Fame Game: Plame Protests Too Much
With a little help from Joe Scarborough, Valerie Plame Wilson tried this morning to paint herself as someone who, far from seeking "Vanity Fair" fame, had celebrity thrust upon her in a moment of distraction. Right.And try this quick quiz:Q. Is it possible to get through an extended interview of Valerie Plame Wilson without mentioning Richard Armitage?A. Yes, if Joe Scarborough is the interviewer…
Washington Post Critics Hate Pro-life Movie, Love Pro-gay Film
For the sake of the readers, and their own critical integrity, it's important that newspaper film critics review a movie first as a work of art, and then perhaps assess the political or cultural or moral messages within. A critic can love a film's message and hate its execution, or vice versa. But in Friday's Weekend section of the Washington Post, the critical reaction to two message films --…
Gay Dumbledore: Somewhere, Jerry Falwell Is Smiling
"It’s a children’s show, folks. To think we would be putting sexual innuendo in a children’s show is kind of outlandish." -- spokesman for Itsy Bitsy Entertainment Co., which licenses Teletubby characters in the United States.Yeah, outlandish. I mean, how could anyone imagine there could be undisclosed gay characters in pop-culture materials for children? That Jerry Falwell, what a Christian…
Congressman Stark’s Disgusting Rant Against President Bush Ignored B
Americans on both sides of the aisle should be bitterly angry today. A United States Congressman stood on the floor of the House of Representatives on Thursday and said that kids are being sent "to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president`s amusement." As if that wasn't bad enough, the three evening news programs of America's top broadcast networks didn't feel this despicable act…
CNN’s Cafferty Slams Bush’s Anti-Birth Control ‘Twilight Zone
CNN’s Jack Cafferty, in his regular "Cafferty File" segment on Thursday’s "The Situation Room," disdainfully criticized the appointment of a birth control skeptic to head a "family planning" agency at the Department of Health and Human Services by President Bush. "The question this hour is -- how much does it matter if the Bush Administration's appointee to head family planning programs has -- (…
CBS’s Hannah Storm Labels Ann Coulter 'Right-wing,' Praises ‘Chris
In an interview with televangelist Joel Osteen and his wife on Thursday’s CBS "Early Show," co-host Hannah Storm began the segment by asking Osteen: "Last week, conservative right-wing pundit Ann Coulter made waves, she said, quote, "Christians consider themselves perfected Jews,"saying that it would be "a lot easier for Jews if they would become Christians." What did you make of her remarks?" In…
Et Tu, Disney? Bleeping God from the Ten Commandments
Radio Disney is bleeping "God" from ad copy for the upcoming movie "The Ten Commandments."Seriously.The folks at Liberty Counsel sent out notices on Monday and Tuesday of this week letting people know about a copy of an email they had in which a Radio Disney representative was advising a media buyer to delete the words "chosen by God" in ad copy for the movie "The Ten Commandments" which opens on…
CNN’s ‘The Situation Room’ Wheels Out Aging Rockers Against Bush
Tuesday’s "The Situation Room" featured two segments with aging rockers who voiced their opposition to Bush administration policies - the first with Crosby and Nash (but not Stills), and the second with Paul Simon. In the first segment, CNN correspondent Carol Costello interviewed the two hippie icons, who compared the Bush administration to a "junta." In the second, host Wolf Blitzer asked Simon…
Paging Reverend Al: Craig Plays the Profiling Card
He might be a middle-aged white guy from the Mountain West, but Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) suddenly understands the travails of people stopped for "DWB": driving while black. In the course of his interview with Matt Lauer, aired last night and excerpted on this morning's "Today," Craig tried to play the profiling card.MATT LAUER: The fact that these motions seemed to replicate a well-established…
NYT 'Questions For' Writer Follows Hallowed 'Journalistic' Tradition
It's a tradition that goes back at least as far as the Vietnam War, when CBS edited and reshuffled the content of a TV interview with a US general to make it appear as if he believed that having wars from time to time was a necessary and good thing. CBS, operating in the days of Old Media's de facto monopoly, paid little if any price for its transgression. Someone on the order of a Bill Buckley…
CNN's Lemon Surprised By Boot-Camp Acquittal: 'Tape Just Sort of Screa
Reacting to the not-guilty verdicts in the Florida boot camp case involving the death of a 14-year old African-American boy, CNN anchor Don Lemon found the result "surprising." And both he and CNN reporter Susan Candiotti made clear that they bought into the prosecution's portrayal of the videotape of the incident.Just before the verdicts came down, there was this exchange [emphasis added].DON…
CBS ‘Early Show’ Sees Racism Epidemic in America
On Thursday’s CBS "Early Show," host Harry Smith had on the founder of the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center, Morris Dees, to discuss "...the ugly news about nooses. Why this symbol of bigotry is suddenly back." Smith then went on to ask: "Is there some way to account for this resurgence in seeing this as a symbol? We've done an internet search. It's popping up all over the place." I think we…
