"The end of the BushCheney era, alas, does not mean the end of loyal Bushies misleading the country"

[Cha]

THE MEDIA LOVES THOSE LOYAL BUSHIES.... When Scott Lemieux noted yesterday that the Washington Post had hired Marc Thiessen as a columnist, I thought there had to be some kind of mistake.

There are, of course, a limited number of slots for paid columnists at the Post, and it seemed hard to believe that the paper would hire George W. Bush's former chief speechwriter and then hire George W. Bush's other chief speechwriter. Fox News, maybe. But the Washington Post is supposed to have standards. We know better.

Alas, Lemieux's report was accurate. At the bottom of a Thiessen piece yesterday, there was text explaining that he "will be writing a weekly column for The Post."

This strikes me as noteworthy for two reasons. The first is that Thiessen is a truly awful choice. As Adam Serwer explained:

Thiessen ... has spent the entirety of his post-Bush administration career attempting to defend the use of torture by his former boss. I'd have to say the highlight would be the time he argued that torturing Muslim terrorist suspects was necessary because of their religion -- and since that column appeared in the Post, I'm guessing Hiatt thinks there's something to this. Clearly, Hiatt felt that between Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol and Richard Cohen he still didn't have the whole "I heart torture" contingent covered.

Editorial page editor Fred Hiatt said Thiessen deserves to be a paid columnist because he "makes some strong arguments" and "argues them forcefully." And which arguments would those be? His love of torture? His insistence, two days after the president's inauguration, that Obama is "proving to be the most dangerous man ever to occupy the Oval Office"?

I can appreciate "strong" and "forceful" voices as much as the next reader, but isn't there something to be said for morally defensible voices who also tell the truth?

The other thing to keep in mind here is that there's a remarkable revolving door between the mainstream media and the staff of the Bush White House.

It's been tough to keep up with all of them, but the list is getting pretty long: Dana Perino (Fox News), Michael Gerson (Washington Post), Mary Matalin (CNN), Sara Taylor (MSNBC), Tony Snow (CNN), Frances Fragos Townsend (CNN), Nicole Wallace (CBS News), Dan Bartlett (CBS News), Jeff Ballabon (CBS News), Tony Fratto (CNBC), Juan Carlos Zarate (CBS News), Karl Rove (Fox News, Newsweek, and the Wall Street Journal), and now Thiessen.

The revolving door is so intense, NBC News hired one of the former president's daughters, despite her not having any background in journalism at all.

Given the previous administrations' spectacular failures, it's tempting to think these former officials would stay out of the public eye. After all, haven't they done enough damage to the country already? Do we need to be reminded of their comical ineptitude while trying to keep up on current events?

Remember, conservatives are convinced that major news outlets were not only deliberately unfair to the Bush administration, but also hate conservatives. The media outlets presumably, then, keep hiring leading Bush administration officials as part of an elaborate ruse to throw us off their liberal trail.

The end of the Bush/Cheney era, alas, does not mean the end of loyal Bushies misleading the country. If there's a rational explanation for these bizarre media decisions, I'd love to hear it.

—Steve Benen 11:00 AM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (28)

Fuck the washedout post.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/

[goclark]

1. Isn't that new person on The View a Cheney or Mc Cain

How in hell did she get picked!

And how is Jenna Bush doing ~ she has no skills and taking a slot that hundreds of skilled people have taken years to fill.

[Cha]

2. I think they had meghan mccain on the view as

a guest.

I posted this analysis from Steve Benen bc it illustrates so well how the corporatemedia is being stacked with bushcheney propaganda catapulters..as if we didn't know already, but there are people who still who might need illumination.

I haven't watched any of the "media" since 2002 and that includes the today show but I've seen via DU how they treat Dems and how they suck it up to repukeville. So I wouldn't know how the spawn of bush is doing on the nbc corporatewhoreshow.

:hi::)

[goclark]

3. I've seen her take the place of the "Rethug" lady

several times.

Last time she was seated front and center.

Looking "charming."