Integrity. Neutrality. Ethics. Hard work. All of these qualities come to mind when we think of journalism at its best. Now, thanks to ABC's World News anchor Charlie Gibson and, more recently, The Washington Post columnist and associate editor David Ignatius, we can add another: Making shit up.
Media Matters called out Mr. Gibson for basically doing House Minority Leader John Boehner's job in the March 4 edition of World News. The former Good Morning America host, trying to fill Peter Jennings' shoes since 2006, claimed on that broadcast that President Obama had promised to end earmarks on the campaign trail, despite the fact that no such statement was ever made by the candidate or the campaign. Similarly, The New York Times accused Obama of breaking campaign pledges to not allow earmarks in spending bills.
All but the most foamy-mouthed "Dittoheads" and those completely determined to avoid looking into the matter for themselves are aware that then-Senator Obama simply promised "reform" of the earmark system. Still, we suppose having the media take potshots at the president frees up Republicans, allowing them to forget about the nuts and bolts of governing or offering an alternative to Democrats. After all, they need all the spare time they can get: there's infighting to do and apologies to Rush Limbaugh to be composed.
This weekend, Mr. Ignatius continued the attempt by the media to help the GOP stay focused on the fun stuff. In his column, Ignatius criticizes Obama's cabinet picks as "un-businesslike," because of, we're guessing, what the columnist sees as the bang-up job the business community has been doing of late.
Furthermore, Ignatius goes on to rip the recent stimulus bill a new one, writing that the Democrats were "egregious in packing the...bill with pet projects." Predictably, he then tells his readers that Obama had promised to eliminate these projects, these earmarks. We suppose the Poster hadn't heard the news that this has already been demonstrated to be false. Hadn't heard, or doesn't care.
The other sticky widget? The economic stimulus bill does not contain one single earmark. That would be none. Zero. Zilch. Exactly one less than...one.
The Snarking Lot has to wonder aloud if ultraconservatives are going to have to remove ABC and the Post from the supposed "liberal media."
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1 comments:
There appears to be a failure of critical thinking in this country right now, on a fairly large scale, in more than one circle.
The Republicans are unable to think critically about their own policies and the incredible economic mess resulting from policies held in common by most Republicans and many Democrats, are instead pitching more tax cuts for the people who have profited from the economy's ills (or, at the very least, are greatly insulated from their effects in a manner that you and I are not) and spending cuts during a time of economic depression.
The media is unable to tell general federal spending from earmarks or Candidate Obama's campaign promises from Candidate McCain's.
The public at large is unable to understand that most of the public projects in their states, which they vote for and demand from their state governments, are partly paid for by earmarks and that without earmarks state budgets would suffer drastically.
I think that last failure is the worst, actually. Can you imagine the screams from states, especially poor Southern and Midwestern states, if the federal government suddenly stopped helping to pay for state projects. Imagine it a moment: no more federal money for Republican states like Mississippi, South Carolina, and Kansas... the federal government tells the states to pay for all their projects themselves.
How would the 'Republican' citizens of those 'Republican' states react to that?
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