The Truth Does Not Matter

Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, and other commentators on the left have had a screaming good time pointing to errors Republican politicians have made in criticizing President Obama’s response to the failed Christmas Day terrorist attack on Northwest flight 253 into Detroit.

True, Senator Jim Demint falsely said Obama has downplayed terrorism and doesn’t use the word terrorism any more. Representative Peter Hoekstra, among other things, falsely said the Obama administration used the term “man made disasters” instead of “terrorism;” and Representative Peter King falsely claimed Obama had banned the use of the word “terrorism” and had even failed to mention terrorism during his address to West Point. All of these assertions can, and have been, easily rebutted with numerous video clips showing Obama and Secretary Clinton talking about the threat of terrorism (as an example, here’s his speech at West Point).

And while it is reassuring for Olbermann, Maddow and their ilk to show us the clips that rebut these Republicans buttholes (doe a butthole really need rebutted?), it has no effect on the right-leaning mass of American voters.

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The Maddow Mistake

Rachel Maddow whose show airs Monday through Friday on MSNBC is without a doubt one of the sharpest liberal/progressive commentators on the scene today, a fearless interviewer and a better reporter than Keith Olbermann. She also might as well be working for the Republican Party.

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The Number One Mission for Liberals and Progressives in 2010: Get Out the Democrat Vote

If you think 2009 sucked politically, imagine starting 2011 without a Democratic Party majority in the house or a minimum filibuster breaking 60 Democratic Senators. Worse, imagine the house and senate seasoned with newly elected teabag patri-nuts.

If you enjoyed watching regular Republicans blocking and delaying legislation then you’ll love teabaggers with no understanding of the legislative process, no respect for others in congress, and no reason to compromise on anything. I suspect congress and the government—not merely the progressive agenda—would grind to a halt. Budget measures, such as defense appropriations, which no party is willing to completely block for long, would be in jeopardy.

Liberals and progressives have ample reason to be disappointed with President Obama.

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Another call for Ignoring Fox News

On Friday October 16, I posted an editorial that asked independent voters why they watch Fox News. In that post I reviewed a short “New Story” presented by Fox and identified spin, distortions, and factual inaccuracies. I further suggested that, while one might accept the spin and distortions as par for today’s media world, the factual inaccuracies (which occur with far regularity on Fox) render Fox unacceptable as a news source.

For those not convinced by my post, I recommend reading the article by Jacob Weisberg in today’s Slate (a version of which is also in this week’s Newsweek), which argues that “It's time to stop taking the network's skewed news seriously.” In presenting his case, Mr. Weisberg, dissects Fox’s coverage of Obama’s complaints about Fox, which he finds to be neither fair nor balanced. His conclusion is that we should Ignore Fox; it is not a credible news source.