(This was the final edition of the Buzzflash Media Watch...It appeared on the morning of September 11, 2001 just before the World Trade Center was struck. It reflects the fact that, as low as it was, there was some political discourse on the airwaves at the time when Bush's poll numbers were dropping. Who wouldn't be nostalgic now for those times?--GL)
MEDIA WATCH FOR SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
ALERT!! FOX NEWS CHANNEL is no longer just “fair and balanced!” It is now also “The Network America Trusts!”
MEDIA WATCH APPETIZERS
Friday—Sean Hannity pays the proper respect to the owner of Gorgeous Strippers Plus; Laurie Dhuie, that FOX blonde with the wet lips, delivers the sleaziest “report” of the week—introducing the Chappaqua teen sex party, she uses a clip of Hillary and says the party was “just down the road from Bill and Hillary”; remember the Clinton medical privacy rules? Well, Eleanor Clift on the McLaughlin Group says the Bushies looked at the polls and decided against a rollback—are you SURE, Eleanor?? I thought Bush NEVER looked at polls!;Is Charlie Rose going to turn into the next Juan Williams??
Saturday--C-Span shows tapes of the “Fireworks” State Dinner—is the Clintons’ “arrivals area” a First Amendment zone?? Also, see the classy actions of some of the guests!
Monday—Could I be dreaming? On Hardball, Rich Lowry, conservative darling, saying that a strict constructionist would NOT have wanted to see the Supreme Court intervene in the election?? Katrina Vanden Heuvel says the country was “betrayed” and Chris Matthews still can’t face the truth; Geraldo does one of those “live stunts” again, this time with the Condit grand jury letter—the envelope please!; On Hannity & Colmes, Fmr. Labor Secretary Lynn Martin says Bush has to be careful about “not talking like an accountant,” Pat Buchanan says we’re”l osing our country” to illegals, and a Foxnews.com writer actually has some VERY nice things to say about Chelsea Clinton as he compares them to the Bush girls; The Edge still doesn’t seem to have a host, but Steve Forbes calls Alan Greenspan the “villain” in the economy; The Daily Show is back from vacation—somehow, when Jon Stewart says “We’re doomed,” I don’t feel so alone…
Friday, September 7
Hannity & Colmes—It was one on one, Hannity versus Anthony Agnello, owner of Gorgeous Strippers Plus, who furnished a stripper at a party with 15-year-old high school kids at a Chappaqua, NY party with the parents present. You would have thought he’d be screaming his head off in that morally outraged sort of way he’s so good at. Instead, Hannity expressed his dismay with the utmost respect—no screaming, shouting, NADA. Heck, if he handled some of his Democratic and women guests that way, he’d lose his job!! But behind the “dismay” Hannity was grinning from ear to ear and calling the strippers “girls.” It’s that moral superiority, you know…
The Edge—Sub Laurie Dhuie of the very shiny lips did Condit, the high school party, and asked if Jesse Jackson was “playing the race card by exploiting slavery” by asking for “reparations.” I was just about to tune out, when Dhuie introduced the Condit panel—among them the indefatigable Julian Epstein; the obnoxious Cliff May; Ellen Ratner, who said Condit was railroaded by the media, which raised Dhuie’s ire; Flavia Colgan, a purported Democratic strategist who wants Condit out because he’s taking everyone off message about the budget; and a new face, Kim Seragin, another blonde GOP clone. Through all this nonsense, NOT ONE apparently was well-enough informed to cite the layhers of obfuscation by the Levys and their lawyer Billy Martin that have been exposed in Eric Boehlert’s excellent article at Salon.com http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/09/07/martin/index.html and the series at the Daily Howler.
*Later, I caught a blurb for the upcoming segment on the teen sex party. In a TOTALLY SLEAZY example of FOX’s tawdry CRAP, a clip of Hillary Clinton was shown as Dhuie said, “A teen sex party in Hillary Clinton’s neighborhood…” and then went on to ask how the parents should be punished. (In a later plug, Dhuie cited “sex acts that would make you blush,” which is laugh coming from her since she dolls up in sequins and has hosted at least two shows on sleazy sex for the weekend FOX Report.) Anyway, the use of Hillary’s image in a blatant, openly manipulative display surpassed practically anything I’ve ever seen on FOX! Then, as she introduced the story, she said it was “just down the road from Bill and Hillary Clinton!!” How low can FOX go??? I shudder to think what can come next…
The McLaughlin Group—The panel discussed privacy. I came in midway during a segment on privacy involving health records. Eleanor Clift said the Clinton rule doesn’t allow the health provider to share information outside the health network, is narrow, and is only a start. Jerry Berman, Center for Democracy and Technology, said there could be laws preventing information from being passed to places the patient didn’t authorize, i.e., to mortgage companies. Berman said there is more protection for videos than there are for medical records. Eleanor said the Bushies were going to roll back the Clinton rules, looked at the polls, and decided against it when they saw the reaction they would get. Oh, I forgot—Bush doesn’t look at polls!!
*Supreme Surprise—the Supreme Court threw out a conviction of a man who was growing pot in his home because the authorities had used heat-finding surveillance, which found grow lights in his home. Tony Blankley said the government had no right to have photos of everyone and this better be included in the 4th Amendment. McLaughlin predicted that the U.S. would have photo identification files on everyone within 10 years.
PBS/Charlie Rose—Charlie Rose discussed media mergers with a Merrill Lynch analyst, who said that FOX was the best run operation around. She was foaming at the mouth over possible mergers and buyouts and didn’t seem a bit upset at all that we are being fed “information” by only a few big players. Charlie kept calling all the bigwigs by their first names, i.e., “Rupert,” “Michael,” etc. It made me remember that while Charlie does his “highbrow” stuff on PBS, during the week he’s over at CBS. I’m wondering if Charlie will go the way of Juan Williams, who started out as a panel member on the PBS news shows like the News Hour and Washington Week in Review and on NPR, then began double-dipping over at FOX. Money must be much better at FOX, because Juan finally left NPR last week and hasn’t been seen much on the TV side of PBS either, lately. In time, he’s supposedly become the counterpoint to the wingnuts at FOX, which means he’s not really a liberal voice, but someone who usually agrees with Hume, Barnes and the like and only occasionally veers toward center. By the way, his own sister believes he’s sold out, as reported recently over at Media Whores Online.
Saturday, September 8
C-Span/CNN Headline News—from the sublime to the ridiculous. Headline News had a clip of President Clinton over in Australia for a fundraiser. It showed him in casual dress, waving, relaxed and looking just great!! By contrast, I endured some of the blow-by-blow coverage of Wednesday’s infamous bison State Dinner at the White House. Although I didn’t stay to see if they showed the notorious “Fireworks for the Well-Connected Only,” I did get to see a blowsy looking woman at the front of the receiving line chewing gum and another outside near the portico columns rubbing out a smoke in one of the nearby urns. What CLASS!! Bush looked like he was dressed in a tux about two sizes too big for him and Vicente’s bride wore a dress so tight she could hardly get up the stairs. Meanwhile, a couple of callers had the temerity to inquire about how the common man gets an invite to these affairs since we pay for them. Capricia Penavic Marshall, the Clintons’ social secretary from 1997-2001, said that if a member of the public wrote requesting an invitation to a State Dinner, it was considered, but since the rooms only hold so many, the Clintons would often have folks come to the arrivals area. No word on if the Bush’s would let anybody near the arrivals area—is it a First Amendment Zone???
Monday, September 10, 2001
Hardball—Rich Lowry was on with Katrina Vanden Heuval to discuss the election and the Newsweek story. Rich Lowry said a strict constructionist SHOULD NOT have wanted to see the Court intervene. Katrina said the Newsweek article showed that the country was betrayed, the whole thing should have played out in the political arena, and that a few of the Justices should have recused themselves. Creepy Chris Matthews tried to play “what if”—-what if the Republican legislature had elected its own slate of delegates to the Electoral College, blah blah blah. It seems that Chris doesn’t want to acknowledge the simple fact that Gore, the country, and the world was ROBBED of a legitimate, intelligent, and visionary leader.
*Mike Barnicle spoke about an incident in Allendale, N.J., in which senior girls hazed sophomores trying out for field hockey. Barnicle took great umbrage, and rightfully so, then said that the parents’ defending their kids and whining was typical of what’s going on in society—everybody feels that the rules aren’t for them! Coming after the segment on the election, my first reaction was—yeah, and the so-called “President” in office also hasn’t had to play by the rules all his life, including when it comes to an election!! And Mike Barnicle himself seems to have been “rewarded” for when he’s not played by the rules of professional journalism. Plain, simple, brazen hypocrisy at its best!!
Rivera Live—Geraldo continued the Condit circus by getting Anne Marie Smith’s lawyer, Jim Robinson, and Larry Klayman to open and read a letter on-air from a grand jury in Stanislaus County, California saying that the charges of “suborning perjury” is out of their jurisdiction. It was sort of like when Geraldo opened up that safe or whatever it was on live TV. Klayman, who looks very thin, says they can go to other jurisdictions and try again, since by saying the charges are not in their jurisdiction, the grand jury has given the complaint standing. Oh, boy—Klayman says it’s the will of the people to have action taken so he and Robinson will be searching for other juries to take up their cause since there were “political pressures” in Stanislaus County. Mark Geragos said the whole thing is a joke.
Hannity & Colmes—Clinton economic advisor Gene Sperling explained that the Bushies screwed around with $33 billion. By breaking his promise not to touch Social Security, Sperling said it hurts our long-term economic climate. Hannity went through the litany of Dems who had voted to dip into Social Security in past years, calling them “duplicitous and hypocrites,” but also failed to mention that since an agreement by both parties, they haven’t dipped into it. Former Labor Secretary Lynn Martin was dragged out from somewhere, said that we go in and out of trust funds all the time, but she said it was dangerous for Bush because for a majority of people over 76, especially women, Social Security is their main source of income—and she added, “You have to be careful not to talk like an accountant, you’re President,” and “he will be careful.” Yup!
*Pat Buchanan said Vicente Fox was arrogant and said Bush probably told him privately that there wouldn’t be any amnesty. Pat is associated with something called The American Cause—whatever that is. Pat agreed with Allan Colmes that Bush “is terrified that someone will beat him up in the Hispanic community like he is in the black community.” Pat wants all illegals deported and said, “We are losing our country.”
Larry King Live—John Edward was on to talk to the dead. I’m a sucker for John Edward and catch his show “Crossing Over” quite often. I’d rather listen to him relaying messages from the other side than watching what’s being dished out on this end!!
Rivera Live revisited—just in time to get a real barf event, with Tom Squitieri opining that the likes of Larry Klayman, Jim Robinson, and Mark Geragos, and even Geraldo himself, were driven to give a “voice to the voiceless.” Geragos I can buy, but Klayman??? No way!!
Hannity & Colmes revisited—Columbia University Professor Kenneth Jackson was on to discuss the poor knowledge of history among American students. Hannity had to blame the teachers’ unions, but Jackson said there was plenty of blame to go around. (As a former teacher with a mother who was a history teacher, I can tell you that students who come in drunk to class or are working or who just don’t care are the biggest part of the problem!!) Then a segment on Ritalin, and then, FINALLY, the long awaited segment on Chelsea Clinton!!! She’s fair game now!!
Fox News.com columnist Roger Friedman was on to discuss how British tabloids are going to pony up $140,000 to Chelsea’s former boyfriends to get them to talk. Friedman said she’s been perfectly behaved and said, “There’s no comparison between the Bush girls, even Lauren Bush the cousin, and Chelsea Clinton, who’s cast herself as an intellectual and isn’t partying all night long.” Friedman says he’s met her several times and “she’s a very nice girl.” I was waiting for Hannity to jump in, but he didn’t—amazing! His new daughter should turn out as well as Chelsea!
Fox News Break—actually reported-- Waterbury Mayor Giordano’s being hit with more sex charges—his 9 and 11 girl cousins. I didn’t catch the party, though…:).
Fox News Edge—so, it’s not The Edge officially anymore, and Linda Vesper was on. Looks like John Gibson isn’t the new host??? It was Condit, of course, but only after the economy with the big question about who’s to blame, Clinton?? John Podesta was on with Steve Forbes.
Podesta said Bush has to get things on a better fiscal footing, particularly in the out years, with those big tax cuts looming. Forbes said the “villain” was Alan Greenspan for tightening up and now not pumping more money into the economy. He said the tax cut should be moved UP to right NOW! Vesper kept saying it was a “boom-bust cycle” and didn’t have anything to do with Bush. Susan Page of USA Today said it’s mostly about politics and Vesper said the Dems would look like whiners if they didn’t have a plan. Podesta said they had a plan that worked for eight years and Bush has done a U-turn on it that explodes out in later years.
The Daily Show—Thank goodness, they’re back! Opening salvo: “Are you employed?? Then you’re the only one!!” Jon did a scathing bit on Bush, the economy, and “leadership,” showing a clip of Lott, Hastert, Bush, and Cheney marching up to the podium and laughing followed by Bush declaring how worried he is about unemployment. (The sincerity is simply excruciating!) Jon took his head in his hands and said, “We’re doomed! Unless Bush has a plan…” which turned out to be “we’re going to do something about it.” Oops!!
Well, Lehman Brothers is telling Lou Dobbs on the Moneyline rerun that there’s going to be another leg down for the economy. So, either Bush comes up with a plan pronto, or we’ll have plenty more nights when Jon Stewart says, “WE’RE DOOMED!” I guess it’s true—misery loves company!
Copyright 2001, Gloria R. Lalumia