Friday, March 2, 2007

Don't wanna be an American idiot, Don't want a nation under the media

To quote Atrios: Owwww! The Stupid! It BURNS!!!! Parental advisory: Today's stupidity will force me to curse repeatedly.

From today's Chicago Tribune, Mary Schmichdiscussing the new TV show "Are you smarter than a 5th Grader?":
But as for what star is closest to the Earth? Get real. The average person does not need to know that.
Yes they do. It's the fucking sun! It's what powers the entire planet, and allows us to live. How big an idiot are you, first to not know, and then to mock people for not being more ignorant than your average kindergartner?

From today's Conservative Political Action Committee meeting, at which nearly every Republican presidential candidate spoke, we have Ann Coulter, who I'll note was introduced by Mitt Romney himself:
I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I — so kind of an impasse, can’t really talk about Edwards.” Audience members said “ohhh” and then cheered.
That's actually not the idiocy, since Ann Coulter is always like this. No, I'm talking about the complete media blackout. You may not have heard of this, since while it was mentioned on several liberal blogs and Editor and Publisher magazine, it literally wasn't mentioned by a single newspaper or news agency in the country, even though the NYTimes, Washington Post, and AP all filed stories on the day's meeting. From E&P, who seem to actually still believe in journalism:
The New York Times failed to mention the crack about Edwards in observing tonight: "The conference drew thousands of attendees, many of whom waited in a long line out the door for a late-afternoon appearance by Ann Coulter, the conservative author and commentator."

The Washington Post covered the conference but did not mention Coulter at all. Neither did the Associated Press, which also attended.
Seriously, what the fuck? John Edwards got a week of bad press for hiring two bloggers who have in the past taken on the Catholic Church for its support of pedophiles and backwardness with respect to birth control, and all of those news sources were more than happy to run with the story. A speaker at the biggest collection of Republican candidates to date makes a faggot joke in front of the assembled media, and they decide it's not newsworthy? Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with this country?

I could actually go on about several other idiocies tonight, given the continuing whitewash of the Walter Reed fiasco by the military (the guy they appointed to take over the facility, General Kevin Kiley, did nothing after being told that patients were sleeping in their own urine).
There is a story in the WaPo about the firing of 8 US Attorneys that completely misses the fact that many of them were fired because they were investigating higher-ups in the administration. Did you know that Carol Lam, the former US Attorney for San Diego who busted Rep. Duke Cunningham, is currently investigating the former #3 official in the CIA for corruption? You won't find that little tidbit anywhere in the newspaper tonight, needless to say, because John Solomon, their new "investigative" "reporter", turns out to be neither.

Seriously, I wish there was a God so it meant more when I say "god help us all"..

2 comments:

AlexM said...

Honestly there is very little point in even trying to listen or read anything Ann Coulter does. The woman is ignorant. She is an idiot. And finally, she's a plagiarist. She's combative and asinine. All she really does is to say inflammatory things with little or no basis and throw them out there. Her books are flat out wrong. She has absolutely no credibility in any way, certainly not for her historical research. The fact is she's only given any credence because of her popularity with people who like to cower in ignorance and bigotry. Its just not worth it to even listen to anything the woman says. In comparison, she makes Stalin and Mussolini look stable, and she makes Pol Pot look like an excellent candidate for the head of Amnesty International.

jfaberuiuc said...

Agreeing with you on everythig you say about Coulter, I still think we as liberals should try to hang her around Republican's necks as an issue. It's not that she makes liberals angry, as pointed out by something I read this morning, it's that people can invite her to high-profile events knowing that she'll say offensive things, but no one is ever blamed for the premeditated act. So long as Republicans invite a known bigot in their ranks to public meetings and invite her to give the keynote, they are bigots themselves.

 

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