Look, over there! Some of the mainstream press folk, habitually cowed by ref-working Republicans for decades, are actually hauling their spines out of mothballs, strapping them on, and coming perilously close to declaring John Sidney McCain III to be what he always has been throughout his political career: A liar.
Here’s ABC’s Jake Tapper from Friday afternoon, directing the following message to Senator McCain: "Here is Gov. Palin’s list of earmark requests from February 2008. Will you please stop telling the American people that she never asked for or received any pork barrel projects?"
Joy Behar of the popular morning TV program The View led her cohorts in utterly dismantling McCain during his appearance on the show last week.
The WaPo’s Anne Kornblut, in a story on McCain running mate Sarah Palin’s reviving the old "Saddam caused 9/11" bull, pointed out that Bush himself was forced to admit long ago that there was no evidence for that bogosity.
Here’s an AP piece detailing McCain’s lies and dishonorable behavior in the 2008 campaign.
Even the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz is talking openly and honestly about McCain’s deceptions and efforts to bully the media. (Though it looks like Deb Howell is apparently signalling a return to submissive deference on the WaPo’s part with her recent column indicating a knuckling-under to the demands of the ref-workers in Team McCain.)
Now granted, this bravery is by no means universal in the press, or even consistent among those exhibiting it. If it was, as Steve Benen notes, the McCain "divorced from the day-to-day challenges" remark would have set off the same sort of ravenously stupid media frenzy that the McCain camp ordered the press to commit with their echoing of his attacks on the phrase "lipstick on a pig". And also, as Media Matters’ Jamison Foser shows with example after example, the media deck remains heavily stacked against Democrats in general and Obama in particular; to paraphrase Joe Scarborough, the media will by and large talk about what the McCain campaign wants them to talk about. Still, it’s heartening to see some of the pampered ones rejecting the financial imperatives of the largely-conservative executives who control their paychecks.
Some of the rebellion is open and clearly stated: Leading the pack here are Joe Klein and Andrew Sullivan, both former McCain fans, a fact that lends an extra zing of bitterness to their writings.
Some of it is more subtle. This AP piece by Walter R. Mears on the press-intimidation efforts of Team McCain is interesting chiefly for the fact that it exists at all; the fact that it does is a sign of pushback against the thuggery of the McCain campaign – a thuggery that, combined with the bizarre kowtow to the Fundies signified by the Palin pick, has served to shock a lot of folks right out of their McCain-protecting habits. Steven Thomma and Margaret Talev did a similar story for McClatchy: "McCain campaign systematically targets the news media".
How long will it all last? I’m hoping it lasts long enough to finally destroy once and for all the myth that McCain and his media pals have created, and to reveal his true mendacious and nasty lying self to everyone.
Related posts:
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Advanced search
Full frontal assault on the Press coming right up, Mr. McCain.
The economy is tanking. That oughta fix ‘em.
Voting for McCain/Palin is like buying lipstick, thinking you will put it on and suddenly look like some model chick….or like Palin. Really.
it seems to me the corporate world has realized that the republican model will be the downfall of all industry
and it will
the republican model is nothing but robber baron economics, they want no middle class, they want to have and everyone else to have not
that is the purpose, that is the goal and the corporate world might finally be realizing they are in harms way unless they rebuild the middle class
however that tide will turn as well, we are now going to see some shock doctrine girls and boys, however there is a chance we can use the shock doctrine to rebuild the middle class
sometimes the adjustment after the shock is designed to actually prevent that shock from happening again, somtimes the shock doctrine works out just fine, take for instance fdr
Whining journalists!
I can’t help but think some of this spinefulness is driven by the tanking of some personal stock portfolios…
great post PW
I think we’ve reached the tipping point! Yeeeeeee!
Republican supporters are “losing” their butts in the stock market. Many have stayed in, because they believe that nothing could go wrong with W in control.
The economic crash is some kind of strong medicine.
We’ll see who turns on them…or not.
Evening from the Great Swamp, Phoenix Woman!
They’re going to discover their spines and will to destruction just in time to go after a new Democratic President.
What convenient timing.
ssnnnrrrkkk! (that’s supposed to be the sound of beer shooting out my nose)
bingin the bingo
(I just invented that)
I’ve never really bought all the crying about ”the media” by either side. I like the ”working the refs” metaphor because I spent many years on the hardwood with a whistle. My old man used to say that if, after the game was over everyone was mad at you, you had done a good job.
The lack of it was driven by McCain barbeques.
Banging the bongo.
(You just me inspired me!)
is like buying lipstick, thinking you will put it on and suddenly look like some model chick….
that trick has so never worked for me….
That is true, but there will be cries about the media from the Republics like have never been seen before. Truth matters not to Republics.
I miss edit. [[[sigh]]]
I fucking love you, jayt.
I think we can make one of those five oh adds, put some lipstick on some pork and say;
“you can put lipstick on pork, lie and say there is no pork but you still have pork
we have mccain lying to the american people and claiming his vp choice never requested pork, we know as a fact, not only did she request pork, she took it and took it big, bigger then any other state, to the tune of 3000 dollars a person and bragged about it
then she went on tv and lied to the american people making believe she said “thanks but no thanks”
you can put lipstick on pork but you still have pork”
see that?
we have to go after mccain, make his pick a laughing stock, without making it about her, we need to make it about mccain, laughing all the way about his rediculous vp pick
As a guy, i”ve always been embarassed when buying lipstick.
Palin is a survivalist…she’s prepared for this stuff…W told us to go shopping after 9/11…and when the economy puts us in “bring out yer dead” mode, she’ll advise shooting squirrels and “mooses”.
the medis is in fact corporate owned, they must have a corporate agenda, there is nothing to buy or not buy about that, it is a fact
sometimes that agenda will seem progressive, (if it helps their bottom line), sometimes (most of the time) it will seem republican if that helps the bottom line
since the consolidation of ownership they have no competition and need not report the truth, all they need to do is report to bring forward their bottom line
“we have to go after mccain, make his pick a laughing stock,”
Should I edit that??? *G*
Isn’t Alaska Homeland part of her religion? Honestly, I’d rather have Hawaii as the Homeland.
As a guy, i”ve always been embarassed when buying lipstick.
well, there *have* been a few shades I was a little uncomfortable about….
I think sanitary napkins tops that list…! ;-)
She wears high-heels. She is no survivalist.
get a room
As media stars see their fortunes which they sold their souls and integrity for go down the drain, they may begin to realize that their money (even with higher taxes) is still safer with the Democrats than with a geriatric Republican with only the vaguest idea of what an economy is.
tee hee…DO IT!
add the strike
Only when she wants to seduce the “People”.
Woman! You are cracking me up.
LOL
plick?
Will she dress like Natasha? McCain makes a great Boris.
no, there is something that tops that list too but I am rue to mention, it begins with a k and ends with a y
Gawd. I’m going to Youtube. That is so funny!
*g*
That’s what I like about this place. Flirting is allowed. Unlike that prude, Atrios.
p
rickOur paper, Statesman.com, had a hystercial local piece about a guy who had a plan to put lipstick on a pig. He writes it up as he went to buy red lipstick and went to the pig farm etc. If you check, it is from Kelso on Saturday, I think.
My brother was a high school basketball ref for 50 years. Also did soccer.
What does it mean to be an American?
It means being a Bush-McCain Debt Mule for the Republicans’ Credit Card Conservatism.
$3T divided by 300,000,000 Americans = $10,000 Debt for Every Man, Woman and Child, every Republican and Democrat, every Ethnicity and Religion, the Young and the Old.
And that’s just the cost of the War Loaded onto our Backs…before they take Our Jobs…
I think it’s probably a combo of working the refs as well as some level of bias.
The truth is most owners/publishers of various media outlets, whether dead tree news or broadcast, are Conservative Republicans. They set the tone. Even if the reporters/writers/editorial writers are maybe leaning liberal, they also have to get paid. And usually don’t wanna p*ss off the boss.
Hahahahahaha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR3xwTXZhXQ
Putting deodorant on the Pig just ain’t cuttin’ the mustard anymore!
Spit.
Palin said today that she and McCain would end golden parachutes. Maybe somebody should ask Palin whether she thinks that Fiorina should volunteer to give hers back in this great time of need.
I believe that figure is higher, I think it’s closer to 30,000 dollars
Wow, the man could run!
In reference to what, Perris????
thank you PW.
What she was saying is…from now on they would be supplying red colored parachutes, see?
High school not as vigorous as college, and certainly not pro. But yes he kept at it as long as he could.
That would be a great question!
“What do you mean by give it back, Charlie?”
my 45 was for radio free will’s 40;
I believe that figure is about 30,000 dollars each and every one of us now owes to china, the saudis and miselanious
I missed it, but I can’t imagine it being anyone BUT Kelso.
Some day I’ll tell you about him dropping acid at Armadillo…
Saw a commenter somewhere today who claimed that most men will be voting for palin and the thought crossed my mind…….with which portion of their anatomy?
Oh, aren’t you the innocent one?
LOL…of course my editing would match yours.
Mr McCain:
That ball and chain around your ankle is your party’s deregulation of the entire financial industry – effectively neutering the SEC – resulting in the most extreme example of greed we have witnessed in our lifetimes.
Republicans OWN this economy…and the results that are now unfolding before our eyes as evidenced by plummeting stock values, bankrupt corporations and failed banks.
The one thing you can’t even pretend to “change” is your own party affiliation.
By the way, what was the deal with your son resigning from the Board of that Nevada bank (not Silverado, Silver State) just before the FDIC moved in to take it over?
Is it a Republican “family value” to send sons into management or directorship at banks specifically to destroy them?
…and make sure you get a good tan in the process.
http://narcosphere.narconews.c…..on-a-story
“Pale”n used taxpayer money to update the electrical system at the Gov mansion in order to run a tanning bed there. Hopefully she didn’t use it while allegedly pregnant.
Of course, all the moose meat in the world won’t get rid of skin cancer.
shhhhhhhhhhhhh.
you guys have to read this article and see the clip over at c and l, youtube took down a video of palins church because it was getting too much action
did they take down the clip of obama’s church?
Great post, Phoenix Woman. Guess it doesn’t pay to hide your secret weapon from the press after you’ve already revealed it and whet their appetite! IMO, that’s what this new awakening is really all about! They’ve decided to take the upper hand back and let McShame know how much he needs them. I would say we should be careful; they may get wined and dined and suddenly get all starry eyed and cuddly with McLame again.
Belittle him, so to speak?
The way the economy’s going, they might not even have money for weanies!
and mitt should give back all his profit for being the ruin of labor, that would be perfect wouldn’t it
I’m sure, although I haven’t actually checked, that McTrough’s voting record will reveal that he is complicit and responsible for the mess we’re in.
Perris…You’re talking about he total National Debt of nearly $10T, some of which existed before Bush took office.
I’m just talking about the $3T/$10,000-per-person that Bush – along with McCain – put on US all by himself.
So we could push the sand around for 5 years and Enrichen the MIC for his Cronies…
We’re carrying the debt for Bush’s Hubris and Corruption, and will be for the Rest of Our Lives.
Where’s the Accountability?
tee hee
May I re-word that statement?
i thought the whole purpose of youtube was to get “action” for the videos posted there?
Dugg!
what we really need to do is point out that reagan DID NOT cut taxes, he RAISED taxes more then any other peace time president, then he redistributed the tax burden from the middle class, took the assets of the middle class and gave those to the top few percent
we then say;
“contrary to corporate propaganda, reagan did NOT lower taxes he raised them, causing the collapse of our infrastrucutre
we plan on lowering taxes back to the rates they were before reagan raised them”
OH BABY
their heads will explode
Working the refs is exactly what it is. Coaches do it in hope of obtaining some unfair advantage, so it comes quite naturally to Republicans. The Dems prefer sports where everybody gets a trophy for participation. They are the political equivalent of the team that always has to play against the Harlem Globetrotters.
If somebody has the stomach for watching the FOX interview with Sarah, they need to count how many times she says SEAN. IMO saying his name so often was tactic to allow her time to think and disrupt his train of thought. She won’t need that tactic with Sean Hannity since he’ll send her the questions ahead of time.
ya, and that youtube would defineatly affect the election and they want no part of it
the youtube was supposedly going viral
Yep: it’s really fun. I look forward to the story.
Ha, I had plenty of granolas with kids in the Urbana Park District kids sports programs that were just as big of a pain in the ass as the “conservative” elements.
So….McCain….ummmm….exactly what fundamentals of our economy are strong??????
Housing..Nah. Automobile industry…Nah Ummm…Food…Nah. Ummm…booze…maybe… Ummm…
Just be specific!! I’m listening.
What?
Oh yeah…War? Oil…okay, I’ll give you that one…oh wait.
I’m sure, although I haven’t actually checked, that McTrough’s voting record will reveal that he is complicit and responsible for the mess we’re in.
hey – no problem. McCrazy is just gonna re-regulate everything that his top economic advisor, Phil Gramm, de-regulated.
And then he’ll appoint Gramm to a Cabinet post, and we’ll de-regulate shit again, then McCrazy will…..
hmm – Houston, we may have a *slight* problem.
When is this country going to wake up and quit providing a Capitalist nanny state? Why are losses Nationalized, but profits private and exclusive?
This is worse than Communism it is Arsitocracy or “Exclusive”-ism.
I wouldn’t F(*&^ her with YOUR little head if you get my drift.
Hard to disrupt Sean’s train of thought, what with his locomotive being stuck in his caboose.
Howie Carr of WRKO radio out of Boston said today on his radio program that he didn’t know the CEO of Lehman Brothers two days ago but now hates his guts. This is very interesting because ole Howie couldn’t believe it when Americans hated Sarah Palin’s guts two days after meeting her.
707
Lima Charlie Bra!
Good Evening Phoenix Woman and Firedogs,
US News isn’t exactly a dfh rag:
John McCain: From Maverick To Liar
oooh Prof Krugman ’sampling” PW’s Hooever quote from earlier in the day – yeow !
Not only that, but today’s financial collapse must have made Osama bin Laden extremely happy (well, that is, if he’s a live). George Bush has worked very hard to reach Osama’s goals as we know.
KO’s doing it too!!!!
we better drop this line of discussion
I didn’t fully grasp until last week that the McCain campaign and its ’strategists’ are hell-bent on destroying what remains of the mainstream press.
The press has to rebuild its credibility in a time of wrenching economic, social, and technical shifts. The McCain campaign appears to be designed to function well in the information environment of 2000, and it is based on assumptions about how reporters will behave. They’re used to writing up the narrative, and they expect the press to follow it.
I gotta say, when I read Joe Klein’s announcement of ‘New Rules’ and his absolute scorn that the McCain campaign expected him to continue shilling out their ’sewerage’, my heart skipped a beat. But it sure looks as if some in the media are really, really disgusted at what they’re expected to cover.
Encouraging.
crikey!
Hoover
Krugman on KO “The repo industry is doing great”!
I wish you were kidding….another stupid choice.
OT. Pic today looked like W had taken another smack to his head. Maybe just a zit…hard to tell.
I suppose Palin is not a big fan of Rocky and Bullwinkle?
The Republicans have spent years and $$$ creating and training all those worms. Its nice that a few have turned, but so many remain…
Still, I heard tell recently that another one of Rove’s tricks was to demoralize the opposition. Therefore, we must refuse to be demoralized!!!
Bob in HI
Now, KO referring to Krugman.
Yeah, I just don’t get it. If I ever had a schoolmarm fantasy, it would have better casting than that…
No Wal Mart in your hood huh?
So, what’s so rueful about Kentucky? *g*
Bob in HI
heh – it’s kinda funny watching McCrazy read his pissed-off cue cards…
unfuckingbelievable – to work up a ‘righteous rage’, he has to read it off the card.
Sorry, should have been:
I’ve spent a fair amount of my Internet reading over at Swampland the past couple weeks, and you should see the flying monkeys coming out as Klein (and now, it appears, Karen Tumulty) refuse to dish out Rove’s Approved Narrative. The shrieking is incredible, but started to die down when Klein established his “New Rules”.
His first post was about McCain’s Health Care Plan, and if it doesn’t scare the living daylights out of a middle-class voter, nothing ever will.
The McCain campaign can’t afford to let the media/MSM report on the issues. They’re fighting a no-holds-barred war on any media who fails to succumb.
have a basket to catch all those head parts?
Not yet, wait a week or two.
been dying to share this with y’all for hours
daughter cbl works for ’boutique’ hedgefund guys in L.A.. Arrived before both of them this am to place a scrolling message across both their bloomberg screens this morning -
Own Your Failures !
bwaaahaaaahaaaa ! my heart swells
Didya notice whether that’s only on-line or in the dead tree edition? Hell’s bells and codfish – I’ll go out and kill a tree if it’d help spread the word!
Hahaha Good one!!
So how do we explain her appeal and excitement? Folks are copying her shoes and her glasses…Is it weird we have had so many serious, qualified women: Clinton, Snowe, etc. Yet, we get a serious candidate in a pinup bimbo, to be disrespectful
A guy I work with (nice, was a rep to the Obama convention) explained her appeal is because she wears skirts and not all those pants suits. Got to love it.
Been reading him in disbelief but what are these “New Rules” of which you speak?
Ask HL Menken.
KO using a Faux Spew clip outside of the ‘World’s Worst’ segment…? ;-)
looks like it’s only on line
it is the “most viewed” and “most emailed” however :D
here ya go
http://www.statesman.com/news/…..kelso.html
there’s more
Two things. A strong cavewoman hunter gatherer…and 2, and attractive cavewoman hunter gatherer…that believes the world is only 6,000 years old not too unlike the appeal of:
http://imagecache2.allposters……osters.jpg
Until then…what would that be? In a word….
Gasp…but not really surprised.
they are slightly more circumspect than they were through the Bear Stearns episode . . . but were smugly dancing around the office celebrating all their money is with Goldman
daughter cbl clicks on the Roubini (whom they hate!) video from Bloomberg today and cranks the volume (he was saying Goldman et all better get partners to survive)
her immediate boss from his office : “Just who in the hell is that ?!?!”
daughter cbl: “Shiva, goddess of death”
Not sure if this is Mencken but “Never underestimate the stupidity of the American Public.”
Or something along htose lines…
Brilliant daughter!
But doesn’t the repo industry have to sell the things they repo? Who’s buying? It’s like the housing industry…foreclosed houses may be a great deal…but there’s still a glut on the market. And with the markets collapsing I bet money gets a whole lot tighter.
So this even trickles down to the Repo industry.
Excellent roundup, PW. Sure would like to see more of them come into the light.
Seeger now quoting Einstein about the “infinity of human stupidity….” O my. Thanks
I have a cousin who’s a Repo Man. He works with the banks and finance companies. IIRC, he gets a portion of the value for each Repo. Getting rid of the product is the problem of the bank/finance company. He gets paid to pick the product up and turn it over.
My wife points out that one of her daddy’s favorite expressions up in the Panhandle was, “There’s nothing meaner than a bitin’ sow.”
Hot spit! Now there’s a palin description that *really* needs to be spread around the toobz. :-) That’d send the republics into a massive coronary.
“No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
H. L. Mencken.
Are we going to “lose this thing”? Bet on it.
To the point, 40 % of the electorate will not
Vote for “[edited by Mod]”.
I suspect that number might be low.
No matter what the lie, misdeed, exaggeration that may occur between now and November. No matter what the real or perceived debate action IT DOES NOT MATTER.
Fatalist? No realist. From my conversations with people across the range of the political spectrum. We will pay a very high price for this manifestation of ignorance called racial
Prejudice. A caveat. We are approaching a catastrophic world wide financial collapse that might alter political events. It has the possibility of changing the election outcome but time and the inability of the electorate to connect the dots to it and the GOP’s “laissez faire” Financial philosophy are in doubt.
[Mod Note: Please do not use racial slurs, even when attempting to make a ”point.” Thank You]
It’s kinda interesting and true. The bottom feeders will prosper (hence my previous reference to “bring out yer dead”…the thing is…who do you repo the stuff to…they’re goin’ fast…who? The taxpayers? The taxpayers will repo each other and eat each other??? Probably.
Hmmm.
No matter how much frikkin’ lipstick they try to put on it…Obama is right. The pig is still a pig.
The problem of worms turning, it just so happens, is discussed today by Dday over at Digby’s place, in a blog entitled “Trusted sources.” That is, apparently the lie leaves an impression, even if refuted.
In other words, a lie needs not only to be refuted, but regularly and persistently refuted — I suppose at least as many times as the original lie was stated. Which in Palin’s case might require many, many restatements. Perhaps that’s why she kept repeating the lie: to get it indelibly imprinted on our brains.
In other words, refutation requires a wash, rinse, repeat, cycle.
Bob in HI
This story just keeps gettin’ better and better. *GGGGG*
Ah yes, the McCain healthcare plan:
Was it here that somebody said the McCAin’s policies are like Bush’s but on steroids. McCain is Bush on steroids.
Not to put words in Raven’s mouth but I think he might be referring to the Mencken quote that goes, “Democracy is the theory that the common man knows what he wants and deserves to get it… good and hard.”
Hysterical
One more thing … Obama probably can’t use the McCain is like Bush on steroids because McCain will say he was talking about Cindy’s addiction.
1,766 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen RevBev and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
I think that everyone is missin’ the real message in the Palin candidacy and that is the relationship between the Alaska Independence Party, Palin, McCain and the neo-cons. I heard a bunch of the Town Hall Meeting that Ed Schultz did in Anchorage this weekend and it became clear that there is no love lost between the old Republican machine and Palin…indeed, to hear the Alaskans tell it and puttin tagether the message Palin gave to open the Independence Party convention, Palin took the 20-25% that the Independence Party had and put it together with disaffected Republicans and some Democrats and ran the old machine out. She was placed in that position by the oil folks who had supported her for mayor and ran the Independence Party thru her husband.
Now what does this say about the relationship between the oil companies, McCain and the traditional Republican Party (or what’s left of it)…I have been lookin for the fault lines between the fascist neocons and the old Republican establishment (read banks and mortgage industry) and I think we are now seein them.
So don’t look at the lipstick on the dog, look at her relationship to the Independence Party…this is the story and it’s what should be plastered on every headline coverin a story about the Alaskan female canine.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THE WAR IS NOW IN OUR LIVING ROOMS!!
Count the Lies – McCainPedia
I would like to know if she got the state to pay for that tanning bed of if she payed out of pocket
or was it “a gift”
Moderator.Why did you edit that phrase in my post. Offensive? Ugly? You are ignoring that phrase that is what you hear when “gut reaction” is expressed. That’s reality.That’s the way it is. Deal with it…..don’t act like it’s not reality.
This used to be okay at FDL. I remember talking about the “small brain” and the little soldier” in various comments. Granted this was probably during “late nite”…. but still…
I’ll never catch up with this thread, but dude, you HIT it.
dominatrix
deal with it
When she first appeared a friend said she looked like every man’s fantasy of ripping off the glasses and letting the hair down. My son, a strong Obama supporter called shortly there after and said I think she’s attractive. I did not ask in what way. Between now and election day may she painted as just plainly manipulative, and vindictive liar.
In John Keats’ phrase, a “Belle Dame sans merci”?
Bob in HI
“…since the consolidation of ownership they have no competition and need not report the truth, all they need to do is report to bring forward their bottom line.”
John McCain as chairman of the commerce committee facilitated the consolidation of the media. And that my friends is where he gets his clout. He approved MSM’s buyouts and consolidation like media giant Clear Channel / Jacor Communications owns something over 900 US radio stations, 19 US TV stations, and has interests in 240 …
http://www.prorec.com/Articles/tabid/…..Radio.aspx – 153k – Cached – Similar pages
Somehow it just doesn’t seem right to be dancing on their graves while they’re still up walking around. But, it is pretty funny anyway. I hope she has tenure or something. Talk like that usually gets a person canned.
Maybe they oughta listen to the advice and bulk up. If you’re not strong in a market like this it can get pretty scary.
For anyone who’s interested, here are some pictures I took at our protest against Caribou Barbie last week.