Media

Have you heard? Glenn Beck has a new man-crush: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — the only Republican on the scene today Beck says he’d support for president.

He’s Beck’s new squeeze because of his ugly eruption in California last week. When a man named Ed Buck asked Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman at a campaign rally why she wouldn’t answer any questions, Christie grabbed the microphone, ran over to the guy, attacked him for daring to ask a question, told him to sit down and shut up and accused him of trying to “divide this country.”

If you didn't read the Washington Post story yesterday on D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and how his campaign unraveled in the months leading up to yesterday's primary loss that cost him his seat, you must. Post reporters Nikita Stewart and Paul Schwartzman do a superb job of placing the reader inside the rooms where key decisions (and non-decisions) were made by the mayor that ultimately cost him his seat.

Yet what most amazed me about the story was the day it ran — less than 24 hours following Election Day. In a journalistic-dexterous way, these two reporters went around town interviewing the innermost circles of aides and confidants to the mayor to find out "what happened" before it happened. Reading the polls and political tea leaves, Post editors gambled that Chairman Vincent Gray would best his opponent. So beginning from that end, the reporters worked back to uncover how and what went wrong. That's impressive, folks.

Not since Joe the Plumber has one American been seemingly picked from obscurity because of something he has said or done. Most recently that distinction has fallen to Terry Jones — a Florida pastor who claimed he would host a Quran-burning this past weekend in defiance of a New York plan to construct a Muslim cultural center/mosque near the site of Ground Zero.

We all know the story, but what's disheartening about this is that, once again, the mainstream media has extrapolated the actions of one into "What's next?" hysteria.

One of the downsides of living in the Information Age is that we're all getting way more information than we can handle.

Take science, for example. If we really acted on the barrage of scientific and pseudo-scientific findings that make the news every day, we'd each presumably be living 130 years of a trans fat-free, red meat-less, Omega 3-filled existence.

Instead, most health news — and I use both terms with reservations — passes over us like mist on the pond, leaving our chubby, artery-clogged selves snugly wedged into the recliner.

But enough about me.

What I like about Morris is that he writes the same column every week. I guess that is good, a time-saver for the writer and the reader alike.

I would like to hear his explanation for the following: how come when the Gallup poll showed Democrats behind an epic historic unprecedented 10 points the right-wing jamboree was hailing the coming of the conservative Messiahs, but the next week, when the same poll showed the Democrats had surged 10 points and were even, they had nothing to say about that?

Hell hath no fury like a pollster scorned, eh?

“It’s okay to be a man.” — Kurt Cobain, Journals

Decades back, as I recall, Pete Hamill, New York’s great journalist, wrote a piece titled “The End of Machismo.” Machismo was a word that had come into fashion meaning exaggerated masculinity, but it came to be used to refer to any man who was just a man.

The thing is it didn’t end, because it can’t. Machismo/manhood went into exile in Tony Soprano’s New Jersey. And what masterful troupe acting came from that. But the only ones allowed then the free and noble play of honor, love, family, sin, commitment and responsibility were fictitious New Jersey gangsters. Read more...

Curious to see what it was all about, I attended Glenn Beck’s big rally Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial. And I’m glad I did.

First, because it gave me a good, close-up look at Tea Partiers: old, white and angry. From their T-shirts and their flags, it’s clear they all hate government. From their white hair, it’s also clear they’re all on Medicare and Social Security.

Second, because it gave me a good, close-up look at Glenn Beck. No doubt why he scheduled this rally on the Washington Mall: It’s the only place big enough to contain his ego. Barely.

Regarding this latest pittypatter about what Katie Couric allegedly said off camera about Palin and Co., here's my advice to Sarah Palin and her fans in the right-wing media. Give it a rest, get a life, move on.

In the famous interview, remember how Palin could not remember what newspapers she read in the morning. Remember how she claimed as foreign policy experience that she could see Russia when she looked over the water. And so forth. Give me a break.

The nastiness of Washington is an excellent example of how civility and respect have lost their way in our nation. With that truism in mind, I believe it’s time for a little self-examination.

For this author to continue to single out the Democratic Party over issues such as the health debate is a bit disingenuous, don’t you think? They did not start the “death panel” nonsense, for example. I think we all do our credibility and arguments a disservice when we continue to be partisan at a time when both sides of the aisle are mired in name-calling, prevaricating and pursuits that do not have the interests of the people they represent at heart.