C-Span and "so called Czars"

[go west young man]

This morning C-Span had a 30 minute session on the Obama Administrations "so called Czars" as they put it. What the hell has happened to C-Span? Are they taking their subject matter directly from Glenn Beck? How is it that all week long he rants like a lunatic and gets taken seriously? Someone at C-Span deserves to have their ass handed to them for towing Becks line. A caller did bring it up to them that they were doing so. But shouldn't C-Span be covering more important issues like health care and the wars?

Especially as we all know by now that "when the infotainment right wing media uses the worlds "so called" they are just pulling shit out of their asses for political reasons.

Czar by definition is a tyrant with absolute power. C-Span knows this and for them to play along with Beck in this regard makes me question their "so called "balance".

[Lex]

1. I stopped watching CSPAN long ago. Right-wingy as hell.

nt

[DrDan]

2. relax - even Obama uses the terms "czar"

". . . he introduced Gil Kerlikowske as his "drug czar" while speaking to an urban policy group in Washington."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/13/questions-raised-influence-obama-czars/

[gratuitous]

3. Not to mention

What is the collective amnesia that has gripped not just C-Span, but places like the Washington Post, which obsess over President Obama's "czars" and yet appear to have no memory whatsoever of all the "czars" appointed by the second President Bush. And while they fret and wring their dainty little hands over the prospect (not the reality, mind you) of a governmental official not directly answerable to the voters through election, you will rack your brain in vain trying to recall any such similar concern expressed over the very real nonresponsiveness of any number of Bush administration officials perpetrating actual transgressions of the law, such as the Hatch Act.

Back then, it was deemed no big deal to have agency heads coaching their staffs in mandatory meetings about the best way to get "our" candidates elected. Now, just the idea that someone somewhere is appointed rather than elected to a high government position smacks of runaway dictatorial powers to the dithering cognoscenti.

[NoQuarter]

4. Not to mention the very fact that

the use of the term "czar" for administration appointees with long, un-glamourous job titles began with Nixon. (Thank you, Rachel, for the history review)
Yes, Tricky Dick gave us our first "czar."

[oligarhy]

5. that asshole is still tricking us.

...

[Overseas]

6. Everyone should drop the "so-called" because they've been so-called since Nixon days.

Drug Czar, Energy Czar, etc. "Czar" has long been a naming convention to abbreviate long job titles, so the so-called is superfluous. Call them the decades old nickname Czar, or use their full titles-- Deputy Special Assistant to the President for XYZ, etc.

CSpan does have a few conservative hosts. As our country's mass media was pushed to the right, lots of pressure was put on public broadcasting to "be more balanced" a.k.a. facts-be-damned; pretend Neo-Republican ideas have merit. So CSpan has a few guys that seem to be Heritage Foundation or Cato Institute types, due to the standard right wing phrases or arguments they use. And Book TV airs a lot of talks right wing authors give on their books, too.

But luckily CSpan isn't all right wing all the time. In addition to the congressional coverage, they have some liberal speakers and authors on as well.

I just click in and out of CSpan based on which congressional hearings or which authors' talks on BookTV that I want to hear.