"Is it so frightening to Liberals that one of their own-The NYT-should have an espoused conservative on staff?"

- siempre

The NY Times is liberal? Oh, I forgot. We're dealing with bizarro world, where CNN (the home of Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, and Wolf Blitzer) has a radical liberal agenda, and NBC/MSNBC (the home of Joe Scarborough, Tucker Carlson, Chris Matthews, Norah O'Donnell, and Brian Willams) is a bastion of extreme liberalism.

Is the rightwing ever going to get back to the reality-based community, or has Karl Rove screwed you guys over permanently?

"The irony of Liberalism is its need to not hear disagreement."

- siempre

The irony of Conservatism is that anyone whose head isn't planted so far up their ass it's wrapped in their intestines is considered "liberal".

I have to say, I'm not familair with the ActBlue website, but just giving it a cursory look right now, it doesn't seem to be working too diligently against Chris Carney. While the site DOES provide links for opposition to him and against retroactive immunity, it also has 'Carney for Congress' links to contribute to his campaign and 'Spread the Word' about him.

I could see where someone not paying too close attention could end up helping him through that site.

Bill Clinton served as president and Hillary ran and (thankfully) lost. That's a pretty low bar for a "dynasty" isn't it?

And last time I checked there were many Kennedys still active in politics. While the Kennedy family actually is a dynasty, their legacy (or dynasty) will not end with Edward.

There's apparently a lot of space to fill at Salon. Are you guys hiring?

I've always felt the whole point of the term "liberal media" is to stifle any criticism of the rightwing's lock grip on the mainstream network and print media. If anyone in the media speaks out against rightwing corruption, the screams of "liberal media" immediately start to shut that person up (as Keith Olbermann – the sole news media liberal – knows only too well). It goes back at least to the time of Reagan, when his scandals were always ignored until they became so overwhelming even "the liberal media" was forced to cover them. Look how many years it took for the fact that Reagan cut a deal with the Iranians to release the hostages in 1980 was even mentioned. I don’t believe to this day most Americans are aware of that enormous act of appeasement and betrayal by their ‘Great Communicator’, yet everyone knows who said “smoked but didn’t inhale”.

Almost as infuriating as their complete impotence as "journalists", is their unrepentant smugness as if they are the definition of excellence in broadcasting. It's like when Bush says something mindfuckingly incomprehensible in its inanity and then he winks to someone off stage like he's just hit a homerun out of the ball park!

They have their mansions. They have their servants. The food is amazing. The wine is au delà des mots. So, if you don't appreciate the heckuva job they’re doing it's because you're just jealous. << clink >> << clink >>

Glenn, as you point out, what’s equally outrageous to their willfully repeating government propaganda without challenge, is that they truly believe that’s what their job is. They can swear on a stack of Bibles that they’ve done nothing wrong because being a message-relayer is how they see their jobs. The gall is that these people receive Edward R Murrow awards and believe they are carrying on in the tradition of great broadcasting.

Like many people yesterday, I saw David Gregory talk incredulously on Hardball last night about how it’s “not our job to debate the White House”. And he is the chief White House correspondent for NBC!! I wrote to him to try to explain (nicely) that it IS his job to challenge the White House and that if he doesn’t understand that he should get out of the business of journalism. I have no doubt that, like David Brooks, he finds such email from the “common folk” charming, but he’s a ‘Professional News Man’, ‘Highly Respected’, and knows quite a bit more than the average American about his role in Washington.

Another horrible aspect of this story is that progressive radio hosts like Randi Rhodes and Stephanie Miller have cited David Gregory in particular as doing a great job in being tough on this White House. If even the few progressive radio voices out there talk approvingly of the job of people like David Gregory, and he’s lavished with praise and monetary rewards by the network (recently receiving his own nightly one-hour “news” program on MSNBC), they seemingly have little reason to change their ways. Where once journalists had a conscience, today’s media stars think finding out the truth and being confrontational is either in bad taste or overreaching in what their job entails.

"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost." - Thomas Jefferson

"The freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable." - James Madison

"Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people." - Justice Hugo L. Black (1886-1971) US Supreme Court Justice

"You put "journalism" on a pedastal. I don't. I view news content as, fundamentally, speech, just like Married With Children or Cops" - cestmoi123

Funny, I always considered myself a 'right-wing hater'.

And a 'racist hater', and a 'militarist hater', and a 'FOX News hater', and a 'Republican douchebag hater', and a 'religious crackpot hater'.

I hate all of America's enemies.