Sunday, February 19, 2006

MSM: The leader in "whine" production.

Oh, boo hoo.

Apparently there are members of the mainstream media (MSM) who are all in a twist over their sullied reputation.

I’m sure it has nothing to do with, say, the petulant whining over not being told of Vice President Dick Cheney’s ACCIDENTAL shooting of friend Harry Whittington during a hunting excursion.

From everything I could stand to watch, I thought Jack Cafferty on CNN’s “The Situation Room” offered the most childish reaction:

“It didn't exactly represent a profile in courage for the Vice President to wander over there to the F-word network for a sit-down with Brit Hume. I mean, that's a little like Bonnie interviewing Clyde, ain't it?”

The F-word network would be the Fox News Channel. I thought the role of the media was to accurately present the perspective of the main personality in a story, in this case Vice-President Cheney. So I would disagree with Cafferty that it wasn’t courageous for the VP to sit down with Brit Hume at Fox. After all, Cheney was in a venue where he had access to the most viewers (A little bitter over trailing Fox in the ratings, Jack?). Besides, Hume did not exactly toss Cheney “softball” questions.

As reported on Drudge today, the MSM plans yet another week of exhaustive coverage over that terrible ACCIDENT that took place last weekend on a Texas ranch. Also, individual members of the MSM feel they are the victims here.

On CNN's RELIABLE SOURCES, WASHINGTON POST reporter Dana Milbank fretted that the White House is exploiting the public's growing disdain for the mainstream media. "Of course they succeed,” Milbank said of Bush aides. “The press always looks awful. They will once again make us look awful.”

No, Dana. You showing up on a TV news show wearing hunting apparel (see above) makes you look awful. All you MSM folks were outraged by not knowing of this ACCIDENTAL shooting immediately but then you proceed to turn it into some sort of childish game.

CNN's Candy Crowley added: "The perception is that we're whining."

As Dan Rather, the beacon of journalistic integrity, once said: “If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck….”

White House correspondent Bill Plante of CBS said: "The vice president and the White House have both used the constant press coverage of this story as a wedge,” he told RELIABLE SOURCES host Howard Kurtz. “It plays to the prejudices of the people who are predisposed not to like us, and it's one way to distract attention from what happened.”

You MSM people have painted the Bush administration as secretive and dishonest. So why would you give a flip what the VP and the White House may have done with the “constant press coverage?” Do you think people may not like you because of, oh, CONSTANT PRESS COVERAGE of relative non-stories?

You know what I would have loved to hear? VP Cheney saying something to the effect of “This is a private matter. It will be dealt with privately amongst my family.”

I seem to recall a certain White House incident seven years ago which was glossed over after that explanation was given.

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