Bullets 1/28/05 : Liberal Media Edition

by Jason at 6:05 am on January 28th, 2005 in Media

Now that Robert Novak has justified the Bush Administration’s massive PR budget as a necessary response to the scary liberal media, it seems only fair to report on their current nefarious schemes. Goddamn Pinkos.

Irony is a bitch

  • Talon News White House Correspondent Jeff Gannon, who has accused other reporters of basing articles on Democratic talking points, gets caught copying whole sections of RNC “fact sheets” and passing it off as his own work. Whoops.

    • Three and counting…

  • First there was Armstrong Williams. Then there was Maggie Gallagher. Now a third columnist has been exposed for taking federal money to promote Bush Administration initiatives:

    One day after President Bush ordered his Cabinet secretaries to stop hiring commentators to help promote administration initiatives, and one day after the second high-profile conservative pundit was found to be on the federal payroll, a third embarrassing hire has emerged. Salon has confirmed that Michael McManus, a marriage advocate whose syndicated column, “Ethics & Religion,” appears in 50 newspapers, was hired as a subcontractor by the Department of Health and Human Services to foster a Bush-approved marriage initiative. McManus championed the plan in his columns without disclosing to readers he was being paid to help it succeed.

    Anyone want to take bets that these three won’t be the last?

    • When in doubt, mention Dan Rather

  • Speaking of Armstrong Williams, his latest move to salvage his career is to bring up Dan Rather’s name for pretty much no reason at all.

    “Dan Rather is at the end of his career,” Williams said of the retiring CBS anchor. “I’m at the beginning of mine.”

    And, once again, he’s not a “professional” journalist, so he shouldn’t be held accountable.

    Outgoing Education Secretary Rod Paige ordered an investigation into whether Williams should have disclosed the deal, and a member of the Federal Communications Commission has called for a similar investigation.

    But Williams said the FCC has no jurisdiction over him because he is not a licensed broadcaster.

    “That is just a witch hunt,” Williams said.

    • Doesn’t Williams have his own tv show? That seems to me to be a pretty good example of being a broadcaster….it’s not like secret handshakes are involved.

    You know when Bush mentioned “freedom” 34 times? That was my brilliant idea!

  • Commentators rain praise on Bush’s inaugural speech, without mentioning that they themselves helped to write it:

    Weekly Standard editor William Kristol lauded President George W. Bush’s inauguration speech as “powerful,” “impressive,” and “historic,” both in an article for the January 31 print edition of The Weekly Standard and as a FOX News political contributor during FOX’s live coverage of Inauguration Day. Washington Post columnist and FOX News contributor Charles Krauthammer, also during FOX News’ live Inauguration Day coverage, called Bush’s speech “revolutionary” and compared it to fomer President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural address. But Kristol and Krauthammer were consultants for Bush’s speech — a fact that neither disclosed.

    • Michael Powell’s legacy derailed

  • During Michael Powell’s tenure as FCC Chairman, one of his main goals was to relax the media ownership rules, allowing already gigantic conglomerates to grow even larger and control even more of the public discourse. But after weathering a firestorm of criticism from lawmakers and the public, and dealing with intervention by the courts, the FCC has decided to drop the changed ownership rules altogether. Even though they are free to try and implement these changes in a less offensive package, for now this is a rare victory against the corporate behemoths and their lackeys.

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