Courage.
I invariably end my posts there, but today it’s too important a sentiment NOT to move it to the front of the page. Let me ask YOU this rhetorical question and then I’ll be back with the cliché that will form the text of today’s reading:
How STUPID do they think you are?
Watch the micromanagement of one day’s media news cycle by the Mayberry Machiavellis:
Today’s media crosstalk is filled with Rovian confabulation: The Media is attacking Brave Sarah Palin. Why won’t they let Palin talk to the media. And, of course, the trumping of the News Cycle: It is dramatically announced:
Palin’s (sic) to Sit Down (sic) ABC News’ Charlie Gibson
ABC News - 8 hours ago* (* as I write this , it’s — not ‘its’ — 11 PM PDT –HW)
Gov. Sarah Palin will sit down with ABC News’ Charlie Gibson for her first interview since winning the Republican vice presidential nomination, …
The Possession of (the singular “Palin”) is going to somehow make ABC News’ (plural) possession, “Charlie Gibson” “Sit Down.”
Whoever wrote that headline has broken Fenimore Cooper’s record most elegantly. (see: “Write Right
Here was the original posting at
And here’s the subtitle:
Veep Pick Is Elusive Target for the Democrats
And here’s the photo, with the caption:
Republican vice presidential candidate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and her husband Todd (L) greet dinners at El Pinto Mexican Restaurant in Albuquerque, New Mexico on September 7, 2008. (ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)
El Pinto Mexican Restaurant in Albuquerque? Are they freaking KIDDING us? (But isn’t it the warm and fuzzy photo-op that the Rovakians are pushing forward in this P.T. Barnum stunt of a candidacy?)
And here’s the article tag:
… the Christian book publisher Zondervan is coming out with a biography of Palin in October. It will be entitled “Sarah Palin: A New Kind of Leader.”
And here’s the flanking movement around the back door, via the Wall Street Journal:
Political Diary
By BRIAN M. CARNEY
September 7, 2008What Sarah Knows
Sarah Palin has gotten some rough treatment from the media since John McCain announced his vice presidential pick. In her speech last week, she gave a little jab back at “all those reporters and commentators.” That won’t likely win her many new admirers in the Washington press corps. But Rasmussen has a new poll out that suggests that piling on Mrs. Palin may do more to harm the media’s own image than hers.
[Sarah Palin]According to Rasmussen, fully 68% of voters believe that “most reporters try to help the candidate they want to win.” And — no surprise — 49% of those surveyed believe reporters are backing Barack Obama, while just 14% think the media is in the tank for Sen. McCain.
Meanwhile, 51% of those surveyed thought the press was “trying to hurt” Mrs. Palin with its coverage.
Perhaps most troubling for the press corps, though, was this finding: “55% said media bias is a bigger problem for the electoral process than large campaign donations.”
Wow. Politicians like to rail about the nefarious influence of money on politics (and John McCain is a champion in this regard), a stance that always elicits applause from reporters. Ask the public, though, and a bigger problem is the media’s own influence. Mrs. Palin, it seems, was on firm political footing when she thumbed her nose at “all those reporters and commentators.”
Attack the media, of course. Do we REALLY think that this column didn’t appear directly from Karl Rove’s fax machine? Funny how everybody not only has the RIGHT idea for the day’s propagandizing, but actually has the SAME idea.
Do you begin to pick up on the meme?
Here’s the official WSJ stipple picture:
(Suitable for dartboards everywhere.)
And here’s Longstreet crashing through Rosecrans’ right flank at Chickamauga (from the New York Times):
MSNBC Takes Incendiary Hosts From Anchor Seat
By BRIAN STELTER
Published: September 7, 2008MSNBC tried a bold experiment this year by putting two politically incendiary hosts, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, in the anchor chair to lead the cable news channel’s coverage of the election.
(photo caption) Keith Olbermann, left, and Joe Scarborough. Mr. Olbermann’s liberal show is MSNBC’s most successful.
(photo caption) Brian Williams of NBC at the Democratic National Convention.
That experiment appears to be over.
After months of accusations of political bias and simmering animosity between MSNBC and its parent network NBC, the channel decided over the weekend that the NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host David Gregory would anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night. Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews will remain as analysts during the coverage.
The change — which comes in the home stretch of the long election cycle — is a direct result of tensions associated with the channel’s perceived shift to the political left.
“The most disappointing shift is to see the partisan attitude move from prime time into what’s supposed to be straight news programming,” said Davidson Goldin, formerly the editorial director of MSNBC and a co-founder of the reputation management firm DolceGoldin.
Executives at the channel’s parent company, NBC Universal, had high hopes for MSNBC’s coverage of the political conventions. Instead, the coverage frequently descended into on-air squabbles between the anchors, embarrassing some workers at NBC’s news division, and quite possibly alienating viewers. Although MSNBC nearly doubled its total audience compared with the 2004 conventions, its competitive position did not improve, as it remained in last place among the broadcast and cable news networks. In prime time, the channel averaged 2.2 million viewers during the Democratic convention and 1.7 million viewers during the Republican convention.
The success of the Fox News Channel in the past decade along with the growth of political blogs have convinced many media companies that provocative commentary attracts viewers and lures Web browsers more than straight news delivered dispassionately….
And take a look at the top story as of 1:05 AM EDT 8 Sept 08 (10:05 PM PDT, 7 Sept. 80):
Brian Stelter / New York Times:
MSNBC Takes Incendiary Hosts From Anchor Seat — MSNBC tried a bold experiment this year by putting two politically incendiary hosts, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, in the anchor chair to lead the cable news channel’s coverage of the election. — That experiment appears to be over.Discussion:
Jeralyn / TalkLeft: MSNBC Dumps Olbermann and Matthews as Anchors for Debates, Election Night
Hugh Hewitt / Townhall.com: Mr. Griffin, MSNBC’s president, denies that it has an ideology.
Michelle Malkin: Meltdown at MSNBC
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air: MS-NBC dropping Olbermann, Matthews? …
Athenae / First Draft: Tough To Defend — Wow, the world got stupider this week.
Founding Bloggers: Chris Mathews kicked off the desk!
Ron Chusid / Liberal Values: Shake Up At MSNBC — Poor MSNBC has always been on the bottom with respect to cable news.
Little Green Footballs: Olbermann Sacked As Election Anchor
Chris / TVNewser: MSNBC Removes Olbermann & Matthews From Election Anchor Duties
Transplanted Texan / MyDD: MSNBC Pulls Matthews and Olbermann from Anchor Desk
Jennifer Rubin / Commentary: The Return of The Grown Ups
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Sarah Palin and The Press
Ace / Ace of Spades HQ: Drudge: MSNBC Relieves Olbermann and Matthews of Anchor Duties …
The Campaign Spot: The New York Times: “MSNBC is behaving like a heroin addict.”
Noel Sheppard / NewsBusters.org: Matthews and Olbermann Removed as Election Coverage Anchors
Oliver Willis: MSNBC Caves In To Right Wing Bellyaching Again
Lorie Byrd / Wizbang: Olbermann and Matthews Out as Anchors for Political Events
Macranger / Macsmind: Olbermann and Matthews taken off of MSNBC’s Political Coverage
John Aravosis / AMERICAblog News: You can turn off NBC and MSNBC during the debates and elections
AJStrata / The Strata-Sphere: Clearly Being A Liberal Windbag Doesn’t Make For Good Business
Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs: FOLLOW THE BOUNCING BOUNCE – MCCAIN LEADS OBAMA 54%-46%RELATED:
Texas Rainmaker:
Change is a Comin’… And apparently it’s starting with MSNBC. The network, apparently tired of hearing complaints about Chris Mathew’s Obama-inspired leg-tingles and Keith Olbermann’s general idiocy decided to dump some of their bias overboard to save their sinking ship. — From another sinking ship:Discussion:
Gribbit / Stop The ACLU: Demoted – MSNoBodyCares Removes Olbermann & Matthews From Anchor Chair
Jeff G. / protein wisdom: The other (clown) shoe dropping?
Welcome to Mr. Rovak’s Neighborhood. “Can you say ‘Dan Rather’ boys and girls?“
Horrible partisans? Are you fucking kidding me?
Listen to the “impartial” buzzwords tossed into the New York Times article:
“politically incendiary” … “Mr. Olbermann’s liberal show”* … “political bias and simmering animosity” …”the channel’s perceived shift to the political left” … “partisan attitude” … “quite possibly alienating viewers” … “
[* Gee: don't they know that "liberal" is the worst thing that you can call someone in America today? Almost as bad would be "tolerant" and "intelligent."]
Oh, and this from further down:
When the vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin lamented media bias during her speech, attendees of the Republican convention loudly chanted “NBC.”
And this:
Instead, the coverage frequently descended into on-air squabbles between the anchors, embarrassing some workers at NBC’s news division, and quite possibly alienating viewers.
Gee, you mean that Joe Scarborough (ex GOP congressperson) and Pat Buchanan (ex-Nixon speechwriter, GOP presidential candidate and “Reform Party” candidate) misbehave, the network’s too liberal?
And this:
In interviews, 10 current and former staff members said that long-simmering tensions between MSNBC and NBC reached a boiling point during the conventions. “MSNBC is behaving like a heroin addict,” one senior staff member observed. “They’re living from fix to fix and swearing they’ll go into rehab the next week.”
The employee, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity because the network does not permit it people to speak to the media without authorization.
And, finally, in a press that never says a fucking word about the unmitigated slime, sleaze, character assassination, lies, distortions, slanders, libels and sheer skull-fucking that Rush Limbaugh and his ilk pour like raw sewage into the national debate EACH AND EVERY FUCKING DAY:
At a panel discussion in Denver, Mr. Brokaw acknowledged that Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews had “gone too far” at times, but emphasized they were “not the only voices” on MSNBC, according to The Washington Post.*
[* NB I'd be curious to know what this overwrought dodge of an ambiguous sentence translates as in English. HW]
Al Hunt, the executive Washington bureau chief of Bloomberg News, said that the entire news division was being singled out by Republicans because of the work of partisans like Mr. Olbermann.
It’s Dan Rather all over again: when the Rovaks throw slime at the New York Times, MSNBC jumps right in to bash; when they slime MSNBC, the Times jumps right it. And, as with Dan Rather, there is no honor among thieves (or journalists, a class of slightly lower morals), and the Rovakian “divide and conquer” works with a ruthless efficiency that would impress Caesar, and an obviousness that only little kids who are heroes of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” can see. (Or are willing to admit.) Everybody attacks everybody else, like Gallic chieftans trying to defend against Caesar.
Here’s the ever-pliant (if you’re a Rightie) Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post:
By Howard KurtzWashington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 8, 2008; Page C01MSNBC is removing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as the anchors of live political events, bowing to growing criticism that they are too opinionated to be seen as neutral in the heat of the presidential campaign…
- Three faces of Evil – Tom Phillips, Murdoch, Novak
So what’s wrong with a “liberal bias” on one small cable news channel (If, in fact it is AT ALL egregious)? We HAVE at least one channel that is CLEARLY and unapologetically biased, and nobody has the balls in the “straight” media to say so.
Er, as a necessary counterbalance to a Right Wing Propaganda machine that wields a cat-o-nine-tails across the pustulent backsides of a that pack of whipped and whimpering lapdogs who scuttle nakedly ahead of their herders: The Weekly Standard‡, The Wall Street Journal‡, The New York Post‡, Fox News‡, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity‡, Michael Savage, Hugh Hewitt, RedState (owned by Tom Phillips’ Eagle Publishing, who owns Regnery Publishing, publisher of the original Swift Boat book by Jerome Corsi, the NEW Swiftboating Obama book by Jerome Corsi, first publisher of Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, David Limbaugh, and so on and so forth and scoobie doobie doo wah — and did anyone notice them playing Sly Stone’s “Diffrent Strokes” at the GOP convention in an astonishingly innapropriate venue? That was BEFORE they ripped off Heart’s* “Barracuda” for their PR stunt entitled “Sarah Palin: Turning a Silk Purse into a Sow’s Ear.”)
[‡ owned by Rupert Murdoch]
The Right has a vertically integrated monopoly on news and the media. The left has … or HAD, Keith Olbermann, who they’ve successfully tarred as “liberal” and as “partisan.” Jeebus, chilluns! Given the incredible savaging of civil liberties, and the sodomy of the Constitution — as John McCain sat by, holding the tub of Vaseline® — how do we still buy this argument that since the so-called “liberal media” is biased, therefore THEIR (the Righties) bias is OK?
[* Under copyright law, you have to have the permission of the artist to use their song. That was why no Beatles song was used -- for years -- in any commercial jingles, etc. And why now, only COVER versions can be used. The RNC, in its lust to "mach show! mach show!" simply stole the song, and Heart -- not McCain supporters -- was outraged. The GOP has done this before, with Bruce Springsteen being ripped off by Reagan in 1984 (for "Born in the USA") and others. John McCain has ALREADY had trouble with Jackson Browne LAST MONTH over the same thing. SEE: GOP Ignores Copyrights, Raises Ire Of Multiple Recording Artists, Huffington Post, 5 Sept 08. This is theft, pure and simple, but THEY DON'T CARE. You GET that?]
Did you know that Zondervan Press is a wholly-owned subsidiary of HarperCollins, itself a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdosh’s News Corp.? Here, from Christianity Today,
May 28, 2008 11:33AM
Zondervan Cuts Jobs… Since 1988, Zondervan has been part of HarperCollins, which is a subsidiary of News Corporation, which is run by Rupert Murdoch. The publisher’s first huge break was the NIV Bible, which in 1986 overtook the King James Version. A more recent one was The Purpose Driven Life.
And, from the comments section:
Please check facts in articles such as this. Zondervan did not become part of HarperCollins until 1988, and Harper was not yet part of Rupert Murdoch’s empire then. The publisher’s first big break was The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey; this enabled Z’s leadership to take the family owned and run company public in 1977. Z “rescued” the NIV when the project ran into trouble as it was being translated by the Christian Reformed Church and the American Bible Society as a joint project.
Zondervan ALSO published, Hal Lindsay’s: Satan Is Alive and Well on Planet Earth (1972). These, along with Salem Kirban’s 666, were the obligatory reading of what is now the Rapture Right. Hugely influential, they argued for, well, let Wikipedia say what I’d otherwise paraphrase ham-handedly:
The Late, Great Planet Earth (LGPE) is a popular treatment of literalist, premillennial, dispensational Christian eschatology. As such, it compared end-time prophecies in the Bible with then-current events in an attempt to broadly predict future scenarios leading to the “rapture” of believers before the “tribulation” and Second Coming of Christ to establish his thousand-year (i.e. millennial) Kingdom on Earth. Focusing on key passages in the books of Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation, Lindsey originally suggested the possibility that these climactic events might play out in the 1980s, which he interpreted as one generation from the foundation of modern Israel in 1948, a pivotal event in most evangelical (especially conservative evangelical) schools of eschatological thought. Cover art on the Bantam edition boldly suggested that the 1970s were the “era of the Antichrist as foretold by Moses and Jesus,” and called the book “a penetrating look at incredible ancient prophecies involving this generation.” Descriptions of alleged “fulfilled” prophecy were offered as proof of the infallibility of God’s Word, and evidence that “unfulfilled” prophecies would soon find their denouement in God’s plan for the planet….
Gee. Where have we heard that term “premillennial dispensationalism” before?
Hmmm. Oh, that’s right! “God Swill” (31 Aug 08).
(Glad to know that Zondervan is publishing a quickie bio on Sarah Palin. I’m sure it will be authoritative.)
Those Assembly of God premillennial dispensationalists must be happy, as is Rupert Murdoch, one presumes.
There’s also an excellent bit of research by a commentator on what Zondervan Press’ bestsellers have been, including Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw (Paperback – Mar 1, 2008)
Aargh, people.
And that old Midwestern truthiness, “you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear” (or “pig’s ear) is what we’re actually talking about here.
You see, it’s very simple: Sarah Palin is a sow’s ear. She’s got a pregnant teenage daughter (unmarried), a scandal swirling around her, all of her “qualifications” — most especially concerning “the Bridge to Nowhere” — have turned to dust. They’re keeping her from the media because she can’t be trusted to say the right things, and she’s being intensively coached in NOT being what she is: a small town carnie act whose credentials are suspect and whose background is, at best, checkered.
I’m sure that Satan was laughing with delight to see these “Small Town” Americans wildly cheering the all-but-shotgun wedding preamble standing up on that “moral” stage, with admitted philanderer, cheat, “bad boy” and almost-flunkard John McCain, with his bottle-blond rich wife in the most expensive ensembles that any Barbie® ever wore.
Them good old boys were drinking whiskey and rye….
Now, back in the Thomas Eagleton days, hasty non-vetted choices hamstrung McGovern out of the gate, and Nixon swept to a creepy, dirty-tricks and felony-filled landslide.
But the hubris of John McCain is still evident. What kind of purblind asshole spends three days of a Convention (including the “we’re cancelling Monday out of concern for the Hurricane-Victims-To-Be”) wallowing in his own humility?
I have never before witnessed such a disgusting and depraved spectacle, and like the bread-and-circuses crowds at the gory old Coliseum, the media lapdogs have followed the Rovian fornication, lapping up every drop. The Rovaks have literally skull-fucked the media, and what oozes out is this:
WE CAN TURN A SOW’S EAR INTO A SILK PURSE.
Worse, they’ve taken a page from the Paris Hilton playbook, which was expressed perfectly long ago by Oscar Wilde:
There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
And, ginning up their noise machine, they’ve laid that curse off on Barack Obama: all the talk is about this consummate insult to meritocracy, this ultimate token, this golem constructed of baling wire and Grade AAA lies and distortions, this realm, this mother, this Sarah Palin.
Our new silk purse:
Because in an era in which ONLY the debate matters, they can successfully foist off this myth of an Alaska governor, this myth of a “hockey mom,” this series of lies that fall apart when the slightest breeze wafts over them, like the ash remains of an incense cone.
So: are we so cowed as to not call a spade a spade? Are we so craven not to laugh in the face of this disaster of a choice, this endless conspiracy to capture the elections by capturing the day’s news with phony accusations? (What? Obama is going to speak from a GREEK TEMPLE? What? Is he Zeus?)
As the McCain campaign manager said last week, “This election is not about issues.”
So, they’ve TOLD you that they’re going to divert you from what’s important to YOU. This isn’t about your future. It’s about electing the “American Idol,” the ultimate “Survivor” of that Reality Game Show “Who Wants to be President?”
And yet, we lie torpid in front of our flickering big screens, listening to the insanity broadcast every day, like “Sarah McCain changed the whole complexion of the race,” and “She’s very formidable.”
In your dreams.
Palin is no more substantial than any other non-existent advertising character, be it Juan Valdez, Speedy Alka-Seltzer, Mr. Clean, the Energizer Bunny or even that Cream of Wheat guy. She fits a “divide and conquer” demographic that the McCain campaign desperately latched onto, and was chosen as the Lucky Leprechaun to sell John McCain’s lucky charms. Face it: she’s an AD MASCOT.
New lamps for old! they cry in the street.
And, in the poisonous atmosphere that has demanded “facts aren’t what they are; facts are what we SAY they are, and what they are is whatever is most convenient for US! (Today)” Palin’s candidacy is a smoke screen so that we won’t talk about McCain’s policies. Or about the ISSUES of this election. Same talk show, different host.
Remember, Palin repeated that lie on her podium, and all but accused Obama of styling himself as the messiah. Just like they turned Kerry’s Silver Star into dog shit, and Bush’s AWOL Texas Air Guard into Dan Rather’s bad reporting. Just like they turned Al Gore’s initiative in pushing the enabling legislation that created the internet into the falsely attributed “lie” that “Al Gore says he invented the internet.”
Just like they took Willie Horton and shoved Daddy Bush down our throats in a sea of non-controversies over the pledge of allegiance and whether supporting the ACLU made you an Un-American Commie-simp unfit to clean out urinals, let alone serve as president.
(How many times do you have to take the rubes’ money before they wise up to the fact that the shell game is a CON?)
And she is the toast of the bloviating class. The belle with the balls. The flavor of the hoof & mouth. Oh, and she wants to come INTO office the way that Bush & Cheney are leaving it:
Maverick Reformer VP pick lawyers up, and claims executive privilege
September 02, 2008 02:31 PM EDTThe Bush administration fired U.S. Attorneys who would not carry out their personal crusades. In turns out McCain’s VP pick has fired Alaska state employees for not doing hers.
Now that she is under investigation by the Alaska State Senate, Palin’s not just lawyered up, but already refining her Bush-Cheney stonewalling chops:
The state has hired a private lawyer to represent Gov. Sarah Palin’s office in the Legislature’s investigation into the firing of former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. The lawyer already has challenged whether lawmakers even have authority to oversee the inquiry.
Shouldn’t she pay for this? Why should the state lawyer her up? This is the reformer who did not want a cook paid for the state. Lawyer paid by the state? That will be just fine.
Palin has so far ducked interview requests from the investigators, and Alaska state legislators are already talking subpoenas.
Yeah, subpoenas. Sound familiar?
E-mails from the Palin administration are being withheld from the public and the governor is citing executive privilege. [...]
[h/t to Bill Eagle for finding this--HW]
Ah, the more it changes, the more it stays the same.
But, while it looks, smells, tastes and reeks like a sow’s ear, I am assured by both the Rightie Noise Machine and their catamites, the bloviating class, that it is, in fact, a silk purse.
But who cares? Purses are a moot point when nobody’s got any money to put in them.
Now, either we start bucking up (and that includes looking into the the Karazee premillenialists) or else let’s just admit that we blew it: we aren’t fit to govern ourselves, and the publicity flaks and other agents of Empire can have their emperor. Just give us our bread and circuses.
Or, in this case, McCains and Palins.
We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately., to quote one fan of the seemingly-discredited quaint notion of self-rule.
Dear sweet fucking Christ.
