There has been incredible bias in the media and I am so very disheartened by it.

Oh, Starrs, it's so indescribably sad to read about your pain; I mean, what could be more heartbeaking than the terrible disillusionment of yet another honorable, ingenuous, humble Republican patriot who wants nothing more from his country than the kind of fairness and basic human decency he's learned about from his brave role models like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly.

But dammit, Starr, don't give in to cynicism, don't let the bastards win, not when you can do something about it! Plainly, this outrage requires a response that is dramatic and bold, something will leave an indelible mark on the lives of your fellow patriots and hopefully inspire them to comparable acts of great sacrifice and commitment. Here's what you should do: head down to the headquarters of the New York Times one morning with a big bottle of kerosene shampoo, work that Republican head of hair into a good, rich lather, and light that baby up for all the world to see.

That'll really show 'em!!

You want to really pay homage to the greatness and fundamental decency of Paul Wellstone? Get the hell out to the polls on election day along with everyone else you can cajole, coerce, and kidnap, and vote. If it takes 12 hours, if it takes submitting provisional ballots, if it takes calling the cops to clear out Republican thugs at the polling places, vote to preserve what’s left of our democracy and eradicate the disease of Republicanism from the American political process. Vote to make sure the Republican base gets the message in no uncertain terms that this is our country, not theirs, and that there’s a high price to be paid for spitting in the face of this country by trying to install a corrupt, ignorant fascist like Sarah Palin anywhere near the White House.

What struck me as the most salient aspect of the interview was how awful Tom Brokaw was. I’m not saying it’s easy to conduct a confrontational and interrogative interview – it’s a highly elusive skill that takes a great deal of training to pull off without seeming petulant or overly aggressive – but why in Christ’s name can’t these talking heads accept the fact that the nature of the job is to force politicians to account to the public for inconsistencies or contradictions in their prior statements, deficiencies in their suggested policies, and the like, not to make them feel comfortable, or show them you’re their buddy, or commend them on their patriotism, or provide them with an unmediated platform to disseminate uncontested propaganda to the viewing audience. And that, of course, is precisely what’s behind the disgusting and relentless Republican obsession with the ostensible “bias” of the “liberal media.” As always, the positions embraced by the Republican campaign – from its ideologically motivated tax cuts, to its vapid chants of “drill, baby, drill” instead of an actual energy policy, to its assorted character assassinations – have virtually no basis in empirical reality, and can’t possibly be justified in the face of critical scrutiny. Accordingly, what they oppose isn’t “bias,” but the very existence of an independent press that holds politicians accountable using the standards of objective reality. The ignorant bovine herd that is the Republican base really believes the appropriate role of shows like Meet the Press is to serve as some sort of infomercial, to provide a comfortable platform and open mike with which politicians can – as the inhumanly execrable Sarah Palin put it – “communicate directly to the American people.”

Brokaw and the rest have to find a nice polite way of telling Republicans to get fucked, of letting them know they can spend their time in the friendly confines of Fox if they don’t want to explain their positions and answer legitimate questions. Brokaw had to immediately cut off McCain at the knees every time he started babbling and ignored the question he’d been asked. That’s simply what a competent interviewer does. He had to ask him – three or four times if necessary – “Senator, calling someone a ‘socialist’ is a slur. Which of Senator Obama’s positions are any more socialist than your mortgage plan;” “Senator, do you repudiate Rush Limbaugh regarding Colin Powell's endorsement, just the way you demanded Obama repudiate John Lewis?” Finally, what the fuck was with the tribute to McCain’s Vietnam service? It's hard to think of something more outrageously inappropriate, something that more perfectly encapsulates everything deformed and sycophantic about the stenographic media. The place for that crap was either after McCain is dead, or in some cheesy biography after he’s elected president, but not – not – during an interview in the midst of a presidential campaign.