Sep 08 2008

This post is rated PG: why Left leaning talk radio is rotting garbage

Category: McCain,media,Palin,politics — harmonicminer @ 9:24 am

Stay Classy, Stephanie Miller: Jokes McCain Picked Palin ‘To Look At Her A**’ | NewsBusters.org

Out in the snarkiest swamps of liberal talk radio is the Stephanie Miller show, which is very low on policy talk and very high on toilet humor and sex jokes. At the end of the show’s first hour on Tuesday, Miller aired a clip of McCain’s Friday unveiling of Sarah Palin: “Here is Grampy McSame [McCain] introducing his trophy VP before he stepped back to check out her a** for twenty minutes.”

As McCain spoke, the show’s official impressionist, Jim Ward, began impersonating McCain: “My next trophy wife…The middle part of Alaska is a**…and she’s got a terrific one, my friends.” Miller lamely added: “She puts the a** in Al-a**-ka.”

Miller read critical quotes from Paul Begala, Peggy Noonan, and Joe Conason, and said the choice was incredibly desperate.  Then Ward piped up again in his McCain voice: “Desperation, and a desire to look at her a** for hours and hours, my friends.”

Miller wrapped the segment: “We better have fun, Jim, because she may be out by the end of this show.”

The Left wants a “fairness doctrine”, so they can muzzle talk radio, which is predominantly right-leaning. There are several reasons that right-leaning talk radio succeeds, while left-leaning talk radio mostly fails (Air America should be given last rites and planted… They can barely GIVE AWAY advertising, because so few are listening.). The “fairness” doctrine would demand that left leaning broadcasters get as much air time as right leaning ones.

Obviously, that would mean that half of talk radio would be rated G, and the other half would be somewhere between PG and PG-13, with occasional excursions into R ratings.   In this case, though, only (intellectual) children will be listening to the PG-13 stuff.

(Of course, I know better than this.  The real result of the “fairness” doctrine will be the end of talk radio, because no network can afford to devote half its time to programs that don’t attract an audience.  And that’s exactly why the Left is pushing the “fairness” doctrine, to end talk radio as a media force.  Free speech, anyone?)

Hey, all you lefties: aren’t you PROUD that Stephanie Miller is your spokesperson? The elegance of the satire is breathtaking.

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Aug 30 2008

Kudos to Politico and Yahoo

Category: election 2008,Group-think,McCain,media,Palin,politics — harmonicminer @ 2:54 pm

Here is something so rare that it’s essentially a man bites dog story. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen something quite like this in political reporting. After running a story quoting various academics and political commentators bashing Gov. Palin as “too inexperienced” to be vice-president, Yahoo/Politico actually ran this update with a response from the McCain campaign.

Update: After reading this article, the McCain campaign issued the following statement: “The authors quote four scholars attacking Gov. Palin’s fitness for the office of Vice President. Among them, David Kennedy is a maxed out Obama donor, Joel Goldstein is also an Obama donor, and Doris Kearns Goodwin has donated exclusively to Democrats this cycle. Finally, Matthew Dallek is a former speech writer for Dick Gephardt. This is not a story about scholars questioning Governor Palin’s credentials so much as partisan Democrats who would find a reason to disqualify or discount any nominee put forward by Senator McCain.”

Two things, one unremarkable, one not:

Continue reading “Kudos to Politico and Yahoo”

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Aug 23 2008

Does USA have right to speak out about abuse elsewhere?

Category: freedom,liberty,media,torture — harmonicminer @ 9:15 am

Some people say that since the USA’s record on human rights protection is not perfect, we have no right to comment on or criticize the human rights record of any other nation.

This is a phony objection, of course; since no nation (or person) has a perfect record on anything whatsoever, adherence to such a ridiculous prerequisite for commentary would result in no one ever criticizing anyone for anything.

Nevertheless, it seems useful to make some distinctions between nations on some of these matters, just to make the point.

Abu Ghraib was an aberration. The abusers went to jail. It was not official US policy, before, then or since. Guantanamo gets enormous coverage, simply because the US government has revealed its existence, and details about it. Have you checked the list of political prisoners in Egypt, or Saudi Arabia, or Cuba, or China, or Russia lately? I didn’t think so. It would be hard to do, wouldn’t it? After all, they don’t exactly publish a complete list, do they?

Continue reading “Does USA have right to speak out about abuse elsewhere?”

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Aug 02 2008

Environmentalism unleashed = disaster

Category: Al Gore,environment,global warming,media — harmonicminer @ 9:26 am

Here is a new book that exposes the really, really inconvenient truth behind eco-panic myths about the environment, and what the real effect of many “environmental policies” has been.

Who is the inspiration behind the single biggest human caused environmental catastrophe, causing the most preventable death, of the 20th Century? Al Gore’s heroine, Rachel Carson, with her crusade against DDT, the use of which would have saved tens of millions of lives taken by malaria, but which was banned due to her efforts, and a sycophantic crowd of Gore’s predecessors in the eco-panic movement.

Yep: Al’s in fine company.

This book is a needed corrective for the total collapse of the media’s reporting in the area.

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Jul 31 2008

Challenge lies, or ignore them?

Category: Hamas,Hizbullah,Israel,media,middle east,terrorism — harmonicminer @ 9:00 am

A writer in the Jerusalem Post observes that US newspapers constantly attack Israel in editorial pages and with slanted, distorted coverage and wonders what the appropriate response is. To defend, or to ignore? It’s hard to know what will be most effective:

Verbal attacks on Israel in US papers and other media outlets are ceaseless, and can be demoralizing. But how do we measure their impact on the average American? Should we simply assume that a pro-Hamas op-ed in The New York Times is far more damaging to Israel’s cause than a local activist’s letter in a minor paper? Perhaps we should assume that Times’ readers are less likely to fall for obvious spin because they are more sophisticated than local media consumers? It’s impossible to be sure.

My inclination, which the writer eventually seems to share, is that if you want to affect public opinion, you have to fight unfair assertions, every single time.

The Bush administration learned, too late, that when you don’t answer outrageous assertions, and those assertions are constantly repeated, they have a way of becoming received wisdom in the relatively uncritical public mind. By the time the Bush administration wised up a bit and began to try to counter the main stream media’s narrative that Bush had lied about weapons of mass destruction, and that the presence of those weapons was the only reason for going into Iraq, it was just too late to affect the public understanding with facts.

People in sympathy with Israel, and Israel itself, need to learn this lesson: absolutely no good comes from “taking the high road” and not responding to outrageous claims. Lies need to be countered, period.

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Jul 25 2008

Obama can run from the facts: McCain won’t let him hide

Category: election 2008,Iraq,McCain,media,politics,terrorism — harmonicminer @ 4:27 pm

Power Line: McCain Hits Hard

Before a military audience in Denver today, John McCain launched his strongest attack yet against Barack Obama. The attack was devastating because it is true. Here are some excerpts; McCain began by recalling the beginning of the surge:

Senator Obama and I also faced a decision, which amounted to a real-time test for a future commander-in-chief. America passed that test. I believe my judgment passed that test. And I believe Senator Obama’s failed.

We both knew the politically safe choice was to support some form of retreat. All the polls said the “surge” was unpopular. Many pundits, experts and policymakers opposed it and advocated withdrawing our troops and accepting the consequences. I chose to support the new counterinsurgency strategy backed by additional troops — which I had advocated since 2003, after my first trip to Iraq. Many observers said my position would end my hopes of becoming president. I said I would rather lose a campaign than see America lose a war. My choice was not smart politics. It didn’t test well in focus groups. It ignored all the polls. It also didn’t matter. The country I love had one final chance to succeed in Iraq. The new strategy was it. So I supported it. Today, the effects of the new strategy are obvious. The surge has succeeded, and we are, at long last, finally winning this war.

Continue reading “Obama can run from the facts: McCain won’t let him hide”

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Jul 23 2008

Barack’s extended family is SO proud he’s on tour

Category: Afghanistan,election 2008,Europe,humor,Iraq,media,Obama,politics,White House — harmonicminer @ 11:40 pm

to; george@sorosenterprises.com

Dear George,

Barack’s school theater troup is on a field trip. Isn’t he cute? Don’t you just LOVE the way he delivers speeches? Doesn’t he look GREAT up there? He sounds just like one of the grown-ups when he talks, as long as he stays on script.

He looked so adorable playing with the real soldiers. He could so totally play the role of president in a movie.

It’s pretty clear that improvisational theater will never be his thing, but hey, lots of fine actors just learn their lines and deliver them well, with suitable feeling and gesture.

Uncle Charlie, Uncle Brian and Aunt Katie are SO good with the video cameras: we’re all going to have some great home movies. Wasn’t it sweet of them to come along and video Barack’s trip for the rest of the family, and provide helpful narration of his better work? They’re so good at just getting his best performances on tape, and shooting from the best angles, and downplaying the awkward spots, or even just editing them out. We’ll have to have them over for dinner soon. It’s wonderful to have such fine people in the family.

Continue reading “Barack’s extended family is SO proud he’s on tour”

Jul 12 2008

The AP, factless AND tactless on Tony Snow’s passing

Category: media,politics,White House — harmonicminer @ 7:51 am

Tony Snow has gone on to his considerable reward. But the AP can’t resist the temptation to take a swipe at President Bush’s former (and best) press secretary:

With a quick-from-the-lip repartee, broadcaster’s good looks and a relentlessly bright outlook, if not always a command of the facts, he became a popular figure around the country to the delight of his White House bosses.

I suppose I should not be surprised at the AP’s editorializing while pretending to do simple reporting. Maybe a couple of examples of “facts” that Snow got wrong? Or is the AP simply referring to the fact that Snow didn’t pretend to know what he didn’t? Is this the AP’s way of characterizing honesty?

Critics suggested that Snow was turning the traditionally informational daily briefing into a personality-driven media event short on facts and long on confrontation. He was the first press secretary, by his own accounting, to travel the country raising money for Republican candidates.

Surely this is the pot calling the kettle black. Everyone with an ounce of sense knows that it is the White House press corps that has turned the daily briefing into “a personality-driven media event short on facts and long on confrontation,” and that this transformation of a once relatively dry information exchange happened long before Tony Snow arrived on the scene. Many reporters “made their careers” by just this method, starting as far back as Dan Rather in the 1970s, and there have been many since, some of whom are still there.

The AP seems shocked that the role of White House Press Secretary is a political one, as well as an informational one. One wonders if they still wear short pants.

Of course, reporters are at their very worst when reporting on other reporters.

We’ll miss you, Tony. A lot.

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