Michael Scherer tries to get literary:
The great American poet and prose-mangler William Burroughs once offered some words of advice for young people, words that work just as well for inhabitants of Washington D.C.: “An old junk pusher told me,” he wrote, “ ‘Watch whose money you pick up.’ ”
[…..]This is the same problem that Barack Obama faces today, after a terrific bit of reporting in the Washington Times by Matthew Mosk. The story examines the many ways in which Obama has rewarded his top fundraisers since arriving at the White House—through ambassadorships, a golf game on Martha’s Vineyard, events at the White House, bowling at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, private briefings with senior officials like Jim Messina and Austan Goolsbee, etc.
I guess it beats being compared to Hitler….
I’m beginning to wonder if I was right that the Moonies to get their money’s worth from the Times. A paper with a subscription of under 70K writes a fairly nondescript piece about the way that Obama offers donors the same perks that all recent presidents have, and suddenly he’s a drug pusher, it’s Lincoln Bedroom 2, where’s the post-partisanship, he said he’d be different! No disrespect to Mosk, it sounds like solid reporting. The underlying story just isn’t that big a deal. But, now that media elites have declared that they need to follow every story that comes out of Fox/Drudge/Moonie, it demands oodles of mainstream news coverage.
Maybe that kind of thing is worth a $100 million a year.
El Cid
Not to mention the payoff that backing an agenda of tax cuts and de/non-regulation give. It’s worth a hundred mill to get a few tens of billion.
Shawn in ShowMe
Maybe it’s just me, but those sound like the kind of prizes you hand out to essay contest winners, not million dollar fundraisers.
beltane
Only $100 million to drive most of the media coverage in the most powerful nation on the earth is a bargain of epic proportions. Pondering the venality of the Washington media always causes various conspiracy theories to sprout in my mind, so I prefer to just assume that they are a group of very stupid people.
Butch
I’ve been bothered for quite a while on the national media’s focus on the trivial…Obama is rewarding donors (oh, the humanity), Obama doesn’t play basketball with women, Obama something else; if it isn’t that it’s Michael Jackson or Octomom or the balloon boy or the runaway mom….
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
This is great news for McCain!
Mr Furious
That’s exactly why it’s worth the money. They get a high coverage return on their investment, and they are a propoganda rag for all of their other agendas.
El Cid
Assuming that rich people possess the same ability that you and I do to understand what’s in our own interest and use what tools we have to pursue them to work in their own interests isn’t “conspiracy theory,” and it’s a victory of the idiot propaganda of this nation that utter, obvious common sense gets rebranded as “conspiracy”, as though managers seek to reduce costs including labor by accident yet workers seek raises only by choice.
The Grand Panjandrum
Obama should just go hunting and shoot a goddammed lawyer so we can have some real news. Jesus Babbling Christ what the fuck is wrong with these dumb asses?
kommrade reproductive vigor
Of course he’s a woman hating, drug pushing thug. Just look at the guy. He’s BROWN.
Svensker
This was an Obama Admin perk?
Bulworth
“This is the same problem that Barack Obama faces today, after a terrific bit of reporting in the Washington Times by Matthew Mosk. ”
The Washington Times is Very, Very Serious.
dmsilev
@Svensker: Nah, Obama is just trying to burnish his ‘real guy’ image. If he doesn’t, there’s no way that he’ll carry Pennsylvania in 2008.
Chris Matthews told me that, so it must be true.
-dms
Bulworth
“This is the same problem that Barack Obama faces today, after a terrific bit of reporting in the Washington Times by Matthew Mosk. The story examines the many ways in which Obama has rewarded his top fundraisers since arriving at the White House—through ambassadorships, a golf game on Martha’s Vineyard, events at the White House, bowling at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, private briefings with senior officials like Jim Messina and Austan Goolsbee, etc. ”
When was Michael Scherer born? 1996? Did he have access to the Internets during the presidency of W?
Tom Betz
@Bulworth:
It doesn’t matter to Mikey that he’s a wet-behind-the-ears amnesiac. He just doesn’t care about what went before.
In fact, Mikey Scherer is proud to be just another pipe in the Mighty Right-Wing Wurlitzer. He said as much when I called him out on Twitter.
Stefan
The story examines the many ways in which Obama has rewarded his top fundraisers since arriving at the White House—through ambassadorships, a golf game on Martha’s Vineyard, events at the White House, bowling at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, private briefings with senior officials like Jim Messina and Austan Goolsbee, etc.
Isn’t this the way every single president rewards his top fundraisers? What am I missing here? (Rhetorical question, I know, I know…..)
Though probably an article whose subject was “Obama conducts business just as all other presidents have done!” wouldn’t be as catchy…..
Ailuridae
@Stefan:
No, not every President does that. Some make arrangement for booze cruises on US nuclear submarines that subsequently sink Japanese fishing boats.
via the General (sorry links don’t work in my posts for some reason)
One passenger, Helen Cullen, owns Houston’s Quintana Petroleum and is a heavy donor to the GOP and the Bush campaign; her family has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to the GOP. [SALON, 2/21/2001]
Three other passengers head the Houston-based Aquila Energy, which has financial ties to the GOP. [WASHINGTON POST, 3/26/2002]
Another passenger, Mike Mitchell, is the managing director of EnCap Energy Advisors, a Dallas firm with ties to the Bush business family. [HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 9/16/2002]
John Hall is a well-known and well-connected Texas oilman who is a major player in a number of multimillion-dollar oil deals, many involving business cronies of the Bush family. And the honorary chairman of the USS Missouri Restoration Fund, the sponsor of the entire contingent of civilians, is former president and Texas oil billionaire George H.W. Bush. [HONOLULU ADVERTISER, 2/18/2001; AMERICAN POLITICS JOURNAL, 2/19/2001]
It is also discovered during the investigation that the Greeneville would not have sailed that day if not for the contingent of what the Navy terms “distinguished visitors” who wanted to take a ride on a submarine. Vice-Admiral John Nathman, who will head the Navy’s board of inquiry, will say of the Greeneville’s voyage, “In my view this doesn’t fit the criteria. It doesn’t come close.…I would never get a carrier underway to support a DV (distinguished-visitor) embark. We’re going to disagree on that.”
Joshua Norton
It’s a hell of a lot easier than coming up with their own leads. Just cut, past and type “me too” at the bottom. There’s a lot of that going around.
tomvox1
Not bowling, too?!? Is nothing sacred…
Kryptik
Notice how MS gets the vapors over this.
But somehow, the health care reform opponents being highly funded by insurance lobbyists, the US. Chamber of Commerce, etc., oh that money doesn’t mean anything as far as reasons behind people’s stances.
IOKIYAR
Selective memory is a wonderful thing. This is lifted directly off Rush Limbaugh’s website.
RUSH: There is no such picture. George W. Bush never carried a suitcase into the White House. What did happen in 1992, I was invited to the residence by George H.W. Bush, getting off the elevator on the second floor residence, I was with a fellow demon, Roger Ailes, and we got off the elevator and the only people up there are staff people and Ailes said, “Ah, come on, he’s expecting us, head on in there now,” and the minute the president heard Ailes voice, “Rodge, is that you?” And he came out of the presidential bedroom or study or wherever he was and I had a little overnight back or garment bag, he picked it up and escorted me down to the Lincoln Bedroom. I’ve told this story. And I said, “Mr. President, please, let me.” “No, no, don’t be silly.” He carried the bag down. That was George H.W. Bush. Nobody’s ever carried a suitcase of mine into the White House. It certainly wasn’t George W. Bush.
Sarcastro
Uncle Bill had lots of wisdom Obama should listen to. Like;
If you’re doing business with a religious son-of-a-bitch, get it in writing. His word isn’t worth shit. Not with the good lord telling him how to fuck you on the deal.
JenJen
And, Scherer just can’t help but add “after a terrific bit of reporting in the Washington Times by Matthew Mosk. “
Is he trying to out-tap The Tapper with effusive wingnut media praise?
drillfork
Well, some disrespect for Mosk. He is employed by a fucking cult leader, after all…
pahoo
The WT has been feeding bullshitting lies and half truths into our nations’ body politic since they day it was created in 1982.
Just a few examples….The WT put on its front page a LIE that Dukakis was seeing a shrink, they wrote a series on how environmentalists doctored results of study which was a fabricated story that served its purpose which was to condition the right wing to hate environmentalists(when those smeared by this charge asked the WT to run their side of the story – called the truth – the WT told them they could pay a few thousand for an ad if they wanted the truth out, Bill Sammon wrote a piece on Gore that was full of misinformation, it was the WT sister publication that got the right wing mind training going on the “Obama is a Muslim” smear. The list is endless, the WT was designed to bring power and influence for Moon and to turn our nation right, to push Moon’s right wing theocratic, homophobic “messianic” mission.
It has been wildly successful.
see: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1107
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2643
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?sid=65
or check out Sammon’s journalism-free propaganda piece front the WT;
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5920188/the_press_vs_al_gore
Moon, who has outspent anyone propping up and molding today’s right, he has EASILY gotten his money’s worth from the paper.
I made a comment on some of how Moon uses the paper here:
https://balloon-juice.com/?p=28868#comment-1420160
pahoo
Moon’s followers know exactly the purpose of “Father’s projects” which like everything Moon does are designed to mold the world’s ideologies, in what Moon calls “natural subjugation.” That means he spends billions in overseas swindled cash on operatives and fronts like the WT, manipulating our political system over many years while the nation falls for the Lie that the paper and his “other activities” are somehow “independent” of Moon’s world plot.
People have no idea how deep Moon runs around the world. He loves it when uninformed fools laugh at him and think he is just a no count nut. He knows that means they will not see what he has been doing. One of his fronts in now involved in writing Nepal’s constitution, the president of Nigeria a couple of years ago ask Moon to use his “influence” to help Africa. His fronts are involved in many nation’s governments. One front meets regularly in England’s Parliament building. The names, the list of people who are falling for his con game around the world grows daily. That does not mean they will knowingly or openly accept Moon as the messiah, but that they help promote his “messianic” mission as the Bush family has done for many years.
You do understand that Moon is a man who, according to DIA documents, gave North Korea billions of dollars in the early 90s to help keep NK afloat, allowing NK to keep their nuke efforts going. He brags about being involved in the six way talks and he has been.
Moon wants Korea to be number one in the world. His entire deceptive organization should have been made to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, But Republicans would never have that, he is the “True” father of their movement, and democrats are so naive they send Moon letters of support. Moon funds things like torturing dictators, such as he did with Stroessner in Paraguay, he spends billions on all things hard right wing and democrats send him greetings.
Moon is getting the last laugh. Face it, he has had more to do with the direction of the USA, the rise fo the theocratic right, the empowerment of the reality free right, over the last 30 years than anyone and HE KNOWS IT! You may take solace in the 2008 election but know the left had a near perfect candidate, a current president who was the worst in history and it was still not a done deal until the economy collapsed. If you think the extreme right cannot return to power you haven’t been paying close attention. The world will be dealing with the right wing Moon empowered for decades to come.
Truth is, Beck, Rush, Coulter, Newt, Savage, Hannity all of them should go on Fox and bow to Moon, he is their “savior.”
Damian Anderson, a long time follower of Moon’s put it best when he wrote about “Father’s project,” the Washington Times, that “[t]he creation of that newspaper and the following it has gained through talk-radio and conservatives nationwide has contributed to fundamental change in the United States.” [Damian Anderson – Unification Church Q&A from the Internet ]
contributed to fundamental change in the United States
He is 100% accurate.
Moon is the single most influential force in American politics over the last 30 years, it is not a close call if you look.
feebog
Good Grief. This is what passes for journalism nowdays?
Heresiarch
Scherer is damn near the most worthless lump of meat on the planet.
.
Jay Newton-Small is worse, a fact which boggles my mind daily.