been, and stands out as one of those responsible for *'s two "elections"
think I'm exaggerating? bet you never saw this bit of the most treacly pablum I may have ever seen by a socalled 'unbiased journalist'
here...beyond disgusting:
ADORING, SUBJECT-SANCTIONED profiles of the Important Campaign Journalist appear with numbing regularity in student/alumni magazines. For reasons that are probably obvious only to the people who went to those sorts of schools, they appear more often than not in Ivy League circulars—though there are exceptions. The feature will typically include a handsome photo of the hack in a regal, professional pose, over the implied caption: "In his exciting career as a swashbuckling toilet who eagerly receives the piss of powerful political interests, X never forgets his Yale roots."
Such an article appeared recently in Beta Theta Pi, the fraternity's quarterly magazine. Appropriately in its How I Spent My Summer Vacation issue ("What Did You Do This Summer?" Summer 2004), the fraternity profiled its famous journalist brother, Howard Fineman (Colgate '70). The story featured a gigantic, illustrated version of a Newsweek cover in which the irrepressibly serious Aaron-Brown-wannabe face of Howard Fineman appears over the headline: "Howard Fineman."
Most of the article is just the inoffensively overwrought flattery of the amateur feature writer ("As a journalist, NBC News analyst and active family man, Fineman is 'on the go' a lot"; "His personality is disarming and his demeanor is relaxed, evidence by his loosened tie and disheveled hair"). But late in the article, the writer gets Fineman to come out with this:
He once interviewed the President on his cell phone from his son's little league game. "I know Bush is no dummy—he's a shrewd, effective leader," he said, referring to Bush's cool persona that allows for a seemingly effortless style. "I recognized him from my fraternity life," he said. "They're a different breed."Fineman also reveals that he thought Bush once tried to give him the Delta Kappa Epsilon grip:
"But I sure didn't give him the Beta grip," he adds. "Understanding the role of fraternity in American life is important and relevant. It has helped me to understand George W. Bush. I appreciate him more and understand him better because of my fraternity experience." Yikes! Apparently Brother Fineman quite appreciates Brother Bush, because his performance on his behalf last week was really a thing of beauty. Not since O.J. Simpson stared into the cameras and invited the whole incredulous world to help him in his search for the "real killers" have we seen anything as brazen as Fineman attempting to blame media bias for Bush's plunge in the polls. In his post-first-debate cover-story wrapup ("Ninety Minutes Later, a New Race," Oct. 11), Fineman all but openly raged at Kerry, using straight-from-Karl-Rove's-mouth language throughout the piece.
http://www.nypress.com/17/41/news&columns/taibbi.cfmthis multi part piece on the M$M's role in "electing" the chimp this time around, disguised as a contest between egregious journalistic hacks, is at the same time one of the funniest, nastiest things I've ever read on the media, and a very incisive critique on just how craven these egocentric prix and prickettes have become.
highly recommended
starts here:
http://www.nypress.com/17/40/news&columns/feature.cfm
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