Rick Ellensburg is quite upset that Megan McArdle and Dan Drezner supposedly defended the establishment media in response to another recent Ellensburg screed, which complained that the media was more interested in covering stories like Barack Obama’s bad bowling score or his relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright than the declassification of the 2003 “torture memo” drafted by John Yoo, then a deputy in the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel.
In reality, Drezner and McArdle did not defend the media so much as critique Ellensburg’s arguments.  For example, referring to Ellensburg’s NEXIS database searches to establish counts for various worthy and unworthy stories, Drezner noted:
Comparing NEXIS searches of events where the media cycle has yet to play out with events where the media cycle has played out is a really disingenuous way of making one’s point.
McArdle quoted Drezner, then added:
For a guy who works in the media, he doesn’t know much about his profession, either.
Start with Barack Obama. Americans care more about him than John Yoo because, well, John Yoo isn’t running for president. Indeed, if one in ten Americans had even heard of John Yoo, I would be shocked, because most people don’t care about minor government functionaries, no matter how pivotal their role may be in screwing up the world…
This is not because journalists are insulated from their readers. It is because readers buy more papers with headlines about Jamie Lynn Spears than they do with headlines about Alphonso Jackson or John Yoo, since as I think I just mentioned, they have never heard of either person. You can lead a consumer to stories of vital national importance, but you cannot make him care. You can just make him pass over your paper in favor of the Enquirer.
These critiques sent Ellerson into high dudgeon, with an even higher level of intellectual dishonesty. For example, his summation of McArdle:
She quite obviously has no idea that the memoranda John Yoo wrote — legalizing government torture, declaring presidential omnipotence, and suspending the Fourth Amendment inside the U.S. — are not merely his opinion, but became the official position of the entire Executive Branch of the U.S. Government. She also quite obviously has no idea that he did all of that in close association with the most powerful political officials in the White House, including David Addington, Alberto Gonzales and ultimately Donald Rumsfeld, nor does she have the slightest awareness that the torture-authorizing memoranda were used to brief Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the commander of Guantanamo who then went to Iraq to train the commanders of American prisons in Iraq, including Abu Ghraib, nor that the theories of presidential omnipotence underlying it all remain firmly in place.
And that’s the point. Because we have an establishment media that completely ignores these matters in favor of chattering endlessly about how Obama bowls and the cleavage that Hillary shows, the U.S. Government, at its highest levels, can literally create a torture regime — war crimes by any measure — and explicitly seize lawbreaking powers. And when they do, even people like Megan McArdle — who writes on political matters for the The Atlantic — will remain completely ignorant of even the most basic facts about what the Government did, ignorance which won’t stop her from defending it all and dismissing its significance.
McArdle responded to his misrepresentations, though on the merits it could also be argued that the Yoo story did not get big play because: (a) the DoD’s authorized interrogation methods were actually much milder than those that would have fallen within the scope of the Yoo memo; (b) Jack Goldsmith, who became the assistant attorney general heading the Office of Legal Counsel, rescinded the memo nine months after it was issued; or (c) even Lefty outlets like Mother Jones did not see much news value in it.
But it is McArdle’s first sentences that are the most insightful here:
Mr Greenwald’s anger at the establishment power structure seems to be rapidly transmuting into anger at the non-Glenn-Greenwald power structure…
[quotes Ellensburg]
This quite takes my breath away. Because the only reason that one could possibly disagree with Glenn Greenwald about anything is that WE JUST DIDN’T UNDERSTAND HIM!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!
Brevity is the soul of wit, but it is worth noting that this is not a new development.  For quite some time, Ellensburg’s ego — if rendered visible by Disney animators — would resemble nothing so much as the ginormous Creature from the Id from Forbidden Planet.
It is that massive Creature from the Ego that pushed him (or in his bizzare telling, it could hypothetically have been his boyfriend) to engage in his now infamous sock-puppetry, which was caught largely because his puppets shared the same vainglorious talking points:
Greenwald only has a New York Times Best Selling Book on the Bush Administration and its abuses of power. And he has one of the most-read blogs on the Interent, after 9 months of blogging. And Senators read from his blog at Senate hearings and his posts lead to front-page news stories in major newspapers…
That was in 2006. Since then — perhaps due to his own market-driven need to pander to his nutroots readership – Ellensburg’s commentary has descended into the paranoid style of Brazilian blogging, declaring those who dare disagree with him to be a “plague,” while his failure to single-handedly direct the American media environment constantly heightened his paranoid sense of frustration.
The resulting anger boils beneath his NEXIS counts of the stories he deems over-covered and under-covered. But a graphic example is Ellensburg’s attempt to gin up media coverage of the Rev. John Hagee’s endorsement of John McCain’s presidential campaign. He did an initial piece juxtaposing that endorsement with questions about Louis Farrakhan’s endorsement of Barack Obama. He followed up with a piece on Feb. 29 claiming that the story was picking up steam.ÂÂ
However, as the Daylife chart below shows, coverage of the Hagee story petered out immediately thereafter, as questions about Obama’s 20-year relationship with the noxious Rev. Jeremiah Wright skyrocketed:
Take note that the Wright story is one of those in Ellensburg’s NEXIS counts. Ellensburg never attempts to reconcile that with his cheerleading for the Hagee story, even though (or precisely because) Obama is more closely tied to Wright than McCain has ever been to Hagee. In February, he was hoping that the press would cover this type of story. Now he rages against it – or against the realization that not only does he not sway the media as he imagines he once did, but also that some other wacky preacher did get traction in the media.
One can almost hear Ellensburg’s inner sock-puppets screaming to the media, “Don’t you know who I am?”  Ellensburg is likely terrified of either answer.
Update: HotAir-lanche!
Update x2: Insta-lanche!
Great piece, Karl, but that should be, “Don’t you know who we am?”
Ouch. That was a thing of beauty. Bravo.
I’m still trying to figure out why anyone — even Gleen’s alter-egos — should care what Gleen thinks. Lots of lunatics get the attention of politicians; lots of lunatics get published. Doesn’t mean they have anything insightful to say.
He’s a perfect illustration of a peculiar pathology, Rob. He believes that reality is infinitely plastic to his “inspired,” lawyerly abuse of language. We take a clinical interest in that respect. In the respect that he’s an unreflecting douchebag of the highest order, though, it’s fun to heap abuse on him.
And, as usual, buried in the blizzard of solipsistic outrage is a small but valid point: the media’s coverage is far more oriented toward tits and blood than toward stories that provide information about things of some importance. (Not that tits and blood aren’t important, mind you, but there ought to be a sense of proportion, y’know?) Greenwald and his supporters will now inflate that atom of truth into a billion barrels of bullshit: homeopathic political commentary. The result, of course, is to contribute materially to the worsening of the problem.
Regards,
Ric
She quite obviously has no idea that the memoranda John Yoo wrote  legalizing government torture, declaring presidential omnipotence, and suspending the Fourth Amendment inside the U.S.  are not merely his opinion, but became the official position of the entire Executive Branch of the U.S. Government.
For an attorney, Greenwald certainly doesn’t understand that profession at all either. A memo, written by an attorney, does not leagalize anything. I say again, a memo, written by an attorney, does not leagalize anything.
Government attorneys are often asked by various agencies and officials – both appointed and elected from all branches of government – to research a question of law and state where the law is. They are also tasked with researching a legal position or argument and seeing if that position or argument has any merit at all. Wanting to know if a position is leagally supportable or what actions that can be taken are legal or illegal is perfectly reasonable. In fact, it is commendable that government officials and agencies want to have this information before they act.
This demonstrates the essential dishonesty, the essential shallowness of Greenwald. He knows this, he knows that what Yoo was doing was the correct thing. Yet he cannot argue against Yoo’s research or his conclusions (I note that no one has actually criticized the actual legal research or reasoning in the memo) so he jumps to a conclusion and invites the rest of us to jump with him. He does what he accuses Yoo of doing – making up a strident argument to support a conclusion that he has long held. He offers no support for that conclusion except a passle of purple prose. If I presented a legal opinion memo written as a Greenwald article I’d be looking for new work.
It is probably best that Greenwald is out of the legal profession and into one with less rigorous standards as it is clear that he can’t frame a legal issue or argument properly and would likely do his client more harm than good.
I definitely concur that there ought to be a sense of proportion where it comes to tits, Ric.
But he’s got a point about the bowling though. Torture and bowling should be equal at least.
Shut up, dave.
If you bowl that poorly, there’s probably not much difference, dave.
I definitely concur that there ought to be a sense of proportion where it comes to tits, Ric.
Still shooting the layups I see Dan. C’mon. You’ve got more range than that.
(I’m filling in for thor)
Prostates, too.
And, as usual, buried in the blizzard of solipsistic outrage is a small but valid point: the media’s coverage is far more oriented toward tits and blood than toward stories that provide information about things of some importance.
Too bad he won’t apply that to news coming from Iraq.
Fraught, tight-lipped argument by assertion.
Inconceivable! (about 3:20 into the clip)
– Shorter Karl:
– Fact: The Left, to date, holds no real political power, aside from the barest of a 1 seat majority in Congress. Inconsequential.
– Fact: All they, and their media cohorts can do, is bloviate.
– Fact: Its extremely difficult to play the banjo and type mendacious political hackery, particularly when your psuedo-journo peers are more interested in tits, and your sock keeps slipping down over your pea sized brain.
“The Clintons are Rich!!!!” will undoubtedly soon be at the top of this heap within a matter of a day or two.
he’s wrong about that one…didn’t happen…Americans don’t like to be reminded that they mostly aren’t rich. (but maybe Obama will make it an issue…as I remember the Lincoln Bedroom was or still is for sale.)
B-moan.. How are you? You’re wrong too…as Glenn did also bemoan the fact that news about the Iraq war isn’t covered either.
Rob, have anything to say? (dan: statist!?)
They remind me a lot of a rabid version of Jeep:
http://digilander.libero.it/dicarta/Fumetti/Comics/Popeye/Jeep.jpg
big bang…
honest for a day?
so what’s to worry? Right wingers seem in a tizzy about something???? all the power and no fun?
Slart: democracy now…sad, really kind of like jeff being in martial arts. She means well but could she leaven the sad news with a little humor here and there? She’s respected though surprisingly, maybe because she got there w/o any cosmetics whatsoever. I can barely stand listening to democracy now as it’s so sad. I admit I am not politically correct all the time.
Terri Gross, she always nails the interview…and Bill O’Reilly, once.
No meds this morning, dave?
“Comment by datadave on 4/9 @ 6:54 am #
“The Clintons are Rich!!!!†will undoubtedly soon be at the top of this heap within a matter of a day or two.”
No, dave, the Clintons are rolling in filthy lucre without having done an honest days work between the two of them since they both left school.
dave, $107 million over 7 years.
Yet they “speak for the little guy”, they “feel your pain.”
Fuck the Clintons and fuck you, dave.
Things Glenns Greenwalds are good at: throwing a first-class hissy fit, rabble-rousing, self-promotion.
Things Glenns Greenwalds are bad at: honesty, brevity, making a rational argument, honesty, checking his ego, realizing that assertions aren’t proof, sockpuppetry, honesty, knowledge of the legal system, operating a videoblog camera.
Hey, they’ve built the Perfect Lefty — errrrrr, True Conservative!
“#Comment by cjd on 4/9 @ 7:10 am #
No meds this morning, dave?”
More likey the had a “Maureen Dowd”, which consists of a fistful of oxycondin washed down with a fifth of cheap gin.
Prostates, too.
I stand corrected
Terri Gross nailed Bill O’Reilly? Was this one of those “you guys know you’re still live” moments?
Glenn Greenwald’s Sock Puppetry!
I don’t know if Glenn Greenwald uses sock puppets to defend himself in the blog wars of which he’s constantly engaged. I can point to what others are saying, arguments which make Greenwald look like a hack…
brain…you make that one up? damn, that’s an expensive drink!
– Yes dd, to be sure…
– Got gravitas?
– Just the same, theres only 2 minutes left, and you’re down by 9 points. Your side might want to think about how you’re going to save this mother of all cluster fuck Dem primaries, and stop wasting your time convincing us you’re stupid. We’re convinced.
More than you.
now that’s a Bender!!!
Hearing here all the whining about the Media and Verizon and ATT get most of the money. “Narrowcasting” is serving them very well.
gravitas? is that botox?
“dave, $107 million over 7 years.
Yet they “speak for the little guyâ€Â, they “feel your pain.â€Â
Fuck the Clintons and fuck you, dave.”
can you spare a little change for a Maureen Dowd bender, Sir!
ah, shucks tongue-tied again……catch ya sometime.
Question from a long time lurker-do you people trot out the data daves and nishis in a SERIOUS vein, or is it simply comic relief?
They’re self-trotting, I believe.
Awesome, Karl. You have the poofy-dressed Gleens’ rhetorical wardrobe dead to rights.
It seems y’all are realizing that selling ad space and broadcast time “are what determines the content of our beloved News Media, at least when it serves your agenda.
This is not because journalists are insulated from their readers. It is because readers buy more papers with headlines about Jamie Lynn Spears than they do with headlines about Alphonso Jackson or John Yoo,”
Seconded by Tic Toc;
” the media’s coverage is far more oriented toward tits and blood than toward stories that provide information about things of some importance.”
I was the beneficiary of some Brooklyn Cheers when I suggested Lefty Bias was a myth. They are all about the bottom line. They are a slightly more sophisticated source of information than the producers of ‘American idol’.
Let’s remember this post when the subject of Lib bias in the Media rises with the rest of the saps.
“They’re self-trotting, I believe.”
They always have the trots.
Irongrampa–
You look familiar ;-)
Mikey NTH nailed it (the point, not Terry Gross.) So did Ric but I’m not going there.
What makes the gleens so mendouchy (to borrow from JD) is not only the conclusion devoid of factual foundation but conclusions drawn in the heady world of absolutism and ego mania.
So the gleens start with the contrived brilliance of one memo by a minor DOJ functionary arguing a legal opinion as the divine blueprint for all of Bushitler’s omipotence and criminality. I’m surprised that we can’t actually see the spittle flecks in that heady analysis and I have to fight the temptation to obsessively wipe my screen.
However, it’s not enough to build the fascist fantasy land out of whole cloth. We need to purplelize the prose to an absolutist fever pitch to reflect !1!TEH OUTRAGE!11! and sponge bathe our rapacious egos. Therefore let us write frothing bloviations like the phrases “legalizing government torture, declaring presidential omnipotence, and suspending the Fourth Amendment inside the U.S.” and “the U.S. Government, at its highest levels, can literally create a torture regime  war crimes by any measure  and explicitly seize lawbreaking powers.”
One reads this ranting. self serving nonsense and is left with the desire to run to one’s window to review the goosestepping Young ‘Thuglicans burning copies of the Constitution and gleen’s books, waving banners of Chimpy McHitlerbush and Cheney O’Stalincracker while loudspeakers feedback and then proclaim “All citizens are safe because we’ve listened in and removed the unsafe ones!
It’s unserious to the point of self parody with no self awareness. The fact that anyone (mona?) reads this tripe and and waves their fists is both laughable and pitiable.
#Comment by Semanticleo on 4/9 @ 8:07 am #
Well, speaking of verbal diarreah…..
Cleo
And what has been told you time and again, media goes for scandal first and agenda second. And just because their political agenda is second doesn’t mean it isn’t serviced at any time.
cleo:
I won’t argue the second point but your first point misses the obvious. The MSM tries to sell boobs abd blood while attempting to frame the narrative that is reflective of 80-85% of reporters, editors and producers listing the Dem’s as their voting choice. The fact that this bias doesn’t sell papers is reflected by the sinking circulation numbers and the shrinking NYT stock price, despite shreiking stories and “inside personality” nonsense like bowling scores and power suits.
Both of those approaches can, in most situations, operate in tandem and reflect the overall cluelessness of the MSM.
God help me, but after dogmadave’s nonsense, I was actually glad to see some honest-to-Hillary drivel from Miss Cleo in this thread.
dd, you really need to take notes. She knows how to troll.
“brain…you make that one up? damn, that’s an expensive drink!”
No, it was actually invented by Molly Ivans, another idiotic reactionary leftist hack.
Plus Ellison has enlisted the aid of more surrogates this time around, obviating the dire need for sockpuppetry. One notable surrogate/puppet, Scott Horton, appears well connected with the media, admitting serving as a major source for CBS’ continued hatchet job on Karl Rove in connection with the prosecution of Gov. Siegelman of Alabama. Plus Horton salts his blog postings with Russian, German, Greek, Latin and French poetry and literature. That is fucking classy, but as meaningless and pretentious as the posts themselves.
Horton, like Greenwald, sees republican conspiracy theories everywhere. In fact, I think his latest theory is that the FBI planted a camera in the snootch of that hooker Spitzer met at the Mayflower hotel as part of a republican plot. Or maybe I’m misremembering that part, but it could have happened. Just ask him.
When you go around believing that everybody else is wrong, it’s worth reexamining your evidence and conclusions. Ellensburg needs to lobby for a media czar position in the Obama administration so he can tell the media what to report and what to ignore.
That wouldn’t improve their circulation, but it would prove he’s wrong. It’s not like the Times is doing any better without his advice.
Also, if Greenwald is such an important jouralist and commentator in places other than his mind, why is he never seen on TV or his work published in major newspapers or magazines?
“Sn**tch?” Holy crap! Can you say that an the internet?
“We take a clinical interest in that respect”
Hee. We take a similar interest (and it’s pretty much the only interest in any respect I have with the sockulators.)
But he’s got a point about the bowling though. Torture and bowling should be equal at least.
I agree, data, we should be subjected to 24/7 images of Obama bowling for at least two straight months. Plus, it would be educational.
Dan – Sorry, I’m washing my mouth out with soap.
“It’s unserious to the point of self parody with no self awareness.”
Narcissists generally have little insight.
[…] a follow-up to Karl’s excellent post from earlier today, involving the other PW. It’s an outrage, he tells ya! Temerity! Glenn […]
.” She knows how to troll.”
Praise from Caesar.
– But the nice thing about narcissists is that they seldom talk about others.
– I don’t know. Maybe we’re missing a bet here. Could it be this whole keggling thing is code-speak for a more meaningful dialog amongst the the collective?
– Spitzer : Bowling for bimbo’s.
– Obama : Bowling for Black separatists.
– Hillery: Bowling for Bosnia.
…Then again, is this just the Dems way of lowering already lowered expectations.?
At least we don’t have to wonder whether the Gleens have wet meme-dreams.
We and Gleens against the world
Sometimes it feels like We and Gleens against the world
Should all the Ellers turn their back and walk away
We can count on Us to say
“Remember when the Senate heard you on the floor?”
Yet the net called you a bore…
Wasn’t it nice to be around someone that you knew?
Someone who was smart and and cool and looking out for –
We and Gleens against the world….
This is a serious question: I have not been here regularly for quite a while, and I wonder if I am reading correctly that Greenwald has continued to maintain alternate sockpuppet persons “in all seriousness”, in other words actually pretending they are different people and not in a campy, self-deprecating way?
ps. I probably should have realized I had answered my own question as my fingers were typing “self-deprecating”, right?
BBH:
McCain: Bowling for Sunnis, er, Shi’ites, er, Iran, er, Al Qaeda, er, Muslims, er, Brown People!!!
#39–dan- Familiar? maybe, I’ve lurked this blog for a long time. I don’t comment unless something really intrigues me, being the shy type. Just a fascinated reader, mostly.
I know. I’ve seen you comment before. Some lurkers are lurkier.
Things Glenns Greenwalds are good at: throwing a first-class hissy fit, rabble-rousing, self-promotion.
You forgot UPDATES. He’s good at making sure his posts have 20 thousand UPDATES.
– Obama: Bowling for crazy street peoples.
sherlock, fwiw, all Progressives have sounded the same to me. And, according to their groupthinking PC Cult, they’re even supposed to sound the same.
Leaving aside the question of just who of what “name” will show up to present themselves as a “Progressive” to our/my analyis of what each actually says and does.
Imo, the only real question among them is just who will try -and then succeed – to seize the mantle of “leader”: Gleen, Gore, Spike Lee, Theresa, Rosie, Pelosi, Jimmahi, Kos….., by whatever tactic of crazy will work within the audacious and convenient distortion of reality Group.
#39–dan- Familiar? maybe, I’ve lurked this blog for a long time. I don’t comment unless something really intrigues me, being the shy type. Just a fascinated reader, mostly.
If you’ve commented even once, you (and likely your IP, home addy, Driving License photograph and blood type) are in DanC’s Master Database. There…is…no…escape.
PW does have a little Hotel California about it, no?
#68–Is that a veiled invitation I should hit the tip jar?
The worst thing is Greenwald Readers (WHY? Why, o Gods, do such things exist?) infesting Megan’s blog.
Then again, the idiot commenters she’s attracted since moving to the Atlantic are an ongoing waste of oxygen. The price of fame, I reckon.
One wonders how anyone can actually manage to read a “defense of torture” into what she actually said, with the slightest shred of intellectual honesty. I don’t expect that of Greenwald, from experience, but what’s wrong with the people who read him?
Are they all just idiots? Are they all incapable of doing their own interpretation of English sentences, and just rely on his blindly?
We’re the puppets.
The puppets of sock.
Sigivald wrote:
One wonders how anyone can actually manage to read a “defense of torture†into what she actually said, with the slightest shred of intellectual honesty. I don’t expect that of Greenwald, from experience, but what’s wrong with the people who read him?
Are they all just idiots? Are they all incapable of doing their own interpretation of English sentences, and just rely on his blindly?
No, they’re just lying bastards.
Neither of those words has meaning to that sort.
Gleen and his Gluppets.
A Romance.
Romancing the Sock?
The fundamental problem with the media is shortsighted corporate “cost-benefit analysis”.
Remember “Extra!”s and “scoops”? Me neither — I’m not old enough — but they’re part of the mythology. The lesson learned from those, and from thirty-six point headlines and any number of other things, is that sensation sells more than routine. If you apply sufficient shortsightness to the analysis of that, you get a directive from the stock market: sell only sensation!. So all we get is tits and blood.
As Democrats are currently learning, painfully, bias is real but is secondary. Given a choice between a Republican car wreck and a Democratic one, they’ll go for the Republicans every time, with max emphasis on driver training and possible impairment. (Exemplary case: “Bush AWOL” vs. “Swift Boats”.) Given a relatively minor Democratic car wreck, they’ll ignore it or give it minimal exposure to the extent possible. But if the wreck is spectacular enough, with severed heads and blood running in the drainage ditches, the first imperative kicks in and it ceases to matter whether the drivers were (D) or (R). They’ll still do their damnedest to involve Republicans, but they end up having to report something.
But the cost-benefit calculation is shortsighted because it’s a static analysis. There exists the phenomenon called “acclimatization”. When there’s a constant stimulus present in the environment, we learn to ignore it; the classic case is a smell, but it’s also true of noises and flashing lights. What has happened is that we’ve all become acclimatized to a constant barrage of sensational “news”, and have learned to tune it out; it’s meaningless, and doesn’t affect us in any way, so we ignore it. Ten die in bus crash, ho hum, change the channel, Elaine, maybe there’s something on Fox… and since there isn’t any information available (which might make it worth wading through the half-naked-celebrity stories and Depends ads) there’s no reason to pay any attention at all, or to pay for the “news”.
What Greenwald and his allies are trying to do is shriek loudly enough, to toss a strong enough stinkbomb that it gets past the acclimatization. Unfortunately for them, it is physically impossible to build stronger stinkbombs than, say, Paris Hilton’s publicist puts together routinely. Once in a while a sudden intrusion gets past the filters, like the Wright/Obama story, but something like the “torture memos” that has been drip drip dripped for the last year has no chance.
That isn’t all of it by a long shot, but this is long enough already.
Regards,
Ric
“Tell me, Megan, have the sock puppets stopped screaming?”
Instalanche!!!!!!!Onehundredeleven!!!!
When it comes to tits and proportions in the MSM, I’m in favor of big, symmetrical ones.
As for Cleo, it would appear she’s in training for the Chinese Olympic Point-Missing Event. Looks like potential medalist to me.
– Thats “onehundredeleventy” to you sparky…you forgot the “ty”….newbie!
#78
“Tell me, Megan, have the sock puppets stopped screaming?â€Â
LMAO!
Been there.
You say that because of all the nasty, off-topic comments I’ve left at your blog, right Miss Cleo?
– The SF cops have so altered the torch route in order to thwart the mass of human misfit press whores infesting the scene, at this point they might as well have run the three miles on a treadmill on Alcatraz island, or flown it over the whole mess in a helicopter.
Comment by Big Bang Hunter (pumping you up) on 4/9 @ 3:35 pm #
– Thats “onehundredeleventy†to you sparky…you forgot the “tyâ€Â….newbie!
(A) I am no newbie – by any measure here.
(B) “onehundredeleventy” is far too Hobbitish for me.
How furry are your feet, BBH? Could it be from…Saruman?
I was the beneficiary of some Brooklyn Cheers when I suggested Lefty Bias was a myth. They are all about the bottom line. They are a slightly more sophisticated source of information than the producers of ‘American idol’.
Let’s remember this post when the subject of Lib bias in the Media rises with the rest of the saps.
But that bottom line sensationalism plays right into the Left’s hands. CRISIS IN THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY! GLOBAL WARMING! DEATH ON THE HIGHWAYS! CORPORATE GREED! CRISIS IN OUR SCHOOLS! All used to sell papers, scare the shit out of folks, and encourage the growth of the nannystate. That is why I get all giggly when you guys accuse people of pissing themselves under the bed over terrorism, your whole agenda is driven by fear and helplessness, that it also sells papers is part of the package.
And considering that ‘American Idol’ isn’t selling anything but stars-in-the-eyes-glamor (and whatever the advertisers hawk) there is absolutely nothing in common between them and an actual news report. Or should be.
Network news divisions were not to be self-supporting, they were the price broadcast networks paid to get access to the airwaves so they could broadcast more profitable fare like ‘American Idol’. That is the deal they made to get access to the public airwaves in the United States. They are not a newspaper on the air. The fact CBS is reneging on this and contracting out its news division should be food for thought for everyone. It isn’t 1950 anymore, not even in a 1950 industry such as broadcast television networks.
More likey the had a “Maureen Dowdâ€Â, which consists of a fistful of oxycondin washed down with a fifth of cheap gin.
Or in davey’s case, an “MD with a twist of Daveâ€Â, which consists of a fistful of oxycontin enemafisted down with a fifth of cheap gin.
– Mikey – you have me confused with McGehee. (…and I’d be careful….hes sensitive about his furry legs…you saw what happened when someone mentioned web toes the other day….)
Rick in # 77 gave concise and almost perfect analyzes of the sheep and shepherds’ acquired behavior…
It’s my Scottish blood. You try running kilt-clad over a cold, damp heath for a hundred generations and see what your legs look like.
The other thing that causes shrieks of anguish from Greenwaldia is that they’ve boxed themselves in. It’s a little easier to see in the Hagee/Wright sequence of events, so go back and take another look at the graph Karl posted.
See the little red bump, the last few days in February? That’s when there first began to be a little notice of Obama’s religious beliefs, IIRC (I’m open to correction there; my memory isn’t all that great.) The blue bump following is the blowup over Hagee’s endorsement of McCain, and constitutes a tu quoque campaign designed to divert attention. Unfortunately for them they got a leeeetle too foozyastic about it, and in the process established a Principle: An endorsement from a religious figure means the candidate accepts the religious figure’s teachings in full, unless that candidate not only repudiates the teachings but rejects the endorsement.
The massive red spike following constitutes an application of that Principle to their own favored candidate, and the weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth is palpable (the rending of garments is not to be contemplated.) Hagee’s views, while meeting any reasonable definition of “hateful”, are routine distortions of Christian theology, boringly similar to things that have been peddled by preachers since time immemorial; Wright’s are so remarkably unorthodox, bitter, and challenging as to break through the “newsworthy” barrier even though they come from a Democrat; and the Left’s defense of Obama is massively complicated by the fact that literally anybody can take a Greenwald screed from about March 1st or 2nd, change all instances of “Hagee” to “Wright” and “McCain” to “Obama” in a word processor, and have a decisive refutation of that defense in the Left’s own words.
The “torture” instance is more complex, but ends up the same way. Frustration breeds rage. That’s why Greenwald is foaming at the mouth.
Regards,
Ric
“That is why I get all giggly when you guys accuse people of pissing themselves under the bed over terrorism,”
Because they never pander to the fear of the hook-nosed, evil muslim hordes set to re-invade Spain and Sicily and pollute the local gene-pool with their swarthy skin-tones.
“You say that because of all the nasty, off-topic comments I’ve left at your blog, right Miss Cleo?”
Magoo;
If you think I’m a troll, you shouldn’t be responding to me at all, but a trollop can’t help himself unless he changes the nerve pathways by jerking off left-handed and equalizing those callouses.
#94,
So you are saying that by word matched with deed we can’t judge?
Wasn’t that tried with a certain Austrian Corporal? How did that work out?
Maybe I’m just trying to get you out from under the bridge for some easy target practice.
[…] Karl gets to the root of Gleen’s dimwit psychosis. Category: Fucking Morons ♦ ♦ Show comments here […]
Y’know, Semanticleo, you’d be a lot more interesting — and I’ll bet you’d be net happier — if you ever got out and actually met some of the people you think you’re dissing. “He can’t have won! Nobody I know voted for him!” is an admission of culpable ignorance, not a political statement.
For the record: the convenience store I trade at most of the time, here in a deep-red county of a red state, is run by Pakistanis. They’re good people. On the evening of 9/11/01 a few rednecks showed up at the private home they and a few others use as a mosque, with shotguns pointed outwards as a precaution against misunderstandings. The imam served tea. Nobody else came around.
You’ve got this thoroughly bigoted stereotype embedded in your brain somewhere between the language input and the processor, and when you encounter certain keywords it shuts down the inputs and feeds you bullshit. The only person here who even considers that “hook-nosed, evil Muslim hordes” even exist is yourself, and you need to get over it. You might even have a better chance of getting us over the ho-hums when you start bloviating about “xtian theocons”, “phone call interception”, “torture memos”, or the rest of the list of Greenwaldian IMMEDIATE THREAT!!!!!!!!!S TO PEACE, GOOD ORDER, AND RESPECT FOR THE CONSTITUTION!!!!!! REQURING IMMEDIATE ACTION!!!!!!
Regards,
Ric
Having done in an informal survey of how the prestige press, handles the news, and how the tabloids handle it I’d take the tabloids. The New York Times and the New Yorker, for instance, failed to really consider the context in which these memo’s were drafted. (ie:
the need for ‘deliberate speed’ in the development of
information sources, re the cases of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Mohammed Al Quahtani)The former ran Abu Ghraib stories for 45 days straight, the latter three monthes worth of stories. Interestingly, they were free to run the images, in a way; that they didn’t do for the 9/11 images. Not a few continued errors or unsupportable conclusion (Titan contractor Jim Israel was Jewish; CACI was actually liable for saidconduct) This occurred in the midst of the combined Muqtada Shia and Salafist Wahhabi insurgency. This provided a news peg, that rationalized the butchery of Nicholas Berg in Iraq,and Paul Johnson in Saudi Arabia, and contributed in no small measure, as incitement ot murder American troops. They were woefully negligent in the way those images, were broadcast in the West and in the Middle East. In the West, it produced a degree of de-sensitization; it has also proven so inflamatory that prosecutions on higher officials like Col. Steven Jordan has proven problematic. In the Middle East, it fed what they knew was their sense of
agrievement; and allowed the Arab nation’s to obscure their own faults; projecting it on Americans and Jews.
That conduct, was unworthy of what the NY Times and the New Yorker claim to be. In other accounts, like
the ‘desecrated Koran”, “the torture of Detainee 603”
et al; context was left out; the Birmingham AQ manual
that stipulates claims of false injury, the prospect
that Quahtani, who comes from a long line of Wahhabi
Ilkwan extremists, like the Ghamdi & Uteibi clanswhose kinsman like long ago Shinto Kamikazi’s cause murder and mayhem in Afghanistan, Iraq et al and his ultimate goal; the decapitation of the US Congress (including
Senator Durbin). The rush to declare the US and Israel
as automatically guilty (re; Jenin) and give the
benefit of the doubt, or even rationalize the acts of Wahhabist, Salafi’s Shia militants like Hezbollah et al
#90 BBH – my pardon to you and to McGehee.
But furry feet – brrrr! – that’s just so wrong!
But pointy elf ears? If the chick’s hot…
But no furry insteps!
#99 Ric Locke – Are you saying that something happened in American beliefs between 1964 and 2008? Are you suggesting that this is not the same country now that it was then?
If so, you’re right. As usual.
Mikey,
Well, actually, no. Remember that a majority of Democrats in Congress voted against the Civil Rights Act.
Sometime in ’58 or ’59 my grandmother counseled me on race relations. You must understand, if J. Christ was running as a Republican and S. Mekatrig as a Democrat, she would’ve reluctantly marked the “D” box and excused it as an impossibility that they were who they said they were, as they were in the wrong parties. What she told me was, “You’ve got to be nice to the Negroes. They can’t help it if they can’t do for themselves.”
So no, I don’t think anything substantive has really changed. The rhetoric is altered out of all recognition, but the actual practices have changed marginally if at all.
Regards,
Ric
Y’know, Semanticleo, you’d be a lot more interesting  and I’ll bet you’d be net happier  if you ever got out and actually met some of the people you think you’re dissing.
No shit. I was out imbibing a bit earlier tonight and attempted to chat up a waitress I had met a few years back and hadn’t seen in awhile. In the meantime a lesbian sat down on the other side of her and started hitting on her, also. The waitress eventually moved to the other side of the bar to talk to someone she was actually interested in, and the lesbian and I had a great conversation about baseball and became pretty fair friends. Funny how that shit works in the real world.
it would be interestin to superimpose the date-relevent rcp general election averages in this chart with the hagee/wright news stories, to see if the amountcoverage influenced general election polling.
O up by 1.8%.
:)
it would be interestin to superimpose the date-relevent rcp general election averages in this chart
Maybe you could run them through an adaptive heuristic search algorithm.
Poseur.
Fraud.
Liar.
“Maybe I’m just trying to get you out from under the bridge for some easy target practice.”
Maybe that makes you a troll. But if you’ve been shooting at me, no one has noticed. Check your gunsights.
“Maybe you could run them through an adaptive heuristic search algorithm.”
errm….wat wud be the point of that?
im not optimizing, id be correlating or regressing….are u sure u do this for a living?
lolz!
errm….wat wud be the point of that?
Poseur.
Fraud.
Liar.
Well, Ric we’re going to disagree. By my observations I think things have changed in this country and are much better than they were in the early 1960’s, much better than they were in the 1970’s. It maybe why the rhetoric has grown so shrill for some people. Things have changed so they have to turn the volume up to get a reaction on the little that is left over.
[…] Left largely failed to get the establishment media to buy into the idea that the Rev. John Hagee’s endorsement of […]