Media

Media Matters has taken issue with my comments from last week on MSNBC about the story of Clinton fundraiser Norman Hsu, the fugitive “Hillraiser” who has now turned himself into authorities. Media Matters objects to my stating “this is exactly the kind of thing that could bring her down.” While I did in no way assert that it would, and I am betting Clinton wins the nomination, her greatest liability remains her and her husband's past, and a campaign finance scandal that stretched from the Lincoln Bedroom to the committee rooms of Congress. Read more...

In this video, Armstrong Williams discusses how the media loves to pounce on a scandal, especially the one involving Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho).

Regarding Karen Hanretty’s comments in which she invoked the name of Barry Goldwater while she lied about me:

I knew Barry Goldwater. Barry Goldwater was an authentic conservative who believed in political discourse of honesty and civility. Hanretty is no Barry Goldwater. Nor is the Republican attorney who invoked Goldwater’s name in defense of perjury and support of pardons regarding the unpatriotic leaking of the covert identity of a CIA officer, which are acts that Barry Goldwater would hold in extreme contempt, were he with us today. Read more...

Listening in to one of the cable outlets this morning I heard one of the anchors proclaim this is the “Summer of Scandal” for the Republican Party. Cue the music: Larry Craig? Bad. Ted Stevens? Bad. David Vitter? You get the idea.

What I found particularly irritating with this sensational coverage is the fact that two scandalous issues have unfolded TODAY and yet the media makes scant reference. Could this have anything to do with the fact that the focus of these two scandals involves Democrats? Read more...

I have a confession. I don’t like Fox News. Is that a shock? I won’t go on it — why be the Democratic fire hydrant for the right-wing shock jocks? I used to, but several years ago I stopped going on "Hannity & Colmes," O’Reilly, Gibson, etc. We Report, You Decide became We Distort, You Decide. Fair and Balanced was really Unfair and Unbalanced.  Read more...

It always amazes me how ideologues of both the left and right can filter out unpleasant evidence to arrive at the conclusion they wanted to reach all along.

The latest evidence is the campaign by leftist bloggers, who have become quite a force within the Democratic Party, to read the moderate Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) out of the party. Read more...

Chalk up one more big step in the Foxification of America. Lured by the promise of big bucks, the Bancroft family has sold The Wall Street Journal to right-wing robber baron Rupert Murdoch. Which means there is one less place you can look for good, strong, objective reporting — and one less newspaper that publishes the truth.

Except for its Neanderthal editorial page, The Wall Street Journal is actually a damned good paper. One of the best. With top-notch reporters. Or was. But all that will change once Murdoch gets a hold on it. His goal is not just to make money — it’s to push his own right-wing political agenda.  Read more...

Check out this story.

It's a piece by Janet Elder, a New York Times reporter, about the paper's polling. It says that the Times couldn't believe that its polling showed an increase in the number of people who felt it was a correct decision to invade Iraq in the first place, from 35 percent last month to 42 percent this month. Nor could they believe the finding that the proportion of voters who felt the war was going badly dropped by 10 points.

The newspaper article said the findings were "counterintuitive." In other words, The New York Times cannot believe good news! Typical.

Hillary, you owe us an apology. By "us" I mean those who covered the presidency of Clinton the First.

You know full well that reporters adhered to a policy, stated and unstated, of leaving your daughter alone. She was off-limits.

About the only times she appeared in our shots during your time at the White House is when your handlers decided it was good PR to provide a photo-op of our happy first family. Otherwise our rule was "leave Chelsea alone." And it was a self-imposed rule.  Read more...

Along with most who watched, I found the YouTube CNN debate last night to be a great idea, well-executed. The questions were sharp, relevant and reflected fresh thinking that is so often absent in the normal pack of journalism.

They also raised a disturbing question for those of us who travel in the pack: Who needs us? Hell, anybody can be a reporter.

Anybody, that is, who can tolerate the incredibly long hours of tedium, dealing with the hostility of newsmakers and their paid protectors, who don't want you to get your story.  Read more...