Give me some credit, I’ve been doing better with staying away from politics lately. But you really have to watch this.
Thanks to the internet and all the bloggers that wouldn’t let Colbert’s performance get swept under the rug, it would seem that the spineless media’s testicles are finally beginning to drop. Either that or they’ve merely wet their forefinger and stuck it up in the air to see which way the wind is blowing, and now they’re giving their audience what they want to see.
Notice how many times the newscaster compares this smackdown of Rumsfeld by former CIA analyst Ray McGovern with Stephen Colbert’s performance in front of the president. Not only that, but they completely side with McGovern and against Rumsfeld. Had bloggers (And BoingBoing.net in particular) NOT brought attention to Colbert, I would bet the media would have ignored this most recent confrontation also.
I really do believe that Colbert made history, and we’re going to see more and more people willing to stand up to this administration, and, more importantly, the media more willing to cover it.
I wonder how this goverment of ours is willing to go to silence its critics. Next thing you know, they’ll be tapping journalists’ cell phones.
I sure hope you’re right!
The Colbert piece is fantastic, and this is another worthy blow, but it’s just not enough. We had the Downing Street memo, and that has all but disappeared. They’ve been caught with their pants down so many times, and yet they still have the helm. I really do hope these events signal the dam bursting.
I can’t believe that these types of people would be asked to silence themselves…
What ever happened to freedom of speech? What did this man do that was so wrong that he was told he to “get to the question” and then literally threatened to be dragged out…?
“IS this America?”
If you can check this out:
http://www.antiwar.com/mcgovern/
A little something written by the man himself.
(Ray McGovern)
“I did not lie then,” he insisted.
This was immediately greeted with what Pravda used to describe as “stormy applause,” followed immediately by rather unseemly shouts by this otherwise well-disciplined and well-heeled group to have me summarily thrown out. At the end, as we all filed out slowly, I could make eye contact with only one person – who proceeded to berate me for being insubordinate.
Scary. No open minds there. A graphic reminder for those wishing to spread some truth around that we have our work cut out for us. We have to find imaginative ways to use truth as a lever to pry open closed minds.
-McGovern
There are some clips on YouTube of McGovern being interviewed by CNN, Fox, etc. about the incident. He seemed reasonable, intelligent and unflappable in every one; even when a Fox newscaster accused him of being a heckler, he handled it extremely well. We need more people like him, and fewer like the woman who got thrown out of the room for screaming and pulling out a “War criminal” banner right before he spoke.
were you jokeing about the journalists cell phone thing?
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2006/05/govt_source_tel.html
I saw that article. I guess tracking and bugging aren’t exactly the same thing, but they’re sure close. In a way, it’s good news. This might be just the thing to light a fire under the press’s ass.
The lengths the Bush admin. is going to silence criticis instead of fixing what’s broken is downright scary. His use of “signing statements” to ammend or nullify parts of bills when he signs them into law is unbelievable. This NPR piece was a real eye-opener:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5392733
I hope I’m not turning into a black helicoptor conspiracy theory wackjob…
I loved his joke about “its like boxing an iceburg”… by the way you can use that on your grandchildren because they won’t know what an iceburg is.
colbert is my hero, he wasn’t afraid of anything.