Ladies and Gentlemen, your liberal media:
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), which calls itself “the voice of small business,” is one of the Republican party’s strongest allies. The group spent over $1 million on outside ads in the 2010 campaign — all of it backing Republican House and Senate candidates (and, Bloomberg News reported last month, “another $1.5 million that it kept hidden and said was exempt” from disclosure requirements). The group is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Obamacare law and bankrolled state governments’ challenges to the law. The NFIB has also taken stances against allowing the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases, opposing regulations on businesses, and supporting curtailing union rights.
Given the group’s obvious Republican alliance, it comes as little surprise that the NFIB’s three-day 2012 Small Business Summit, which begins Monday, will feature headliners Karl Rove and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).
But the first name and photo on the invitation for the $150-per-person event — Tuesday’s “keynote address” speaker — is NBC’s Meet the Press host David Gregory. He is marketed by NBC as an anchor and “trusted journalist.”
As we all know, even the epitome of journalistic ethics, David Broder, was nothing more than a paid whore, it shouldn’t surprise you that this kind of thing is happening. Although in fairness to Gregory, he’s probably just going to line up some more white male Republicans for his Sunday show, Meet the Republicans.
MattF
Ugh. Now I need to go out and wash my retinas.
amk
The only real journalists in america seem to be cartoonists. Everyone else are just paid shills.
dewzke
Who coulda known? What a clown. F em all. Who can you trust if you’re relying on the teebee?
driftglass
Never truer:
http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2011/04/sunday-morning-comin-down_24.html
maya
It’s a shame he didn’t turn out more like his big brother, Dick.
kansi
I can’t believe I am still surprised by things like this. Just disgusting.
JWL
“Marketed by NBC”.
Cheer up. Marketing campaigns go belly up all the time. Today’s Seriously Astute People (‘SAPS’) are tomorrow’s Geraldo Rivera’s.
Ripley
Journalistic integrity aside, WTF does David Gregory know about independent business operations/philosophy and who’s the clown that booked him?
“Hi, everyone! Thank you, thank you. You can be a millionaire and never pay taxes! First, get a million dollars…”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I never thought anybody could make me miss Tim Russert. I was right, of course. But Gregory is actually a bigger tool than ‘ol Punkinhead.
Ash Can
Trusted to do what?
And I wonder how much Gregory is being paid for this gig. What’s his going rate? A 6-pack and a blow job?
Clime Acts
I would like to vomit on the heads of these Villager pigs.
Still stuns me that Karl Rove walks free among the living.
There is very little justice in this world.
SiubhanDuinne
O/T but apparently there’s some police stuff happening at Occupy London. On the road and can’t easily check right now, sorry.
Maude
@Ash Can:
He gets his hair done for free for six months.
mai naem
Cannot stand Gregory. He makes Russert look like Ed Murrow. Almost anybody in NBC News would have been better. Andrea Mitchell, Katie Couric, Savannah Guthrie, the Defense Dept reporter, Mika B.
Tim I
Gregory appears to be committing a major ethics violation. I hope that everyone will contact NBC to complain.
The person to contact is Steve Capus, the President of NBC news. Here is his email:
[email protected]
Keith G
@Tim I:
Is he?
It seems distasteful, but is his behavior violating NBC’s guidelines?
Quarks
Those anti-Obamacare ads are airing here in Florida, combining them with attacks on Senator Bill Nelson and that favorite target, Alan Grayson. The result is to convince me to never ever watch TV again.
Mike in NC
Did something horrible happen to Gramps McCain to make him unavailable just about each and every week?
General Stuck
I can’t wait for the uncovering of groups supporting GOP candidates, something like maybe The Apple Pie Americans United Group, being funded by Saudi gazzilionaire oil sheiks, with a trail of brown bags leading right up to Rove’s front door. With CU, sooner or later it will happen, because these fuckers cannot control themselves nor be trusted with free flowing anonymous cash.
A measly one million will seem like chump change before too long.
David Koch
Hoooooocoodnode!
MikeJ
@Keith G: NBC’s guidelines aren’t the only yardstick of ethics.
gnomedad
Nice photo of Rove; he looks like Hector Hammond in the Green Lantern movie, only more evil.
Legalize
Even the Librul David Gregory!
David Koch
You think NBC would allow the “anchor” of MTP to speak at the UAW or the Sierra Club? Of course not. But a wingnut organization – that’s okay.
Shawn in ShowMe
@mai naem:
Of course Gregory makes Russert look like Ed Murrow. And before him, Russert made Garrick Utley look like Ed Morrow. And before him Garrick Utley made Bill Monroe look like Ed Murrow. Hardly anybody remembers Garrick Utley and Bill Monroe because they were mere stepping stones in the evolution to total corporate shilldom. The heir to David Gregory will do away with the metaphors and perform actual fellatio on the air.
Keith G
@MikeJ: So if I may be a type of devils advocate, in this case, what is his ethical “crime”?
Keith G
@David Koch: If they have the $40,000+ to book him, I bet he would be there in a flash.
arguingwithsignposts
Re: Journalistic ethics: there are no ethics on the speaking circuit.
@Keith G: avoiding the appearance of conflict of interest, I’d guess. But see 1. above.
Keith G
@arguingwithsignposts: Every year, thousands of organizations book speakers for their annual conferences. They all want a “star” from politics, media, sports… whatever. Most of them will try to book the most familiar face that they budget can afford. TV media and reporter types are in high demand since they know the “inside stuff”.
Ezra Klein, Christian Armanpour and all the way to Paula Zahn all earn extra scratch this way. They recite a 20 min speech that they have repeated dozens of times before, shake some hands, eat some chicken Kiev, and away they go.
Edited
For extra fun go here:
http://washingtonspeakers.com/search/search.cfm?searchtype=newsearch&category=1speaker&sptype=51
cckids
@Quarks: I just caught the end of an Obama-slamming ad here in NV, something about the Hillary Rosen remark, the “no jobs for women” crap & closing with a very sarcastic”Happy” Mother’s Day from President Obama”. Run by some PAC or other. I didn’t tune in to most of it, but it had both me and my 17-year old daughter saying “What the F*ck”?
Catching the attention of the youth of America? Check. Completely disgusting them? Also check. She actually went online to be sure she’ll be able to vote for Obama – she turns 18 before the election, but after registration closes. Answer: Yes! (unless they change registration laws). Way to go, GOP. You fail so hard.
arguingwithsignposts
@Keith G: If I was reporting on the coal industry, for instance, I wouldn’t take money from the coal industry to speak at their conference. YMMV.
ETA: Thanks for the link. I need a shower now. The celeb journalism industry in Washington is a major part of the problem with our politics.
Origuy
@cckids: Yay for your daughter! Now she needs to get all her friends to register. Throw a party for them Election Day.
Seriously, Election Day was once a time for getting together and having a party. An Election Day party was where Roseanna McCoy met Johnse Hatfield. Uh, maybe you better not after all. That didn’t end well.
Keith G
@arguingwithsignposts: I do think that real reporters…as opposed to hosts, readers and pundits, do try to have firewalls. I can’t imagine John Dickerson doing a gig like Gregory’s.
The thing is…I don’t think its the money as much as it is the one sided fraternization – hobnob with the elites and not know a damn thing about your coal miners. That’s been a problem ever since people like the Alsops (1950s-1960s) developed the concept of DC power “journalists”
I guest I just have a hard time blaming Gregory for being an affable and cute guy who jumped at a chance to take a job that he never should have been offered in the first place. He is not the problem.
arguingwithsignposts
@Keith G: Well, we’ll have to disagree that Gregory isn’t part of the problem. The entire fact that “cute” is a metric for TV hosts is a huge part of the problem. But I get what you’re saying.
mainmati
I never watch the Sunday shows since they are almost always just talking points exercises and almost never serious interviews. As for Gregory, he has exhibited his obvious Villager bias in many other contexts, such as the photo above, so no one should be surprised.
quannlace
)))))))Shudder(((((((((
Old pasty white guys trying to act all gansta.
God preserve us!
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Keith G: The only thing remotely related to cute IRT Gregory is that he thinks he’s being cute. Sadly, No.
Bothsides Doit
“Hey Karl. What should I buy with my NFIB sell-out money?”
“Enough social capital among Beltway assholes to never be held accountable for anything you ever do.”
CW in LA
@quannlace:
In fairness, these old pasty white guys are bigger gangstas than some schmuck living in a bad neighborhood in a big city ever thought of being.
Kane
David Gregory is a sadist.
RalfW
Meanwhile, the Internets are destroying TV, so Meet the Republicans is really just a paean to a dying, self-segregated gang of old folks on the wrong side of demographics and history.
The death-throws of TV-induced fake-democracy will still be ugly, but things are going to continue to re-order themselves. The wave is coming, and no amount of GOP panic can really stop it.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kane:
My recommendation is that David Gregory needs to feel pain. Fiscal pain, and physical pain.