Associated Press TV reporter Lynn Elber profiled CNN commentator Jack Cafferty on Wednesday, and when she asked him about his sense of personal responsibility -- we're not shown the question, but I'm sensing he was asked about popping off without thinking it through -- "Cafferty, his memory triggered, segues directly into recounting the newscast in which he got a jump on then U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's legal woes."
Said Cafferty: "I thought (anchor) Wolf Blitzer was going to eat his script when I asked if Tom DeLay had been indicted yet, because he hadn't been," Cafferty recalled, adding: "If he hadn't been indicted he probably should have and I hope he goes to prison and sits there for the rest of his life. He's a jerk." Elber then noted: There he goes again, spouting off with the kind of stuff that gets him pilloried on Web sites such as NewsBusters ("Exposing and Combatting Liberal Media Bias.") As in here, or the full Cafferty menu here.
Elber was careful to note that Cafferty has also drawn guff from the left with his alternative-universe-populist-O'Reilly routine:
But he can easily whipsaw, as he did with an on-air attack on immigration reform marches in which he argued that illegal immigrants "have no rights here, and that includes the right to tie up our towns and cities and block our streets."
That earned him an online brickbat from media watchdog Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, which said Cafferty belittled protesters while "ignoring or dismissing their concerns."
He considers himself an equal opportunity detractor, one not wedded to an ideology.
"I tend to be independent. I went from cheering George Bush on to thinking he's one of the great failures to ever occupy the White House," Cafferty said.
Question: if he's an equal-opportunity detractor, does anyone remember the Democrat he wishes would rot in jail? Has he arrived yet on Bill "Freezer Dough" Jefferson?
