Eric Boehlert up on Sam Seder...9:36 AM, CDT...don't miss

[Gabi Hayes]

talking about media's response to Foleygate

Lap Dogs, his book on the media, is one of the best I've read on the subject. he's particularly effective when dealing with faux journalists like Mark Halperin and his colleague, John Harris, whose paean to Bernays/Goebbels/Rove is the M$M logroller.

here:

Here's how dishonest Beltway journalism has become
by Eric Boehlert

Books about politics and the press don't come much more dishonest, or depressing, than the new tome hitting stores this week, The Way to Win (Random House). Written by corporate media bigwigs Mark Halperin, political director of ABC News and founder of its political newsletter The Note, and John F. Harris, national political editor of The Washington Post, the new digest -- it's their take on how to win the White House -- is already being toasted by celebrity journalists inside the Beltway, which in today's environment means the book politely re-enforces preferred conventional wisdom and graciously avoids asking tough questions about Republicans. The press corps also skates by in the eyes of Halperin and Harris, who continuously rewrite recent history in order to ensure that journalists shoulder little or no blame for D.C. pressroom disgraces such as Whitewater, the blatantly dishonest coverage heaped upon Al Gore's presidential campaign, and for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth hoax that ensnared Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential run.

I say The Way to Win is dishonest because Halperin and Harris are obviously smart professionals who understand how politics and the press now (unfortunately) work in this country. Indeed, the two are celebrated as among Beltway journalism's best and brightest and are paid handsomely for reaching the pinnacle of their profession. Unfortunately, political journalism isn't what it used to be, and unfortunately, the duo opts to conform to the artificial guidelines that dictate public debate inside the Beltway today.

That's precisely why CBS' Bob Schieffer has already flacked the book on Face the Nation, why Charlie Rose has invited the two for an intimate chat, and why the Way To Win D.C. book party was awash with boldface guests, as elites from the press and politics flocked to toast the latest re-writing of the conventional wisdom. It's because Halperin and Harris tell a reassuring story that Beltway players, particularly in the press, love to hear. And for anybody who still thinks there's an ounce of friction between the true media elites and the Beltway's mostly Republican ruling class, read The Way to Win and think again. The Beltway really has become a tension-free world where journalists and politicos bond effortlessly.

Among the most important of Halperin and Harris's take-away tips -- their so-called "Trade Secret" -- is for candidates seeking the White House in 2008 to basically not act like Democrats. Specifically, Halperin and Harris stress that recent campaigns by Gore and Kerry failed because they lost control of their public image via the press, in sharp contrast to Bush's campaigns, which, thanks to the hard work of Karl Rove, were able to control their public image. What Halperin and Harris absolutely refuse to acknowledge is the willing role the press played in those key Democratic setbacks and the media's shrieking double standard that's been on display for the last decade.

......

more
http://mediamatters.org/columns/200610030008

[Gabi Hayes]

1. comparing how the media went INSANE during the WJC years,

whenever there was the slightest contradiction in any WH stories on the myriad "scandals" uncovered by the Fools for Scandal (thanks to Gene Lyons) in the media.

Boehlert says there's blockbuster stuff out there with the real, tangible pug contradictory stories regarding Foleygate, and how the media are simply reporting without note how, for example, Boehner and Hastert's stories are 180 degrees different from each other, depending on when they told them.

WHY, he asks, aren't the media covering this?

[Gabi Hayes]

2. talking about how M$M regurgitated for a week the pug spin about

dems' being behind the story, without asking why, all the while knowing that the sources for ABC were Republican

Media Matters says that CNN reported TWENTY SEVEN times in one day the pug story about it being a dem plot, without mentioning ONCE that ABC had specifically said that a repub was the source

[Gabi Hayes]

3. talking about Mehlman's lie concerning Foley being FORCED

from office by Hastert, and how the media hasn't called him on it, despite several appearances before the likes of Blitzer, after he told this huge stinker

[Gabi Hayes]

4. Sam talking about Mariana tragedy, and Mehlman's involvement.

reading some story about it....hope he mentions the name again, but there isn't all that much about it.

Mehlman weasels on Late Edition, regarding the Staymen firing:

''not true, and emails don't suggest that I had power. I "don't recall" Staymen situation.''


Mehlman is talking VERY fast, sure indication of lying ass off

Seder does close reading of email: do you think this email might imply some Mehlman involvement

"Mehlman said that he would get him (Staymen) fired"

the above is an email from one of the principals in the Mariana case to another. will see if I can find out who. it's from the LA Times article, I think

[Gabi Hayes]

5. email from one lobbyist to another

Abramoff's lobbying team, for instance, team urged White House officials, including Rove and Mehlman, to essentially fire Allen Stayman, an employee of the U.S. State Department who advocated labor reforms in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Abramoff represented the Marianas Islands government as a lobbyist. "Mehlman said he would get him fired," one Abramoff lobbyist wrote to another.



http://ofb.net/~andrewc/serenepia/index.cgi/politics/globo/US_sweatshops.arc

On Susan Ralston

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2538336&page=1

[Gabi Hayes]

6. last chance: Markos Melitsas, Daily Kos, coming up next

you missed some great clips from dumbo's press conference:

Q: the latest polls show that 60% of the American people are now against the war in Iraq. Why?

BUSH: Because they want to win!

he really said that...they played the clip

[Gabi Hayes]

7. OK, one more. Dan Seals is on! he's the dem running against MY

scumbag 'representative', Mark Kirk, who's the assistant house whip, and a former military intelligence operative

http://www.dansealsforcongress.com/

10th District

''if we get the message out, we win''

not much money, first TV ads just coming out.

as Kirk looks at his own polling numbers, he's just poured a bunch of money into his advertising campaign; he appears worried