Friday, January 25, 2008

Yo Mama! Apparently , Size Does Matter!




So sez Tweety this evening: "Big Bill surrounds Obama, is Hill thrilled? You bet yo mama!"
Really, does he write his own material? Are the news writers out on strike too?
My Mom found that hilarious, but I think its a bit too edgy for right now...and for some reason it drags me back to the Jefferson's and Brooklyn in the 70's....we're-a movin' on up, to the eastside...

From the blundering morass that is MSNBC's coverage of the mess in Florida, I just don't know what to say anymore.I feel like I should apologize or something, in that MSNBC might sorta partially represent the left in any way...To a deee-luxe apartment, in the sky...

This blog about Chris Matthews isn't nearly broad enough to cover the range of wankery that goes on over there. Ive been watching Matthews look all spooked, with those tail-between-the-legs-don't-hit-me-again-papa wide eyes, like he's a teenager who has gone too far. Then theres the obnoxious-little-weenie brother, Tucky, and the Deputy Dawg smirk of Morning Joe...We need a wider focus here because they play off eachother, and ...I dunno...you would think that there weren't soldiers dying in Iraq just about every day. Bring me my tin foil hat, honey, because I could swear that they were sending messages to eachother, the base, and for whoever has their finger on the Manchurian button lately .

First of all, What happened to all that war coverage that was pretty great for a while and was a major part of the day ongoing? Where is Richard Engle, Mick Ware, and Mike Boettcher? Where is the sand and grit, and reports from embeds outside of the green zone? Has that become a non-story because the actual War part is supposedly over? I'm trying to remember what I felt like to get good first hand reportage. Ever since the morning that I woke to find that David Bloom had died, while rushing towards certain disaster anyway, and trading bible passages with Timmeuh Russert; just saying no, no, no,(Jane, how do you stop this crazy thing?)and those images that Bloom had worked so hard to bring to us from right on the ground level of hell.... and ever since my worst fears were confirmed and reconfirmed about how badly we were lied to, and how the media went along with it, Ive tried to find whatever group of news people that don't aren't too scary in their strange toned-down world of morning television , and even then, I watch closely...I don't trust any one of them except Olbermann, Stewart, and Colbert (and that's a backwards kind of trust.)



I have to admit that I have been an avid MSNBC/NBC watcher, from my war coverage to just about everything else, morning to night. I guess you could say that I know them pretty well. But even if they are less scary than the Good Morning America crew or the CNN group, I still have seen them sway and bend with the political weather, and probably more due to the Bushies actual spiralling apart in front of our very eyes, than the people's desire for truth. I didn't notice especially the the rats started deserting the sinking ship till pretty late in the game, and some of them are surely still hanging on to that ship or a portion thereof, just in case the republicans pull something out of their combined asses, (swiftboating, anyone?), and that leads to 4 more years. I've seen too much hedging and positioning, and not wanting to get caught on the wrong side of criticizing the President...as if this isn't America; as if we don't live in a society where the job of reporter comes with the assumption of cojones and truth.

The war correspondents have given way to the politicians walking flanked by security guards, through the Baghdad marketplace. There was some certain transfer of authority from the correspondents that are on the ground, to the generals who are supposed to dig us out of this mess and juggle the desires of all the characters in the hearing room, and the politicians, all jockeying for position, or the correct position in this matter.

And what has become of the correspondents in Iraq? We cut to them from time to time, but it seems that there are selective blackouts on pictures of suicide bombs and other tragedies, that are certainly as much a part of the war as the wash across the desert was and the squads of brave soldiers breaking down door after door to find huddled, terrified, families, and who knows what else in the bedroom or beyond the patio.
Yeah, the drudgery of day to day village cleaning doesn't pop like those initial images, and at some point ratings have to take over, I guess. But I'd expect that even if the American public might grow numb and tired of watching soldiers and civilians getting blown up, to the players its every bit as terribly real and attention getting as the new season of American Idol. Who says that we get to divorce ourselves from the reality of what we started? How can we be a society that becomes bored and moves on to the new season of must-see TV?

This morning Scarborough was actually mouthing messages to his base on camera, saying "he's wrong" over and over to the camera in response to comments about Ron Paul's crazy and insane call to end the war....
Dan Abrams spends his evenings chasing his tail with the remnants of whatever scandal is left over from the day: Is it wrong to expect more than the constant repetition of breaking news from Heath Ledger's tragic death, only to find that its a story about how masseuses get certified for CPR? How far of a stretch is that? Who was called first? Is that breaking news? There is no story there guys; its just a tragedy like every other tragedy happening every day. Theres nothing to see, just drive on by.

I don't know why it so flabbergasts me, and call me naive, but most of the country, including the republicans are for pulling out of Iraq, and most everyone agrees that this is a criminal administration, so where do pundits or newspeople get off acting like this anymore? John Gibson made fun of an actor's death, saying that it was probably due to suicide while watching the democratic debates, Chris Matthews thinks nothing of spending months telling his audience that one candidate is the definite nominee, at the same time as he keeps up a pretty heinous running commentary about her and her husband. After Matthews was made to grudgingly apologize for his remarks, Little Tucker Carlson stepped in and repeated them..I'm not even going to go into the Rush Limbaughs and the Bill O'Reillys out there. I cant even believe that I'm grouping MSNBC into the same world with Fox News, but...they are growing in that direction, and it is beyond me why the powers would allow this to continue, what with the mood of the country and the real movement of us all towards a middle/left mentality. Its like the inmates have taken over the asylum, and there is a fine line between shock for ratings, and alienating your audience ...and ultimately we will switch the TV off. If I will then anyone would quite sooner, because I am a real TV person, and a real MSNBC watcher.

MSNBC seems to be getting its ducks in a row behind Keith Olbermann, but its not happening quickly enough. David Schuster and Rachel Maddow would be an excellent pair for a roundtable show or even a straight news show. They both are quirky as hell, but also smarter than smart. And they could garner a great following just because they are so quirky; it makes them each lovable and human. MSNBC has an embarrassment of talent to keep falling back on the same old failed line up. ...Chuck Todd, Richard Engle. Why is he so underutilized; Oh yeah, hes a foreign correspondent and we don't want to show much about that messy foreign stuff now, do we? Isn't it preferable to have Tweety and Tucky telling us like it really is over there? Sam Seder is fantastic with his sort of sparkle smirk and humor, which is the secret ingredient to any news show working well.

This morning I was sick, and laying helpless in bed flipping channels, trying to get past the local news on every network channel...and finally I jumped to channel 68, where I found the face of Willie Giest filing the screen, donning 70's tinted aviators and his canary-in-my-mouth, slap-my-face, look. The camera pulled back and there he was with two bikini-topped hula girls at the Hawaiian Tropic...um...restaurant...kiosk at the mall...booth at the convention center...?
Because I guess that since Mika and Scarborough were in Boca (Joe's home town, or so he told us over and over again, as if that's a good thing,) Willie was pretending that he was in Hawaii...huh? Childish banter ensued, as if we were supposed to be fond of these guys, and then we were back to the hard news of the debate last night.

Scarborough is proud to be a republican, even in light of the line-up of clowns who are representing his party. What they said is not worth reporting, because it doesn't amount to much, except for Ron Paul's usual anti-war rhetoric, that is good to hear but it tends to take away from his real platform of government abolishment and all kinds of silliness.
But Paul going on about ending the war and Morning Joe's silent commentary ("he's wrong, he's wrong, he's wrong")...and I know that this is an entertainment show, but I felt...offended...and I found myself looking at the curve of his nose and his little hateful mouth, his sickeningly thick hair, and I wondered how people like this get a platform. I know that when I switch him on, its because there is nothing else on...and lately because he has given John Edwards some air time. But today, this morning, I turned him off.

Do you hear that MSNBC? I turned your fucking Morning Joe off! ...And, I am, what might be referred to as, a loyal viewer. I lay here thinking about how Scarborough is their Deputy Dawg, sending a less than subliminal message to his base, and to the doleful Matthews and the under-appreciated and misunderstood Tucker Carlson. And I was wondering how it makes sense at all that a guy like this gets to pretty much state, on national TV, that the war is a good thing, or that we are not failing over there, in the bigger or the smaller views, without a peep from any one of the correspondents that MSNBC has supposedly under contract...Maybe they have cut them all loose; I haven't seen much of Engle since he went on his book tour and Boettcher seems to also have vanished after covering some major stories out of Atlanta.

The point is that they no doubt have some correspondents out there, or they have access to stringers, and they choose time and again to allow the right leaning, misogynist pundits to rewrite the storyline of our tragic tale; Which wouldn't be anything different than business as usual except for the fact that we are living in dangerous times, and to see Morning Joe winking into the camera just as John McCain is going on about the glory of the war, and decrying whatever it was that they have renamed the cut and runners, I get a sinking feeling.

Finally, in light of Huckabee's comparison between WMA and Easter eggs, and my Psych 101 text book, I've got to nod towards Melissa's pundit's balls open letter, (not cross posted here for some reason; maybe she just hasn't had time yet,) and the obvious obsession, in these days of wimmin and blacks being uppity enough to run for high office, with their own cojones and how every man, woman, and child must be admiring their manliness....I guess its hard to get knocked down a peg or five.... but, I have no empathy for those who have played such a deadly and destructive role in American History. Serving as a warning to others might be the best payback to a suffering country.
We've Finally Got a Piece of the Pie....

3 comments:

BJ said...

I admit it's been a late night for me, it's early here (for me) and I didn't read all that long post. But I read the beginning and want you to know others feel Matthews is a nutjob too! I send him and msnbc emails at least a couple times a wk, sometimes sending the same email seething at them to more than one address at the same time (hardball@msnbc, letters@msnbc, olberman@msnbc, abrams@msnbc).. random rants I send to letters@msnbc whom I just sent off an email on their endless bias, imo, against Hillary and pro Obama. They sat there for over an hour talking about the media and talking about race and maybe they shouldn't do it.... yet they go on and on doing it! It makes me crazy! I refuse to ever turn on fox but I keep a close eye on msnbc and cnn as much as possible and always call them out for their bias. Thank god jon stewart the other night showed them for their extremism and bias by a clip of several media players and their use of adverbs and adjectives to bias their reporting (at the time against Bill Clinton and Mittens). I posted the clip here . I HOPE Jon keeps doing that, editing clips of media coverage and calling them out for their unprofessional bias. As a huge Hillary fan and as someone who (originally) was quite seriously looking at obama but now literally dislikes the guy whom I find rather arrogant, fake, and empty on substance, I am constantly infuriated by these media people! Thank god I live in Vegas where I can go play poker and blow off steam!

Here's the most recent letter I sent to msnbc just so you know, me, you, others, we are not alone in calling them out for whatever we as individuals see as their biased and unprofessional media coverage, whether you're an O fan or an H fan, they need to be called out blog of letters here ..or just call them my rants!

By the way the pic of Chris in the cheer leaders outfit cracked me up!

clif said...

tweety and chicken little should be on their way out the door at MSNBC, but GE doesn't give up that easily on their propagandists, (see reagan for example, that one paid off in the end for them).

As far as the non reporting of the fiasco that is Iraq;

It ain't rosy over there, (Basra is exploding daily, and the Iraqi army is headed to Mosul to try to take that away from the Sunnis again, BTW don't tell anybody over 100 Sunnis who have signed on to work for the us military are no longer living, and around 1,000,000 Sunnis need to return to their homes in Baghdad sometime which is when the real judgment on the surge will be handed down) .... but to try to report then explain why Bush ET Al lied to us all again, isn't what GE wants them to do, thus they don't.

I've never understood GE's romance with the former congress-critter who cheated on his wife before a dead staffer was found in his Florida office. Not that I am blaming ole' joe, but the autopsy is a very interesting story, and ole'joe HATES to talk about either his own cheating scandal, (oh right the republicans who cheated while bill cheated didn't get reported on, you know Newt, ole' joe, Bob Livingston and Henry Hyde among others), or why a dead body of a young staffer was on his Florida office floor.

I've given up on morning empty head shows, and have switched to watching CNBC, because it is very entertaining to watch. Their pro wall street propagandists report the news rather straight forward, but then try in the same time frame tell all the 'investors' to totally ignore what they just said and buy a pile of dog crap, because it'll help raise the DOW or S&P500 .....

The funniest part is when a real wall street analysts gets on and the talking head tries to get them to put the lipstick on the PIG that wall street has become. Watching the CNBC hosts try time after time to get any analysts to say they would buy right now should allow the CNBC empty suit to get a nomination for funniest comedy routine at the emmys or at least the razzie.

As for Dan Abrams, well he is Dan Abrams, and has my sympathies ..... but he is improving, by 2037 he just might be a credible evening show host.

One caveat, I do give MSNBC for most improved a since Chimpy McFlightsuit was given the election by five frauds in robes, they have eliminated the coulterguist, rita i have no talent what so ever cosby and micheal I'm really a weiner savage from their line up.

Saying that shows what a sad state the MSM cable cabal is in about now.

ricksramblings said...

I heard Tweety say this morning that a photo of Bill Clinton shaking hands with JFK was trick photography. How does he get away with such lies day in and day out? Boycott Ge for interfering with our electoral process! They have spent millions lying to the American people through their mouth piece Chris Matthews. They have stirred up a race war with the African American community and now are trying to do so with the Latino community. All for ratings and profit! Boycott GE to let them become painfully aware that we the people will not tolerate such biased commentary and callus disregard for the ethics of journalism and their protections under the first amendment.