The Week That Was 2/23/07
Another week, more preposterousness to report.
So The Nevada Democratic Party somehow thinks it makes sense to have the closest living relative to Burmese State Television, the FoxNews Channel, televise a debate that will help choose our presidential nominee.
C'mon guys, you can tell us, is this secret plan to seduce Bill Bennett to the Luxor so you can plan for some major slots-based revenue enhancements? Because if there's one thing we know, it's that what happens to Bill Bennett's money in Las Vegas is that it stays in Las Vegas.
Yet, if this is not part of the plan, then this idea is so stupid, so very stupid, I am left speechless--kinda like Ted Stevens pondering the various complexities and spiritual implications of that series of tubes known as the Internets. The one and only Robert Greewald (discosure: we have worked together on projects and he has actually followed the capitalist ethic of paying me for my work) has just released a short film that is devastating, as his films always are, in displaying the level FoxNews will go to to discredit Democrat Barack Obama in his presidential quest.
I mean, does the Republican Party hand over its debates to the AFL-CIO? Does George W. Bush hand over his weekly radio slot to Jim Webb? Does Karl Rove plan his political campaigns around attacking gays because of a secret self-loathing due to his father's open homosexuality, a gap he fills by compulsively eating, growing his head to Zeppelinesque proportions and then developing a kindergarten plan for 2006, only to lose his enduring Republican majority to his own greed and stupidity?
Bad example.
Ok, doo I go on Rush Limbaugh's show? Well, no, because he doesn't seem to like me much. Here's what he had to say about me today (for real):
RUSH: Last night on CNN's Paula Zahn Now they were talking about hip-hop, the music, the culture, and the lyrics. Somehow my name came up in this discussion. The guest was somebody named Cliff Schecter, an expert. Never heard of him. He's from AmericaBlog.com, and this is what he said.He, of course, left out the part where I said after that last quote something like "and that's even when he's not on his usual pound of Oxycontin" (yes, I really did). Read the rest of what Limbaugh had to say about me, he's completely flummoxed.
SCHECTER: There's misogyny throughout our culture. We just elected a new speaker of the House and Nancy Pelosi is a woman and all we heard all week were on her pantsuits, what this one looked like, what that one looked like. We didn't hear things about policy. You've got people on the right who are going out and screaming every day, people like Rush Limbaugh who scream feminazi, feminazi, feminazi.
Yet, in any case, go check out Robert's petition to OutFox the Fox folks and have the debate be covered by a less-biased source, like the White House. The petition should be easy to find when you get to the web page. Now, equally amusing, is Bill O'Reilly's recent paranoid, bed-wetting inspired hysteria over how NBC is "so liberal." Because, that's what I think when I look at a former sportscaster on MSNBC who leans left, whose time slot is surrounded by a right-wing pundit (Tucker), a former Democrat who voted for Bush in 2000 (The Hardball himself) and a former uber-conservative GOP Congressman (Scarborough). I guess you're so used to seeing the airwaves filled with extremist ideological diarrhea, Bill, that having one person with a different view than yours for one hour an evening would be just crazy diverse.
Oh and Bill, you may have missed it, but NBC weekend anchor Campell Brown is married to former CPA Administrator in Iraq, overall Bush lackey and new FOX CONTRIBUTOR Dan Senor. She must be a flaming liberal!
But in the spirit of your challenge, let's just examine the backgrounds of some of the big cheeses at Fox (and we'll even leave you out Bill, as a courtesy, because I'm good that way).
Rupert Murdoch, Owner of NewsCorp - Gives lots of dough. I am guessing 75-85% goes Republican by the looks of it (you do the math). His son was a really crappy distance runner on my high school track team and it still pisses me off.
Roger Ailes, President of FoxNews - Former Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George Bush media advisor. Looks like the Hamburglar without his mask on.Tony Snow, Bush Spokesman - Former editor of the Washington Times and Bush I speechwriter. Then became Fox weekend anchor. Then conservative radio show host. Now Bush spokesman.
Brit Hume, Washington Bureau Chief - Brit was in the past an editor of the American Spectator while masquerading as a journalist. You may remember this putrid rag as the home of the Arkansas Project, a many-years effort to dig up dirt on Bill Clinton so he might eventually be impeached. It appears as if whatever was left over after Greta Van Susterin's extreme facial forms his current mug.
Sean Hannity - Ostensibly a host of a political show but still chooses to raise money for the GOP, a new low, even for your "news" station.
Bill Kristol, Charles Krauthammer, Fred Barnes, Newt Gingrich, Dan Senor, Michelle Malkin. All contributors. All dumber than malnutrition.
So you see Bill, you need to watch Robert's film. You zone has been spun pal.
For more on this and other stories go to cliffschecter.com.
