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Impeach George Bush
Why We Persevere
Reading Eschaton today, came across this article. Wish I'd written it.
Source: Eschaton, 2004-08-30
Candidate: Big Business
Anti-Truth
God, so I make the mistake of flipping open the NYT book review of a few books written by Jacob effing Weisberg, and I'm treated to these comments.
There was, as I remember it, a fairly vigorous debate about the wisdom of invading Iraq in the months leading up to the war, even if one did not find the most sophisticated expressions of it on cable news. Almost all of this argument was premised, however, on the erroneous assumption that Saddam retained an active W.M.D. program, a belief not questioned at the time by Wolcott or most others who today accuse Bush of intentional deception.
Well, I don't know if Wolcott questioned it, but I questioned it and so did lots of other people. But, you see, these people were nutters who weren't allowed to participate in the incredibly sophisticated debate that went on in the pages of such intellectual treasure troves as Slate effing magazine.
And, then, there was this one:
The liberal caricature Phil Donahue was axed after a few months by MSNBC not because it prefers Republicans but because his ratings were too weak to make the show profitable.
Amazing that MSNBC cancelled what was at the time its highest rated show because it wasn't profitable, unlike all those other lower rated shows which managed to be miraculously more profitable, despite their low ratings. Or, hey, maybe there's another explanation. Wow, holy shit, I think there is another explanation! Lookie here!
While "Donahue" does badly trail both O'Reilly and CNN's Connie Chung in the ratings, those numbers have improved in recent weeks. So much so that the program is the top-rated show on MSNBC, beating even the highly promoted "Hardball With Chris Matthews."
Although Donahue didn't know it at the time, his fate was sealed a number of weeks ago after NBC News executives received the results of a study commissioned to provide guidance on the future of the news channel.
That report--shared with me by an NBC news insider--gives an excruciatingly painful assessment of the channel and its programming. Some of recommendations, such as dropping the "America's News Channel," have already been implemented. But the harshest criticism was leveled at Donahue, whom the authors of the study described as "a tired, left-wing liberal out of touch with the current marketplace."
The study went on to claim that Donahue presented a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war......He seems to delight in presenting guests who are anti-war, anti-Bush and skeptical of the administration's motives." The report went on to outline a possible nightmare scenario where the show becomes "a home for the liberal antiwar agenda at the same time that our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity."
A source close to Donahue claims that while he wasn't aware of the specific study, the tone and outcome aren't surprising.
"It's not a coincidence that this decision comes the same week that MSNBC announces its hired Dick Armey as a commentator and has both Jesse Ventura and Michael Savage joining the network as hosts. They're scared, and they decided to take the coward's road and slant towards the conservative crowd that watch Fox News."
In other words, MSNBC was scared to death that another side was being presented in that incredibly sophisticated debate that Weisberg was just telling us about, which somehow managed to exclude an entire segment of the population who, like me, DIDN'T THINK SADDAM WAS A THREAT TO US.
I didn't even like Phil Donahue's show, in part because I don't think his schtick has aged particularly well, in part because if we're going to have one unashamed lefty with his own cable news show he wouldn't really be my first choice, and most of all because his producers insisted on stacking his show with more frothing right wingers than even I knew existed. But, Donahue's show wasn't cancelled because of low ratings.
arrrgh
Oh lord, someone stop me before I go insane. I just made the mistake of reading more:
The free pass given the author's allies of the moment -- Michael Moore, Joe Conason, Eric Alterman, Sidney Blumenthal -- calls into question his choice of targets like Thomas Friedman, Andrew Sullivan and my colleague Mickey Kaus, shrewder commentators with whom he simply disagrees.
Yes, Friedman, Sullivan, and Kaus - shrewd commentators. And, yes, I remember in the runup to the war Michael Moore, Joe Conason, Eric Alterman, and Sidney Blumenthal -- man, those guys were everywhere! I mean, you couldn't turn on your television without seeing them on TV news somewhere. It was like Alterman-a-palooza on CNN!
Thankfully, it's 5 o'clock somewhere.
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