Susan Estrich, already an embarrassment, goes off the charts with
this:
... I've come to expect the jabs at Fox News - since, being a liberal, I get more than most. I work there in part because, six or seven years ago, they offered me a better deal than NBC at the time; and because, as a feminist and a Democrat, I think it's particularly important to have a dialogue with people who aren't already members of the same choir I am, since that is the way we will ultimately have to win elections.
... But things have taken a personal turn in the last week or so, as the targets have shifted from the institution as a whole to the individuals within it, including some of the most talented people at Fox News. The criticisms have gotten personal, the tone has changed, the volume is up, and the value is down. Neil Cavuto? Brian Wilson? Under attack by a Washington press corps for not probing enough on Iraq (Cavuto) and being too tough on Howard Dean (Wilson)? Give me a break.
... Neil Cavuto, Fox News' brilliant anchor, sat down to do an interview with George Bush last week on his business show. He didn't discuss Iraq. Neil doesn't cover Iraq. As far as I know, he had nothing new to ask him, nothing new to add and no important new question to pose, and the president had nothing new to say on the topic. There was no news to be made.
Neil Cavuto had nothing new to ask the President of the United States on Iraq? Neil Cavuto doesn't cover Iraq? Well he seems to cover torture. Maybe a question on THAT?
More on the flip.
On Cavuto, here is the funniest line:
So he didn't use the opportunity either to beat up on the president or to let him say something we'd heard a hundred times. Instead, he asked him questions he didn't know the answer to, where he might get an answer he hadn't already heard.
The opportunity to beat upon the President? HAhahahahahahahaha. What a political whore. Just unbelievable.
Now in Dean:
The Dean charge is, of course, the more serious one, particularly since the party chairman has taken to attacking Fox News in recent days. There certainly is disagreement among Democrats as to whether party leaders such as Joe Biden and John Edwards should have gone public with the obvious criticism that Dean had gone too far in calling Republicans a party of white Christians who don't work.
... This is precisely what congressional leaders and Dean agreed that Dean would not do when he became the chair of the party. He was supposed to leave the message to them. Having not done so, and having been criticized for it by two possible presidential candidates - neither of whom are even conservatives - Sen. Reid was trying to put the perennial good face on a bad situation, while Brian Wilson was trying to puncture it.
Really? Beating up on the Senate Minority Leader is what good journalists do? But the President gets a pass? She is too stupid for words.
That's what the press is supposed to do, last time I checked.
Except if your name is Cavuto or you are interviewing the President.
Finally:
Former Gov. Dean, asked to respond to Vice President Cheney's comments about him to Fox's Sean Hannity, said, "My view is that Fox News is a propaganda outlet for the Republican Party, and I don't comment on Fox News."
And Estrich's rebuttal to this?
Three times as many people watch Fox every day as watch CNN. There were certainly times during the last campaign where I disagreed with decisions made by young producers working at Fox. But without exception, every time I raised an issue, I won - I saw it as my job to teach off the air, as much as to talk on the air. If anyone disagreed, the joke was that I would tell them to set their stopwatches and transfer me to Roger, so they could time how long it would take me to get their decisions reversed.
Is she fucking kidding me? Is she completely insane? Or is she the ultimate sellout?
This is truly the most embarrassing thing I have ever read.
I hope her checks are nice. Cuz that's all she has left now. Those checks. Dignity, respect and honor are long gone.