Kathleen Parker: Frayed Ends of Sanity

Kathleen Parker is addling again only this time it's not about Sarah Palin. Ms. Parker feels she has isolated the cause of the failing mainstream media, and it is the ignorant masses being stoked by the "drive-by-punditry" of the Rush Limbaughs in the world.




From her Washington Post op-ed,

BOSTON -- The biggest challenge facing America's struggling newspaper industry may not be the high cost of newsprint or lost ad revenue, but ignorance stoked by drive-by punditry.

Yes, Dittoheads, you heard it right.

Drive-by pundits, to spin off of Rush Limbaugh's "drive-by media," are non-journalists who have been demonizing the media for the past 20 years or so and who blame the current news crisis on bias.

There is surely room for media criticism, and a few bad actors in recent years have badly frayed public trust. And, yes, some newspapers are more liberal than their readership and do a lousy job of concealing it.

I am sure none of this had to with the likes of Dan Rather and his Killian Documents incident, Barrack Obama appearing on 12 of Newsweek's 52 issues in one year (This does not include 11 skybox appearances, which brings the total to 23 in 2008.), or the 1997 study performed by the American Society of Newspaper Editors which indicated that 61% of reporters were liberal or held liberal views as opposed to 15% who identified with Republican or conservative values, or how Author Jim A. Kuypers, a senior lecturer at the Ivy League college Dartmouth, in 2002 inadvertently found that the media ignores far-left, conservative, and moderate viewpoints in favor of a "narrow brand of liberal bias." Lest we forget the New York Times endorsement of Barack Obama or Kerry?

As with most conservative apologist writers and left leaning "journalists," Parker suffers from indignation at the insinuation of liberal bias within the media. How can it be their fault? In order to remain in her pristine tower, the Princess must find outside conspirators who are causing her noble profession to falter and to become perceived as ignoble. It couldn't be that journalism has become eaten up from within by the cancer of liberal opinion. This has to have been brought on by those damn brainwashed, peasant, Ditto-heads and their Fuhrer, Rush.

This, as we all know, is the hallucination that these modern day Pharisee languish from. Parker and her persuasion are truly commiserable and deserve very little pity for their failures.

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President Obama's News Conference, the Press, and Softball

I can honestly say I am the stupider for having watched the President's news conference, it was painful, dreary, and tedious. Believe it or not I was actually sympathetic for the man, he looked nervous and was obviously, not in control. Guess cause there wasn't a script or a teleprompter.

The two highlights for me were Obama's dodging of Major Garrett's question about Joe the Gaffemeister's statement of a 30% chance probability of failure, concerning some unknown discussion he and the President had, to Helen Thomas's statement, "the so called terrorists" in Pakistan. Has anyone let her know that this isn't the Roosevelt administration? I am talking about Teddy.

With something like 12-13 very SOFT questions, 165 "uh's," and looking like he was getting ready to urinate on himself, the President's sale of of himself and the stimulus was about a 4.5 on a scale of 1-to-10. What happened to the gifted orator, the modern day Winston Churchill? I guess its hard to sell lies, even if you are a lawyer.

Stay tuned for more exciting analysis as the transcripts of the conference become available. I wonder if they are going to cut out the uh's.

Photo credit to Doug Mills/ The New York Times

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A Slobbering Love Affair

No. I did not use my first post here at PCT to sneak in an endorsement. But, I do want to take time out to share the importance of the new book A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media (go to Amazon to order or read reviews) by Benard Goldberg.

I don't read shock jock material. I did not read any of the Obama books or Bush books (other than the presidential biography, Dead Certain). They are tantamount to summer fads. Besides, a book's staying power is at least as half important as the material it covers. I'm not saying I wouldn't buy any of those books. I am just saying I would rather spend $30 bucks on a better one.

However, in this particular instance, this book fully documents and displays the degradation of our public media. It was evident to many Americans, and much to the delight of many liberals, that most of the media was in the tank for President B.H. Obama. The danger to our society and constitution over the behavior of the MSM should alarm even the less than average concerned citizen. Their partisan behavior was shamelessly on display as nothing more than the Obama campaign apparatus. These actions troubled many and even some journalists came out to express their displeasure of the current state of the MSM and the potential consequences of their behavior.

It has gotten so prevalent that not even half of Americans think that the media is fairly and objectively covering the Obama administration. Considering the times we are in and the potential disaster our economy could turn to, do we really need a starry-eyed media with a crush?

Those who so far disapprove of Obama's performance so far say the media bias is unquestionable.

The press and media are practically untouchable according to the constitution because America relies heavily on their journalism with the trust that they operate solely for information and insight on the publics behalf. It is not a club, a PR firm, or a cheering section for politicians or a particular cause. They have a constitutional duty and public obligation to provide fair reporting to keep government accountable and the interests of the people of America at heart.

Of course, these are all things that our media is supposed to do. The opposite was none more apparent than in the one sided editorials, the carefully crafted sound-bites, and the unfair, microscopic scrutiny McCain and Palin were under during the election. Governor Palin is still to this day feeling the effects from her decision to run.

For example, during the election if you recall the debate between Palin and Biden it will offer all that is needed to legitimize the argument. The media was so consumed by the site of Palin walking out to her podium and tripping -- or worse drooling, burping, or mumbling her way through responses, that not much attention was given to the real bozo. That bozo is of course, VP Joe Biden. (Who has yet to stop bozoing it up by the way.)

When Biden tried to cement his feel for the average American citizen, he said this"

"Look, all you have to do is go down Union Street with me in Wilmington or go to Katie's restaurant or walk into Home Depot with me where I spend a lot of time, and you ask anybody in there whether or not the economic and foreign policy of this administration has made them better off in the last eight years."

Turns out the restaurant he was referring to closed down 20 years ago.

Ann Coulter points out more in ways only she is capable of

Biden said about Hezbollah: "When we kicked -- along with France -- we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon." Hezbollah was never kicked out of Lebanon.

He continued: "I said and Barack said, 'Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't, Hezbollah will control it.'" This is madness -- Lebanon is not a NATO country, nor had any NATO country been attacked by Lebanon.

Somebody please tell me that Biden wasn't picked for the Democrat ticket based on his knowledge of foreign policy.

[snip]

Biden also gave a long speech at the debate on vice president Dick Cheney's "dangerous" belief that "he's part of the legislative branch." The great constitutional scholar Biden cited Article I of the Constitution as proof that Cheney "works in the executive branch" and has "no authority relative to the Congress." Biden huffily added: "He should understand that. Everyone should understand that."

Palin would have had to deny that Alaska is a state in the union in order to say something comparably stupid.

Article II, not I, describes the executive branch. Someone tell Biden, who is supposed to be a lawyer. Apart from getting the Articles of the Constitution mixed up, what on earth does Biden mean when he says that the vice president "has no authority relative to Congress," apart from breaking ties?

Of course none of this was mentioned, covered, or laughed about. The focus was on Palin, and the criticisms and doubt were exclusively reserved for her. This and on top of hundreds of lawyers and investigators dispatched to Alaska to dig up dirt. Personally, I have no opinion on her as a candidate except to say she is able, likable, and durable. I just used her as the perfect illustration.

We can also talk about the attacks on Senator McCain (the times is now being sued by the female lobbyist) and his wife, Cindy McCain. One very important one comes to mind when the NYT decided to investigate the background of his wife. They even contacted a teenager on Face Book to try and gather leads. As her lawyer stated:

"It is worth noting that you have not employed your investigative assets looking into Michelle Obama. You have not tried to find Barack Obama's drug dealer that he wrote about in his book, Dreams of My Father," Dowd wrote.

"Nor have you interviewed his poor relatives in Kenya and determined why Barack Obama has not rescued them. Thus, there is a terrific lack of balance here.

"I suggest to you that none of these subjects on either side are worthy of the energy and resources of The New York Times. They are cruel hit pieces designed to injure people that only the worst rag would investigate and publish. I know you and your colleagues are always preaching about raising the level of civil discourse in our political campaigns. I think taking some your own medicine is in order here."

With all the bailouts, inside baseball, pet-projects and a hyper-partisan congress in charge, we need accountability and demand objective coverage on our nations leaders. The fact that 4 in 10 Americans cannot trust the media to do so is un-American and troubling.

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