Sunday Morning Comin' Down

"And Truth Shall Have No Dominion" Edition

Take one, well-greased Donald Trump.

Add Bush Administration sock-puppet Stephen "Yellow Cakes" Hadley --

...

The C.I.A. faxed a memo to Hadley and the speechwriters telling them to delete the sentence on uranium, “because the amount is in dispute and it is debatable whether it can be acquired from the source. We told Congress that the Brits have exaggerated this issue. Finally, the Iraqis already have 550 metric tons of uranium oxide in their inventory.” Iraq’s supply of yellowcake dated back to the 1980s, when it had imported hundreds of tons of uranium ore from Niger and mined the rest itself. The C.I.A. felt that if Saddam was trying to revive his nuclear program he would be more likely to use his own stockpile than risk exposure in an illegal international deal.

But the White House refused to let go. Later that day, Hadley’s staff sent over another draft of the Cincinnati speech, which stated, “The regime has been caught attempting to purchase substantial amounts of uranium oxide from sources in Africa.”

This time, George Tenet himself interceded to keep the president from making false statements. According to his Senate testimony, he told Hadley that the “president should not be a fact witness on this issue,” because the “reporting was weak.” The C.I.A. even put it in writing and faxed it to the N.S.C.

...

-- to balm the fee-fees of Bush Regime dead-enders.

Toss in a Rich Lowrey for the high-end bigots...

An Amy Holmes (of Glenn Beck's The Blaze) to bring in the unhinged, the shut-in and the doomsday preppers...

A Ruth Marcus, because when you can't get David Brooks, David-Brooks-in-a-dress-will-do...

...and Shuck "Facts are not my Profession" Todd to read meaningless poll numbers at you and protect the Both Siderist party line with a solid barrage of "Who the fuck cares if BenghaaaazEmail is bullshit?  How will it play politically?"

Add them up and you have NBC's flagship political public interest program.  What was once the crowned jewel of the network:  now a Fox-lite chop shop trolling for viewers in the shallow end of the American gene pool.

55 years ago, in October 1960, this is what Meet the Press looked like:

In October 2015, here is the state of the art in "serious" political reporting in Murrica:

Shuck Todd explicitly announcing that the facts do not fucking matter is what makes it Meet the Press.

A clip of Jason "Imaginary Baby Parts" Chaffetz taking a break from his own filthy little wingnut kangaroo court long enough to scuttle down the hall and throw his support behind Trey Gowdy's filthy little wingnut witch-hunt --

CHUCK TODD:
And, boy, Republicans didn't like it. Jason Chaffetz, by the way, who just announced today he's officially going to challenge McCarthy for the speakership, he went after McCarthy hard for the comment.

(BEGIN TAPE)

REP. JASON CHAFFETZ:
To suggest that there was any sort of political motivation is absolutely-- it's not fair to Mr. Gowdy, it's not fair to myself, and most importantly, it's not fair to those four families who lost those loved ones. That's not why we're doing this.

I think he should withdraw that statement. I think he needs to express how wrong it was. And it was never the intention, it's not what we're doing. And I think the statement is totally wrong.
...

-- is what makes it Art.

Sure, under David Gregory, Meet the Press was an running joke and a weekly hacktacular trainwreck. But given the furious speed at which Shuck Todd is augering that wreck into the ground, it looks as if the reign of David Gregory will soon become something to be looked back on with fondness.

Jebus, we are so screwed.

So Stay Gold, Ponyboy!