What's Wrong With American Media, in a Nutshell

Someone can say, on a popular television news program, that that the Taliban should just go ahead and execute an American soldier, and have no fear of not being invited back.

Once upon a time such a person could never make it to TV in the first place. Today it's seemingly a core principle of Fox News, and the other cable news networks too often (not to mention talk radio), to search for and regularly feature people like that.

What is This "Rant" That You Speak Of?

Weirdness:

Over the weekend, Long Island Congressman Peter King posted what is often called "a rant" on YouTube -- sounding off. In this case, about what he called the media glorification of Michael Jackson.

[...]

The "rant," as such a video posting is called, that Rep. King posted on the popular video sharing site sparked a split of outrage and praise. And Monday, he told us why he did it.

That "reporter," as people who do research and reporting for newspapers are known, needs to get out more.

If Someone Writes "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina" One More Time...

It's not funny. Really, it's not. If Sanford had disappeared because he had gone to fight for a hapless Argentinian rebel group but had to be rescued by Navy SEALS because he twisted his ankle - then it'd be funny. Really funny. Barring that, it's just dumb.

ABC: Air Force One is Obama's "Private Jet"

Via Balloon Juice, we have possibly the stupidest news story ever written:

America's CEOs are coming under fire these days not just for their hefty salaries but also for their use of private jets, limos with drivers and free trips to posh resorts.

But they aren't alone in living this lavish lifestyle -- the president of United States gets all these perks and more.

And unlike some of his Cabinet appointments, he doesn't have to pay taxes on these benefits.

It might be a bit of a stretch to compare today's corporate titans with the commander in chief, but some Wall Street bloggers clearly upset with President Obama's attempts to rein in executive pay are doing just that.

"Some accountability needs to be put in place. We won't have them kicking sand in the face of taxpayers any longer," said one private equity worker on Dealbreaker.com, a Wall Street gossip site and blog.

Read it to the finish. It will make you want to drink paint thinner. It's an "ABC Business Unit" story inspired by the whining of anonymous "Wall Street bloggers." And it's gist: Maybe Obama shouldn't be criticizing Wall Street CEO's and their billions in bonuses and private jets because...the president of the U.S. is just like those Wall Street CEO's.

The writer, Scott Mayerowitz, actually wrote things like this:

Then there is the use of two private jets, Boeing 747s better known as Air Force One. And of course the constant security details...

Ho. Lee. Shit. Air Force One is a "private jet." That's braindead stupid. And the president's "security detail," better known as the Secret Service, is portrayed as a perk that Mr. Elite Obama gets.

There's more:

It's hard to say that Air Force One and all of the president's support staff should not travel with him, even on vacation, especially in the post-9/11 world, said presidential historian and ABC News consultant Richard Norton Smith.

Oh my God.

Oh my God.

I have to go ice my brain.

Update: The Wall Street blog they cite is mocking ABC for this idiotic article.

Tell It Like It Is

Obama lays it out:

“This is the classic dilemma of politics,’’ Obama replied. “We get four or five shots in a row (assertions by McCain), that I would rather lose a war so that I can win a campaign, that I am not willing to visit the troops, that I somehow am full of myself, that I’m an empty-headed celebrity, whatever repeated attacks have been launched this week, so when I say, boy those are kind of silly arguments, the press says, isn’t that being negative. Well no, I’m describing what their strategy has been for the last week… I’m just stating the facts….

Exactly right.

CNN: "Is Marriage Really For White People"

Do stories like this have something to do with the fact that a scary black man is THIS CLOSE to being president? I think it just might.

A Too Kind Response to Joe Klein

Joe Klein, of TIME, at not his lowest, but very, very low.

My response, in which I was much to kind:

Mr. Klein, I'm really trying to understand this part:

"His "perjury"--not telling the truth about which reporters he talked to--would never be considered significant enough to reach trial, much less sentencing, much less time in stir if he weren't Dick Cheney's hatchet man."

He WAS Dick Cheney's hatchet man. Or, a better way to put it: he was the Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States. (Not to mention an assistant to the President.) And he was convicted of two counts of perjury and two counts of obstructing justice. Not enough to reach trial? A career federal prosecutor, a judge on the federal bench, a grand jury, and 12 jurors – well, they’d probably say your remarks don’t even merit a response, but I took the liberty of saying for them: “We disagree.”

And his perjury – and I know you know this, you're not an idiot by any stretch – was not “not telling the truth about which reporters he talked to.” It was lying to FBI investigators and to the grand jury about what he told and what he learned from reporters - and what he learned from the vice president. (Did you forget about Libby telling the FBI that Tim Russert told him Plame worked at the CIA? And that he forgot he learned it from Vice President Cheney? Ring any bells?)

This you turn into “not telling the truth about which reporters he talked to."

Mr. Klein, it is cringingly disappointing to know that someone capable of such a depth of obtuseness is seen as deserving of working at the top tier or our country's media.