[Hat tip: Drudge Report]

In "Bushies Feeling the Boss' Wrath" Thomas M. DeFrank, the New York Daily News Washington bureau chief portrays President Bush as "frustrated, sometimes angry, and even bitter" of late.

And in case you don't get DeFrank's drift from his litany of setbacks for the Bush administration interspersed with anonymous administration sources, the editors at the Daily News were kind enough to offer this unflattering photo of the President, available here.

You'll note the filename 906-w_scowl.jpg. I guess the first 905 takes just wouldn't do?

Just as he did a few weeks ago to the Village Voice, George Clooney appeared on NBC’s Today show Monday to promote his CBS-glorifying film "Good Night and Good Luck" and insisted "we double-sourced every, every single scene in the film happened and that was important to us." See my earlier item to see one example of an inaccurate scene.

When Matt Lauer asked Clooney why he made the film, Clooney said Murrow’s anti-McCarthy blast and Walter Cronkite’s declaration that the Vietnam War was lost were historic highs for TV news: "My father's an anchorman, I grew up with the idea of how great the Fourth Estate is and how important it is, especially in broadcast journalism. And this was the high point, one of the, probably the high water marks, this and, and when Cronkite came back from Vietnam were two times that you could point directly to a policy change and sort of an attitude change on the country. And I thought it was a great time to talk about those things again. I don't, uh, I don't think it's necessarily the same issues anymore but I think it's always a good time to talk about responsibility."

Al Franken has a new book coming out soon. In a "comedy" skit for a promotional video at Amazon.com (scroll down a bit), Al Franken knees a self-described "right-wing jerk" in the groin. As the man keels over in pain, Franken then picks up a nearby stool and strikes the man with it. The man falls to the ground. A "fan" of Franken (played by Franken producer Ben Wikler, if I'm not mistaken) then smashes the man over the head with a bottle.

Hmmm ... Violence against those with whom you disagree?

Question: Would a Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly ever get away with a publicity video like this without an "outrage" in the liberal media? (Not that they would ever produce anything similar to this, but to pose the question ...)

Four days after Keith Olbermann first suggested a parallel between the Clinton White House “in crisis” during the Lewinsky afffair and the Bush one now, on Monday night's Countdown he resurrected Clinton-era MSNBC video of the introduction of a “White House in Crisis” special. He set it up, with his voice getting lower and more dramatic after his “or” option, as well as a smirk: “Is this just another in the endless historical parade of political controversies through which every President since Washington has had to steer, or is it in fact, the White House in crisis?"

A Thursday night NewsBusters item recounted how Olbermann “forwarded the notion that the Bush White House is in a 'crisis' similar to that which enveloped the Clinton White House after the Monica Lewinsky revelation. Interviewing former Clinton Chief-of-Staff Leon Panetta, Olbermann pointed out how “the rundown for tonight's show was given a title by our producer that shook me. The title simply was, 'White House in Crisis.' I already hosted a news show on this network that had that title some years ago. Is it applicable now? Is in fact in your opinion this White House in crisis?" (Brief transcript and vintage picture of Olbermann follows.)

Video excerpt: Real or Windows Media

     The way to the media’s heart is to take jabs at Wal-Mart – JibJabs, that is. JibJab.com, the maker of several popular political videos, unleashed an assault on the nation’s biggest retailer that one CNN journalist called “priceless” and another called “hilarious.”

     CNN was especially friendly to the team of Evan and Gregg Spiridellis, dwelling on the video in two separate programs. CNN’s Money.com Managing Editor Alan Wastler even called the video company “our friends at JibJab” during the October 22 “In the Money” show. Not to be outdone, anchor Jack Cafferty said, “I love those guys.”

     That was how CNN led into a clip of the anti-Wal-Mart attack that features a potbellied shopper filling first a cart and then a house with mountains of retail “crap.” CNN pointed viewers to the video by naming JibJab one of its recommended “Funsites.”

A presumptuous Bob Schieffer? A Freudian slip? Or merely a stumble? With pictures of Karl Rove, Lewis “Scooter” Libby and President Bush over a shot of the White House, the CBS Evening News anchor on Monday plugged an upcoming piece on the 6:30pm EDT feed: “Coming up, playing the waiting game. Indictments are soon to come in the CIA leak investigation.” Schieffer then backtracked, “or there's word they may. White House insiders most at risk in tonight's 'Inside Story.'” The closed-captioning provided what Schieffer was probably supposed to say: “Coming up, playing the waiting game. Indictments are expected soon in the CIA leak investigation. White House insiders most at risk in tonight's 'Inside Story.'”

Left-wing pundit Eric Alterman, in today's installment of his MSNBC blog, reports a conversation with Bill Clinton in which the 42nd President indicated yet again that he thinks the media are slighting or shortchanging him.

On Saturday, Alterman -- who's probably best known to NewsBusters readers as the author of What Liberal Media? -- attended a ceremony at the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute in Hyde Park, N.Y. at which Clinton was awarded the Four Freedoms Medal. (Tom Brokaw was awarded the Freedom of Speech Medal.) Alterman notes that he had a "nice chat" with Hillary Clinton, and then

caught up with her (perennially mobbed) husband for a minute as he was walking out and told him, politely but pointedly, that it was “nice to see him giving the guy [Bush] a little bit of hell for a change.”

Times columnist Maureen Dowd (TimesSelect $ required) strikes the first inside blow against Judy Miller in her Saturday column, "Woman Of Mass Destruction," which opens with this piece of poisoned candy: "I've always liked Judy Miller. I have often wondered what Waugh or Thackeray would have made of the Fourth Estate's Becky Sharp. The traits she has that drive many reporters at The Times crazy -- her tropism toward powerful men, her frantic intensity and her peculiar mixture of hard work and hauteur -- have never bothered me. I enjoy operatic types."

Then she puts the knife in: "She never knew when to quit. That was her talent and her flaw. Sorely in need of a tight editorial leash, she was kept on no leash at all, and that has hurt this paper and its trust with readers. She more than earned her sobriquet 'Miss Run Amok.' Judy's stories about W.M.D. fit too perfectly with the White House's case for war."

How easy is it to turn every issue into a PC propaganda tool for the purpose of setting gender against gender? The Today Show answers that question on a regular basis, and this morning was no exception.

By now, most of us have heard of the communications company executive that allegedly ran up a $241,000 credit card bill at a notorious Manhattan strip club. Upon hearing of this story, was your first reaction to decry the lack of opportunity for female executives to do business the same way? It was if you are Katie Couric.

On this morning's Today Show, Katie Couric introduced a segment devoted to the $241,000 strip club escapade by stating, in so many words, that it is unfair that male executives can entertain their clientele at strip clubs, while female executives don't really have that option. Couric compared this "issue" to male executives that take their clients golfing, thus gaining an advantage over female executives.

Filing a report from the White House lawn shortly after 7:30 this morning on CBS's Early Show, White House correspondent Bill Plante described Vice President Cheney's chief-of-staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby as both high-profile and little-known:

Fitzgerald has turned out to be more thorough than just about anyone has anticipated. He has focused on two of the President's highest-profile aides: Karl Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Both of whom talked to reporters about the Valerie Plame case and her husband Joseph Wilson. Libby is the Vice President's chief-of-staff and his national security adviser. A little-known but key analyst and confidante. A major proponent of the war in Iraq, Libby was reportedly enraged by Valerie Plame's husband Joseph Wilson's criticism of the war. His testimony to the grand jury about what he said and when may be at odds with that of some reporters.

Of course, Rove has been a source of mainstream media fascination as well as a left-wing bogeyman since President Bush took office. Lewis Libby, however, has not had the same cachet. A search in Nexis of "Karl Rove" in CBS News transcripts from January 20, 2001 (President Bush's first inauguration) to October 1, 2005 produced 178 hits while a search for "Lewis Libby" in the same time frame produced only 25 hits, with all but six of them occurring since June 2004. A search for "Scooter Libby" produced 17 hits, some of which were duplicates of the "Lewis" search.

The October 28, 2005 Print Edition of Entertainment Weekly features a column entitled "Good Witch? Narnia gets a double-edged endorsement." (Pg. 16)

Writing for EW, Michelle Kung notes that a religious endorsement by James Dobson's group "Focus on the Family" can hurt the upcoming movie Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, giving the group the introduction as being a "controversial conservative group led by Dr. James Dobson that's known for a staunch anti-gay marriage platform."

Kung states: "Sure, the prospect of 2 million ticket buyers is alluring. But is the endorsement of a potentially polarizing political/religous interest group worth it?... Aggressively publicized thumbs-ups from groups like FOF could turn off secular audiences."

My colleague, NBC analyst Geoff Dickens, earlier noted the Today show ruminating on the 2000 casualty-benchmark which may soon be reached in Iraq. CBS's Early Show also featured a story on this theme in their first half-hour. Unlike the Today show, however, the casualty story was not linked with unrelated political stories like the Plame investigation, indeed, the Early Show treatment of that came in the next half hour. Another difference: the Early Show's Syler did ask for positive news (see portion in bold below), from Baghdad-based correspondent Kimberly Dozier on the constitution referendum:

Rene Syler in New York Early Show studio @ 0708 EDT: "In Iraq, the US military approaches a painful milestone. Nearly 2000 American troops have been killed since the war began. Again, today, insurgents are on the attack. CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier is live in Baghdad. Good morning, Kim."

After running down all the bad news for the Bush administration on the CIA leak case and front and Harriet Miers fronts Katie Couric and Tim Russert bagged on Bush for Iraq. Couric, completely ignoring the historic election in Iraq just one week ago, instead chose to highlight the expected 2000^th death while Russert used Brent Scowcroft to pit father (George Sr.) against son (George W.)

The following is the conversation that took place during the 7:00am hour:

The Darkest Days

As president, Bill Clinton was impeached. It’s not a subject which is discussed to any great extent, realize the Clintons’ control the liberal party. Hillary has the PAC money to either "further careers or initiate them". The point being Bill Clintons’ stains on American history are easily overlooked by the party which now has it’s back in a corner.

This week could also bring a special prosecutor's decision that could shake the foundations of the Bush government.

The President's top political guru, Karl Rove, and Vice President Cheney's right-hand man, Lewis (Scooter) Libby, are at the center of a two-year criminal probe into the leak of a CIA agent's identity. Many Bush staffers believe indictments are likely. ...

For weeks now, the media have breathlessly hyped the possibility that presidential advisor Karl Rove might be indicted by the grand jury looking into the leak of CIA employee Valerie Plame’s identity to columnist Robert Novak. Or, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald could choose not to indict anyone, and instead issue a detailed report of who knew what, when they knew it, and from whom they heard it.

Given the ridiculously overwrought coverage of the last month, if Fitzgerald’s report confirms media suspicions that Rove and/or vice presidential aide Lewis Libby talked to reporters about Valerie Plame and weren’t completely forthcoming to investigators, you can expect the networks to go absolutely nuts, whether anyone is indicted or not.

It seems to come earlier and earlier every year, doesn’t it? No, not Christmas ads on TV, but the annual media festival of gloom and doom surrounding holiday-related retail sales. 

This year, it started in August, when temperatures were in the 100-degree range across much of the country. Hurricane Katrina wasn’t even a ripple off the coast of Africa, and CNN was doing a downbeat piece called “Dreaming of a Blue Christmas.”  Four full months before the holiday, CNN was asking how higher fuel prices were going to negatively impact America’s Christmas cheer: “Consumers are pinched. Retailers are squeezed. Who'll get bruised first by higher fuel prices as the countdown to the holiday shopping season gets underway?”

Time's "Ten Questions" feature is wasted this week on CBS "60 Minutes" hound Mike Wallace. I'm not saying Wallace isn't worth interviewing, but Time managing editor James Kelly gives him a complete book-promoting walk in the park. He doesn't ask about the latest Wallace gaffe in the news, his appearance at an anti-gun Brady Center fundraiser. (See here and here.) He asks about CBS boss Les Moonves being no Bill Paley, but he doesn't ask directly about Dan Rather's Memogate fiasco. (Wallace told the New Yorker he couldn't watch Rather's newscast.) He just nibbles around Wallace's conduct in a 1982 Vietnam documentary that caused Gen. William Westmoreland to sue. He doesn't ask what I would have asked: why did you promote Jack Kevorkian's assisted suicides? The ending is the most ridiculous, with Kelly asking "Your epitaph?" Wallace responds "Tough but fair."

Early a.m. radio blog from the doughnut shop.  You have to hand it to NPR and the BBC.  Biased they may be, but they are also superb reporting organizations.

This morning, about 4:00 a.m. Eastern time (an hour ago as I write), the BBC ran a long, uninterrupted interview with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.  One delicious exchange occurred.  After eliciting a highly satisfying put-down of the United States and George Bush from Chavez ("He has emotional problems.  We need a new American President..."), the BBC interviewer found his next question blocked by an insistent statement from Chavez (from memory):

Chavez:  I am friends with one U.S. representative.

BBC:  Oh?  Who...

Chavez:  (Retired Senator Jesse) Helms.

Declaring “it's not far-fetched,” movie director Spike Lee affirmed on Friday night’s Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, that he believes Louis Farakhan’s allegation that a levee was destroyed in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in order to flood the nearly all-black ninth ward. Lee contended that “a choice had to be made, one neighborhood got to save another neighborhood and flood another 'hood, flood another neighborhood.” ABC News reporter Michel Martin chimed in with how “anybody with any knowledge of history can understand why a lot of people can feel this way, that that's a reasonable theory.” But she went on to dismiss the theory, prompting Lee to demand: "Presidents have been assassinated. So why is that so far-fetched?" To hearty applause from the Los Angeles audience, Lee asked: "Do you think that election in 2000 was fair? You don't think that was rigged?" Lee argued: “If they can rig an election, they can do anything!" Lee soon got into a heated exchange with MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson as he raised the “Tuskegee experiment” as proof the U.S. government is capable of any abuse of blacks. Lee made similar allegations on CNN back on October 11, as recounted in the Washington Times. What he said on HBO and CNN follows.

Video excerpt: Real or Windows Media

Here's another activist who gets the star treatment, this time targeting Tom DeLay:

See also:

Anti-Bush Protestor Ready for Closeup and Zoomed out in Crawford