from the Daily Howler, ca 2002.....
GOODBYE TO THE GENERALS...Someone finally told the truth—and his host, Howard Kurtz, became nervous. On Reliable Sources, E. J. Dionne was asked to discuss press coverage of Gore’s recent speech. To his vast credit, Dionne did something Major Pundits never do—he criticized another Major Pundit. Dionne took after Brian Williams; the quotes involved may seem bizarre, but they are the words spoken by Williams:
DIONNE: You know, I was struck—and I came across this looking up the text of speech, and I found The News with Brian Williams, and the tease began, “Is it un-American to speak out against the Bush plan to take on Iraq? Is it democratic to ridicule and threaten those who do it?”
I mean, since when do we debate that it’s un-American to take on a president? Surely that subject surely didn’t come up during the Clinton scandals, when people were trashing Clinton’s foreign policy all the time. And then he went on later in the story to say, “Today, our—
KURTZ: Brian Williams.
DIONNE: This is Brian Williams. “Today, our friend Rush Limbaugh told his radio listeners he almost stayed home from work not due to any health reasons, but because he was so livid at the speech given yesterday by former Vice President Al Gore criticizing the Bush administration,” et cetera.
Now, have you ever seen the news report, Jane Fonda couldn’t get out of bed because she was so mad about former Vice President Nixon’s speech? Or, Phil Donahue couldn’t get out of bed because he was so mad about President Bush’s speech? I mean, <Gore> got 47 million votes. Why couldn’t you have a straight account of what Al Gore said, and then a debate, including all the questions, including the ones Dana <Milbank> raised about what he said?
What is going on here? I don’t believe there is a liberal media anymore. That’s—that is, Rush Limbaugh’s now the producer of the news. According to Dionne, There isn’t a liberal media any more! And not only that: Rush Limbaugh is now producing our news! Kurtz quickly said that his guest, Dionne, must have smoked something very suspicious
KURTZ (continuing directly): Well, that’s going a little far because when you’re on cable and people have seen the speech 20 times, by the time you come on, you look for a little different way to get in the story, perhaps by going to—framing it around what the critics— Sorry. Dionne wasn’t buyin’:
DIONNE (continuing directly): Why begin with—-in other words, we are told all the time it is the “liberal media,” and here Rush Limbaugh not being able to get out of bed supersedes what Al Gore says. If you—if you want to have Rush Limbaugh on trashing Al Gore afterward, fine. Report the news. Report what he said, and then criticize him. Report what Gore said? Dionne must be dreaming! But when have you seen a major pundit do the things Dionne did here—say that Rush is scripting our news, and even trash the egregious Williams?
In THE HOWLER, we’ve chronicled Williams’ egregious work since June 1999. But when have you ever seen an insider pundit acknowledge how puzzling it is?
plenty more here:
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh093002.shtml
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