Monday, May 02, 2005

conservatives as babies, bullies

Whenever conservatives don't get what they want, they complain. Nowadays they are so powerful that they try to bully too. Chris Mathews once called the GOP the "daddy party" while calling the Democrats the "mommy party." I think it is more like the GOP are the immature but violent teenager party while the Democrats are the know-it-all bookworm party. Guess who gets asked out to prom?

Today is another example. GOP has this imaginary fear of liberal media bias, while at the same time admitting they are not members of the reality-based community. That's why Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, GOP-appointed chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is pushing to get rid of Bill Moyers' show. Sure Bill is a liberal but what about Wall Street Week, Washington Week, Fahreed Zakahri (sp?)'s new show, or Tucker Carlson's (that got moved to MSNBC for lack of $ for el bowtie)? All those shows are center-right. One liberal show that no one watches isn't really going to affect the outcome. Do you think if CNN gave Sean Penn a show that it would really affect news coverage or public perception? I can tell you I don't watch Bill's and I wouldn't watch Sean's. But I do like Moyer's the power of faith series and I would like him to stay on the air.
Mr. Tomlinson also encouraged corporation and public broadcasting officials to broadcast "The Journal Editorial Report," whose host, Paul Gigot, is editor of the conservative editorial page of The Wall Street Journal.
To me, that is going the other way and unnecessarily so.

We already have right-wing pundits on the taxpayer's dole to shill for Bush's aweful programs, do we need public-private ventures like PBS to pay for the right wing noise machine too? The vast majority (somewhere around 95%) of NPR/PBS money comes from private donors, either foundations or individuals, and not your tax dollars.

I for one am tired of the GOP trying to scare the media into softball coverage of this president and this congress via threats to their pocketbooks, their ability to cover the president and GOPers (even to get access), and questioning their objectivity. The media now provide "both sides of the story" that is, what operatives from both extremes want them to say. Nevermind the objective truth, the lies behind the rhetoric or any possibility of distortions or general dishonesty.

No comments: