Two "reporters," one with the mind of a child

Remember that guy everyone was falling over themselves to please in the debates, "Joe" the fake plumber? Now he's in Israel, where there is not a war (that would be Gaza,) acting as a war corespondent for the conservative blog Pajamas Media. Here is his "dispatch."



If you didn't sit through that, I'll sum it up. He had no questions of his own to ask the Israelis, then he ranted about why the media even having war reporters is a horrible thing, because it causes us to lose wars all the time. Particularly good is this little nugget.

You know, I liked back in World War I and World War II when you’d go to the theater and you’d see your troops on, you know, the screen and everyone would be real excited and happy for them.

"Reporter" Joe the 14:56, 14:57, 14:58 admitted that he prefers government propaganda to actual reporting. Why the hell did anyone care enough about this clown to pander to him in the first place?

The other big internet sensation/kinda reporter news, 10-year-old Florida kid Damon Weaver, who became net-famous when he somehow got to interview Joe Biden, was awarded press credentials for the inauguration next week after earlier being turned down for an interview with Barack Obama.

Forget that it's an obvious publicity stunt that's only there so everyone will say "haha that kid's hilarious" and then go back to freaking out about losing all of our jobs. From his interview with Biden, Weaver asked a question, listened, and generally came off like someone who's not an entitled asshole phony who is proud of his ignorance.

When the bald guy's 15 minutes are up, can we make Damon Weaver the next pseudo-political mini-celeb with an elementary school understanding of how the country works?

The new king of Sunday morning?

That is David Gregory, the world's oldest looking 38-year-old human. He is your official new host of NBC's Meet The Press. The announcement was made on Sunday, which means that Tom Brokaw (who took over after Tim Russert's sudden death) will go back to being retired. Gregory, a veteran White House correspondent who hosts the show that comes on before Hardball that used to be Tucker Carlson's show (and has changed it's name like 3 times this year) on MSNBC, has long been rumored to be NBC's top choice for thr MTP gig. He also likes Mary J Blige.

It's a solid, if fairly predictable choice. Meet The Press under Russert was the gold standard of Sunday morning talk shows (and probably will be as long as George Stephanopolous insists on letting George Will on camera.) They're looking at someone who can simply ask credible questions and won't freak anyone out, and Gregory proved he could do both when he was made MSNBC's anchor for the Republican National Convention because Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews and Joe Scarborough couldn't be on the air for 5 minutes without trying to kill each other. Still, it would have been refreshing to see Chuck Todd or dare I say Rachel Maddow get the nod over the fairly vanilla (again, watch the dance clip) Gregory.

ACORN Diffuses A-Bomb

The Republicans are going to have to find a new drum to bang after ACORN acknowledged potential voter fraud.

For those out of the loop, ACORN is a nationwide organization that has been registering poor and moderate-income voters across 18 states.

The group has been the subject of many negative ads because of its ties to Obama, but mostly because the voters that ACORN is registering are more likely to vote for Obama.

Trust, if ACORN was focusing its registering drives on Wall St., there wouldn't be a problem.

Officials from ACORN said that it is the responsibility of state election officials to weed out the bad applications (which is a suspect statement, because the likelihood of officials catching every single bad application is slim to none).

I think Republicans have a right to call shenanigans if they feel like somebody is trying to overwhelm the system, but in reality, its not that big of an issue...I highly doubt that half of those people even vote.

Everybody Hates Tucker

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds is probably looking forward to November 5 even more than most. It seems like anytime the media wants answers from the McCain camp, Ol' Tuck trots out to the cable news stations (via satellite of course) and tries his darndest to spin like any good campaign flack. Unfortunately, for whatever reason the media seems to insist on actually, you know, questioning him and not letting him off the hook with standard talking points.

It all started on the opening day of the Republican National Convention when CNN's Campbell Brown grilled Bounds on the question of Sarah Palin's foreign policy experience.



The Republicans were so upset at Brown acting like an actual journalist that McCain canceled a planned appearance on Larry King. But yesterday, Bounds was again asked actual questions by the other two cable news networks (yes, even Fox News!) Prepare to be astounded as Fox's Megyn Kelly attempts to hold him accountable for the McCain campaign's recent attack ads.



"Independent analysts?" You mean besides Oliver North? Where did that come from? But to complete the hat trick of awkward plea copping, Bounds appeared on MSNBC and Norah O'Donnell started asking even more questions about the accusations of negative ads until some well-timed technical difficulties save him from more embarrassment.



So what's the deal? Is he just the worst spinmaster ever? Did Campbell Brown manage to cut him a little, thus sending other sharks to Tucker's flailing and drowning body? Sexist female reporters taking it out on a poor helpless male? The fact that everyone, regardless of race, religion, political affiliation or gender just wants to hate someone named "Tucker?"

Tucker Bounds: Officially having a worse September than Vikings fans.

Vice Pitbull with Lipstick to give first big interview to . . .

Charlie Gibson?

Yes, according to the AP, ABC Nightly News anchor Charles Gibson will get the first one-on-one interview with Sarah Palin since she was named John McCain's running mate. Nothing against Gibson, but . . . really?

I didn't think it would be Campbell Brown, but the choice of Gibson is a little underwhelming. He's not exactly known for being the hardest hitting TV journalist (as The New Yorker so helpfully pointed out during the Democratic primaries,) and this comment from McCain campaign senior adviser and herpes-infected LA Clippers guard Rick Davis implies that they intentionally went with someone who wouldn't ask Palin too many tough questions.

"Why would we want to throw Sarah Palin into a cycle of piranhas called the news media that have nothing better to ask questions about than her personal life and her children?" he said on "Fox News Sunday" Sunday.

I understand there may be a legit concern over family questions, but most of the questions asked of Palin have involved real concerns, such as her record, her experience, the vetting process her stance on the issues and the suddenly-forgotten "Troopergate" (can we stop adding "gate" to any word to make a scandal? It's 2008 people,) story. Equating everyone in the news media with piranhas on the same day you announce her first interview with a softball pitcher speaks volumes in the lack of confidence the McCain campaign has in Palin to handle herself.

Bitter

John McCain's campaign blasted the media's love-affair with Barack Obama by setting up an online contest on his website. Two videos filled with clips of media personalities praising Obama are set to swooning love songs. Whichever video gets the most online votes will be broadcast as a TV ad.

While Obama has been getting the lion's share of positive coverage and some of the things said in these videos (which can be viewed at the bottom of this post) border on seventh-grade-girlish, McCain can't possibly think this is going to have any positive effect on his standing in the polls. Just like it didn't help Adlai Stevenson, Barry Goldwater, Walter Mondale or Bob Dole when they
complained about unfair media coverage. Even if it's true, all it does is make you look mad and bring more attention to your opponent.

The irony of this is for years other Republicans complained about the media being too lapdogish FOR McCain. It was seen as one of the reasons he was able to stay close to George W Bush in the 2000 Republican primaries and why he was able to rebound from a poor 2007 and win the 2008 GOP nomination. It has to seem odd that now McCain is the one whining about the media being too nice to his opponent.

Guess Who's Back

Tom Brokaw, w/gravitas

NBC has announced that Tom Brokaw will take over the late Tim Russert's position as host of Meet The Press. Brokaw will host the Sunday morning show through the election season.

NBC still has not determined what they will do post-Election with Russert's former spot.

In my opinion, they couldn't have done a better job picking a replacement, even if only a temporary one. He doesn't come with the baggage of a Keith Olbermann or Chris Matthews and is one of the few old school national news anchors that stayed relevant and never suffered an embarrassing late-career episode like Dan Rather with the Bush papers.

Brokaw and Russert were my favorite combo to watch during Election Nights (the Russert white board will never be duplicated)

To salute Brokaw's return to television, here's his epic reporting of Gerald Ford's seath (NOTE, not actually him and not actually covering Gerald Ford's death.)

Fist Bump: Innocent gesture or TERRORIST SIGNAL?

Cmon. Enough with this already. I was there and I barely even gave it a second thought. Let us move on.

And I don't know a whole lot about being a news broadcaster, but why tease something as a "terrorist fist jab" and then not even explain what you meant?