Talk Ain't Cheap
(CBS/AP)
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October 19, 2007 2:35 PM How much would you pay for the letter sent by 41 U.S. Senators to Clear Channel Communications, asking the company to “publicly repudiate” Limbaugh’s comments about “phony soldiers?”
Got $2 milion?
Which begs the question: Who the heck is BettyC588?
Got $2 milion?
Which begs the question: Who the heck is BettyC588?
September 28, 2007 11:35 AM 
As discussed in this space last week, there’s a lot of inappropriate things said and done that are trumped up into Major Media Controversies. Left-leaning groups and right-leaning groups – the screaming monkeys on both sides – are always trying to publicize things and raise their profile on the nation’s agenda. So you weigh their claims see if the event meets the threshold for attention.
Bill O’Reilly’s insipid observation about African-American restaurants earlier this week seemed like a media diversion that – given all the other events this week – didn’t tip the scales into an actual problem.
But some things are outrages despite being spotlighted by ideological groups.
Take what was said this week by Rush Limbaugh, as reported on Talking Points Memo – inspired by the liberal group Media Matters -- yesterday:
Limbaugh's Loose Lips
(AP)
Bill O’Reilly’s insipid observation about African-American restaurants earlier this week seemed like a media diversion that – given all the other events this week – didn’t tip the scales into an actual problem.
But some things are outrages despite being spotlighted by ideological groups.
Take what was said this week by Rush Limbaugh, as reported on Talking Points Memo – inspired by the liberal group Media Matters -- yesterday:
In a conversation on Rush Limbaugh's radio program, a listener named Mike said that antiwar people never talk to "real soldiers," adding that they take their cues from soldiers who are against the war and "talk to the media."
To which Limbaugh rejoined: "The phony soldiers.”
March 21, 2007 11:42 AM 
"Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant. I am not his servant."
--California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, speaking on NBC's "Today" show. As the LA Times notes, Limbaugh has repeatedly criticized Schwarzenegger for his views on issues like stem-cell research, carbon dioxide emissions and universal healthcare.
No Fraternity With Rush
(AP)
--California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, speaking on NBC's "Today" show. As the LA Times notes, Limbaugh has repeatedly criticized Schwarzenegger for his views on issues like stem-cell research, carbon dioxide emissions and universal healthcare.
January 17, 2007 3:32 PM 
Conservative media critics have their knickers in a bunch over this latest trend among prime-time television critics: labeling Fox's "24" as a conservative show. Or, more specifically, that "[d]epending on your perspective, '24' is either a neocon sex fantasy or the collective id of our nation unleashed," as Newsweek put it recently.
In a review of the season's opener, critic Devin Gordon writes that as President Bush "is squeezing our civil liberties to fight a war on terror, the writers of '24' have come up with a story that asks whether something could ever happen here in America that makes civil liberties a luxury we can no longer afford."
Time's James Poniewozik posed this question to readers this week: "Is 24 just a TV show or right-wing propaganda? Or, to turn Jack Bauer's frequent refrain on him: Who are you working for?" After all, John McCain has done a cameo and Vice President Dick Cheney "is a big fan" of the show. And the show's stars were recently honored with an appearance by Rush Limbaugh and "softball questions" from an audience at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Eugene Kane of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who cites the Heritage Foundation event as well, writes that Cheney and Limbaugh's affinity for the show "suggests there may be something more than just television going on here."
Just A TV Show?
(McFarlane Toys)
In a review of the season's opener, critic Devin Gordon writes that as President Bush "is squeezing our civil liberties to fight a war on terror, the writers of '24' have come up with a story that asks whether something could ever happen here in America that makes civil liberties a luxury we can no longer afford."
Time's James Poniewozik posed this question to readers this week: "Is 24 just a TV show or right-wing propaganda? Or, to turn Jack Bauer's frequent refrain on him: Who are you working for?" After all, John McCain has done a cameo and Vice President Dick Cheney "is a big fan" of the show. And the show's stars were recently honored with an appearance by Rush Limbaugh and "softball questions" from an audience at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Eugene Kane of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who cites the Heritage Foundation event as well, writes that Cheney and Limbaugh's affinity for the show "suggests there may be something more than just television going on here."
June 8, 2006 3:27 PM 
It's getting buried by the al-Zarqawi news, but yesterday mustachioed American ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton had the ambassadorial version of a hissyfit over the words of U.N. Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown.
On Tuesday, Brown berated the United States for not sufficiently supporting the U.N. and encouraging the international body's critics. "The prevailing practice of seeking to use the U.N. almost by stealth as a diplomatic tool while failing to stand up for it against its domestic critics is simply not sustainable," he said.
Brown also played media critic: "Much of the public discourse that reaches the U.S. heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News," he said.
Shockingly, the criticisms did not play well with Bolton.
"I've known you since 1989, and I'm telling you this is the worst mistake by a senior U.N. official that I have seen in that entire time," he told Secretary General Kofi Annan. He called Brown's a "condescending, patronizing tone about the American people. Fundamentally, very sadly, this was a criticism of the American people, by an international civil servant, and it's just illegitimate," adding: "Even though the target of the speech was the United States, the victim, I feel, will be the United Nations."
Oh, it's on.
Diplomatic Tomfoolery
(AP)
On Tuesday, Brown berated the United States for not sufficiently supporting the U.N. and encouraging the international body's critics. "The prevailing practice of seeking to use the U.N. almost by stealth as a diplomatic tool while failing to stand up for it against its domestic critics is simply not sustainable," he said.
Brown also played media critic: "Much of the public discourse that reaches the U.S. heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News," he said.
Shockingly, the criticisms did not play well with Bolton.
"I've known you since 1989, and I'm telling you this is the worst mistake by a senior U.N. official that I have seen in that entire time," he told Secretary General Kofi Annan. He called Brown's a "condescending, patronizing tone about the American people. Fundamentally, very sadly, this was a criticism of the American people, by an international civil servant, and it's just illegitimate," adding: "Even though the target of the speech was the United States, the victim, I feel, will be the United Nations."
Oh, it's on.
Grammy winner Shakira on her music career, philanthropy and being sexy..
