Letters to the Editor
Reilly
Published Letters: 178
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Thanks for linking to the desperately obsequious Halperin/Hewitt episode again
[Read the article: The harmony between the Right and the media]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's good to be reminded that at the time - days before a national election - Halperin was the Political Director of ABC News.
And it's good, also, to try to imagine the hypothetical of a Political Director of one of the networks going on, say, Rachel Maddow's program on Air America a week before a mid-term election and pleading that the "liberal media" was a myth, that they weren't actually "liberal" at all, and that he/she wanted the liberal listeners and especially Maddow to know that he/she was a true liberal and agreed with the liberal viewpoints of Maddow and would just like some credit for being different from his/her phony cohort who only pretended to be part of the "liberal media" while actually doing the bidding of the Matt Drudges of the right.
The Halperin episode actually happened, but the equivalent political opposite is almost impossible to seriously envision.
And if it were to occur the ensuing firestorm would serve only to further cement the myth of the "liberal media" while at the same time sending scores of the MSM rushing into the arms of the right, thereby actually making the myth that much less true while that much harder to openly refute.
The obviousness of the double standard can only be missed by the far right, who are served by it, and the fully assimilated members of the Village, who's very being is predicated on the ability to gloss over their institutionalized biases while proclaiming the collective virtue of media objectivity.
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Read this transcript of Aron Brown's interview of Scott Ritter on Jan. 22, 2003 and see how Brown used a misdeameanor arrest in Ritter's past to exclude him as an anti-Iraq War spokesperson
[Read the article: Interview with Aaron Brown on NYT "military analyst" story]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0301/22/asb.00.html
Brown had Scott Ritter, one of the strongest anti-Iraq War voices at the time, on his show not to allow Ritter to talk about his reasons for standing against the war, but in order to grill him about a Class B misdemeanor which had been dismissed and the record of which had been sealed. And to tell Ritter in no uncertain terms that, regardless of his viewpoints on the war, until he talked openly about this sealed case he would be "radioactive" and wouldn't be allowed to speak about what he felt "passionately about."
Ritter calls it "a dead issue" but Brown demands that Ritter talk about this misdemeanor telling him; "You are radioactive until this is cleared up." and "I submit to you that it is in your interests to explain what happened. Otherwise, lord only knows what people will say."
And later:"Let's talk about the ramifications of it. It is my view, and, certainly I think as far as this program is concerned, and I think others, that you are, in a sense, radioactive, that these charges, I would submit, until they're responded to, will keep it that way. But, in any case, in this moment, for the moment, nobody cares what you think about Iraq."
The conflict of interests that the television Generals had with the Pentagon and the military-industrial complex just doesn't seem to move Aaron Brown to the same extent as Ritter's arrest record did.
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"The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter."
[Read the article: John McCain's serious foreign policy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A perfect fit when Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) said that to Wilmer (Elisha Cook, Jr.) in The Maltese Falcon and a perfect fit now for McNightmare.
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My McCain Nightmare
[Read the article: John McCain's serious foreign policy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I had a bad dream.
My old catchers' mitt grew eyes,
and called me "my friend".
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"That's why people talk about the flag pin absent from the lapel. They wonder if it means something. Not that the presence of the pin proves love of country -- any cynic can wear a pin, and many cynics do."
[Read the article: Brian Williams nominates Peggy Noonan for a Pulitzer Prize]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sure, sitting in church doesn't prove you're religious; you might be thinking about playing the ponies or how that woman in the third pew would look with her dress pulled up over her head or what a droning bore the pastor is, but if you're not in church at all, well people have a right to wonder about you.
Wearing the flag pin doesn't prove anything but not wearing it raises suspicions. This is the essence of Noonan and the right - conformity. Your actions and use of the symbols of conformity may or may not be sincere, but a lack of conformity is the self-indictment that leads others to rightfully demand proof of your various allegiances. "Senator Obama, can you provide us with witnesses and evidence to prove the number of times, if any, when you've gotten misty-eyed over the Wright Brothers?"
And Noonan asks: "But what about Obama and America? Who would have taught him to love it..."
Who would have taught him to love it? Were I come from teaching someone to love something is called conditioning and indoctrination.
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-- quickstrategy: If Noonan actually talked to some of those fine folk at Gate 14...
[Read the article: Brian Williams nominates Peggy Noonan for a Pulitzer Prize]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Noonan brought her own baggage to Microcosm 14 and convinced herself everyone else was carrying the same.
But the whole "does Obama love America enough?" thing is perfect for the Noonan right because it isn't something that can be quantified or verified and the standards can be changed at will into more restricitive sub-sets, the whole point of which is simply to set Obama apart as the Other.
Noonan alerts the Tribe to the danger of the Other, but pretends that her fear-based tribal cues are experienced by the Everypersons of Gate 14. And then Williams, of the Libreal media, helps legitimize her.
By the way, the mind reading thing gave me a good laugh.
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-- GoodCelery! He can tattoo both big biceps arms with a big Valentine Heart.
[Read the article: Brian Williams nominates Peggy Noonan for a Pulitzer Prize]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]And they can "decamp" at his place on the Upper East Side at luchtime for a Peggy Nooner.