Art Pottery, Politics and Food

Tuesday, July 01, 2003

This morning the Washington Post’s Howie Kurtz joined the rest of establishment punditry in hopping onto the large “flopped” pile currently steaming on the verdant lawns of the NBC compound at the Ward Circle end of Nebraska Avenue, N.W.
With Stalinesque lockstep the blight of corporate punditry assures us that Governor Howard Dean of Vermont failed miserably before Tim Russert’s Meet the Press barrage of questions:

Waffling and evasive.
--Washington Post, editorial, large media holdings benefit from Powell/FCC rules

The former Vermont governor repeatedly stumbled during a Tim Russert grilling nine days ago on "Meet the Press."
--Howard Kurtz, columnist, Washington Post, see above

It was perhaps the worst performance by a presidential candidate in the history of television.
--Zev Chafets, columnist, Murdock-owned NY Daily News

The politico-media establishment continues to look at him as an antiwar pipsqueak…decidedly not ready for prime time.
--The Note, ABCNews.com, Disney-owned

It was a disaster.
--Craig Hines, Houston Chronicle, and need I say more

Never for a minute forget, boys and girls, that the editorial slant of the mainstream corporate press is a major issue in this upcoming Presidential election. The media will use deception, smears and omission to further a Bush agenda that strengthens corporate monopolies and insures obscene profit to the detriment of their Constitutional responsibilities.
Here’s a selection of interesting and related links:

Bob Somerby at the Daily Howler has an excellent 3 part series on Governor Dean’s Meet appearance.

David Podvin from MakeThemAccountable.com explains why Tim did what he did.

The Meet the Press transcript including the Governor’s unreported money quote about Republican election goals:

I believe their purpose is essentially to defund the federal government so that Medicare and Social Security, the icons of the New Deal, will be undone. Karl Rove and others have talked about going back to the McKinley era before there was any kind of social safety net in this country. Really that’s what the campaign’s about. It’s to undo what I consider radical Republicanism.

Neil Pollack’s hysterical post:

But then I watched Howard Dean's appearance on Meet the Press yesterday morning, and all other smears were off.

And, from billmon.org, Day of the Jackals:

It strikes me that the political press really has descended to a new low -- leaving it on an evolutionary plane only slightly higher than bread mold. The boys (and girls) on the bus now seem to think it's OK for them to try to destroy candidates based on whether they like them or not...slamming a candidate because you disagree with his or her ideas...amount to "protecting the game"...And that [game] is abuse of power.

Photo: Ann Heisenfelt-AP

- posted by Sean @ 7:07 PM

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