LAT Sunday Conversation: MSM 'Reverence' For Bush 'Only Recently Lifted'

Photo of Mark Finkelstein.
  • Bookmark and Share

The MSM has been too reverential towards George W. Bush.  Yeah, that's the ticket.  The only thing more absurd than that assertion was Arianna Huffington's willingness to accept it as a fact in answering a question. Here was the exchange between Huffington and Choire Sicha, writing for the LA Times, in today's "Sunday Conversation" feature [emphasis added]:
CHOIRE SICHA: It was only recently that this spell of reverence for Bush lifted. Why'd it take so long?

ARIANNA HUFFINGTON: I think it took so long because there is something about the conventional wisdom that is very addictive to members of the press. They don't want to diverge from it too far.
The conversation later provided another rib-tickler from the HuffPo hostess [emphasis added]:
SICHA: Now that the Bush administration is closing up shop, do you think that the hatred of the media that they've inflamed will finally cool?

HUFFINGTON: I don't really think it's the Bush administration that's fueled the hatred of the media. I think it was the media's complicity in the lead-up to the war in Iraq that has been one of the darkest moments of American media -- and that helped fuel a lot of the dissatisfaction with the traditional media.

So Americans dislike the MSM not because the media is largely a bunch of liberal elitists far outside the political/cultural mainstream, but because for a fleeting few months in 2002-03 they weren't uniformly opposed to the Iraq war—a "sin" they've expiated a million times over the ensuing six years.  Right.

Photo LA Times/Liz O. Baylen

—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.


Comments Policy

All comments are owned by whoever posted them and are subject to our terms of use. They should not be assumed to represent the views of NewsBusters.

Viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

I'm sorry, the premise of

I'm sorry, the premise of the story is so ridiculous that it doesn't even merit comment.  So a little off-topic...don't you think Arianna is starting to look like Geddy Lee during the Power Windows era?

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." -Ronald Reagan

fitzfong.blogspot.com

Think she can play a bass?

Think she can play a bass?

play a bass?

i don't know if she can even hold a tuna!  something fishy about her.  

----- Radical  Liberal

Interesting question, FF.

Interesting question, FF. We'll let our readers be the judge:

Nice hair, dude!

Both are rather... how should I say...interesting, but Geddy is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay more talented!

2112 still rules!

Not bad, Mark!  Though I

Not bad, Mark!  Though I think that picture looks more "Grace Under Pressure" than "Power Windows".  In "Power Windows", Geddy had the full-feathered layer 'do.

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." -Ronald Reagan

fitzfong.blogspot.com

What is a Choire Sicha?

I'm guessing that's a name, or something... Did this guy go to the Helen Keller School of Journalism? And why would a respected paper like the LAT even print something like this?

Oh, wait... what the hell am I saying... LAT! I get it! That's a joke, right? 

It was only recently that

It was only recently that this spell of reverence for Bush lifted....

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.....HAHAHAHAHA....

.hahahahaha.....cough...cough..hahahahahahah.....hic...

hahahahahaha....choke..choke....hahahahaha....hic.....

cough....hahaha....cough.....hahaha....phew!...haha....haha....hmmm

OK  I'm better now....what was I saying????

Objects of ?

My Father {I am what he forged} gave me wonderful words to describe people without a lot bull, and very accurately. A knucklehead, for instance, was a rather helpless dimwit who just never learned but who nonetheless was probably an alright guy. These two characters fit another word he reserved for quite a few politicians and others who really needed professional help of one kind or another. Screwball was a special moniker for people like Huffington and this interviewer. I was going to define the word further, but "it is what it is" and they really are. Screwballs both.

A Huff reminds me of...

the cartoon ostrich. She has her head buried so far in the sand <insert other location here> that she's oblivious to the obvious.

"Hatred of the media"

Let's see, every print newspaper is failing, and if Arianna didn't get her sugar money from Soros, her site would have dried up a long time ago.  

"Hatred of the media"

Let's see, every print newspaper is failing, and if Arianna didn't get her sugar money from Soros, her site would have dried up a long time ago.  

Viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.