Media
Watch Memories 2001
What separates
this “year in review” from the lists you’ll find
elsewhere is that it ISN’T a list!!Rather, it’s a
compendium of excerpts from “real time” reports.
It’s also an example of how everything is
“relative.” While tracking the
media, the spin was obvious, but it’s evident that before
9/11 there was still some dissent; furthermore, the Bush
presidency was losing its glow. Contrast the coverage then, as
biased as it was, with the state of the media today. It’s
hard to believe it has sunk even lower—but it has!!
Instead of
offering the usual New Year’s greeting, I’d like to
offer a wish coined by Dale Reynolds who does commentary over at
RadioLeft.com. Instead of a “Happy New Year,”
I’d like to say: “Have a DIFFERENT New Year.”
PART I: JANUARY
– APRIL 2001
(Click
Here for PART II )
1) January 20,
2001 .....(a pre-MW commentary)
Reflections on
the Day of Infamy--Inauguration Day…A lot of the media
downplayed the protests as being from various 60's groups rather
than ordinary citizens. Larry King, new spokesman from the
Bush people, had Ben Bradlee and wife Sally Quinn from the
Washington Post on. Bradlee, in typical smug fashion that
we will be seeing often now, commented that he wasn't impressed
by the demonstrators--they seemed "shabby" and they
"just went home right after the events." Well, wouldn't
you seem "shabby" if you had sat on a bus for hours and
then were freezing your butt off?? Hugh "Snidey"
Sidey, the analyst that they resurrected from somewhere,
commented that "reporters wouldn't have to be looking at
everything," this after Sally said "They're in and it
will all be quiet and calm." And this after saying that the
presidency will be less about "him"/the president and
more about the people.” My comment: it was about
"him" because the GOP and press made it about
"him." Comment 2: It's up to us to make sure it's
NOT quiet and calm....
2) February 6 (a
pre-MW commentary)
James Carville
Explains Florida to Chris Matthews… Chris Matthews showed
the extent of his sell-out to the GOP tonight as James Carville
confronted him over and over again on the subject of Florida.
Matthews had the gall to ask Carville "When are you people
going to stop complaining about Florida?" Carville
went ballistic--"We're never going to stop until we know the
truth. Very soon we'll be finding out a lot things." …He
then said that Gore won Florida-"and you know it, and the
media know it, and Democrats know it"--and Scalia stopped
the vote because he and the GOP knew that Gore won Florida. He
then said, several times, as Matthews tried to again say that
Democrats should stop talking about Florida, that "You
(Matthews) HAVE NO RIGHT to tell people who worked their hearts
out that they shouldn't know the TRUTH!" …Then
Matthews said, "I thought elections were about governing the
country" to which Carville replied, "NO, they're about
knowing the truth!"
3) February 15
(pre-MW commentary)
Valentine's Day
showed no love to Bill Clinton. O'Reilly was positively vicious.
When Ron Brown Jr. finished up his comment with "When will
all this investigating end?" O'Reilly shot back "When
there's nothing left to investigate and he's in jail."
I just got sick to my stomach. Fair and balanced… And the
next story? The "booty" the Clinton's took with
them....I turned it off.
4) March 3
Edition
When Geraldo
came on he recounted the shock of staffers about the pardon, but
also said that Lewis Libbey, VP Cheney's Chief of Staff, had just
said at the hearings that he did not believe the case against
Rich was even a crime!!! Geraldo called it
"devastating" to the GOP going after Clinton, a major
embarrassment. Ed Rollins disagreed, but John Dean said
that in relying on the tax case, Libbey did agree with the
Clinton!! Tavis Smiley also felt it was an embarrassment
and said he never saw a group overplay its hand like the GOP did.
Tavis then mentioned Burton and his holier than thou attitude and
his own affairs!! Tavis went on to say that Clinton hasn't
done anything different from anyone else. Tavis was absolutely
brilliant as he described the piling on by the GOP. Geraldo
concluded that this "ain't going anyplace" and
then heatedly riffed-- "Clinton gets smeared, then proven
innocent in a specific case, and yet on the FOX channel he's
still smeared?? IS THIS FAIR??? ... I think the mainstream
media--I don't even want to use the verb--is sick!"
5) March 6
Edition
All through this
photo op with the Congressional leaders, esp. Sen. Grassley
hanging on his every word, Bush sat hunched over with his tie
hanging down in front of his crotch. Think back to the
cover of Rolling Stone which pictured Bill with his tie hanging
in the same general area. Remember the jokes and the
comments about the sexual message being sent?? So, why aren't we
hearing the same about Shrub's sexual image?? No, I'm not
joking....
6) March 9
Edition
At least I did
get some laughs when James Traficant (D?-Ohio) showed up with
Paula "The Hyena" Zahn. This guy loves the Bush
tax cut and says the Democrats have "abandoned the American
worker." Let's see, this week we've had a limitation
placed on state worker disability claims, a rollback of the
ergonomics rule, a suspension of the rules which require firms
bidding for government contracts to follow environmental laws,
affirmative action, etc., all at the hands of the GOP.
So, tell me, James--is that extra topknot of hair sitting on the
top of your head weighing on your brain just a smidge too
heavily???? Apparently, Bill Press was thinking the same
thing--when I caught Traficant later on The Spin Room, Bill
interrupted Traficant's ravings about Democrats, taxes, and his
probable indictment to query, "May I ask you a personal
question? Is your wife a hairdresser?"
7) March 16
Edition
Paula "The
Hyena" Zahn opened with the question "Is GOP Infighting
Putting President's Bush's Agenda At Risk??" citing moderate
Republicans being ticked off at Bush catering to conservatives.
Al D'Amato doesn't think it's fatal, but Sen. Jeffords (R) calls
it a "chink in the armor." Peter Fenn, Democratic
strategist, called it a "bad start," sucking up to oil
and coal interests with more bad environmental stuff coming, and
leaving Christie Todd Whitman twisting in the wind. Zahn
said she had had Christie on only last Friday when she said the
C02 ban would be going forward. Cliff May, GOP strategist,
said "What we see here is LEADERSHIP!" He did the
scare tactic line on increasing energy prices and said we breathe
out C02 and there is no good reason to regulate it because it is
not a terrible gas! Whew, Cliff!! So much stupidity
in one breath!! Zahn played an ad attacking Olympia Snowe
for her opposition to the tax cut without a trigger, which Fenn
thought was really stupid, as did Al D'Amato. I mean, let's
turn off the moderates...
8) March 20
Edition
The Capitol Gang
lived up to their name this week by FINALLY ganging up on the
Bushies!! Guest Sen. Jennifer Dunn, R-WA looked downright
wan as she confronted the "talking down the economy"
issue by calling Bush "realistic and candid." But
Margaret Carlson said that Bush talked about being worried about
"portfolios," a term not often heard at the Legion
Hall…
When asked about
the Dems blaming Dubya for talking down the economy with
"gloom and doom," Dunn sounded like she was at a
revival meeting when she responded unconvincingly that "The
President had GOOD NEWS, and it's his tax cut program."
…The normally effervescent Mark Shields suddenly got snappy,
snarling at Dunn "You know last fall they (the Bushies) were
saying the economy was in trouble--it was a CALCULATED, POLITICAL
MOVE!"
Dunn retorted
that "The economy started going downhill a year ago when the
antitrust attack on Microsoft began!" Shields sneered,
"And that's why Gore lost Oregon and Washington??"
In the face of the newly sarcastic Shields, Dunn went back to
Jimmy Carter, saying that "MALAISE is also undermining the
economy now!!" (Author's Note": I didn't realize
"malaise" had that long a shelf life!) Well,
neither did Shields-- he went ballistic, exclaiming "Let's
blame Roosevelt!! and as they cut to commercial, you could hear
him chortling, "Were you at Yalta???"
After the break,
Shields introduced the clip from 9/29/00 showing Bush making his
C02 pledge and then one of Whitman repeating it 5 months later!
Carlson said it was a ploy to appeal to moderates and
independents to get their votes and now it looks like he's not
keeping his promise. Margaret went on to say that "you
can say Clinton pardoned Rich because of money that Denise Rich
gave, but then Bush Buddy Lay, the Chairman of Enron, gave $1
million dollars and the coal industry gave $3 million. So
they win--it's just rolling over for the industry!"
9) March 27
Edition
Later, Tim
(Russert) and Doris (Kearns Goodwin) reminisced about Ford's
pardon of Nixon which, on looking back, now seems to be OK. Doris
mused "What would have been accomplished by destroying him
(Nixon)? Why not use some of the energy of the man? He became a
foreign policy expert and wrote all those books!!"
Hey Tim and Doris--how about the destruction of Bill Clinton??
How about all the good Bill could do for the country if you
weren't destroying him RIGHT NOW??
Doris and Tim
then discussed how Bush's style is so much different than Bill's
style. It all came down to Doris saying that sometimes
working to midnight doesn't always result in good work being done
at all, so the implication was that even though Bush acts like he
doesn't work hard, he is probably doing just as much if not more
than what Bill ever did!!! See how it works? Take a
Bush negative, compare it to a Clinton positive by making the
Clinton positive into a negative and VOILA, you have a Bush
POSITIVE!! Phew, now that's what I call "historical
revisionism," courtesy Doris Kearns Goodwin, with an assist
from Tim!
10) March 27
Edition
On The Edge,
Sen. Fred Thompson was on. He's been all over the tube the last
couple of weeks, notably as a substitute host on Hardball. Zahn
said she might have him on as guest host sometime--great! Why
don't CNBC and FOX simply set up shop in the Republican Senate
Caucus room?? Because by Thursday (3/29), Hardball had been
hosted by Former Sen. Alan Simpson (2X), Thompson (2X), and
Gergen (2X) with an extra Gergen appearance on Friday (Hardball
had been pre-empted one day by a stock market report). So
out of 8 shows, 7 were hosted by Republicans!! How's that
for fairness in the media????
11) April 2
Edition
On Saturday,
3/31, FOX showed "O'Reilly vs. Carville: Mano a Mano in
Monterey" hosted by the slimy Shepard Smith. The whole
thing looked like a tea party. Leon Panetta was the
moderator, throwing out questions for O'Reilly and Carville to
answer. Panetta was jolly and laughed a lot, probably
because he's been out of Washington for awhile. I switched
channels back and forth but picked up a few good Carville
comments. When asked if he was embarrassed by Gore losing his
home state: "About as half as much as by Bush not
carrying the whole country." How is Bush doing? Carville
said it depended on how you viewed the issues and "Back to
my main point: it matters! We're gearing up--people are
going to find out he's not what they voted for--some will think
he's doing better, some will think he's doing worse." Another
comment: "In the end, being President is about
judgment."
12) April 17
Edition
I stopped by the
Spin Room where in celebration of salmonella, arsenic and other
Bush atrocities against the consuming public, the guest was Eric
Schlosser, author of "Fast Food Nation" who informed
the audience that the burger of today "is a very different
burger than 25 years ago." As Bill Press scarfed down
a MacDonalds, Schlosser reported that the meat suppliers now mix
together thousands of cattle and if there's one infected steer,
it contaminates everything. Oh, and there's manure in the
mix, too. Why? Deregulation and lack of oversight! The
Federal government is apparently not empowered to actually recall
meat--they can recall a stuffed animal, but not a real cow.
This sounds like
exactly the sort of thing the Bush Administration will continue
to embrace--this along with the "natural flavor" found
in the fries. This "flavor" is actually made by
petrochemical outfits, who are surely "friends of
George." And let's NOT turn our attention to the meat
plant workers, who, according to Schlosser, work in dangerous
conditions, in far away rural areas away from the media, for low
pay and who are getting injured everyday…
----
…Don Hewitt
of 60 Minutes then came on (The Edge) to push his book "Tell
Me a Story" and pooh-poohed the idea that the public
doesn't trust the media. He said newspapers are now copying
cable news, which is just a business and doesn't owe anybody
anything. He figures there will be one network broadcast
someday as a result of 24 hour cable news and that some big
market will drop network news entirely since local stations have
all the feeds and can do it themselves.
So, it looks
like news coverage will continue to slide downhill, folks. THEY
DON'T OWE US ANYTHING! Something to look forward to.
13) April 27
Edition
(Spin
Room)…Then the talk turned to the mess in Texas as reported
by the NY Times. Bill Press ran down the list of how the GOP and
Dems were taking steps to clean up the mess by raising taxes,
passing tougher environmental laws, changing Medicaid laws to
allow more poor kids qualify, and putting more money into
schools. Press ended by commenting "If we had known
what a bad governor George W. Bush was, we would never have
elected him...of course, we DIDN'T elect him..."
---
I then checked
15 minutes into the CNN chat with John King, and found that Bush
looked embalmed and that his nose seems to have grown, a la
Pinocchio. By the way, wasn't John King the guy who was
supposed to be so incensed about CNN's election coverage that he
was going to leave? What happened? Did they add a few
zeros to his paycheck??
I did catch one
especially illuminating Bush interlude. King asked what
Bush liked about the job and Bush said, "You have to be
decisive. You have to make decisions." Really!
Bush continued with "I like to be in the White House and I
like to go to the Oval Office." That's about as
eloquent as it's going to get, folks...
---
Later, I checked
the comedy beat to break the monotony. The Daily Show
continues to be one of the few places where you get any relief
from Bush Worship. Jon Stewart reported that
"Americans have given Bush his highest poll numbers yet,
showing that people answering the pollsters suffer from mild
retardation!" They did a great bit on all the things
Bush hasn't accomplished. At the end of the show, the recap
was "100 Days--That's almost as many as the number of
Dalmatians on the tape he (Bush) likes to watch..."
Meanwhile, Bill
Maher was on with Jay Leno. Leno kept on trying to get
Maher to agree that Bush's handling of the China incident was
boffo. I was surpised at Leno for saying that getting the flight
crew back was he most important thing! Maher acerbically
repeated his line that these people are in the military are
supposed to be in dangerous situations and staying at the actual
Hainan Hilton and sharing a razor isn't exactly like John McCain
being held in Viet Nam for 5 years at the "Hanoi
Hilton." Maher was in a very grumpy mood right from the
start when Leno asked him about Bush's first 100 Days--"I
think he should quit," said Maher.
Part II: May
– September 2001 Click Here
Home
Copyright 2001,
Gloria R. Lalumia