Tuesday, June 17, 2014

America's Wolfowitz Problem



*Across the Liberal blogosphere (and in a few precincts of the True Conservative ™ blogosphere still trying to play catch-up with where Liberals have been all along without wearing the tee-shirt), the same question: What the fuck is a disgraced, war-mongering sociopath (and disgraced former World Bank President, because every Neocon has got to get paid!) like Paul Wolfowitz doing on teevee? And why the fuck is he being treated like an "expert" on anything except how to lie and fuck up over and over and over again in ways that cost this country thousands of lives and trillions of dollars and get away with it?

And so, once again I feel compelled to gently (and, to be honest, uselessly) remind my fellow Dirty Hippies that this is the wrong question.

Because Paul Wolfowitz does not get on "Meet the Press" or "Guess That Soup! with Shuck Todd" by wandering in off the street and grabbing the chair.  Actual human beings at NBC/MSNBC with phone numbers and addresses are making affirmative decisions to put this disgraced, war-mongering sociopath on the air over and over again, while other actual human beings at NBC/MSNBC with phone numbers and addresses are making other affirmative decisions not to ask this disgraced, war-mongering sociopath anything remotely like the most basic, substantive questions which any actual journalist would ask.

(Those of us who are doomed to remember the past also vividly recall the last time Dirty Hippies started talking openly about the bloody ordure of failure and madness and slaughter of which Mr. Wolfowitz reeks,  fellow Neocons like David Brooks went straight for the long knives, angrily dismissing criticism of The Great Man as nothing but anti-Semitism and the "socialism of fools".
It's Back
The socialism of fools has returned to vogue not just in the Middle East and France, but in the American left and Washington.
11:00 PM, FEB 20, 2003
...

I mentioned that I barely know Paul Wolfowitz, which is true. But I do admire him enormously, not only because he is both a genuine scholar and an effective policy practitioner, not only because he has been right on most of the major issues during his career, but because he is now the focus of world anti-Semitism. He carries the burden of their hatred, which emanates not only from the Arab world and France, but from some people in our own country, which I had so long underestimated...)
So since some actual human beings with enormous power and a fuckton of money are getting Paul Wolfowitz on teevee and then protecting him once he is there, let me wearily repeat what I wrote back in March (which basically is a 20th generation mimeograph copy of what I have been wearily repeating on this site since the day I started blogging):
...Rachel [Maddow], yell about Paul Wolfowitz all you want. Hell, I'll join you. But until you start taking your blowtorch of truth to people like David Gregory and Joe Scarborough and Arthur Sulzberger -- the people who, day in and day out, keep making affirmative decisions to never demand any accountability from the likes of Kristol and Tom Friedman and David Brooks but instead just hand over huge public media platforms to unreconstructed Iraq War demagogues -- you're just bouncing the rubble around.
I am quite sure that the most fascinating and appalling aspect of the "What the fuck is a disgraced, war-mongering sociopath like Paul Wolfowitz doing on teevee?" story is happening right now, behind closed doors at 30 Rock.  

And I am equally sure that since the answer to that question would reveal just how deep into the bones the corruption and rot of our media has spread, the one institution whose holy mission is supposed to be reporting hard truths about the powerful without fear or favor is the very institution which will never tell us what is really going on.


11 comments:

Tom said...

Yes! This!

On the liberal side, much outrage and apoplexy is expended on the rightwing punditry and sociopathic warmongers, rightly deserved. But it's a waste of time. They are handsomely paid to emit this stuff and thus suffer no embarrassment or shame on their way to the bank.

Try to bring up the mainstream media, though, who every day carry a buttload of GOP memos into the briefing room, to say nothing of the carefully maintained rolodexes (if they have those in this day and age) of the mainstream media, and you (and I) get a big yawn.

Yet putting public pressure and shame on the heathers and the drama queens and peacocks and lazy dumbasses of the mainstream press at least has a chance of effectiveness or at least mitigation.

But no. That doesn't seem to happen on our side. They'd rather have their daily outrage bolus of Fox News, than direct their outrage at people who GIVE THESE PEOPLE THE NATIONAL PLATFORM.

ooookaaaaay done now.

BlindRobin said...

To Tom : Well Duhhhh....
Sorry I've been drinkin' already today.

Redhand said...

I've thought a lot about this. Back when I was a conservative in the 70s I thought Dan Rather was a scumbag for confronting Nixon: "D'oh, how disrespectful towards 'The President.'" Ditto with Sam Donaldson in the 80s as Reagan antagonist.

How did we get from this stance to David Gregory's testicle cozy schtick?

In part, I think it's because today's courtier press, which is owned lock, stock and barrel be conservative corporate entities, no longer has the independence to, how do they say it, "speak truth to power." They are all well paid corporate eunuchs, who have been without balls so long they think it's the normal state of being.

David Gregory is little different from Bill O'Reilly dancing to Rupert Murdock's tune. It's just that Dancin' Dave thinks his moves on the floor are smoother.

Of course, this doesn't explain Pinch Sulzburger's perversity. That's an even deeper mystery.

Dan said...

Ah yes the return of freedom fries and blame it on France.
Somehow I don't see the march back into Iraq being quite as popular as the last one.
Haven't heard much from that last pretzeldent what's his name .
Almost like he'd rather not bring up the topic for some 4,500 reasons

Anonymous said...

Remember the hysteria iver the Obama Czars?
Like no GOP'er memory could refer back a month let alone a year or more.
Every time Wolfie cis introduced on any show, he should be introduced as
--- "The Vicroy of Iraq".------
(I understand it was Wolfie's request to GW, that he didn't want to be just another Czar")
Conservative memory and defense of their actions begins with their conservative propaganda.
The very first question to Wolfie on each show should go ,
"and how much tax payer money in cash do you recommend sending into the Iraq war zone to win the war?"

have Darryl Issa on and ask him if he had a special prosecutor assigned to find that money?

fish said...

Rot is not the problem with the media, it is and always has been the defining feature.

Kathleen said...

@Tom

This. This is my main problem with Jon Stewart. Fox and CNN are low hanging fruit, and he eviscerates them brilliantly. But friends of his buddies Tom Brokaw or Brian Williams? No. Who else besides DG goes after whom I call "the mainslimers" - the so called mainstream media which have enabled and facilitated lies, deceit, racism and thuggery by treating the tantrums of the Tea Partiers as if these are justifably angry Americans. The media are a "foul and pestilent congregation of vapors" indeed.

Tom said...

@Kathleen,

Foul and pestilent indeed. Jon
Stewart, yes, but also my main problem with Media Matters and Talking Points Memo, just to name a couple. They seem to have developed a symbiotic relationship with the Foxies and the radio whackjobs where they pick out a few daily outrages and set the comment streams off on the daily outrage fix. It's good for them and the pigs enjoy it too since they do it partly to rile up the liberals.

Meanwhile the so-called legitimate journos do the water-carrying FOR the GOP, who do the journos' work for them in writing the heds and ledes, providing conflict and just enough Obama-bashing to make a story acceptable to the editor for broadcast or print, providing quotable sources, data, story lines, bulleted lists and plenty of pressers to make the journo's job easy. And when the journo sins, woe be unto him and his editor! Apologies are made, hankies are clutched, tears are dabbed, "probation" is imposed.

Yet, their damage can be mitigated when they are embarrassed that their egregiousness is pointed out, by a James Fallows or even a Tommy Christopher. If we on the liberal side were as consistent in disciplining the MSM as the rightwing, real gains could be made, I think.

Kathleen said...

@Tom

I do get tired of the "Rush Limbaugh said" school of liberal outrage. I agree that the more liberal blogs who continue to gleefully report Rush's/Ann's/Senator Asswipe's comments to stir liberal outrage are not being helpful. Of course the Rethugs and their minions said Obama is Satan. This is not news and it accomplishes nothing. You made an excellent point. But as you said more effort needs to be focused on holding NBC/CBS/ABC (whose "news" is unwatchable in my opinion) accountable.

Anonymous said...

I was listening to the Bill Press show today, and they had a "respected" foreign policy consultant from Politico (aka, "the Tiger Beat on the Potomac") respond to a question of who is to blame for the collapse in Iraq. Guess what the answer she gave was? BOTH. FUCKING. SIDES. I almost jumped out of my car when I heard her utter those words.

Anonymous said...

Really...you are going to post this but not my comment saying the same thing
...but you couldn't filter out the real morons for fucking years...

adi fucking ose...