That's what I remind myself every time I hear an NPR reporter present some right-wing extremist thought as a mainstream idea (examples: Morning Edition's Richard Harris claiming that scientists are at odds on global warming, Mara Liasson misrepresenting just about EVERYTHING, NPR's repeating of the bogus smears about the Gore family's electricity use, which came from a GOP-affiliated interest group). I write a lot of it off to sloppiness and lazy reporting, not bias -- but have things really gotten so bad that NPR's sloppy journalism is the most unbiased journalism we can find?

The truth is, where is the "liberal" counterpart to a right-wing spin factory like Fox News? Democracy Now? Free Speech TV? Pacifica? Give me a break. Whether you think those news outlets are biased or not is beside the point. They don't have near the reach or influence or authority that Fox News has. When was the last time you saw Amy Goodman as the "liberal" on a show like Meet The Press? People don't even know Democracy Now exists, so they aren't even comparable.

Why did "60 Minutes" cover the Medicare bill story, and how the GOP strong-armed that crappy piece of legislation into being last Sunday?? That story was THREE YEARS OLD!!! Bloggers and activists were screaming in indignation about how Frist kept the vote open for four hours. NOW 60 Minutes decides to cover it? Now that we're past two elections and the public seems to be waking up from it's coma? Give me a break.

The traditional media is dead. NPR is dead. CBS and CNN and Fox News are dead. Turn off the TV, turn on the computer.

That's an absurd argument to begin with. Since when is news supposed to have a left or right slant, anyway? And since we're on the topic, what is especially "liberal" about Barney or Masterpiece Theatre or for that matter Fresh Air or My Front Porch? Conservatives like Elephantman love to make the argument that Fox News is "just a counterpart" to NPR, but news programming is only a small piece of what you find on public broadcasting, whereas Fox News spouts GOP propaganda 24-7. Where is Fox's arts and culture programming? Oh, I forgot, it doesn't exist! And sloppy journalism aside, NPR does not serve as a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party, in fact, thanks to the "loyal Bushies" that were appointed by the Bush Admninistration to the CPB, they've gone overboard to present conservative views and conservative voices on their news programs. Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck have all appeared on NPR shows, many times. Elephant Head, try not to let your ideology get in the way of the facts, it just makes you look silly.

Richard DeVos puts the "zeal" in "zealot." What, did Matthew Dowd "fall in love" with him, too? Dowd's career needs to be tossed in the trash heap, that seems to be where he chucked his principles long ago. But don't cry for him, I'm sure he'll land in a soft place over at Cato or Heritage or Hudson or Claremont. There's plenty of money floating around for people who are willing to sell their soul to the highest bidder.

ABC News White House correspondent Terry Moran said that the press corps left "looking like zombies."

That's press corpse.

24 is the worst sort of "fear porn," and I can't for the life of me understand its appeal. I always thought the writing was terribly sophmoric -- how many times has Jack tried to stop a terrorist with a WMD by simply shouting, "My name's Jack Bauer with CTU!" Yeah, that ought to work. And I just never bought that anyone could have a day that bad; this Bauer clown has had three or four of 'em. Silly TV show preying on the fears of a post-9/11 viewer.

Although Republican Sen. Arlen Specter has had harsh words for Alberto Gonzales today, he says he's not going to call for him to resign. Outside the hearing room a few minutes ago, Specter said that Gonzales' credibility has been "impaired" and that he intends to "communicate" his concerns to George W. Bush.

Oh big shocker! Arlen, the man of a thousand angry words and not a conviction to back any of them up. Way to go, Arlen. Showing yourself to be a worthless waste of oxygen in Congress.

Basically, the RNC just showed us how they intend to "frame" the Democratic candidates: Hillary's a phony, Edwards is too good looking, Obama exaggerates, Joe Biden is a Northeastern Liberal, Chris Dodd is invisible and Bill Richardson ... well, whatever the fuck they are trying to say about Bill Richardson. That one made no sense.

Tenet says he accepted the medal because it recognized his agency's work in Afghanistan but come on, George: you received it at the same ceremony that Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Bremer were given their medals. It was a staged ceremony designed for some feel-good PR, the kind of red-carpet pomp and circumstance event that Dress-Me-Up Commander Codpiece loves to preside over because it makes him feel all Prezuhdenshul and stuff. It was a sham, just like the entire war has been a sham.

Over at Digby, Tristero has a wonderul piece up about the whole sordid Tenet affair. I quote:

This fine open letter protesting Tenet's recent book implicitly makes an important point about redemption and forgiveness. You earn it, you don't cash in on it. And you do so not merely by writing a self-serving book that cashes in on the present (well-deserved) disgust with the Bush administration's bloody and totally immoral war, but you take the symbolic action of returning the medal you received from your fellow scoundrels and you also take the very real action of refusing to profit from your cowardice and culpability. In short, Tenet needs to behave like a truly honorable human being instead of a Bush-league hustler.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/no-prodigal-son-he-by-tristero-this.html