Via TPM, here are the two leading stories on the CBS News website right now.
The two people quoted in the second piece are Marc Ambinder and a guy from astroturf outfit FreedomWorks.
DougJ has been a Balloon Juice writer since 2009.
by DougJ| 74 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Media
Via TPM, here are the two leading stories on the CBS News website right now.
The two people quoted in the second piece are Marc Ambinder and a guy from astroturf outfit FreedomWorks.
by DougJ| 49 Comments
This post is in: Assholes
I’ve been hearing this around the comments here and elsewhere all day. One of Josh Marshall’s readers describes it quite well:
I’m surprised that it’s your Republican pal that has to make this point: The precedent on the anti-health care protests isn’t Bush’s Social Security town hall meetings. The real precedent is the “Brooks Brothers riot” during the 2000 recount. The point is to create disorder, but get the media to cast blame on the underlying issue and NOT the protesters.
That’s what happened during Florida: The “blame” was on the “chaos” created by the “unfair” counting methods brought on by Al Gore’s call for “selective” counting. No blame was focused on the young GOP activists upsetting the process.
I’d like to try to do a little research on how the Brooks Brothers riot was treated at the time by the media. I do remember a WaPo columnist or reporter showing a picture and having readers ID the Brooks Brothers rioters — they all turned out to be Republican operatives — but other than that, I don’t remember much. Was it largely portrayed as the sham that it was? I’m guessing not.
by DougJ| 165 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Somewhat unexpectedly, at least to me, my part of the world has turned into a hotbed of teabag activity. There was a major tea-ruption at a recent Dan Maffei (NY-25) townhall meeting and a friend just forwarded me an email from some winger mailing list about plans to teabag all of Eric Massa’s (NY-29) townhall meetings. I’m hoping to get friends to send me a lot of good footage of this.
Now, I have to be honest, I’m afraid there is a real fear of a teabagger going too far and doing something violent. But I also think that best chance to stop from happening is to turn this into a political liability for Republicans and that probably involves mockery.
Marc Ambinder sees the teabagging as a righteous display of God-fearing middle-American anger (neo-birfer Sully apprently agrees). The key with all of this is how it gets framed. If it continues to be framed as righteous red-state anger, it will probably continue until a teabagger shoots someone. If it’s mocked as the delusional right-wing craziness that it is, maybe it will be nipped in the bud.
by DougJ| 34 Comments
This post is in: Media
In fairness, that’s less than one editor per serious factual error:
THE TIMES published an especially embarrassing correction on July 22, fixing seven errors in a single article — an appraisal of Walter Cronkite, the CBS anchorman famed for his meticulous reporting. The newspaper had wrong dates for historic events; gave incorrect information about Cronkite’s work, his colleagues and his program’s ratings; misstated the name of a news agency, and misspelled the name of a satellite.
[….]Five editors read the article at different times, but none subjected it to rigorous fact-checking, even after catching two other errors in it. And three editors combined to cause one of the errors themselves.
I wish the five editors who proof the posts here caught more of my errors too. Maybe I should be grateful they’re not combining to create new errors.
by DougJ| 49 Comments
This post is in: Media
The CEO of General Electric does more than settle on-air feuds:
In the days before President Obama’s last news conference, as the networks weighed whether to give up a chunk of their precious prime time, Rahm Emanuel went straight to the top.
Rather than calling ABC, the White House chief of staff phoned Bob Iger, chief executive of parent company Disney. Instead of contacting NBC, Emanuel went to Jeffrey Immelt, the chief executive of General Electric. He also spoke with Les Moonves, the chief executive of CBS Corp., the company spun off from Viacom.
Whether this amounted to undue pressure or plain old Chicago arm-twisting, Emanuel got results: the fourth hour of lucrative network time for his boss in six months.
I’m not complaining about the Obama administration doing this (the same way I thought that the networks should cover all the Bush events, as long he took questions). But this, along with yesterday’s story about Murdoch’s and Immelt’s involvement in the Battle Of the O’s — puts the lie to the idea that anything about tv networks is in any way insulated from the whims of the CEO parent companies. To assert, as Charlie Rose has, “I promise you, CBS News and ABC News and NBC News are not influenced by the corporations that may own those companies” is simply ludicrous.
How the hell did this happen? How is it that our public airwaves are completely controlled by large companies?
by DougJ| 89 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Another day, another birfer forgery.
I’ll need to feel it, touch it, examine the kerning before I can made a decision, personally.
I hope Loud Dobbs talks about this todayPost + Comments (89)
by DougJ| 36 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Newt Gingrich’s political group quietly pulled in an impressive $8.1 million in the first half of the year, a cash haul that enabled the former speaker of the House to finance a robust political operation that includes at least 17 employees.
[…..]The operation, which includes a pollster and fundraisers, promotes Gingrich’s books, sends out direct mail, airs ads touting his causes and funds his travel across the country via charter and first-class airfare.
Last year, it spent $2.6 million on first-class or charter air travel for Gingrich and his staff, according to its 2008 tax returns. This year, it has spent about $670,000 on charter flights alone, according to Friday’s report.
[…]For instance, the group accepted $250,00 from Peabody Energy, which also gave that much last year, and $100,000 each from American Electric Power and Plains Exploration and Production Company.
I suspect this isn’t unusual. But sometimes I find myself surprised that intellectually honest policy wonks like Newt are bought and sold so openly.