ESPN carries more journalism in a one hour special than the last ten years of cable news.

the best journalism these days comes from non traditional sources such as ESPN and Comedy Central ( and the Lake of course)

Mainstream media is all about sound bites talking points and celebrities

Cable news channel vuvuzelas — Bzzzzzzz.

Good morning, pups. The Times hasn’t bothered to update the op-ed page today, so I’ve got a really Groundhog Day, déja vu vertiginous feeling. Prof. Krugman published a blog entry on July 6 in which he spanks Bobo. Since spanking Bobo is a very good thing, here it is.

The coffee and tea are ready, the cold drinks are in the fridge, and I’ve got a variety of bagels with cream cheese. I’m still feeling disoriented, so another cup of tea is in order. Have a great day.

Obama wouldn’t be President without CNN and MSNBC. They were chasing ratings then, they are chasing ratings now. It’s business. Or did we think Olbermann the ex ESPN guy had more political lineage and integrity than Beck the ex talk radio hack clown. They sell what their respective audiences want to hear, and right now CNN and MSNBC need more customers. Obama fandom is not what it used to be.

Although I have mostly given up watching TeeVee (except for The World Cup) I read that Octavia Nasr who has been with CNN for 20 years was fired the other day for saying she admired an Arab leader. Of course if she had kissed Blitzer’s AIPAC butt and given NuttyYahoo a BJ she would have been promoted instead.

This from Wikipedia

Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadl-Allāh (also Muhammad Husayn Fadl-Allāh or Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadl-Allāh) (November 16, 1935 – July 4, 2010) was a prominent Lebanese Twelver Shi’a marja.

From a Lebanese family, but born in Najaf, Iraq, Fadlallah studied Islamic sciences in Najaf before moving to Lebanon in 1952. In the following decades, he gave many lectures, engaged in intense scholarship, wrote dozens of books, founded several Islamic religious schools, and established the Mabarrat Association. Through the aforementioned association he established a public library, a women’s cultural center, and a medical clinic. He was also credited with being the “spiritual mentor” of Hezbollah.

He was the target of several assassination attempts, including the CIA’s planting of a 440-pound car bomb in Beirut that killed 80 other people instead.

CNN paragon of unbiased reportage.

Arguments From Authority
A quick note on David Brooks’s column today. I have no idea what he’s talking about when he says,

The Demand Siders don’t have a good explanation for the past two years
Funny, I thought we had a perfectly good explanation: severe downturn in demand from the financial crisis, and a stimulus which we warned from the beginning

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/arguments-from-authority/

Yeah Explanation for the last 2 years tax cuts for rich during a time of war. Also Bush and Greenspan lowering interest rates to zero creating the housing boom, next no oversight by the government on the loans the banks made.
Is Demand Sider the New Keyesian like NeoHoover is the new Bush, Obama, Bobo economic adviser of choice?
Why is Obama repeating Herbert Hoover’s economic mistakes has he been possessed by the spirit of economic stupidity,…. do we need an Exorcist?

But there’s something else in David’s column, which I see a lot: the argument that because a lot of important people believe something, it must make sense:

Moreover, the Demand Siders write as if everybody who disagrees with them is immoral or a moron

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/arguments-from-authority/

Nice arguments from authority are fine but not if Authority has a track record of being wrong on this subject even if all the important people agree with you.
Does anyone else remember Bobo arguing Bush was not getting any credit from the Press about how good the economy was a few months before the economy started to crash.
Given Bobo’s record on the economy why does the Times let him write about what he knows nothing about?

Gotta go to work say hi to Raven if he shows.

Did you put the Pat Buchanan and Lindsay Lohan line in there for a reason? Because yesterday, Pat DID offer to report the news about Lohan’s jail term. Of course, that all-important and serious Mika refused to report on Lindsay.

Note, while praising ESPN’s world cup coverage, let me note the disgusting reach-around they are giving LeBron James.

It’s almost as big a reach as when Karl Rove is interviewed by Steve Doocy.

KO had a field day with the LeBron James thing last night, making repeated mockery of the “hour-long special” they’re broadcasting.

That’s clever and so accurate.

Is it even possible for Wolf Blitzer to be more lame and smarmy than he already is? The guy really has become a serious joke…

And if you stop watching…

Watching the Muslims in Space segment, I was reminded of the end of the movie History of the World Part 1. . .and if you don’t know why, I recommend watching it.

http://www.americanpolitics.com/20010808Klausutis.html

Force her to have sex from behind and she bangs her head – just not Joe’s fault – not to be spoken about – if that is what happened – the above link gives details from which some come to the above conclusion.

Indeed you can not include Joe’s name and Kris’s name (the murdered girl) in the same post over at Huff Post. Indeed you can not include Kris’s name in a post, period. Indeed you can not slam Joe or MSNBC in anyway unless it is a slam of a liberal host or guest.

Being banned from the guest list for Joe seems a blessing!

Once again, some factually challenged blow-hard raises the specter that Beck and Olbermann are somehow the same. Olbermann is (for the most part) fact based and when he makes a mistake, he publicly corrects himself. Beck is (for the most part) fantasy based and when he makes a mistake no one notices because in Beck’s world everything he says and does is true (whether it is or not). Because he lives in his own, fact-free, Fantasyland, he never has to correct himself. Even if he should “apologize” for some transgression, it’s a half-hearted, half-assed attempt followed in short order by a repeat of the same behavior. According to Wikipedia, “Olbermann graduated from Cornell in 1979 with a B.S. in communications arts. Beck briefly attended Yale University, took one theology class, “Early Christology,” and then dropped out.” Olbermann and Beck are as different as night and day. Watch the shows (if you dare) and you’ll see what I mean.