Some helpful hints for Tom and Al

That's actually Al Gore's line, complaining about how he can't get no respect from the right-wing media, which in Al's telling includes everybody to the right of the New York Times, and that includes just about everybody.

Or maybe it was Tom Daschle's. He was last heard complaining that Rush Limbaugh, or Fox News, or The Washington Times, or the Wall Street Journal is out to get him and the Democrats.

. . . "There are some major institutional voices that are, truthfully speaking, part and parcel of the Republican Party. Fox News Network, The Washington Times, Rush Limbaugh — there's a bunch of them, and some of them are financed by wealthy ultra-conservative billionaires

There are indeed media voices which are not liberal. This is protected by the First Amendment, and not a scandal at all.

. . . who make political deals with Republican administrations and the rest of the media.

First of all, the examples given--Rush and Fox--didn't exist or were just getting started during the last Republican administration. The use of the plural in such case is disingenuous, not to say smarmy. Even if the claim of a "political deal" had substance--which is not proven.
But the larger point is that in the founding era Hamilton and Jefferson waged their own partisan struggles by sponsoring competing newspapers. This was not only accepted by the founders but is pretty much explicitly what First Amendment "freedom . . . of the press" intended to protect.

. . . The rest of the media has been slow to recognize the pervasive impact of this fifth column in their ranks."

There could scarcely be a clearer illustration of my point that the doctrine of "journalistic objectivity" is inimicable to First Amendment freedom. Journalists use "objectivity" as a codeword for "liberal."

"The media is kind of weird these day on politics," Mr. Gore told Josh Benson of the New York Observer, who was kind enough to print his remarks. "There are some major institutional voices that are, truthfully speaking, part and parcel of the Republican Party. Fox News Network, The Washington Times, Rush Limbaugh — there's a bunch of them, and some of them are financed by wealthy ultra-conservative billionaires who make political deals with Republican administrations and the rest of the media. The rest of the media has been slow to recognize the pervasive impact of this fifth column in their ranks."

As I wrote on another thread on Daschle's whining, today, following the Thanksgiving Day interview of Limbaugh by Tim Russert, revealing a very reasonable and insightful Rush, Daschle may be regretting his "shrill" accusations.

Speaking of shrill, has Daschle never listened to James Carville, Paul Begala, Bill Press, Eleanor Clift, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, and the host of other non-stop and mindless Clinton-controlled DNC spokesmen? There's not a principled thinker among them--just Kool-Aid worshipers at the feet of the former two-for-the-price-of-one Boss Hogg pretenders.

What Daschle has wound up doing is to get people who never would have listened to Rush now paying attention in a brand new way and seeing the shallow whining of the former Senate non-Leader, as well that of the former VP to the pretenders. By the way, does Gore really not "get" how truly ridiculous he appears to most of mainstream America?

"Al, of course, is flogging his new book, "Joined at the Heart." It's not doing well. Al went to a cocktail party to celebrate his book the other night — the party was in a very nice ZIP code and the little cucumber sandwiches were particularly delicious — but on his way out he saw, to his horror, that stacks of the book were on a table at the door, already remaindered.

Cheer up Al. Today's Amazon sales ranking for Joined At The Heart is 4,209; significantly more sucessful than Earth In The Balance ranked at 91,335. Appears that at least one Freeper submitted a review.

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