Eminent Domain

The Media Research Center has compiled the best (worst?) media quotes from this year. These are always fun to read. It's also a good link to forward to anyone who fails to see a bias in the media. Here are a few of my favorites...

"It's like he [President Bush] stuck a broomstick in his [FDR'’s] wheelchair wheels."

- Newsweek'’s Jon Meacham on MSNBC'’s Imus in the Morning May 9, discussing Bush'’s criticism of Roosevelt'’s Yalta deal with Stalin on post-war Europe.

God forbid anyone criticize the sainted FDR. Maybe, just maybe, it was a bad idea to give Eastern Europe gift wrapped to the Soviets. There was that whole 50 years of oppression and dictatorship thing.

"An Advocate for the Right."
- Headline over a New York Times "news analysis" of Judge John Roberts'’ judicial philosophy, July 28.

vs.

"Balanced Jurist at Home in the Middle."
- Headline over a June 27, 1993 New York Times story on Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Haha. If that isn't telling, I don't know what is.

Nina Totenberg: "I was very happy to see him [Bush] take responsibility and to not pretend that the buck stops someplace else. But it would have been a great opportunity to say, 'Look, I'm for tax cuts, but we need a Katrina tax, we need to really pay, to do this and to pay for it.'"
Moderator Gordon Peterson: "You want more taxes."
Totenberg: "I want more taxes, yes."
- Inside Washington, September 17.

Okay. You pay 'em.

"Do I need to be concerned that I'm going to go live with a church family, are they going to proselytize me, are they going to say, '‘You better come to church with me or else, I'm, you know, you're not going to get your breakfast this morning'?"
- Co-host Harry Smith asking author/pastor Rick Warren about church families taking in those displaced by Hurricane Katrina, on CBS'’s Early Show, September 6.

Smith has apparently never met a religious person in his entire life. They are some strange, mythic creature, like a unicorn, whose behaviors are unknown.

And my favorite media moment of the year...

Matt Lauer in Baghdad: "Talk to me...about morale here. We've heard so much about the insurgent attacks, so much about the uncertainty as to when you folks are going to get to go home. How would you describe morale?"
Chief Warrant Officer Randy Kirgiss: "In my unit morale is pretty good. Every day we go out and do our missions and people are ready to execute their missions. They'’re excited to be here."
Lauer: "How much does that uncertainty of [not] knowing how long you're going to be here impact morale?"|
Specialist Steven Chitterer: "Morale is always high. Soldiers know they have a mission. They like taking on new objectives and taking on the new challenges...."
Lauer: "Don'’t get me wrong here, I think you are probably telling me the truth, but a lot of people at home are wondering how that could be possible with the conditions you'’re facing and with the attacks you'’re facing. What would you say to those people who are doubtful that morale can be that high?"
Captain Sherman Powell: "Sir, if I got my news from the newspapers also, I'’d be pretty depressed as well."
-— Exchange on NBC's Today, August 17.

That's the most polite way I've ever heard someone say "fuck off".

After reading all of these quotes (or just the ones I've reproduced here), take a look at this one...

"I'’m going out telling the story that I think is the biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee. We have an ideological press that'’s interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that's interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don'’t have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people."
- Bill Moyers, who retired in December 2004 from the PBS show Now, as quoted by AP television writer Frazier Moore in a December 10, 2004 dispatch.

If these are the actions of an ideological press that is interested in electing Republicans, they need to reevaluate their tactics.