Sometimes – no, scratch that, many times – it is difficult to imagine a caricature of the media.
Tom Brokaw made an appearance on this morning's edition of Morning Joe this morning, plugging his interview with the former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. Brokaw was, of course, reporting from the historic Brandenburg Gate this morning to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The Brew Crew were gathered in their studio with national security expert Dr. Richard Haas, discussing such weighty subjects as the American response to the fall of communism, the geopolitical advantages and disadvantages of that event, and so on. And which of these subjects did Brokaw use to segue into the subject of his interview?
None. Instead, Brokaw, the constantly prostrate Gorbachev apologist, chose to highlight Mikhail Gorbachev's approval of President Barack Obama - and his receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize:
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Tom, you spoke with Mikhail Gorbachev. What did he tell you?
TOM BROKAW: I think that he shared that judgment. He thought that we have missed some opportunities to have a common security architecture, as he described it. He also was very eager to say that he agrees with the decision of the Nobel committee to give the Peace Prize to Barack Obama. I think Mikhail Gorbachev sees Barack Obama, as he saw himself, trying to bring change to America and to the world. So let's listen to what Mikhail Gorbachev had to say about the Nobel Peace Prize and President Obama.
MIKHAIL GORBACHEV: When he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, I thought, well, the people on the Nobel committee, they really see very far because this President needs support. This president needs incentive. And so it's a well-deserved prize.
This is not so much a jump as it is a veritable pole-vault of the media credibility shark.
The media have long tried to paint Mikhail Gorbachev counter to Ronald Reagan as the true statesman responsible for the end of the Cold War. This, however, is a new low in the area of undeserved awards. Here we have Mikhail Gorbachev, falsely hailed by the media as the man who ended the Cold War, offering justification for another undeserved award to another leftist world leader.
And this is to say nothing of this bit:
I think Mikhail Gorbachev sees Barack Obama, as he saw himself, trying to bring change to America and to the world.
Perhaps lost on Brokaw is the fact that Gorbachev sought to mend, not end, Communism, and in the process helped to accelerate the demise of the Soviet system. Comparing the president to a leader that brought his government to disintegration and his economy to collapse is a dubious honor at best.
