Great point about the media ripping Colbert, and their own lack of any real reporting

Hammerito

On Hardball, Chuck Todd and his panel are currently ripping Stephen Colbert apart for appearing in character in front of Congress today.

First of all, Elmo appeared before Congress in 2002. ELMO.

Secondly, these are the screeds of politicos who are pissed off that a ‘comedian’ (I think ‘satirist’ is a much more precise term, but whatever) has done what they can’t/won’t/don’t - he said what he believed and did it in a way that was precise, authoritative, and interesting.

This is haterade, pure and simple. Colbert was invited to testify by a congresswoman on a subject about which he is (while not well informed) better informed than most members of Congress.

No one likes being made a fool of, and today, Colbert made everyone on Capitol Hill and in mainstream newsrooms look like dicks. I hoped they might take a bit of humility from the fact that they have been out-journalismed* by Stewart and Colbert for years now. I hoped that they might try to up their game to keep from being embarrassed every time they fail to do their job.

Instead, they’re bitching and moaning** that Colbert did what they won’t and was entertaining in the process.

Newsweek calls out right-wing for wanting to have it both ways

Jonathan Alter

The blame for this extends from Fox News and the Republican leadership, to the peculiar psychology of resentment in public opinion, to the ham-handed political response of the Obama White House. Whatever the cause, if smash-mouth tactics are validated by huge GOP gains in the midterm elections, then Big Lie politics may be with us for good.

In some ways, it has always been with us, going back to the 18th-century calumny of James Callender against John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton. More recently, the Rev. Jerry Falwell sponsored a film that falsely accused President Clinton of ordering murders and dealing drugs. What's changed about politics as a contact sport is the reach of the lies. With the exception of Father Charles Coughlin, the anti-Semitic "radio priest" of the 1930s, reactionaries haven't generally had big audiences. But now the cranks who once could do little more than write ranting letters to the editor on the red ribbons of their typewriters (loaded with exclamation points and in all caps, of course) can spread their venom virally, with the help of right-wing billionaires underwriting their organizations. And while the cable network they watch, Fox News, might not actively promote the idea that the president is a foreign-born Muslim, it does little to knock it down. Fox often covers Obama's place of birth and religion more as matters of opinion than of fact.

I'm sure the right-wing shitstorm will start early tomorrow morning. And really, who cares? This is the Age of the Politics of the Big Lie. Denying it what they do.

Jon Stewart To Media: 'Nothing Obama Does Will Ever Make You F**king Happy'

Is there really any point to this CBS? Has Murdoch bought you, too?

Balloon Juice via Cesca

So who would finish a story about Obama visiting Ohio to talk about the economy with this paragraph:

The trip Columbus probably cost taxpayers between $500,000 and $1 million.

Air Force One alone bills out at $100,000 per hour, and the round trip is nearly two hours. Adding to the cost are military aircraft to carry limos and secret service vehicles, Marine One on standby, Secret Service, local police and other factors.

Mark Knoller, CBS news journamamalist.

Apparently Obama should remain sequestered at the White House to save taxpayer money. Which makes sense, if you are complete moron or Mark Knoller. Which might be redundant.

Why? What's the point? Presidents and their security have been travelling at taxpayer expense since 1793. Why are you making a point about it now? Where were you when Bush was routinely commuting to Crawford for vacations? This is a shoddy excuse for journalism.

Let him know @markknoller.

What you've been told is not accurate: mid-term election edition

Excellent DailyKos article from pollster Charlie Cook about how the poll numbers have been skewed to make it seem like a GOP landslide is imminent. Why would the GOP want to fudge pre-electoral numbers? Simple, Americans like winners and want to back a winner. Give them the impression that Obama is dead in the water, and a fair number of sheeple will say "yeah!" and follow.

The more pertinent question is "why is the media blindly reporting polls instead of doing their own journalism?".

Our media sucks.

Stenography 101: How the press let Palin and Cheney rig the system

(Media Matters)

Not content with its lapdog coverage of President Bush over the past decade, the Beltway press has adopted a new, super-soft way to deal with Bush's former vice president, Dick Cheney, as well as GOP media star Sarah Palin. Journalists have set aside what had been decades' worth of guidelines and embraced special new rules for how Cheney and Palin get treated.

In a word, it's stenography.

That's how too many scribes have covered Cheney and Palin in recent months, allowing them to dispense tightly controlled pieces of information, which journalists then trumpet as breaking news. And yes, the trend is unprecedented in modern day American politics.

It's actually a two-fer. First, it's unprecedented because the Beltway press has never showered attention on political losers, such as Cheney and Palin. Meaning, the press has never cared what a former VP had to say about current events right after leaving the White House (think: Dan Quayle), or what a failed VP candidate had to say just months after losing in a landslide (think: Geraldine Ferraro). Traditionally, pundits and reporters disdain political losers (think: Mike Dukakis). But for Cheney and Palin, the rules have been generously reworked.

The second oddity is that journalists now allow Cheney and Palin to completely dictate the media ground rules and afford them the chance to have one-way relationships with the press.

Continue...

Just because Fox gave Rush a free 30 minutes doesn't mean they're biased

Fox handed over 30 minutes of their Sunday news shows to a softball interview with Rush Limbaugh by Chris Wallace. Wallace let Limbaugh rant on, largely uninterrupted, about the evils of the Obama administration.

for a network trying to refute charges of being the media wing of the Republican Party, this wasn't much of a counter-argument. I wonder when they'll give Rachel Maddow her 30 minutes?

Death by a thousand cuts

(Bob Cesca)
I've been observing for a couple of days the corporate media's very obvious attempt to paint healthcare reform as being impossible, doomed, screwed and so forth. Of course this is because the corporate media, and especially cable news, takes its cues from Drudge and the Republicans, as well as takes much of its ad revenue from the healthcare industry (see endless Lipitor, Flomax and boner pill commercials).

The fact is that the House has a bill with the public option ready for a vote. Many lawmakers have already pledged to forgo their August recess to get this done. The president is stepping up his efforts. Polls are still very strong. The public option is now mandatory. All in all, things are looking much more positive than they did a month ago.

My observations are based solely on observing the crappy MSNBC morning line-up and some scans of the various print press websites. But Media Matters has documented this death by a thousand cuts media vibe here.

• On the July 19 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, host David Gregory stated: "Sunday: it's do or die for the president's massive health care reform."
• On the July 19 edition of CNN Newsroom, host Don Lemon asked: "[I]s President Barack Obama's health care plan dead in the water?"

• CNN correspondent Jessica Yellin asserted of health care reform, "the White House is feeling really nervous right now. I mean, they know that this thing is a mess."

• CNN senior White House correspondent Ed Henry said that Obama's "abrupt" decision to give a speech on health care on July 17 raises "questions about whether his health care push may be unraveling."

• Wolf Blitzer said that Obama was making "a Hail Mary pass on health care. ... He's scrambling to keep his hopes for an overhaul alive as concerns about costs rise."

DRAMA! Jeepers creepers. Do these guys even realize how self-satirical they sound? When they prepare this crap, don't they consider how perfectly it'll fit into a Jon Stewart bit?

Adding... Nate Silver weighs in.

Nico Pitney gets Dana Milbank to call him a dick

....granted it was after the segment.

According to Nico

"The only thing that surprised me was when Dana turned to me after our initial sparring and called me a “dick” in a whispered tone (the specific phrase was, I believe, “You’re such a dick”)."

Here's the set-up. Nico Pitney is a blogger with Huffington Post who used to work for ThinkProgress. He had been working the Iran sotry endlessly for the past 2 weeks, and remember, the Iran story is being reported almost exclusively by the internet, since foreign press have been banned.

The day before Obama's presser last week, Pitney was told that he might get to ask a question of the President about Iran.

Dana Milbank, a dick with ears if ever there was one, and the traditional media are up in arms because it violated protocol. Traditonally, the AP gets the first question, then the major networks. However, Obama has been shaking things up and since the old line media can't very well get pissy with the President, well... they'll go after the new media for being in collusion. Watch the clip.