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Blast from the past....anybody remember AMPOL/Pundit Pap?
http://www.americanpolitics.com/20040725punditpap.htmlone of the most informative sites around, back in the day
this one, about Kerry's media treatmejt was the first one I found, randomly, and is utterly apropos today:
even the wizard of whimsy is there
Pundit Pap for Sunday, July 25, 2004
When Press Whores Attack!
Sunday pundits call John Kerry stiff and liberal, refuse to ask probing questions about Bush failures leading up to 9/11
by JJ Balzer
This Sunday's big topics were -- no surprise -- the freshly-issued report of the September 11 Commission and the Democratic National Convention, which begins tomorrow in Boston. But the spin on the issues was a little bit unexpected.
The Sunday shows we saw played up the enormous pressure on Congress and the White House to act immediately on the commission's recommendations. Moreover, it looked to this viewer as if NBC, CBS, ABC and CNN intentionally avoided the issue of why the Bush Junta seemed to willfully downplay the threat of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda -- in stark contrast to a Clinton team engaged in trying to stop Osama and his homicidal sickos. This contrast was in fact detailed in the final 9/11 Commission report despite the "spin" that no "blame" is being assigned.
The other surprise -- an encouraging one -- was the Democrats' keynote speaker for the convention, Barack Obama, who made the rounds of at least three shows we saw (Face the Nation, "Meat" the Press and CNN Late Edition) -- and lived up to and even beyond the hype that he is a "rising star in the Democratic Party." By the end of the week, he will be a star.
The Sunday shows we saw played up the enormous pressure on Congress and the White House to act immediately on the commission's recommendations. Moreover, it looked to this viewer as if NBC, CBS, ABC and CNN intentionally avoided the issue of why the Bush Junta seemed to willfully downplay the threat of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda -- in stark contrast to a Clinton team engaged in trying to stop Osama and his homicidal sickos. This contrast was in fact detailed in the final 9/11 Commission report despite the "spin" that no "blame" is being assigned.
The other surprise -- an encouraging one -- was the Democrats' keynote speaker for the convention, Barack Obama, who made the rounds of at least three shows we saw (Face the Nation, "Meat" the Press and CNN Late Edition) -- and lived up to and even beyond the hype that he is a "rising star in the Democratic Party." By the end of the week, he will be a star.
they covered meet the press, ABC's This Week, and McLaughlin Group
Meat the Press
Playas: Tim Russert, Barack Obama, Thomas Kean, Lee Hamilton, Tom Brokaw
Tim welcomed Obama, who said he will try to present the vision the Democrats have for the nation -- the need for job security, health care, respect abroad -- and predicted campaign success. Tim got in a cheap shot against Clinton (the length of his keynote speech) -- and then quoted Obama having said Kerry has no "oomph" (typical "divide the Democrats" tactics in which Tim revels). Obama instead said that a prudent, smart candidate takes time to "ramp up" their campaign -- and people start tuning into the prez campaign at convention time.
Tim then quoted speculation from the New York Times about Obama's speech. Obama previewed his speech: two of the big issues are jobs, the inability to afford private education. Tim talked about Obama's parents: dad from Kenya, his white mom from Kansas, married in Kansas, and Obama meaning "sent by God" in Swahili. Obama's reply: a typical biography for an Illinois politician -- and it got a brief laugh out of Tim. Tim said the choice of Obama as keynote speaker was because he's young and black. Obama actually cut and run with Tim's comment, turning his suggestion that the Dems are pandering into a point about sending a message to all Americans. (He should have also said that it would be ridiculous to say that the choice of Tim for host of Meat the Press was because he's white, fat, and hates Democrats almost as much as Jack Welch. Or was it ridiculous?)
Tim ran footage of the Bush Boy asking if the "Democrat party" takes African-Americans for granted. Obama said that blacks don't vote GOP because Democrats back voting rights and civil rights -- and Kerry and Edwards walk the walk while Bush talks the talk. (That is, when he's not using the McCarthyite pejorative "Democrat party." Someone should sit the smirking little snotnose down and explain to him that the proper term is "Democratic party."
Tim then played the race card, trying in effect to cast blacks as somehow immoral, bringing up the number of black children born out of wedlock. (Golly, Tim, why is the very same moral dilemma on the increase among whites?) Obama beat Tim's bias like a piece of bad meat by pointing out that the "either-or," moral absolutist approach fails -- it is an issue of personal responsibility, but it is also an issue of a lack of opportunities. Then Tim ran footage of Bill Cosby's scathing critique of a black subculture that holds education and critical thinking in contempt. Obama shifted the paradigm slightly -- indirectly saying that it is time for parents and community leaders to challenge a culture that puts consumerism ($500 sneakers) about intellectualism.
There was some back and forth about the propriety of going into a war against Iraq -- and the need for both success and an honorable withdrawal.
Tim then quoted a scathing comment by Obama about the ideology of going to war foisted by Bush and Rove. Tim tried to write it off as a political attack -- but Obama made Tim look shrill and shallow by pointing out that Obama had been critiquing the war ideology, and Kerry presents a sane policy alternative. Tim tried to put Obama in the position of being "right" about Saddam when Kerry and Edwards were "wrong." Obama essentially pointed out that Kerry and Edwards were given bad information -- and again said that Kerry's the man to fix and consolidate international relations. Tim kept trying to get Obama to say Kerry and Edwards were wrong -- but he wouldn't.
Tim also tried to get Obama to slam rich donors who are financing the 2004 Democratic Convention. Instead, Obama talked about Kerry's voting record.
And in one final swipe at the media, Obama was critical of Beltway rhetoric (i.e. use of the word "liberal" filtering down to state politics in response to Tim's question about whether he's a liberal or not.
Obama looks to be a formidable speaker, and he was very fast on his feet, matching and trumping each of Tim's rhetorical and biased flourishes. He's no mere "rising star" -- he has a strong shot at winning that Senate seat in Illinois.
The next guests were 9/11 chairmen Kean and Hamilton. No revelations, no newsworthy sound bites -- but there was an hilarious slip of the tongue on Russert's part when he asked if the workings of government vis-à-vis stopping Al Qaeda were affected by the "impeachment of President Bush." That's right -- Little Wuss, er, Russ said Bush when he meant Clinton.
The impeachment of President Bush. Well, one can still dream...
Finally, Tim welcomed Tom Brokaw for a segment in which Tim spent most of his time spinning Kerry as a stiff, dull, no-personality loser and liberal. He said something snarky about Americans' "comfort level" with Kerry in the White House. (Hey, Tim -- why not ask about Americans' "comfort level" with a brain-addled, dry-drunk, holy-roller, moral-absolutist LIAR in the White House.)
Tim'n'Tom also obsessed on the latest specious NBC-Wall Street Journal Poll that shows Bush ahead by two percentage points. Funny, but Tim didn't seem to mention this thing called "margin of error" -- which, in Tim's case, is nearly everything that he spouts
Playas: Tim Russert, Barack Obama, Thomas Kean, Lee Hamilton, Tom Brokaw
Tim welcomed Obama, who said he will try to present the vision the Democrats have for the nation -- the need for job security, health care, respect abroad -- and predicted campaign success. Tim got in a cheap shot against Clinton (the length of his keynote speech) -- and then quoted Obama having said Kerry has no "oomph" (typical "divide the Democrats" tactics in which Tim revels). Obama instead said that a prudent, smart candidate takes time to "ramp up" their campaign -- and people start tuning into the prez campaign at convention time.
Tim then quoted speculation from the New York Times about Obama's speech. Obama previewed his speech: two of the big issues are jobs, the inability to afford private education. Tim talked about Obama's parents: dad from Kenya, his white mom from Kansas, married in Kansas, and Obama meaning "sent by God" in Swahili. Obama's reply: a typical biography for an Illinois politician -- and it got a brief laugh out of Tim. Tim said the choice of Obama as keynote speaker was because he's young and black. Obama actually cut and run with Tim's comment, turning his suggestion that the Dems are pandering into a point about sending a message to all Americans. (He should have also said that it would be ridiculous to say that the choice of Tim for host of Meat the Press was because he's white, fat, and hates Democrats almost as much as Jack Welch. Or was it ridiculous?)
Tim ran footage of the Bush Boy asking if the "Democrat party" takes African-Americans for granted. Obama said that blacks don't vote GOP because Democrats back voting rights and civil rights -- and Kerry and Edwards walk the walk while Bush talks the talk. (That is, when he's not using the McCarthyite pejorative "Democrat party." Someone should sit the smirking little snotnose down and explain to him that the proper term is "Democratic party."
Tim then played the race card, trying in effect to cast blacks as somehow immoral, bringing up the number of black children born out of wedlock. (Golly, Tim, why is the very same moral dilemma on the increase among whites?) Obama beat Tim's bias like a piece of bad meat by pointing out that the "either-or," moral absolutist approach fails -- it is an issue of personal responsibility, but it is also an issue of a lack of opportunities. Then Tim ran footage of Bill Cosby's scathing critique of a black subculture that holds education and critical thinking in contempt. Obama shifted the paradigm slightly -- indirectly saying that it is time for parents and community leaders to challenge a culture that puts consumerism ($500 sneakers) about intellectualism.
There was some back and forth about the propriety of going into a war against Iraq -- and the need for both success and an honorable withdrawal.
Tim then quoted a scathing comment by Obama about the ideology of going to war foisted by Bush and Rove. Tim tried to write it off as a political attack -- but Obama made Tim look shrill and shallow by pointing out that Obama had been critiquing the war ideology, and Kerry presents a sane policy alternative. Tim tried to put Obama in the position of being "right" about Saddam when Kerry and Edwards were "wrong." Obama essentially pointed out that Kerry and Edwards were given bad information -- and again said that Kerry's the man to fix and consolidate international relations. Tim kept trying to get Obama to say Kerry and Edwards were wrong -- but he wouldn't.
Tim also tried to get Obama to slam rich donors who are financing the 2004 Democratic Convention. Instead, Obama talked about Kerry's voting record.
And in one final swipe at the media, Obama was critical of Beltway rhetoric (i.e. use of the word "liberal"
filtering down to state politics in response to Tim's question about whether he's a liberal or not.
Obama looks to be a formidable speaker, and he was very fast on his feet, matching and trumping each of Tim's rhetorical and biased flourishes. He's no mere "rising star" -- he has a strong shot at winning that Senate seat in Illinois.
The next guests were 9/11 chairmen Kean and Hamilton. No revelations, no newsworthy sound bites -- but there was an hilarious slip of the tongue on Russert's part when he asked if the workings of government vis-à-vis stopping Al Qaeda were affected by the "impeachment of President Bush." That's right -- Little Wuss, er, Russ said Bush when he meant Clinton.
The impeachment of President Bush. Well, one can still dream...
Finally, Tim welcomed Tom Brokaw for a segment in which Tim spent most of his time spinning Kerry as a stiff, dull, no-personality loser and liberal. He said something snarky about Americans' "comfort level" with Kerry in the White House. (Hey, Tim -- why not ask about Americans' "comfort level" with a brain-addled, dry-drunk, holy-roller, moral-absolutist LIAR in the White House.)
Tim'n'Tom also obsessed on the latest specious NBC-Wall Street Journal Poll that shows Bush ahead by two percentage points. Funny, but Tim didn't seem to mention this thing called "margin of error" -- which, in Tim's case, is nearly everything that he spouts