I still have to wonder how the Sunday shows could not find a moment to mention that Senator Jim Bunning is obstructing 1.2 million Americans from getting unemployment benefits just to be a dick. One would have thought that this might merit a comment somewhere. On ABC there was ample time to discuss the departure of the White House Party Planner, but not the real world impact of obstructionism on so many people’s lives. I guess important ‘journalists’ can’t be bothered with things like news when catty Georgetown gossip is at hand.
It might have been a good question to ask Gramps McCain as he guest hosted another one of these shows, but it didn’t happen. (I think it was on the Network that has a funny show on Thursday night, but he is on so many of these Sunday shows it is hard to tell which network will toss the old fella softballs on any given weekend).
Yes, I already know why. And yet, I thought I would ask the question regardless of that.
I recently watched “The Most Dangerous Man in America“, a documentary film in theatres these days. It is the story of Daniel Ellsberg and the release of the Pentagon Papers. It is pretty amazing film and reminds one that there was a time–not so long ago–when people actually practiced journalism in America.
Now we just get MC Rove’s back-up dancers.
***sigh***
Feel free to treat this as an open thread.
Cheers
dengre
demo woman
IOKIYA
NASSHOLERdmsilev
Because in the strange strange world of
VersaillesThe Village, who gets invited to whose parties is crucially important, but how many of the hoi polloi are able to make ends meet is a matter of mere academic interest.-dms
eric
This is not the only part of the answer, but it is a large part of the answer: you dont have to be smart or learned to give your opinion about the optics of politics. You do have to know something to take or analyze a substantive position in a way that you can defend it if called out. People active in the MSM can’t do that. By contrast, it is what makes Krugman so different and what makes him sound “shrill” — an appeal to an objective standard. Thus, you hear “some say” when discussing a topic as opposed to “I say” or “it is clear that.”
These are not smart people; these are hyper competitive people that re-define the standard of success to fit their intellectual weakness.
eric
Max Power
I think we should count our blessings they didn’t spend the weekend praising Jim Bunning as a principled conservative sticking to his guns, the last stand of a lone hero at the Alamo, stopping a waste of tax dollars, “Jimmy-Stewart-Goes-To-Washington” style.
RSR
As an aside, and certainly not anywhere near as important as people’s income, but this same thing Bunning is balking on (get it?) is also potentially shutting down national network TV coverage for a number of rural viewers:
via http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=2372642#post2372642
No one is really sure what will happen with that network TV access come midnight (other than President McCain’s viewership might suffer!).
birthmarker
It’s all about the media consolidation.
Linda Featheringill
I am not sure but I think that if Congress will get busy Monday and pass the unemployment insurance extension on Monday [tomorrow], there may be only a limited amount of real damage caused to real unemployed people.
If they don’t . . . . . . . .
On the TV thing, do you mean that folks in out-of-the-way places will not be able to get all those “cable shows” any more? Wow.
Dr. I. F. Stone
LMAO. The Sunday programs appear to have got it about right.
SiubhanDuinne
@RSR:
Got it! Cute :-)
I just looked up Bunning in Wikipedia. It says he “batted right” and “threw right.” How hard would it be to change those to “far right”?
Mike in NC
Exactly right. We lived in the DC ‘burbs for almost 20 years and this was they way they played the game. Screw the peons…
ET
Why aren’t the Sunday AM shows aren’t talking about Bunning? Because that would be deliberately practicing journalism and today’s “news practitioners” are just pretending.
On another note my best friend lives in KY and has been unemployed since December of 2008 – she just wants Bunning to die in a fire.
Bunning is on his way out and he is bat-shit crazy needless to say he doesn’t care what anyone thinks. Not the media, not the Republican party, and certainly not his constituents. The country will be better when he goes back to KY and stays there.
eastriver
An interesting anagram for Bunning: sack of shit. Weird.
(You know, DG, people will treat every thread like an open thread if it suits their fancy. You suggestion is a bit like saying, “Please feel free to comment on what I just wrote.” Cheers.)
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Bunning is on the way out, his party hates him, the Democrats hate him and he is simply showing us what he really is. A total asshole. All he is doing here is pissing off the Democrats and trying to make the Republicans look like uncaring assholes. I said “trying” because the M$M pretty much ignores and refuses to perform that archaic thing they used to do. I think it was called journalism, which was something about reporting facts and informing people about what is happening around them so they can make informed choices in life. I do have to admit that something like that sure would be useful.
But they don’t do that thing called ‘reporting’ any more. Not since the media was bought up by a few rich people/companies, turning these former news outlets into a melding of the National Enquirer, Star and People Magazine. These former news outlets are designed to distract people, to keep them uninformed and confused about what is or is not happening around them. It’s just another version of ‘divide & conquer’, something the rich have specialized at for centuries. Every time they are foiled in their plans they go after what stopped them, buy it and then co-opt it and bend it to their will to rake in the bucks.
‘News personalities’ are paid multi-million dollar salaries to ignore reality and report bullshit, they are bought and paid for mouthpieces for the rich (which they are now a part of!!).
It’s awful hard for public anger to reach critical mass as long as people are deliberately kept in the dark or are deliberately misinformed and misled, being turned against each other rather than joining up and going after the real problems they face. That is why the ‘news’ outlets are so pumped up about the Teabaggers; they have a perfect mass of stupid and uninformed idiots who are ready to preen for the media and do the bidding of the rich. Our fifth estate only exists to feed the perfect storm of greed and stupid so the rich can keep raking the bucks in from the rubes.
Of course this allows them to screw the sane people who are too poor and few in number to do anything about it. Also.
MagicPanda
The MSM doesn’t just find news on its own. In this media environment, it is up to the dems to show outrage at bunning, and it is the MSM’s job to report on the controversy.
Because the dems didn’t show outrage, there’s nothing to cover. QED.
SiubhanDuinne
I used to like Bob Costas. Now I don’t. I’m not sure why that is.
SiubhanDuinne
I do, however, like Ben Heppner. Canada has had two fantastic singers performing the Olympic Anthem during the opening and closing ceremonies.
Comrade Mary
It’s great to see that Russia brought hamster balls to go with our mostly-functional phallic symbols.
Russian choral singing is one of the most glorious things on earth. Loved that opening.
Svensker
@Comrade Mary:
In Paris a couple of years ago, stopped in at St. Sulpice church, famous for its organ recitals. Missed the recital, but a men’s Russian chorale was there singing — the most glorious sound filling that big beautiful space. A sublime experience.
Svensker
And then there’s this. Love the looks on their little Russian faces. :)
SiubhanDuinne
@Comrade MaryAh Totally with you on Russian choral singing. Some of my favourite albums EVAH are from 30+ years ago, the Red Army Chorus. And some of the a capella sacred music of the Russian Orthodox Church (Gretchaninov, Bortniansky, and Rachmaninoff of course) is beyond gorgeous.
Comrade Mary
@Svensker: Oh, yes! I love the Cowboys (who are actually Finnish, as I suspect you already know but not everyone else here does), and I especially love their work with the Red Army.
Hey! Neil Young! WOOT!
fraught
@SiubhanDuinne:
Agree about both Costas and Heppner. Costas just went from boy prodigy to tiresome fixture sometime about 7 years ago.
Heppner however, wears well. Saw him sing Tristan at the Met and even after nearly 4 hours I didn’t tire of him.
eastriver
@SiubhanDuinne:
He was an ignorant dweeb during the Sochi portion. “It’s says ‘troika with three horses’. Where are the three horses? Do you see three horses? I don’t see three horses. Anybody see any horses?”
We all saw the horses, Bob.
Comrade Mary
The Shat? Seriously?
(So what was the cauldron joke they made at the beginning? I missed it.)
EDIT: And what committee wrote that shit for Catherine O’Hara?
mellowjohn
how is it that all those beautiful young russian girls end up looking like mrs. krushchev when they get older?
Jim Once
@mellowjohn: Writer Bill Bryson (A Walk i the Woods, et al.) said the same thing about Iowa girls:
SiubhanDuinne
@fraught: OMG, you saw Heppner sing Tristan? At the Met? My fave opera and one of my fave tenors. I am sick with envy.
Heppner came to Atlanta a few years ago to sing a recital at Spivey Hall (btw, among the best small halls anywhere–a real jewelbox of a hall). I had the opportunity to spend a bit of time with him after the program, and what a helluva nice guy. In a previous life I met and worked with some fairly high-profile classical music performers, and naming no names, but some of them are huge pricks. But Heppner for sure is one of the good guys.
valdivia
Fuck David Gregory, that is all.
Jim Once
@Jim Once: That said, don’t know that I agree this is necessarily true of Iowa girls (or Russian women). Nor do I understand why the strikeouts in the quoted passage.
SiubhanDuinne
@eastriver #23: He has been coming across as an ignorant dweeb, you’re right, but to me it’s something both more obvious and more subtle than that: a kind of thick-voiced patronizing pomposity has crept into his delivery in recent years. Dunno if it’s something new with him or if I am just more attuned to it now than I used to be. Either way, he sets my teeth on edge.
colleeniem
@SiubhanDuinne: He always seemed to have a sense of humor that was sarcastic, but during these games, it seemed to border on snobbery this time. I used to really like him in earlier olympics.
fraught
@SiubhanDuinne: Jane Eaglen sang Isolde. It was something. She doesn’t sing much any more.
SiubhanDuinne
@fraught: That’s got to be five or six years ago, yes? I can’t remember now why I didn’t hear the broadcast — it would normally have been a Saturday afternoon must-listen for me, so I’m guessing there was a compelling reason why I missed it — but those two, Heppner and Eaglen, in those roles, must have been amazing. Again, I really envy you that great experience.
Beginning to ponder whether I can possibly treat myself to a long NYC vacation + decent Ring tickets in 2011. Maybe if I decide to defer retirement another few years . . . .
Beej
Wasn’t the whole point of having a free press (see Amendment 1/U.S. Constitution) the idea that the press would keep politicians honest by telling the people the truth, no matter how many lies the politicos tried to slip by? Well, the current media, then, does not deserve the title of “press”.
Lies they could have debunked, but didn’t:
Death panels
Obama is not a U.S. citizen
The health care bill will raise the deficit
The deficit is mostly the result of the current administration’s profligate spending
There are so many more. I imagine Walter Kronkite whirling in his grave. I’ll bet he’s spinning so fast it’s a wonder he hasn’t achieved liftoff.
priscianus jr
I think Bunning is an embarrassment even to the GOP. He didn’t get the idea to retire on his own, you know, it was the GOP that decided they would not fund his next campaign because they perceive him as a liability, they don’t think he would win. Since our liberal media would never want to do anything to embarrass the Republican Party, why should they publicize Bunning’s latest assholery?
lacp
Not sure what it says about the state of journalism that my local news radio station here in Philadelphia not only covered the Bunning story but noted that Democrats thought he was being an asshole. Apparently that’s either too minor or too local a story to make it on the teevee.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@priscianus jr: “Since our liberal media would never want to do anything to embarrass the Republican Party, why should they publicize Bunning’s latest assholery?”
Exactly. That’s why we are hearing nothing but deafening silence on Bunning and what little has been mentioned has been dismissed by the press as Bunning being “concerned” about increasing the debt. I heard this on CNN today from Candyass Crowley who let Mitch “The Bitch” McConnell worry about the debt and didn’t corner the fucker and his party on their part in creating much of the debt in the first fucking place. She even let Mitch the Bitch weasel out of the point that Republicans have used reconciliation sixteen times in the past by letting him claim that it was never used to push through “controversial” measures.
The M$M is about as useful as used toilet paper since they let the rich and the right wipe their asses with them regularly.
bob h
I recently watched “The Most Dangerous Man in America“, a documentary film in theatres these days. It is the story of Daniel Ellsberg and the release of the Pentagon Papers. It is pretty amazing film and reminds one that there was a time—not so long ago—when people actually practiced journalism in America.
New York Theater Workshop in NYC has a new play based on the Washington Post fight with the Nixon Administration over their publication. Quite gripping theater.
debbie
I heard McCain use the word “unsavory” three times on MTP. That’s likely the new Republican talking point.
Michael
The best part about Uncle Grumpy (Jim “Asshole” Bunning’s) principles is that they’re so nebulous. He was more than happy to put his son up for a federal judgeship that he was woefully unqualified for, so federal largesse is just fine for him and sonny.
Fucking welfare queens. I guarantee that the Bunning family has sucked up far more government money over a lifetime than a battallion of strapping young bucks and their Cadillac driving mamas.