Carl Bernstein has written an article that outlines perfectly the questions that have been rattling round in my head since reading of the plan/plot by Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch to back David Petraeus for the Republican Nomination.
I know most of you have read about this before but the article delves in to the lack of interest through fear or deference. It also questions attitudes in the US to the Hackgate Enquiry in the UK.
Where is the reporting?
Where is the outrage?
Over the jump for quotes from the article, which I hope some of you will take the time to read in full...
So now we have it: what appears to be hard, irrefutable evidence of Rupert Murdoch's ultimate and most audacious attempt – thwarted, thankfully, by circumstance – to hijack America's democratic institutions on a scale equal to his success in kidnapping and corrupting the essential democratic institutions of Great Britain through money, influence and wholesale abuse of the privileges of a free press.
And here let us posit the following: were an emissary of the president of NBC News, or of the editor of the New York Times or the Washington Post ever caught on tape promising what Ailes and Murdoch had apparently suggested and offered here, the hue and cry, especially from Fox News and Republican/Tea Party America, from the Congress to the US Chamber of Commerce to the Heritage Foundation, would be deafening and not be subdued until there was a congressional investigation, and the resignations were in hand of the editor and publisher of the network or newspaper. Or until there had been plausible and convincing evidence that the most important elements of the story were false. And, of course, the story would continue day after day on page one and remain near the top of the evening news for weeks, until every ounce of (justifiable) piety about freedom of the press and unfettered presidential elections had been exhausted.
The digital recording, and the dead-serious conspiratorial conversation it captures so chillingly in tone and substance ("I'm only reporting this back to Roger. And that's our deal," McFarland assured Petraeus as she unfolded the offer) utterly refutes Ailes' disingenuous dismissal of what he and Murdoch were actually attempting: the buying of the presidency.
These are three short excerpts from a long and blistering article that includes a link to the said recording.
As an added extra, as if needed, of the insidious influence Fox News has on the minds of its audience please also see this article I read tonight at Crooks and Liars
Mosque Arsonist Tells Court: 'I Only Know What I Hear on Fox News'
An Indiana man convicted of setting fire to a mosque in Ohio told a judge on Wednesday that he committed the crimes because Fox News and conservative talk radio had convinced him that "most Muslims are terrorists."
Randolph Linn, 52, accepted a plea deal in which he pled guilty to all charges in connection to setting a fire in the prayer room at the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo on Sept. 30. Under the deal, Linn is expected to serve 20 years in prison instead of 40.
Linn explained to the court that he had gotten "riled up" after watching Fox News.
6:11 PM PT: Thank you for the tips and recs. The diary seems to have hauled itself up to the rec list briefly, which is amazing considering all that is going on this evening.
Good luck all of you falling over that fiscal kerb (UK spelling) and I'll just say to echo bubbanomics.....HaHaHaHaHaHa! oh and Cantor.