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themp
Supporter
Username: Themp
Post Number: 1467
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 10:20 am: | 
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In an article last year, Guckert, as Gannon, wrote that Democratic Sen. John Kerry "might someday be known as 'the first gay president.' The Massachusetts liberal has enjoyed a 100 percent rating from the homosexual advocacy group, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), since 1995 in recognition of his support for the pro-gay agenda." |
Joe
Citizen
Username: Gonets
Post Number: 693
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 10:38 am: |
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The next logical question is "who did he have to {ahem} to get a press pass?"
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cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 3128
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 10:51 am: |
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Tom -- Moyers is one of the original revolving-door types that I know of coming out of the Johnson Administration and going on to eventually work for a news entity that is subsidized and doesn't have to answer for a lack of audience.
Madden -- why would a democrat have to 'do it'? Reporters are already in their pocket. Look at the rubes in this story:
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A reporter and columnist for a black
Kansas City newspaper accepted $1,500 from the congressional
campaign of the Rev. Emanuel Cleaver, the former mayor elected to
the House in November.
Eric Wesson reported on the campaign for The Call and also wrote
editorials that praised Cleaver, who is black, and criticized his
Democratic primary rival and later his Republican opponent.
Kansas City's alternative weekly newspaper, The Pitch, reported
on the payment in October. The Washington Post ran the story Monday
in the wake of news that three conservative columnists were paid by
the federal government to promote Bush administration policies.
Both papers said Cleaver's campaign paid $1,500 last summer to
One Goal Consultants, a company that Wesson owns, according to
state records.
Wesson on Monday declined to comment to The Associated Press. He
told The Post he wrote scripts for Cleaver's phone banks and did
"other miscellaneous things" for the campaign.
"It had nothing to do with the job I do for The Call," Wesson
said. "The Call has always written articles favorable to
African-American candidates. We're an advocacy newspaper."
Cleaver issued a statement Monday saying his campaign would not
have other such arrangements with reporters.
"I am committed to upholding the highest ethical standards,"
he said.
The Call has endorsed Cleaver for every political office he has
sought in his 30-year political career, which included two terms as
the city's first black mayor.
No big deal, says the reporter, because the newspaper is known to be biased regardless of the payoffs. And some ways I agree, and in others I just don't care because it's all so obvious anyway.
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Robert Livingston
Citizen
Username: Rob_livingston
Post Number: 858
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 10:55 am: |
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cjc: you seem to resent it if a democratic reporter (on a local scale) gets caught shilling for the party, but dismiss it when it is done on the grandest scale in the world. Hypocritical, no? |
Bobkat
Supporter
Username: Bobk
Post Number: 7596
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 11:13 am: |
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The Cleaver payments are wrong and the newspapers response is also wrong. The reporter should have been disciplined.
However, the payment made by Cleaver was from his campaign fund, not tax dollars as has been the case with the Bush administration.
I wonder how long the Bush/Rove boiler room worked on finding that story.  |
themp
Supporter
Username: Themp
Post Number: 1468
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 11:19 am: |
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This is the oddest feature of contemporary "conservative" thought - total nihilism. There is no truth, everything is just a raw power struggle. A thin margin of victory becomes a "mandate" if you call it a mandate. All intentions are corrupt, so only aggressive self-interest is free from hypocrisy. There is no quality or expertise, so actuaries, arms experts, doctors, paleontologists should be ignored or else attacked as shills. All communication is propaganda for some power base. All history is reviseable, so challenging people's war medals is valid, while not even questioning other people's dodgy and changing war record is also ok.
How big is the circulation of this black Kansas City paper? And what does that have to do with anything?
You really should say "well played. The ironies are obvious here, and even though the joke is on us, I agree that this points to embarrassing truths about how conservatives construct a campy and often absurd reality in order to perpetuate power." Say it once just to prove you're on the level. |
Joe
Citizen
Username: Gonets
Post Number: 694
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 11:23 am: |
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Wait a second, a guy who leaves a White House over 30 years ago and remains in the private sector to this day is your idea of a "revolving-door" type? I think you need to find another analogy. The "revolving-door" is only apt for people who's career paths travel at least a full 360 degrees. Otherwise they're just a "standard-door" type--using it to exit and not return.
Of course I'm sure Moyers was really in a great position to exploit his Johnson administration connections during the Carter administration. |
Robert Livingston
Citizen
Username: Rob_livingston
Post Number: 859
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 11:24 am: |
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themp: you're forgetting one of the other tenets of comtemporary conservatism: no accountability, and a pathological refusal to admit a mistake or offer a concession.
Heil Bush! |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 5511
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 11:38 am: |
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And because these new tenets are so radical, "conservative" is a very poor term for whatever it is they are promoting. It's an innovation! |
themp
Supporter
Username: Themp
Post Number: 1469
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 11:54 am: |
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He has been described as "the amusingly ferocious Republican media genius" and a "pit-bull Republican media strategist turned television tycoon."
Fox's founder and president, Roger Ailes, was for decades one of the savviest and most pugnacious Republican political operatives in Washington, a veteran of the Nixon and Reagan campaigns. Ailes is most famous for his role in crafting the elder Bush's media strategy in the bruising 1988 presidential race. With Ailes' help, Bush turned a double-digit deficit in the polls into a resounding win by targeting the GOP's base of white male voters in the South and West, using red-meat themes like Michael Dukakis' "card-carrying" membership in the ACLU, his laissez-faire attitude toward flag-burning, his alleged indifference to the pledge of allegiance--and, of course, paroled felon Willie Horton.
Described by fellow Bush aide Lee Atwater as having "two speeds--attack and destroy," Ailes once jocularly told a Time reporter (8/22/88): "The only question is whether we depict Willie Horton with a knife in his hand or without it." Later, as a producer for Rush Limbaugh's short-lived TV show, he was fond of calling Bill Clinton the "hippie president" and lashing out at "liberal bigots" (Washington Times, 5/11/93
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cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 3129
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 12:03 pm: |
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RL -- I resent nothing on this issue, so you'll have to try to score with hypocrisy elsewhere. It means next to nothing to me, unlike others on this board.
themp -- "all" is rarely in my vocabulary, along with "never" and "always." Makes for no good discussion. Be sweeping if you must, but leave me out of it.
Joe -- quite right on my mis-application of revolving door. I should have left it as Moyers is a biased liberal hack posing as a journalist who once worked for one of the worst presidents in US history.
And to everyone -- I've been quite clear and even repetitive with my slams on this Administration. That I can't join you on this doesn't mean those others didn't occur.
And as for "news" -- it's all produced. Cameras in people's faces changes things, how you word your copy changes things. It has ever been thus, and has always moved way beyond just telling us what happened. There are kernals of truth in every report -- be in Fox News or CNN, NY Times or Washington Times. But there's a lot of other things too -- be it in the reporter's background, the publication's bias -- it's all in the mix. CBS plays, WH plays, NY Times plays, N.O.W. plays, Fox plays.... I just can't get really excited about this. You kids can. |
Strawberry Alarm Clock
Supporter
Username: Strawberry
Post Number: 4508
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 12:05 pm: |
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Dave,
As someone who lost family members during the holocaust I ask that you delete Robert Livingston's post above where he salutes Bush in a Hitleresque manner. This is clearly a hate speech and we on MOL cannot tolerate such antics.
I would imagine we should probably remove his pass word as well until he's attended a holocaust sensitivity course.
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Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 5513
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 12:15 pm: |
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cjc wrote:
"all" is rarely in my vocabulary, along with "never" and "always." Makes for no good discussion.
So you could call yourself a moderate!  |
Robert Livingston
Citizen
Username: Rob_livingston
Post Number: 860
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 12:24 pm: |
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cjc: for someone who doesn't care about the issue, you've certainly devoted quite a few words to the matter, even looking up instances of democratic imprudence.
I'm also curious what "slams" you've had against the administration? |
cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 3130
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 1:15 pm: |
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RL -- I had one or two posts on this, then was asked to express outrage and justify my lack of same which begat the rest of my posts.
Bush was wrong on:
Welfare Drug Bill, steel tariffs, Campaign finance reform, Farm subsidies, too much spending for the Education Bill. I've not formulated an opinion on his immigration reform, but I'm leaning towards thinking it's ineffective. I think their political calculations at the expense of Ward Connerly's principled efforts against race-based discrimination were cowardly. |
Robert Livingston
Citizen
Username: Rob_livingston
Post Number: 861
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 1:58 pm: |
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From AMERICAblog:
"Why does this matter?
"So in the end, why does this matter? Why does it matter that Jeff Gannon may have been a gay hooker named James Guckert with a $20,000 defaulted court judgment against him? So he somehow got a job lobbing softball questions to the White House. Big deal. If he was already a prostitute, why not be one in the White House briefing room as well?
"This is the Conservative Republican Bush White House we're talking about. It's looking increasingly like they made a decision to allow a hooker to ask the President of the United States questions. They made a decision to give a man with an alias and no journalistic experience access to the West Wing of the White House on a "daily basis." They reportedly made a decision to give him - one of only six - access to documents, or information in those documents, that exposed a clandestine CIA operative. Say what you will about Monika Lewinsky - a tasteless episode, "inappropriate," whatever. Monika wasn't a gay prostitute running around the West Wing. What kind of leadership would let prostitutes roam the halls of the West Wing? What kind of war-time leadership can't find the same information that took bloggers only days to find?
"None of this is by accident.
"Someone had to make a decision to let all this happen. Who? Someone committed a crime in exposing Valerie Plame and now it appears a gay hooker may be right in the middle of all of it? Who?
"Ultimately, it is the hypocrisy that is such a challenge to grasp in this story. This is the same White House that ran for office on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. While they are surrounded by gay hookers? While they use a gay hooker to write articles for their gay hating political base? While they use a gay hooker to destroy a political enemy? Not to mention the hypocrisy of a "reporter" who chooses to publish article after article defending the ant-gay religious-right point of view on gay civil rights issue."
Full Story (Warning: X-Rated) |
notehead
Supporter
Username: Notehead
Post Number: 2046
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 2:03 pm: |
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Phenixrising
Citizen
Username: Phenixrising
Post Number: 414
Registered: 9-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 2:17 pm: |
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How many members of your organization have press passes issued under assumed names?
Strawberry
nails
jerkboy
Director
Strawberry Alarm Clock
I'm probably missing other assumed names…
anyone care to add? |
Dr. Winston O'Boogie
Citizen
Username: Casey
Post Number: 1078
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 2:17 pm: |
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cjc and I are actually in agreement on a number of issues. I agree that Bush was wrong on the Drug Bill, NCLB (although I think we disagree on why it was wrong. I think it should never have been passed at all, regardless of whether it was funded or not), steel tarriffs, farm subsidies...
But where we seem to diverge is in what I believe is a very basic dishonesty at the core of Bush's presidency. Whether it's WMD, the true cost of the prescription drug bill, SS reform, (the list can go on), Bush has chosen to sell his ideas on misleading information, and often with downright lies because he knows the public ain't buyin' otherwise.
While many of you are either so cynical (all politicians lie) or stronly in support of the ends (who cares there were no WMD? the invasion was a good idea anyway, or who cares that private accounts don't solve SS's shortfall, they're a good idea anyway) that you don't give a **** about the lies and deceptions used to sell policy. I have to disagree however, that this is SOP. I never agreed with Reagan's policies, or Bush I's, or Nixon's, or even Carter's or Clinton's for that matter, but I don't recall any of those administrations being nearly as dishonest. In the GWB administration everything is phony - budget numbers, EPA reports, CIA reports, etc. Now we find out that some of the reporters and pundits covering the White House are phony too - either they're entirely fake personas, or they're on the take.
Regardless of where you stand on issues, this is huge. If the government has absolutely no credibility on any issue, how can any of us know what courses of action to support or oppose? Of course, that's clearly Bush's intention - to confuse every issue to the point that people can be manipulated into supporting whatever he wants them to.
But if you think it's ok now when you support the ends that Bush is pursuing, think again. What if Kerry had won, or a Democrat wins in '08 and decides to follow Bush's propaganda template? If the Bush Administration is given a pass on their fundamental dishonesty in how they lead the country, there won't be any going back. Future administrations of either party will decide they can do it too, and perhaps even push the envelope a little farther. |
Robert Livingston
Citizen
Username: Rob_livingston
Post Number: 865
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 3:27 pm: |
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Strawberry Alarm Clock
Supporter
Username: Strawberry
Post Number: 4509
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 4:02 pm: |
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Dave,
first anti-semitic humor, now racist humor. You really need to ban this poster. For the sake of our community. |
notehead
Supporter
Username: Notehead
Post Number: 2050
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 4:59 pm: |
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Dr. WoB, you're right on. A government run this way does void all credibility. That should make them less popular, except they also make every effort to either scare people or throw the flag in their face to help them decide which way to go. It's disgusting.
Funny cartoon, RL. |
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