PBS can not only make one-sided documentaries celebrating liberals like Sargent Shriver, who married Eunice Kennedy and became George McGovern’s Democratic running mate in 1972, but they can count on newspapers like the Washington Post to celebrate another outburst of liberal Sixties nostalgia. The gushy Post headline was "Politician-Activist Sargent Shriver: The Real Ideal." TV critic Tom Shales began by getting defensive about the poor, maligned Decade of Hippies:

Eras and epochs seem to take turns being trashed, with the decade of the 1960s getting way more than its share of scorn. It was a time of tragedies and villains, yes, but obviously a time of great heroes, too. One of them, often overlooked, is properly celebrated in a public TV documentary tonight: "American Idealist: The Story of Sargent Shriver."

Shales not only lauded Shriver – father of former NBC News anchor and reporter Maria Shriver – but attacked anyone who opposed him as an ignorant bigot. His guide for the latest PBS hagiography became the omnipresent Bill Moyers:

Anyone watching the debate tonight? Discuss amongst yourselves here if so.

In a moment that can only be described as journalistic amnesia, the NYT forgets to mention that Republican candidates remember Dr. King.

The NYT had three stories on the section of their site designated for U.S. news, reporting how the presidential candidates honored Martin Luther King, Jr.

The first story discusses the three Democratic candidates - Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards - and their appearances at various black churches on Sunday. Each candidate makes determined efforts to woo the African-American vote, while mentioning Dr. King.

The second story discusses the three Democratic candidates again, and how they chose to honor Dr. King today at various memorial services.

The three rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination stood together on the steps of the state capitol here on Monday in a brief display of political unity as they remembered the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

So were the Republican presidential candidates even aware of today's holiday honoring Dr. King?

Now, I have never seen this show, so you'll have to excuse me if I am misunderstanding the whole American Idol "thing," OK? As I seem to recall, the deal is that you sing for a washed up 80s pop star, a fat guy no one ever heard of and some English dude and they rate you on your talent. Right? Or is it that they are supposed to rate you on your sex life and moral beliefs? Because, it seems that host Ryan Seacrest has given some unwanted "advice" to a recent contestant that offered that at 19 he'd never kissed a girl. In response, Seacrest told him to "go kiss some girls," and hoped that once he came back to audition again he'd "come back less a boy and more a man." This did not amuse contestant Bruce Dickson who says the reason he'd never kissed a girl was because of his Christian moral convictions.

So, is being a Christian with closely held moral convictions now a disqualifying thing to be a proper contestant on TV's American Idol? If Seacrest has anything to say about it, it would seem so.

The New Year was perhaps an hour old when a road rage incident resulted in unpleasant consequences. The Associated Press reported:

In an apparent case of road rage, a motorist shot a driver to death who threatened him with a baseball bat.1

In this incident, the attacker, Tomas Garza, first drove his automobile "aggressively", trying to hit Brian Correa's car. When both drivers stopped at a traffic light, Garza got out of his car and hit Correa's car "several times" with a baseball bat. When Correa told Garza to stop, Garza instead "began toward" Correa, at which point Correa used his handgun to defend himself, killing Garza. The police reported that Correa was licensed to carry concealed.2

San Antonio police spokesman Sergeant Gabe Trevino stated: "It was apparent to us that he was defending himself." There were "several witnesses" to corroborate Correa's story, leading the police to conclude that the shooting was justified.3

Appearing on Monday night's edition of "Hardball," ESPN host and Philadelphia Inquirer sports reporter Stephen A. Smith declared himself not to be a fan of Rudy Giuliani. When asked by Chris Matthews about what he thought of the former New York mayor's chances to become President, Smith blurted: "It'd be a disaster!....Giuliani is a dictator as far as I'm concerned."

Video (1:26): Windows Media (2.66 MB) and MP3 audio (650 kB).

The following exchange occurred on the January 21, edition of "Hardball":

On Sunday’s "Face the Nation," host Bob Schieffer talked to Roger Simon from The Politico about the Republican race and Simon exclaimed that "The old Ronald Reagan coalition of fiscal conservatives, foreign policy conservatives, and social conservatives has shattered." Simon also observed that, "McCain is on his way to proving that he is the least unacceptable Republican...And that even though certain factions of the party may have difficulty with McCain-Feingold or his stand on immigration, he is the most electable Republican in November."

On the topic of McCain’s immigration stance, Schieffer pointed out, "You know, something a lot of people forget that McCain's immigration policy actually plays well in Florida." Simon agreed:

I think that's very important for McCain in Florida. Florida has a large number of Cuban-Americans who vote in Republican primaries. And even though Cubans are not affected by comprehensive immigration reform they have a separate law covering them, they are sympathetic to other Latinos facing the problem of earning their way to citizenship and coming to this country. And they don't view what John McCain did in trying to pass comprehensive immigration reform as selling out the Republican Party. They see it as courageous and John McCain is going to get some benefit from that, I believe.

It's no longer enough to say the economy is heading into or already is in a recession. Invoking the memory of the Great Depression has become the latest way to dramatize the economic turmoil caused by the credit markets.

"[I] think we are facing the worst financial crunch and crisis since the Great Depression," Mort Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Report, said on the January 20 "McLaughlin Group."

Zuckerman told viewers we're heading into uncharted territory with this current credit freeze-up.

"You have the entire banking system now that is virtually frozen. And there are, not just this subprime mortgage thing, there are other things called credit default swaps where they will lose as much money, $250 billion on. The banks are frozen. They are not making loans because they have such huge debts that they have to take on to their balance sheets and nobody knows how to deal with that," he continued.

This is Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio):

Last Thursday, she was at a House committee meeting (HT QandO) and started asking this guy some questions:

The guy is Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.

The problem is, this is what she asked:

The Ohio Democrat, at a House of Representatives Budget Committee hearing, said she wanted to know what Wall Street firms were responsible for the securitization of subprime mortgages.

She then asked: "Seeing as how you were the former CEO of Goldman Sachs ..." But the only person testifying at the hearing interrupted.

"No, no, no, you're confusing me with the Treasury Secretary," said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Update/Clarification (Jan. 24): Ocean MacAdams of MTV News responds (see bottom of post)

Politico's Ben Adler has a story today about Rock the Vote submitting a friend-of-the-court brief in favor of overturning a law requiring voters furnish photo identification before casting a ballot:

While most of the country was watching the Green Bay Packers play the New York Giants, CBS aired an hour-long, severely one-sided special about the threat of global warming.

The special was hosted by CBS's Scott Pelley. In January 2007, Pelley was asked why he refused to include global warming skeptics in his reporting. He responded, "If I do an interview with [Holocaust survivor] Elie Wiesel, am I required as a journalist to find a Holocaust denier?"

The January 20 CBS special attacked the Bush White House for not being willing to sign the Kyoto Protocol after he was elected - furthering the common misconception that Bush has been alone in his opposition to it, as the Senate actually voted 95 to 0 to reject Kyoto earlier.

Pelley took a very conspiratorial tone.

Ten years after the Lewinsky scandal broke, Barbara Walters is still acting as a spokeswoman for Bill Clinton’s former mistress. On the January 21 episode, Walters scolded fellow "View" panelist Joy Behar for incorporating Monica Lewinsky jokes into her comic routine, opining "I don’t think one should joke about it."

The veteran journalist, who landed the first interview with Lewinsky, hyped her recent master’s degree and claimed she is having difficulties finding a job. Elisabeth Hasselbeck felt "that’s what happens when you make decisions like that, that affect your future." Whoopi Goldberg ended the segment adding that women should support Lewinsky because she’s a woman. After the commercial break, Hasselbeck replied that she thinks " about supporting the person, you know, and taking gender out of it."

On Monday’s CBS "Early Show," while co-host Harry Smith and political analyst Jeff Greenfield discussed both Hillary Clinton’s win in the Democratic Nevada caucus and John McCain’s win in the Republican South Carolina primary on Saturday, they failed to mention that Mitt Romney had won the Republican Nevada Caucus in a blowout. This just days after Smith interviewed Romney, when the former Massachusetts Governor discussed his expectation of a win in Nevada.

During the January 16 interview, Smith asked Romney about the future of the campaign:

SMITH: Here's one of the questions of the hour, three biggest contests, three different winners on the Republican side. Some people are suggesting that means the Republican party as a whole isn't sure what they want.

ROMNEY: That's very possible. I'm pleased that I have done well here in Michigan. I'm also happy I got Wyoming and got the gold there and, of course, we've got a couple coming up real shortly now. Nevada, which has the most Republican delegates, and I'm going to fight hard there. Also, South Carolina. I think John McCain is way in the lead there, but we'll give him a run for his money, and then comes Florida. I think one of the big surprises is that someone like Mayor Giuliani, who was leading in all these states, either number one or number two, really hasn't been able to hold on to that lead in any way.

New York Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt got angry this week. Not at the Times' shoddy, statistically worthless slam of U.S. veterans that appeared on last Sunday's front page (next week, perhaps?), but at conservative blogger Ed Whelan, for having the temerity of bringing up a possible conflict of interest involving the Times' Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse.

Whelan, who is President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and writes the "Bench Memos" blog at National Review Online, unearthed the Supreme Court reporter's controversial tie last month.

This election season, forget Mac, it's Fidel that's back. At least that's the impression one gets from Portia Siegelbaum.

Here's an excerpt from the Havana-based CBSNews.com producer's January 21 story, "Will Fidel Castro Be Back?":

The results aren't in yet, but most Cubans agree; the most famous candidate in Sunday's parliamentary election - Fidel Castro - has won overwhelmingly.

If that is true, and there is little reason to doubt it, the Cuban leader sidelined by emergency intestinal surgery nearly 18 months ago is now eligible for election to the Council of State, which in turn elects the nation's president from among its members.

It's the biggest question in Cuba: Will Fidel Castro return - if not as before, at least in title? Or, will his younger brother, First Vice President Raul Castro, who "temporarily" assumed the presidency as provided for by the Cuban Constitution, officially fill the post?

I don't know about you, but the suspense is killing me.

Since forum topics pertaining to peoples' lists of favorites seem to be a hit lately, I'm going to step it up and ask about my favorite thing besides film: beer.

My Top 5:

Cascade IPA (Amherst Brewing Company): Hoppy, strong, delicious. I used to tend bar here in my post-college days. I know that suggests bias, but it's just the best beer around. Unfortunately, it can only be purchased at the pub, on tap or in growlers. They don't distribute it to retailers at all. http://www.amherstbrewing.com/

Switchback Ale (Burlington, VT): A very small brewery in the mountains. Hoppy without being bitter, hint of citrus in the finish. They don't bottle it, but every restaurant in a 30-mile radius of Burlington has it on tap.

Long Trail IPA (Bridgewater Corners, VT): It was disappointing when Long Trail got bought out by some conglomerate, but they did start making a serious IPA. Unfiltered and yeasty, just the right amount of hoppy kick. This is my standby.

Since the media have promised the anti-war left really do support the troops, wouldn't it be news that an anti-war, self-described "radical leftist" was in court on Friday for angrily keying the car of an Iraq vet because he didn't like the military plates and USMC stickers?

Jay Grodner keyed a $2400 side-to-side gash into Sgt. Mike McNulty's car. When confronted, Grodner berated McNulty, who was getting ready to redeploy to Iraq, with anti-military epithets, even telling the Marine he was too “small” to be a “soldier" (sic).

Milblogger Blackfive wrote about the lack of media coverage (bold mine throughout):