"Just imagine the uproar which would ensue if Democrats unleashed a coordinated attack on a particular Republican leader..."

Still waiting. Admittedly, the idea has appeal. May I suggest a certain reptilian presence whose initials I won't mention, but whose name is Dick Cheney?

"...and the same weekend, one of the network news anchors or a reporter from CNN not only participated in those attacks, but went even further than the most extremist and aggressive Democrat."

Hello, Fantasy Island?

Brit Hume demanded to know. No, not about the administration's flip-flops on Bosnia or the slow progress of Hillary Clinton's health-care reform plan. At a White House briefing last week, the ABC newsman wanted to know why the press had been served cold food -- a mere croissant, yogurt and fruit -- on a flight to New Hampshire aboard a White House charter. Where were those hot cakes and ham omelets, the kind of breakfast served on the press plane before the Clintons purged the White House travel office? Another reporter groused that even the champagne on the flight back had been cheap -- domestic, presumably. White House Communications Director George Stephanopoulos bravely stuck to his story: the reporters were getting the same standard of service they always enjoyed aboard White House charters. The press wasn't buying. "Earth to George!" Hume hooted out.

It's the revenge of the White House press corps. One day last week there were 169 questions about Travelgate -- far more than there were about the prospects for the president's $ 246 billion tax bill up on Capitol Hill.

``````````

Source: Newsweek June 7, 1993

"Don't Mess With the Media"

ELEANOR CLIFT and MARK MILLER

via LexisNexis

I'll leave it to others to determine when "the rest of the world figured out" that Hume is an acerbic, apparently miserable right winger (does that guy every smile?). I'll just note that his ad hominem stab at Murtha character assassination is one of the refuges of a coward and in this case a particular nasty one who is afraid to debate the issues. If, as Hume claims, Murtha is senile, then Hume should invite him on to debate. My money is on Murtha.

Despite his faults, the main reason that Murtha has become prominent is that wise people figure out "a few years back" that he speaks for those who have no voice, yet may have the most important things to say: high ranking military officers in the Pentagon and Iraq. These fine soldiers love the military and are appalled at what the Bush Administration has done to it, so they turn to Murtha to speak for them since they want to remain career officers.

Oh yes, and one of the myths about the critics of bad grammar IS that they know what they are talking about.

reveals what I like to refer to as a "Reality Problem"

http://www.postchronicle.com/commentary/article_21264695.shtml

While conservatives believe that US soldiers willing to fight and die for the rest of us have a higher calling than most of us, Democrats believe they are both stupid and completely expendable. With their actions, Democrats tell us over and over again that they have no use for the US military.

http://newsbusters.org/node/10906

Bravo, Brit. Nice to see someone in the media not bowing down to this despicable caricature of a grossly-corrupt and has-been legislator.

Having recently watched Robert Greenwald's "Outfoxed - Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism", nothing anyone says (or doesn't say) on Fox News would surprise me. Given Hume's week-end performance, though, you have to wonder if perhaps his contract will soon be up. If so, I'm betting he just got himself one helluva raise.

There's been talk recently of Congress reinstating the Fairness Doctrine, something that's been tried by the Dems several times since Reagan repealed it in 1987 but each time they lacked the votes. (Isn't it funny how the right consistently screams about the MSM's liberal bias but then scream even louder when reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine is even mentioned ??) I can't imagine that the Dems would have any more success this time around but if/when the Democrats win BIG in 2008 I'd love to see the Fairness Doctrine near the top of their agenda. It might not change the nature of Fox News but at least they'd have to start labelling their programming as entertainment instead of news!

FOX really thought they were providing a balance to the rest of the "leftist media". Providing a place for discontented conservatives to go.

Then they started going overboard with it. Then they started actually thinking that cable ratings meant they had attracted a majority of America and American opinion, when in reality they are speaking to a tiny minority. An aged minority at that.

Then the 2006 elections occured. Then they started seeing the writing on the wall. One more really bad day in November 2008, and their preferential status with government is completely finished. So they have to rachet up the rhetoric and partisanship even more. What else can they do except try to alarm their audience, the GOP base.

The thing I don't understand is how FOX can sit there, evidently unconcerned or maybe even flattered, after Condi Rice's accidentally recorded lovey-dovey comments about all of her favorite journalists at FOX.

If I worked at FOX and was a staunch conservative I still would have thought---My God, these people think we are their God damn poodles.

Just imagine the uproar which would ensue if Democrats unleash a coordinated attack on a particular Republican leader, and the same weekend, one of the network news anchors or a reporter from CNN not only participated in those attacks, but went even further than even the most extremist and aggressive Democrat.

Hume's foaming at the mouth renders him less effective than he would have been if he had simply arranged for his sentiments to come out of someone else's mouth. As the "center right" (please!) finds itself sliding from the pinnacle of power and corruption, its "respectable" spokesfolks find it hard to retain the smug, assured, privileged pose that they adopted when they believed that they would control the world forever. Now they're joining their less reputable colleagues, squealing from the margins.

I don't know why they have become so plaintive and desperate so quickly. The sane majority hasn't succeeded in impeaching the president or stopping the war, and the Decider is still thumbing his nose at us from the driver's seat, rocketing toward Iran. But Murtha must be on to something, because the attack on him is desperate, irrational, and entirely disproportionate to his actions. If I had to guess, I would suggest that Murtha must be speaking for a sizable and growing faction within the military that is trying to put the brakes on the neocon juggernaut.

What do you do if you see that disaster is waiting, jaws agape, if you don't relent? You proceed as Murtha has. What do you do if you are determined to press a rolling disaster to its logical conclusion? You proceed as Cheney and Bush have. What does Hume have invested in this?