It’s going to be another day of the blame game. It looks like Congress is playing musical chairs and the last one standing has to take the blame for AIG and the entire Wall Street Meltdown. Well, we’d all like a good scapegoat. It won’t fix the problem but we can throw shoes at it.
No one wants a scapegoat more than our Johnny come lately free press. They know something’s up and like a fourteen year old boy in a whore house, they are all chasing stories with erect microphones.
Last night, I was interested it watching 'AIG: Facts & Fury' on CNN. When I noticed that the investigative reporters were Dana Bash and Drew Griffin - I changed channels.
Both "reporters" are known for pushing their own agenda regardless of the facts. During the campaign, Bash embarrassed herself on several occasions when it became obvious that she was a pawn for the Palin campaign. Once, as she is reporting that all the Hillary supporters were joining the Palin camp - in the background you could hear the Palin supports booing at the mention of Hillary's name. It was obvious that she was simply regurgitating the line fed to her by Camp Palin. She had not bothered to do any independent investigation. She reported what they fed her. Although she was officially covering the campaign for CNN, time and time again, Dana Bash was the last to know what was happening in the McCain Palin camp. No "investigative" reporting there.
Now she’s covering Congress with the same dedication and integrity.
As for Drew Griffin, the last segment I saw him do was about a much needed bridge in Missouri. He stood there, as the bridge literally fell apart on camera, and ridiculed the work. The reality did not matter; he was pushing the idea that the stimulus would not be effective. He interviewed a man who stated that "most economists" believe that only WWII ended the great depression, not any of FDR's programs. His "expert" was not a respected economist but an Associate Professor of Agribusiness, at University Of Missouri, Columbia. His theories on what "most economists" believe is certainly not what any reputable economist believes. But Griffin treated him like Noble prize winning economist.
This morning I watched David Gregory continue his mission to turn "Meet the Press" into "Beat the Prez." He hammered at guest after guest trying to find someone who would blame the Prez. He played a clip of Obama saying that we can’t govern in anger and then played another of him saying, "I don’t want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry. I’m angry too. What I want to do, though, is channel our anger in a constructive way" and then he would turn and say, "Isn’t this a failure of leadership?
I’ll tell you where the failure is. It’s our free press.
During the campaign, I spent one interesting day calling Kentucky just after the National Rifle Association had their annual conference. They had folks pretty angry too. They had convinced this one Kentuckian that Obama would confiscate all the guns if elected. I said, "No, Obama is the first Democrat in a long time to understand that the Second Amendment is the right to bear arms, not have an army. But there are limits just like there are limits on the freedom of speech. You can’t yell "Fire" in a crowed theater. You can’t bring guns into an elementary school. He said that there ought to be limits on what people say. That some folks like the ACLU ought to be quiet. But that the right to bear arms was more important and should have no limits. I said, "You think that’s why the put free speech first – cause it’s not as important?"
He hung up on me.
Where has our free press been? They totally missed the Iraq War. They have been asleep at the wheel on the economy. We have 24/7 news coverage and we get gossip and slime. We get less information that we did when it was three guys one hour a day.
How many million are unemployed? How many newspapers have gone out of business? How many really talented "investigative reporters" from extinct newspapers are out of work?
And these half wit hacks are employed?
We need investigative reporters. We get cartoon characters.
David Gregory - Howdy Doody
Chris Matthews - Tweety
Mad Money Kramer - Woody Woodpecker
The Morning Show with Joe and Mika - Heckle and Jeckle
Anderson Cooper - Clutch Cargo