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1. Thomas: Mainstream Journalists Have 'Lurched' Against Iraq War On this weekend's Inside Washington, Newsweek Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas, who maintained that "most...mainstream journalists believed -- close call -- that we had to go to this [Iraq] war," have "now changed their view. You can feel it shift over the summer." Thomas observed: "You can feel this summer that group, of which I am a card-carrying member, lurch in a different direction in kind of with a hand-ringing sadness, but you can feel it, they're starting to head for the exits, looking for some kind of face-covering diplomatic solution or something, but boy you can feel it happening." Panelist Nina Totenberg of NPR protested that she was against the war in Iraq from the start, charging: "I think most sane people thought really this would make matters worse and it's made matters worse." 2. MSNBC's Shuster Advancing "Wise" Democratic Campaign Strategy It's been noted before that David Shuster's reports for MSNBC's Hardball often read like DNC press releases and Thursday night was no exception as he attacked the administration on Katrina and Iraq and even found time to slam Senator George Allen. Shuster opened fire: "Almost a year since Hurricane Katrina swamped the Gulf Coast, left the country shocked at the Bush administration's ineptitude the Bush team is now engaged in damage control for the year after reminder." During his report, Shuster cited Nancy Pelosi to attack Bush on Katrina, Sen. John McCain to hit Bush on Iraq and Howard Dean to slam Allen. Then Shuster called the Democrat's "wise" and doomed the GOP with this sign-off: "Reminding voters of your opponent's mistakes is a wise political campaign strategy and between George Allen, the problems in Iraq and the anniversary of the Bush team's Katrina debacle Democrats are now having a field day. Republicans are simply trying to hang on just 75 days before the congressional elections. I'm David Shuster for Hardball in Washington." 3. Alter: Bush Team 'Incompetent' and Should Be Held Accountable Jonathan Alter, the Senior Editor of Newsweek, told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Wednesday night that Democrats regaining power is the only way to hold the Bush administration accountable for its "incompetence." Appearing on the August 23 edition of Countdown, Alter exhorted Democrats to inform voters of this fact: "I think it's really important for the Democrats to remind the voters that this election is really about accountability, because there hasn't been any. The only way you can get any is to get at least one chamber of Congress." According to Alter, this is the only scenario under which the Democrats will, at long last, be able to punish the President: "Otherwise, you can't hold hearings to hold their feet to the fire. You have no subpoena power, forget impeachment and all the rest of that, just getting basic answers to questions about why this administration has been incompetent. In order to do that, you've got to get some control and some power back. And that`s what this election is really about." 4. CBS's Hannah Storm Pushes Left Wing Global Warming Talking Points On Thursday's Early Show on CBS, co-host Hannah Storm promoted the leftist hype about the link between global warming and hurricanes in a segment with global warming enthusiast, and author of the new book The Ravaging Tide, Mike Tidwell. Storm acted as more of a facilitator than interviewer, asking leading questions, questions that assumed Tidwell's comments were accurate, and allowed her guest to make some ridiculous statements that went unchallenged. 5. First Amendment Wilbon? Gumbel Has Rights, Limbaugh Does Not Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon wrote a column for Thursday's paper, headlined "Gumbel Has the Right To Say What He Feels." After Gumbel insulted union leader Gene Upshaw about needing a "leash" because he was the NFL Commissioner's "pet," Wilbon said he disagreed with the argument that Upshaw made bad deals for football players, but suggested the idea of the NFL Network removing Bryant Gumbel from broadcasting their football games later this fall "not only won't fly but will look like the silliest Nixonian attempt at censorship." But don't give him a First Amendment Award. That's not the way Wilbon felt about Rush Limbaugh broadcasting football games. In May of 2000, when ABC was considering Limbaugh as the third man in the broadcast booth for "Monday Night Football," he declared Rush was a racist, and has no right to broadcast. 6. Hitchens Gives Finger to Maher's Audience for 'Frivolous' Jeering [Warning: This item includes an accurate quotation of a vulgarity and a coarse image] Writer/author Christopher Hitchens on Friday night gave the finger to the Los Angeles studio audience of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher. As he laid out the case for how it's Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who wants World War Three, not George W. Bush, Hitchens cited how Ahmadinejad "says the Messiah is about to come back." Maher quipped: "So does George Bush, by the way." That caused a loud eruption of audience applause and cheering, which led Maher to clarify: "That's not facetious." The crowd continued to applaud as Hitchens remarked, about those in attendance who had earlier cheered and laughed as Maher called Bush an "idiot" repeatedly: "That's not facetious. Your audience, which will clap at apparently anything, is frivolous." Loud oohs and groans emanated from the audience, prompting Hitchens to give them the finger as he castigated them, "F*** you, f*** you," while the groans continued.
Against Iraq War On this weekend's Inside Washington, Newsweek Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas, who maintained that "most...mainstream journalists believed -- close call -- that we had to go to this [Iraq] war," have "now changed their view. You can feel it shift over the summer." Thomas observed: "You can feel this summer that group, of which I am a card-carrying member, lurch in a different direction in kind of with a hand-ringing sadness, but you can feel it, they're starting to head for the exits, looking for some kind of face-covering diplomatic solution or something, but boy you can feel it happening." Panelist Nina Totenberg of NPR protested that she was against the war in Iraq from the start, charging: "I think most sane people thought really this would make matters worse and it's made matters worse." [This item was posted late Friday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] A transcript of the relevant portion of the August 25 Inside Washington ( www.insidewashington.tv ), a half-hour weekly panel show produced by Washington, DC's ABC affiliate which carries it on Sunday morning after This Week. Before that, it airs at 7pm Saturday on the affiliate's all-news cable channel, NewsChannel 8, and Friday night at 8:30pm on DC's PBS station, WETA-TV channel 26:
Evan Thomas, Newsweek: "I was a 'Chicken Hawk' like a lot of people, some of the people on this panel when we got into it. And, you know, most of the mainstream types, mainstream journalists believed -- close call -- that we had to got to this war -- they've now changed their view. You can feel it shift over the summer."
Campaign Strategy It's been noted before that David Shuster's reports for MSNBC's Hardball often read like DNC press releases and Thursday night was no exception as he attacked the administration on Katrina and Iraq and even found time to slam Senator George Allen. Shuster opened fire: "Almost a year since Hurricane Katrina swamped the Gulf Coast, left the country shocked at the Bush administration's ineptitude the Bush team is now engaged in damage control for the year after reminder." During his report, Shuster cited Nancy Pelosi to attack Bush on Katrina, Sen. John McCain to hit Bush on Iraq and Howard Dean to slam Allen. Then Shuster called the Democrat's "wise" and doomed the GOP with this sign-off: "Reminding voters of your opponent's mistakes is a wise political campaign strategy and between George Allen, the problems in Iraq and the anniversary of the Bush team's Katrina debacle Democrats are now having a field day. Republicans are simply trying to hang on just 75 days before the congressional elections. I'm David Shuster for Hardball in Washington." [This item, by Geoff Dickens, was posted Friday morning on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] The following is the entire transcript of Shuster's August 24 report:
David Shuster: "Almost a year since Hurricane Katrina swamped the Gulf Coast, left the country shocked at the Bush administration's ineptitude the Bush team is now engaged in damage control for the year after reminder."
Be Held Accountable Jonathan Alter, the Senior Editor of Newsweek, told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Wednesday night that Democrats regaining power is the only way to hold the Bush administration accountable for its "incompetence." Appearing on the August 23 edition of Countdown, Alter exhorted Democrats to inform voters of this fact: "I think it's really important for the Democrats to remind the voters that this election is really about accountability, because there hasn't been any. The only way you can get any is to get at least one chamber of Congress."
According to Alter, this is the only scenario under which the Democrats will, at long last, be able to punish the President: [This item, by Scott Whitlock, was posted Thursday on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] Alter is certainly no stranger to attacking George Bush (see: newsbusters.org The MRC's Geoffrey Dickens noted that he recently claimed a Bush veto of stem cell funding "may well doom thousands to die prematurely." See: http://newsbusters.org/node/6624 The Newsweek editor, who appeared on the lead segment, discussed with Olbermann how the Iraq war will play out in the midterm elections. He claimed that Republicans may be able to spin the lack of a Democratic plan to their advantage, adding that the GOP is "better at the basic blocking and tackling of politics....They're just -- they're tougher." It's surprising that Alter thinks of Democrats as poor little lambs, unable to play rough politics. George Allen, who made the mistake of calling a staffer of his political opponent "macaca," now finds himself being branded a racist by Democratic operatives. And who could forget Trent Lott and the Strom Thurmond birthday party? Does Alter believe that the Democrats were too delicate with him?
Warming Talking Points On Thursday's Early Show on CBS, co-host Hannah Storm promoted the leftist hype about the link between global warming and hurricanes in a segment with global warming enthusiast, and author of the new book The Ravaging Tide, Mike Tidwell. Storm acted as more of a facilitator than interviewer, asking leading questions, questions that assumed Tidwell's comments were accurate, and allowed her guest to make some ridiculous statements that went unchallenged. [This item, by Mike Rule, was posted Thursday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]
Amazon's page for Tidwell's book: www.amazon.com Mike Tidwell is the founder of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, which describes itself as the "first grassroots, nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to fighting global warming in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C." But Storm did not mention his activism, nor did she mention that nowhere in his official biography on the organization's website, is there any mention of his scientific background; he is described as an "author and filmmaker." With the segment focused on Tidwell's scientific conclusions, isn't the fact that he is not a scientist relevant information for the viewer? The foundation's bio for him: www.chesapeakeclimate.org The Chesapeake Foundation's home page: www.chesapeakeclimate.org
Yet, Storm introduced her segment, attempting to give enhanced credibility to Mr. Tidwell by noting he had predicted New Orleans would be devastated by a storm, and that he predicts global warming will cause more storms like Katrina: Did Mr. Tidwell predict when a hurricane was going to hit New Orleans? Given the fact that New Orleans is on the gulf coast, it is likely a hurricane would eventually hit the area, and it was again likely that eventually a powerful hurricane like Katrina would strike. The likelihood of a strong storm at some point in the future, combined with the fact that New Orleans sits several feet below sea level, isn't the conclusion obvious?
Storm began the questioning by asking about the beginning of Tidwell's book: At least in his response Tidwell did acknowledge that New Orleans is a city below sea level, but he blamed the disaster on man. He claimed that for the last 100 years the wetlands and barrier islands have been disappearing because of humans, and this created the conditions for hurricane Katrina to "slam into New Orleans like a plane into the World Trade Center." That can at best be described as a terrible simile. Tidwell asserted: "Well, for the last hundred years, the wetlands and barrier islands in south Louisiana have been eroding and disappearing because of human activity, building of canals and other factors, a million acres of wetlands just disappeared in the last 100 years. And, this basically created a watery flight path for a Katrina-like storm to slam into New Orleans like a plane into the World Trade Center..."
Without missing a beat, or questioning Tidwell on this statement, Storm continued, noting that Senator Mary Landrieu had discussed coastal erosion before the storm hit, but afterwards everyone just focused on the levees. She editorialized:
Tidwell then predicted global warming will replicate Katrina all along the east coast:
And so the point wasn't lost, Hannah Storm, acting as cheerleader, chimed in: "Outer Banks of North Carolina." As Tidwell predicted a gloomy fate for America, that global warming will cause sea level to rise, thus causing cities on the east coast like New York City and Washington DC to fall below sea level, making them susceptible to New Orleans type destruction, an astonished Hannah Storm wanted to know how much time we have left, neglecting to press Tidwell on his conclusions based on this years mild hurricane season thus far: "What sort of time crunch are we in here?" Tidwell believed there is a ten year window to turn global warming around, and kick the fossil fuel habit and switch to clean energy. Storm jumped on the alternative fuels bandwagon and noting the need to get off of fossil fuels if for no other reason than to combat "the rising" cost of gas, which according to the August 22 Early Show, has actually fallen 11 cents a gallon in the past 2 weeks: "Right, we've been talking about a lot of these things, even with just the rising price of gas. For a number of reasons, this dependence on fossil fuels needs to be addressed. So, what's your recommendation?"
Storm wasn't challenging Tidwell, she was merely asking him to gaze into his crystal ball and talk about global warming. In response, Tidwell piously volunteered that he drives a hybrid car, a Toyota Prius, and that if every American followed his lead, America would cut gasoline consumption by 50%: This caused Hannah Storm to lament that Americans just don't take global warming seriously: "As a nation, are we really crying out for any kind of reform? Global warming is something that just doesn't seem to resonate with people."
However, Tidwell believes that people are starting to pay attention to Al Gore's documentary on the subject and what's happening with the weather: Some may agree with Tidwell, and in fact former newspaper columnist Ross Gelbspan is one who does, endorsing Tidwell's new book. But, Gelbspan himself has an interest in promoting the theory of global warming, as he once wrote in 1992 that global warming would cause baseball to stop playing day games, full quote can be read here: www.mrc.org With differing opinions on global warming, why did CBS feel it necessary to promote the scientific theories of someone who doesn't even claim to be a scientist and ignore real scientists -- such as Dr. Roy Spencer, principal research scientist for the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Patrick Michaels, research professor of environmental studies at the University of Virginia, or William Gray, Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University -- who could refute the claims made by Mr. Tidwell? Check the NewsBusters posting linked above for links to those scientists.
Limbaugh Does Not Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon wrote a column for Thursday's paper, headlined "Gumbel Has the Right To Say What He Feels." After Gumbel insulted union leader Gene Upshaw about needing a "leash" because he was the NFL Commissioner's "pet," Wilbon said he disagreed with the argument that Upshaw made bad deals for football players, but suggested the idea of the NFL Network removing Bryant Gumbel from broadcasting their football games later this fall "not only won't fly but will look like the silliest Nixonian attempt at censorship." But don't give him a First Amendment Award. That's not the way Wilbon felt about Rush Limbaugh broadcasting football games. In May of 2000, when ABC was considering Limbaugh as the third man in the broadcast booth for "Monday Night Football," he declared Rush was a racist, and has no right to broadcast. [This item by Tim Graham was posted on Saturday on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ] Wilbon opined in a May 24, 2000 column: "I have attended or watched all but about 5 or 6 MNF games in 30 years. If Rush Limbaugh is put in that booth, I will NOT listen to the broadcast. His views on people like me [blacks] are well documented, and I would find it insulting and hypocritical to watch him do the broadcast. And I'm sure, absolutely certain, there are tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands who feel the same way I do." For more, see the May 31, 2000 CyberAlert: www.mrc.org
Wilbon provided no examples then of Limbaugh's supposed hatred of blacks. (Rush certainly never metaphorically put Gene Upshaw on a "leash.") So who's the "Nixonian" censor? No one has the "right" to announce NFL football games. That's not a "free speech" issue. But Wilbon's column made it very clear the issue isn't free speech. It's that Gumbel is one of his heroes and role models, and a personal friend. He begins by noting as he grew up in Chicago, he was already enamored of the Gumbel brothers, before they were TV stars:
For Wilbon's August 24 column: www.washingtonpost.com Wilbon failed to consider the concept that maybe Gumbel was criticized for being arrogant and dismissive....because he came across as arrogant and dismissive, and not just in internal memos, but on the air. (The kind of guy who'd crack when he thinks he's off camera that a conservative guest is an "f---ing idiot," just for starters: www.mrc.org ) For the MRC's collection of Gumbel quotes from his CBS Early Show days: www.mrc.org
But it's quite clear that Wilbon actually enjoys Gumbel being arrogant and dismissive. He cited Gumbel's other HBO meltdown, not as another sign of Gumbel failing to make a point "persuasively, probably brilliantly," but as a sign of gritty independent thinking:
This is where it becomes clear that Wilbon's not making a serious attempt to ponder the issue of Gumbel's remarks, but merely making excuses for them. As Brent Bozell politely noted in 2003, when ESPN pressed Rush Limbaugh to quit his brief football-pundit gig after saying Donovan McNabb was hyped by sportswriters rooting for black quarterbacks, Wilbon could be seen at times as Gumbel's Mini-Me in print:
for 'Frivolous' Jeering [Warning: This item includes an accurate quotation of a vulgarity and a coarse image] Writer/author Christopher Hitchens on Friday night gave the finger to the Los Angeles studio audience of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher. As he laid out the case for how it's Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who wants World War Three, not George W. Bush, Hitchens cited how Ahmadinejad "says the Messiah is about to come back." Maher quipped: "So does George Bush, by the way." That caused a loud eruption of audience applause and cheering, which led Maher to clarify: "That's not facetious." The crowd continued to applaud as Hitchens remarked, about those in attendance who had earlier cheered and laughed as Maher called Bush an "idiot" repeatedly: "That's not facetious. Your audience, which will clap at apparently anything, is frivolous." Loud oohs and groans emanated from the audience, prompting Hitchens to give them the finger as he castigated them, "F*** you, f*** you," while the groans continued. [This item was posted, with video, late Friday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org. The screen shot and video with be added to the posted version of this CyberAlert, but in the meantime, to see the picture or to watch the Real or Windows Media clip, go to: newsbusters.org ] Joining Hitchens on the panel, Vali Nasr, author of The Shia Revival, and former Democratic Senator Max Cleland. Wikipedia profile of Hitchens: en.wikipedia.org A list of links of articles by the traditional leftist who has become a leading writer on the dangers of Islamofascism: www.hitchensweb.com Transcript of the relevant portion of the discussion about Iran on the August 25 season premiere of the weekly HBO show aired live Friday nights at 11pm EDT/10pm CDT:
Christopher Hitchens: "Who wants a Third Word War? The Iranian President says that one member state of the United Nations should be wiped physically from the map with all its people. He says the United States is a Satanic power. Members of his government, named members of his government have been caught sponsoring deaths squads. He's lied, he's lied to the European Union about his nuclear program-"
This edition of Maher's hour-long show will re-air tonight (Monday) at 8pm EDT on HBO East/8pm PDT on HBO West. HBO's schedule page for Real Time with future re-run air dates this week: www.hbo.com
-- Brent Baker
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