Apologies if there’s already a thread. I couldn’t find one, but my search feature is wacky at the moment.
McCain goes on The View and is flat out said to be a liar (well, specifically, that he promotes lies about Obama) by Joy Behar (hardly a Pulitzer prize winning journalist- in fact she’s a stand up comic) and asked by Whoopi if she need worry about being reenslaved, and gets booed by the audience. It’ll be interesting to see what if anything comes of this.
He also DOES claim to believe the lipstick on a pig comment was addressed at Palin. Of all strange shows to do confrontational journalism. (Really more MPSIMS, but I’ve no doubt it would end up here.)
Of course he had to know there were at least two Maenads in wait for him (Behar’s a regular guest on Larry King and I think filled in the night McCain cancelled). Walters may have surprised him a bit. Hasselback of course calls him Daddy and asked to kiss his war wounds.
I’ll avoid commentary for now, just watch and tell me what you think:
Yes. You caught me, Fear. Due to the insightful commentary and obvious grasp of the issues by Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg I am now a comitted liberal democrat.
JB said the kindergarden/sex-ed ad McCain was a lie.
Toward the end of the segment, however, they showed the grainy 60’s footage of McCain the POW, and Barbara asked tenderly, “Tell us what you were feeling here”…the only thing missing was Yankee Doodle Dandy on a flute.
It’s a sad commentary on modern America when people like Joy and Whoopi, and even like Jon Stewart, have to step up to fulfill the duties of the fourth estate.
That said, I find your attempted dismissal, with a weak taunt no less, of the concerns raised about McCain here to be a juvenile act all itself.
As has been noted around here before the MSM is now more concerned with making money than providing a social service supporting democracy. Reporters are so concerned about future access they dare not overtly piss off a politician too much (heck, didn’t even the old battleaxe Helen Thomas get moved to the back of the press room by Bush for daring to ask difficult questions?).
So it falls to the shows like The View and any of a number of others which have no real expectation of a return of the candidate to their show. They are free to zing them as much as they want. Their ratings are better supported by being confrontational.
A sad state of affairs to be sure but that is what we get when the likes of Rupert Murdoch control our media.
[In the interest of fighting ignorance and all that jive]This comment intrigued me, since I hadn’t heard of it before. Apparently, though, it’s not true. Thomas was moved to the second row following renovations to the press room, but was given back her seat in the front row a month later. [/ITIOFIAATJ]
While that may be true (I have not researched it) I consider anything from NewsBusters suspect from the get go. Perhaps he is 100% correct on that though, I am not saying either way as I do not know.
The larger point though was about reporters getting “access” and pride of place and being schooled to mind their manners and not upset the politician with inconvenient questions. Certainly the Bush administration uses this as a club on reporters:
But my 2nd linked source was The Huffington Post. I thought the two “biased” sources would balance each other out.
I do agree, however, with your larger point. I was just being nit-picky.
I wish they would have pressed him on the “sex ed” lie rather than getting sidetracked about the stupid lipstick comment. Personally, I think that manipulating people into thinking that Obama supports condoms for kindergarteners (or whatever) is much more telling of McCain’s lack of integrity than who was more right/wrong to use the lipstick comment, Obama or McCain.
The View definitely wants the candidate to come back. The thing is that they have such high ratings for a unique demographic that candidates can’t afford to stay away.
McCain can shun Larry King and go on any number of loser cable shows. Though besides Oprah, no one else is reaching women voters like The View can.
It’s the same thing for The Daily Show. No one else reaches young voters like Jon does. Candidates stay away at their own peril.
I think the more lies/fabrications/twisting-of-truths will come back to haunt the candidates in the debates. Debates are where candidates often have to answer for statements/positions they’ve made/taken.
I think, with an aggressive moderator, the candidate with more ridiculous lies/fabrications/twisting-of-truths out there will really need to worry.
Moderator: Sen. Obama, you’ve claimed in ads that Sen. McCain thinks that rich is defined by making more than $5,000,000 per year. Do you *really *believe that Sen. McCain feels that way?
Obama: Well, Tom, that’s what Sen. McCain said, and I haven’t heard him give another “definition of rich” since that day. Therefore the American people can only take Sen. McCain on those words.
Moderator: Sen. McCain, you’ve claimed that Sen. Obama actively supported sex ed for kindergartners while in the Illinois state senate, when it’s clear from reading the bill that the only thing it supports is teaching children to protect themselves from sexual predators. Knowing this, do you *really *think the bill supported by Sen. Obama was inapropriate?
McCain: Tom, I think the real issue here is that for five and a half years at the Hanoi Hilton, I was unable to have sex OR get an education.
The preceding dialogue was all in light-hearted fun. I know these things haven’t been said, nor are they meant to further any arguement.
