Hugh Hewitt on the Inadvertant Colbertiness of the MSM

Great piece. Hewitt--who is about as center-right as they come--has been an ardent supporter of the Tea Party Patriots, and that fact should put the lie to the smear that the Tea Partiers are a frothing mob of inbred Birchers. I loved the line "They are all Dan Rathers now, except that Dan Rather may, just possibly, get it."

The attention being paid to the cranks and the nuts serves a political purpose of the mere far left, however, so it will continue. This is part of the effort to delegitimize and marginalize the exploding anti-growth-of-government movement. This deeply-felt concern over the viral expansion of the public sector is what has driven the Tea Party Movement, and it is also what will power the pummeling Democrats will receive at the polls in the fall.

In the blink of an eye, just as the federal government was swallowing whole the American health care system, it burped and then tossed down the student loan business. This follows the digestion of most of the American car business and the $800 billion "stimulus" that wasn't. Jabba-the-Fed is feeding.

Americans are stunned by the rapacity of the Democrats. The vast, vast majority of the objectors are mainstream and often previously apolitical Americans. Many are long time conservative activists. A handful of nuts have infiltrated their numbers, and the usual media suspects choose to focus on the crazies and not the millions. Many of these MSMers fretting over the rise of the fanatics use the term "Tea Baggers," which is itself an assault on civil discourse. Or they sneer at rallies which require actual commitment of time and resources, or at hand-made signs that suggest a familiarity with the Federalist Papers. They find red-white-and-blue clothing amusing. Then they turn to cluck at how standards of debate have declined in the House. Very amusing.

And just fine. This is the age in which extraordinary levels of media sophistication on the part of media consumers have stripped the MSM of influence. Old media trees are falling in old media forests, and no one hears a sound. The highly paid anchors are being mocked by those viewers who even bother to tune in. The big names seem wholly unaware of the joke. They are all Dan Rathers now, except that Dan Rather may, just possibly, get it.

Here's one for the cry baby file

I'm on the email lists of several leftist organizations whose emails I gladly receive and sometimes read. It's good to know what the enemy is thinking and saying, and ofttimes amusing. Yesterday I received an email from Josh Silver, Executive Director of the the oxymoronically-named association Free Press.

Dear Paul, [ed: I was surprised to discover that we're on a first-name basis.]

I can't believe what I'm watching.

Fox News Channel headliner Glenn Beck has turned his nightly program into a megaphone of misinformation. He just took down presidential adviser Van Jones, one of our most visionary and principled young leaders. [ed: FTR, Van Jones took himself down by his own assclownishness.]

What happened to Jones is outrageous. President Obama should have ignored the media's smear campaign and rejected all calls for Jones' ouster.

This madness is a failure not only of the media, but of our president to stand up against modern-day McCarthyism.

Emboldened by their success, Glenn Beck and other right-wing blowhards have begun media witch hunts against people in all aspects of public life. If we don't speak out now, the champions of the issues you care about will be run out of Washington.
Surveys show that most Americans want health care reform, good schools and clean air. But if you watch Glenn Beck's show, you would think the opposite is true: that the only proponents of these ideas are dangerous, anti-American radicals operating out of the White House basement.

I'm urging you to take a stand with me and sign this open letter to the president. Glenn Beck's fear-mongering is endemic to a media system that cares more about ratings than about the truth. We need President Obama to take a stand against such hysteria, which only distracts us from the real issues at hand.

President Obama Must Stand with Us for More Diverse Media. Beck has a First Amendment right to stoke fear and prejudice -- and we're not asking for him to be censored or silenced [ed: riiiight....]. But we all have a responsibility to condemn his behavior and defend the public servants and innocent people who are being attacked. This is not about censorship... It's about sanity.
Mainstream media have failed. Too many of our leaders have stayed quiet. We must speak out now.

Thank you,

Josh Silver
Free Press

Well, I would also urge you to go to the link my old buddy Joshy provided. You can change the subject and message body to whatever you'd like it to say. For example, you could put "Thanks, Mr. President, for sacking Comrade Jones" in the subject, then in the body you could write. "Mr. Jones can now go back to the hood to smoke crack with Pookie and the boys." That's just an idea; by creative!