Posted on 09/23/2008 12:32:52 PM PDT by pissant
From Reuters and the Hollywood Reporter comes news that PBS filmmaker Ken Burns used a New York panel discussion preceding the news and documentary Emmy Awards as a forum to denounce the Republican vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, as proof the selection process devolved "into a high school popularity contest and an American Idol competition" and insisted "in the whole history of the republic there has been no one with as thin a credential" as Palin.
The reporter on this story, Paul J. Gough, treated Burns as an eminence and not as a partisan liberal who endorsed Obama in December 2007. He also completely ignored that Burns made a sappy tribute film to Sen. Ted Kennedy for last month’s Democratic convention in Denver, and then went on MSNBC to tout him as an "amazing, amazing man." At the same event, CBS’s Bob Schieffer insisted the media coverage of Palin was fair, and that "It seems to me that some would suggest we should just accept on faith that Sarah Palin is qualified."
Gough reported that Burns declared at Fordham University:
"He (McCain) selected someone who is so supremely unqualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, and he has turned the selection process into a high school popularity contest and an 'American Idol' competition," Burns said. He said that McCain made a "cynical" pick in what he said was the most important decision of his presidential candidacy.
Burns, whose body of work has focused on American history, said that "in the whole history of the republic there has been no one with as thin as a credential" as Palin. He said it was, for McCain, a "Hail Mary pass" that will be decided in November.
Burns, who became famous due to a ponderously long documentary series on the Civil War, surely knows Abraham Lincoln had four terms in the Illinois House and one term in the U.S. House of Representatives – not unlike the experience of Sen. Barack Obama.
Jill Zuckman of the Chicago Tribune reported the Burns endorsement of Obama on December 18, 2007. Experience was hardly his emphasis:
Burns said he liked Obama right off the bat and felt he could stamp out society's "creeping cynicism" with his "unironic posture."
"I have been attracted from the beginning to his authenticity," he said. With the country facing difficult times, he said, the nation needs "someone able to dream and suggest a future without being tied to the past."
He also said he appreciated Obama's stand against the war when other candidates supported it.
"I think this is a human being who knew in advance how unnecessary and foolish this war was," Burns said, adding that Obama knows how to distinguish between "fraudulent wars," and "those that really need to be fought."
Gough reported that Schieffer didn't take a stand like Burns did, but he did defend the national media's coverage of Palin after she was named McCain's running mate.
"Sarah Palin is a 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency. The presidency is the most powerful office in the world," Schieffer said. "It seems to me that some would suggest we should just accept on faith that Sarah Palin is qualified."
Bob Schieffer is 71, so this assertion of frailty might sound a little strong. Conservatives weren't arguing that Palin's experience should be accepted "on faith," but that the Eastern elite media shouldn't rush to endorse instant Democrat judgment. Gough said Schieffer paid tribute to Palin and her remarkable and compelling life story but insisted that the media didn't mistreat her.
Nothing worse than a dope who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else. A comment like this from someone who will vote for The Fraud , with ZERO qualifications to be PRESIDENT!!!!!
He is a black wanna be.
You don’t make it big on PBS without being a dyed-in-the-wool commie propaganda artist.
thank you!
(taking a bow)
he he he
Oh the ‘rats ate it up when their candidate was being treated like an “American Idol” rock star celebrity, but now that the we have Palin, and she has the charisma and the mojo, they want to get all worried about “gravitas”. Their usual hypocrisy, same as ever.
First thing tomorrow, I go right down to my barbershop and get rid of this Ken Burns signature bowl-cut hairstyle I've been sporting since "The Civil War' appeared on PBS all those years ago...
*snif*
Ken Burns seems to believe in private profits and social losses.
But he was a community organiser, dammit! And so were our Founding Fathers! (Saw that one on DU)
Ken, go back to Springfield. Mr. Burns is retiring Homer and he needs a replacement....and get a decent haircut.
Burns is one of the elites who knows what is best for all of us. He should be listened to and his views should not be questioned by any of you. Just who do you think you are??
Don’t you know any better than to leave well-enough alone? What is your problem? As far as I’m concerned, Burns can eat cow manure and die, but....that’s just me! ~:o )
But he was a community organiser, dammit! ......................... Well yeah, that’s an important job too. The same can be said of Stalin, Mao, Fidel, Hitler, et.al.
Does Matt Damon know this?
Well, those are some of the DUmp monkey’s heros, so that wouldn’t faze them.
So Burns calls Palin supremely unqualified, but is supporting Obama??????????
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ROTFLMAO! This Burns guy’s a laugh riot! He should be a stand up comedian!
FOR G_D’s SAKE WTF is wrong with these people! Palin is supremely unqualified for VICE PRESIDENT (a do nothing job), but OBAMMY is qualified to be PRESIDENT?? Did anyone ask him WHY Obama is Qualified??
Foreign policy experience- NONE
Executive Experience - NONE
Fiscal expertise- NONE
National Defense- NONE
A unifier-NO
Brings people together - NO
“Burns has been worshipping black folks for his entire career. He’s got a “thing” for them that seems unsavory to me.”
Actually Burns has had a profound influence on the next generation of documentary film makers celebrating the neglected areas of Black History:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6xJzAYYrX8
“Supremely unqualified”?
I automatically and reasonably assumed he was referring to Obama; as arrogant as he is dumb and ignorant, with no demonstrated ability to learn, either.
Generally, I pay no heed to the ‘thoughts’ of very-low-IQ left-wing ideologues like Ken Burns. Their ‘thoughts’ are of interest only for abnormal psychology research studies.
Isn't that the fellow who did a fair documentary about the civil war and then, puffed up by that success beyond the capacity of a normal run-of-the-mill pervert, went off the rails and into oblivion with other "documentaries" that nobody watched?
Than Ken Burns?
Burns’ Baseball series was full of half-truths and myths that were used as factual material. I talked to a gentleman who is a baseball expert and was an adviser on the documentary. He was originally selected to give his unbiased insights in an interview to be filmed. However, he was bumped instead and in his place was someone a bit more, shall we say, opinionated and biased in a certain direction.
Burns has had an agenda in every documentary he has produced. The facts never get in that agenda’s way.
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