKER CARLSON) that B. Hussein Obama is full of empty platitudes and has no foreign policy experience: "Sure, that's John McCain's argument...but what I find interesting Tucker is that John McCain is using the same arguments against Barack Obama that Hillary Clinton used...eloquent but no substance, etc...and boy, it really worked for Hillary, didn't it?"
Ok Bill...we get your sarcasm. Perhaps consider that McCain is not and will not be talking to the Democrat primary voter...or that he has some more accomplishments than Hillary does. Duh.
Feb 20: MIKA BRZEZINSKI of MSNBC, who needs to "buy a vowel" for her name, in response to MORNING JOE panel describing the Obama phenomenon as reminiscent of the 1976 move towards another empty suit, Jimmy Carter: "Yeah, but was Carter drawing crowds like this?" Uh, Mika darlin...they were not talking about getting elected...which Carter did...they were talking about how poor a prez Carter was once he got elected. But that's ok, we know that many in the NBC family of networks have that "tingle up (your) leg" syndrome.
Feb 19: Last night, on MSNBC, within an hour of each other...Dan Abrams and Keith Olbermann (ok, broke my own rule for Abram's sake) both attempted to sarcastically make fun of the Bush Administration's use of water boarding of terrorists. Excuse me...they ARE terrorists. And water boarding is NOT harmful. Not pleasant (which is why it works, duh), but NOT harmful. And did I mention they are terrorists?
Feb 18: I knew CHRIS MATTHEWS and his HARDBALL show could get us off FOX...and it didn't take long. Today he had a couple of really predictably misguided pundits...RYAN LIZZA of THE NEW YORKER and that most intellectually challenged of all punditstocracy...a Republican Strategist. In this case, a totally lost individual named Ron Christie...not that it mattered. A couple of highlights:
LIZZA: "No candidate is more perfectly positioned to re-invent the Republican party than John McCain."
WRIGHT--yeah, and we don’t’ want that kind of re-invention...though I am sure you would love to see the GOP re-invented in the McCain mold.
LIZZA: "His personality is so much of the appeal…the straight talking. He’s had to become totally doctrinaire on tax cuts. That’s deadly."
WRIGHT: indeed. Tax cuts work. His personality doesn't. He only went against the tax cuts because he was having a tantrum over Bush beating him in the 2000 primaries.
RON CHRISTIE: "George Bush 41 is liked by the conservatives. I think it's very important that Bush 41 endorsed John McCain today. He is widely considered an establishment member of the party."
WRIGHT: uh, Mr. Christie...the problem was never the establishment...it was us, out here in the real world...you know...the base conservatives...
CHRISTIE:"He is very well respected, post presidency."
WRIGHT: which is a shame...because he was such a moderate he wasn't that well respected DURING his presidency. That's the point.
CHRISTIE:--answering Matthews "A lot of people like President Bush 41. Yes, the right wingers like Bush 41. Yes they do."
WRIGHT: did you inhale?
CHRISTIE: "This (the McCain win is a win for) the President Bush 43 wing of the party…the pro life, pro cutting taxes…pro national defense…party."
WRIGHT: and you think this because McCain and Bush and Bush supporters are so chummy?
CHRISTIE: "For Senator McCain to win, he’s got to attract the independents and some of the democrats who are looking for an alternative…. I don’t think a more conservative candidate on our side would have as good a chance of winning."
WRIGHT: right...more conservative like, say, Reagan.
--is there ANY DOUBT that the Republican National Committee..full of folks misguided like Rob Christie quoted above...is out of touch and needs a total make-over? Nope. No doubt.
Feb 18: FOX NEWS..again. I did not expect FOX to lead the way in this section...but they are having a rough weekend. Brit Hume needs to GET BACK QUICK from vacation. BILL HEMMER, naturally a CNN refugee, just announced that the pending endorsement of John McCain by former President George H.W. Bush should give McCain a big boost among conservatives. Uh, Bill...read my lips...moderate campaign disaster of 1992! Sadly, CARL CAMERON, Fox political correspondent, did not disagree. BRIT...WHERE ARE YOU???
Feb 18: NEW YORK TIMES, FRANK RICH: We direct you to journal entry of Feb 18.
Feb 18: FOX AND FRIENDS (clearly the worst show on Fox): They have their little van running around the country "in search of real voters." Gee, maybe if they by chance find some, they can go in search of Sasquatch next week. But of course, we know that "real voters" and all other "man on the street" type interviews is code for the informationally challenged among us. The only blogs they will read are by Sanjaya...but formats like this go out of their way not to make them feel stupid.
This would be a challenge for one of those rare "real voters" interviewed this morning. A female coffee shop owner was a Hillary supporter in her words "because I want someone who can think 360 degrees around an issue and attack it that way." Well now we know. She wants someone who was "against the war before she was in favor of it." Naturally, the interviewer did not have the right stuff to point this out.
Feb 17: FOX NEWS YOU DECIDE 2008: see this link!!
Feb 17 MICHAEL MEDVED, formerly perceptive conservative writer, movie critic and talk show host fill-in chimed in today on CNN's LARRY KING SHOW from whatever parallel universe he is occupying these days by announcing "that the truth is, the conservatives are coalescing behind McCain. Jeb Bush has now endorsed McCain. The party is coming together...understanding that John McCain is the right man to represent all three pillars of the stool of Reagan conservatism. He is a fiscal conservative. He is a security conservative and he's also a social conservative." It is obvious to me that Medved needs another "stool sample" to analyze. I am trying to figure out how voting against the Bush tax cuts twice and not believing in supply side economic theory makes one a fiscal conservative...how preaching vociferously against water boarding makes one a security conservative...and how slamming Samuel Alito's "sleeve wearing" conservatism...along with a long career of inactivity on other issues...makes one a social conservative. But other than that, Medved's right on the money! And memo to Medved...as has been established many times...the Bush family is not a group of movement conservatives. Note Jeb's staunch position against any drilling off of Florida's coast for more evil oil....
Feb 17 CNN’s RELIABLE SOURCES may be the most mis-named entity since the American Civil Libertys Union…but we have to give Chip Reid credit for some very unusual perception. Reid stated that the problem McCain was having with conservatives is “not so much McCain versus Limbaugh and company, it’s McCain versus the conservative base. They just don’t like him and may not vote for him in the fall.” This incredible balance and accuracy will likely get him demoted at CBS.
LYNN SWEET of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES also got dangerously close to the truth on the same show by stating that the Obama story has “mesmerized the press and…the issues have taken a back seat.” They were discussing the “backseat issue” of congress not extending the FISA court authority, which could only lead to something like another terrorist attack…and the fact that only McCain was in favor of extending the authority while Obama and Clinton were against it. Of course, host HOWARD KURTZ had referred to it as the “eavesdropping” issue. Of course, for the 99.9% of America that does NOT watch CNN…eavesdropping on terrorists is not a major cause of heartburn.
Feb 16 TIM RUSSERT’S Saturday show, cleverly called Tim Russert, always has
a whole hosts of candidates for our media all stars…was sitting around shocked that with all of the GOP’s regulars lining up that the “rank and file voters” were not going along. Well no duh. Might call them the “talk radio” wing. Or conservative base. Maybe folks with real jobs. (all terms of derision inside the beltway).
FRED BARNES, showing a split screen visual of McCain and Obama…asking dramatically “could this be the match up this fall…in the general election?” Uh, yes Fred…I think it could be. Stop the presses.
Feb 15: We finally now know who the one listener is for AIR AMERICA and their featured ED LYNCH SHOW. It is CHRIS MATTHEWS. This week, on one of the 235 airings of HARDBALL, Matthews was discussing the delegate discussions related to Florida, Michigan and the Super Delegate issues with a small panel of liberals, and Matthews knew in advance what Lynch’s position would be as he said “from listening to your show.” Mystery solved.
POLITICO.COM’s Roger Simon said last week, in one of the many obituaries of the talk radio business, said that the “talk radio wing” of the Republican party “endorsed Gary Bauer in 2000” and that “they had not had a nominee they liked since Reagan.” Uh, Roger ole buddy…couple problems with that. First, no talk show host, aside from perhaps on the Focus on the Family Show, endorsed Gary Bauer in 2000. And second…there was not a “talk radio wing” of the GOP in 1984…the last time Reagan got the nomination. Better check your facts sport. Modeling is not in the cards for you.