Join the book club for David Sirota's upcoming book, The Uprising, due out on 5/27.

The issue of race makes a lot of folks uncomfortable - and that's especially true right now when the nation is closer than ever to electing the first black President of the United States. As my new newspaper column this week shows, many Serious People who dominate our political debate have reacted to this historic election and their own queasiness about race by exposing their prejudices.

Join the book club for David Sirota's upcoming book, The Uprising, due out on 5/27.

Sometimes racial denigration is easy to see - think white police officers in the segregation era using hoses to stop peaceful protests. Other times it is more subtle - like a few days ago on ABC's Nightline.

There has been talk of boycotting advertisers of ABC's debate of April 16, 2008. Always a thorny subject, because without the advertiser explaining how their ad landed in a given time slot, because of the way the debates are scheduled, they may or may not have known their ad would be seeing 11 Million bodies who may not even be their potential customers. But in any case, the ads were there. We saw them. And they've become part of the outpouring of anger or adulation.

Avoiding Disney is harder for those with children than for those without. "Desperate Housewives," as an example of ABC Television, has not recovered from the writer's strike. ABC would be tempted to claim that issue for a few more weeks of ratings declines. "Grey's Anatomy" would be another issue.

So what did we see?

There's a fascinating entry just posted on the L.A. Times blog quoting Barack Obama's view of the O.J. trial.  As I'm sure many of you noted during his speech on race on Tuesday, Obama referred to the way in which the country handled race as "spectacle" during the O.J. trial. Obama elaborated on his perspective during his follow-up interview on Nightline Tuesday night.

We all have heard Obama's honest speech on Race delivered on Mar 18 (unless you live under a Rock or worse an elephant). Pundits and Critics alike agree it was eloquent and it's impact politically is yet to be seen. I will offer no analysis of content of the speech as It was powerful all by itself and forced the listener to think and reflect.

On ABC's GMA (Good Morning America) this morning, I caught in passing a few sound bites of an exclusive interview ABC News Anchor Terry Moran had with Senator Obama right after the historic speech was delivered.

More After the Jump.

With the official resignation of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer now out of the way, it appears that the establishment media can get back to reporting on what by all accounts clearly matters most in this scandal: the sex.

ABC News bills its exclusive interview with John Kiriakou as “Coming In from the Cold: CIA Spy Calls Waterboarding Necessary but Torture,” but where exactly was this spy coming in from?

Republican Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is finally getting to talk about his fundamentalist Christian beliefs with the establishment media, and, apparently, it’s hell.

Appearing Monday on ABC’s Nightline, the former Arkansas governor told John Donvan that his recent “surge” in popularity (as I’m afraid everyone is calling it) could only be attributed to “divine providence,” comparing his increased poll numbers to Christ’s miracle of the loaves and fish:

[Huckabee] believe[s] that faith has had a lot to do with his recent success. In a speech at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, Huckabee said his recent surge in the polls was partly attributed to "divine providence."

Elaborating, he said, "I felt like that because of these prayers, our little had become much. It was like the two fish and the five loaves. And I don't have an explanation for that, other than what we have had people have prayed for it to be effective, and it has been."

   
However, like Jesus, Huckabee, to hear him tell it, must suffer for his faith. . . .

Ho, ho, ho, America!  As a special gift to YOU, big media is combining its yuletide forces to banish that icky, yucky Iraq story far, far away from the holiday front pages.  Such a downer the occupation of Iraq, eh? Who needs that kind of bad news during holiday shopping season when we can be reading about teddy bears and office gift etiquette. 

Before posting this story (9am, Dec 3, 2007), I checked all the big media news websites to see if any of them so much as listed a story about the U.S.occupation of Iraq. 

Nada.

Last night I watched 20/20. I haven't watched it in a long time and now I know why. The first segment was a bit about a woman who had a heart attach and was comatose. Just as her husband was contemplating taking her off life support, she awakens and recovers. They interview nurses and family members and the conclusion: a miracle! Where is the interview with the neurosurgeon or someone who could explain what happened? Now all kinds of people will continue indefinitely on life support in hopes of the "miracle"! They didn't spend enough time on her rehab and made it seem like she is normal now. Her chances of a recurrence? They didn't say!

Then came Stossel's hit piece on Global Warming.

Top Story on Nightline:

"...Now the 32-year-old actor, whose career skyrocketed
even as the on-screen Titanic sunk, is a passionate advocate for the
environment and saving the planet. His documentary "The 11th Hour," set
for release this week, presents an argument that says, in a nutshell,
"Time is running out. You need to listen and believe it."

See video footage and the rest of the story here: http://abcnews.go.com/...

On April 30th, 2004, Ted Koppel did something so unusual and radical that several stations refused to broadcast his show, Nightline.  Instead of the normal format of a hard-hitting late night news program, Koppel dedicated the entire show to the fallen soldiers in the Iraq war.  He read the name of each of the 721 soldiers killed, while displaying a picture and information about each soldier.  The show had to be extended from its usual thirty-minute time slot to 40 minutes in order to fit the names of all of the soldiers in the broadcast, for an average of 18 names per minute.

In this edition: Dick Cheney should be happy the only child he gets asked about is Mary; Barbara Starr gets it wrong more than once; Google search & the 08 election; the shows media buyers are scared of; Black enough?; House GOP strategizing with FCC chairman?; Olbermann re-ups; Obama v. media; a book recommendation from yours truly; ratings; and so much more...

Thoughts, and Then, the News
If you’re concerned about consolidated media control, then, consider buying Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America’s Media or requesting it at your local library. It’s a new book by Eric Klinenberg.

Now for the news:

The host described three categories of applicants: normal, legacy and development. As the shining example of legacy applicants, the only example, in fact, they used Al Gore, since his four children went to Harvard, as did he.  Needless to say, the genius Bush daughter's admission to Yale went unnoticed.

Good, I thought, ABS News is gonna pull turd duty and clean up the stink-pile that the folks over in Entertainment left.  I have to learn to stop thinking when it comes to the teevee, because once again, I was sorely disappointed.

On September 11, 2001, terrorists struck the United States.  The world watched in real time the murder of thousands. In addition to lost lives and devastated families, the fiscal cost reaches into the trillions of dollars around the world.

Day 2, September 12, 2001, Le Monde headlines "We are all Americans".  The world mourns with America.  NATO declares Article V - that this was an attack on an ally allowing mobilization of forces to defeat the enemy.  The world is with America.  The world is ready to be lead by America to isolate and defeat those who seek to take down Western society.

Day 7, September 17, 2001, President George W. Bush stated: "I want justice."  As for Osama bin Laden, "there's an old poster out West  'Wanted, Dead or Alive.'"

Nightline's interview with Kos on line now.

All in all I thought it was a very good interview with a few exceptions.  What the heck is Tapper trying to insinuate asking Kos about his finances and commenting about his new piano ...That was rude and uncalled for.  One other complaint - They just had to play "the scream" again.

They tried to play "gottcha" but failed miserably.  Kos is a great representative of this blog.  He is well spoken, affable and sincere.  I'm proud that he speaks for Kos.