Today Show In Full Whoring Mode Today: Kerry v Matlin

[stopbush]

Another disgusting display of the Today Show whoring for * this am.

Matt Lauer "interviews" Kerry about *'s speech. JK is constantly interrupted with Lauer's spouting "with all due respect" crapola (ie: I'm calling you on a lie). JK tries his best to counter Lauer, even refusing to back down when Lauer employs the RW ploy of talking over the guest you've brought on to interview, but he comes off as ineffectual. The interview lasts about 3 minutes.

Next up, Katie "Softballs 4 Rs" Couric gives Mary Matlin 5-6 uninterrupted minutes to spout RW talking points. No interruptions. No challenges to anything she's saying, even when Matlin badmouths the Dems as "partisan" and then later sez "debate is great." Where was Couric's challenge a la "but you just said a minute ago." Matlin told us all how great it was going in Iraq. She even hauled out the long-discredited figures that thousands of Iraq troops are trained and ready to take over from US forces. Katie said nothing.

Matlin basically called Kerry a liar, saying that Gen Casey did NOT say what JK reported he said about the situation on the ground in Iraq. And - of course - Matlin dragged out the "Dems have no plan" talking point which Couric let go unchallenged.

Pretty shameless stuff.

[Neocondriac]

1. Maybe.....

you could spare yourself the inevitable whoring and stop watching that Bilderburg parade every morning. I did. Free your mind......

[stopbush]

4. I'm not a regular viewer, but I wanted to catch JK this am.

I've already stopped watching Tweety and the usual parade of idiots.

BTW - I'm not for Kerry getting out there with "his" plan. The Dems have designated "leaders" - Reid, Pelosi & Dean. I believe that the Dem message needs to filter through those designated spokespeople. Having Kerry, Murtha and any other Dem jumping in with a "plan" only serves to feed the *Dems are disorganized* mantra.

Kerry would do well to channel his ideas through Reid, rather than speaking independently.

[sandnsea]

5. What about when Kucinich does it?

Or when McDermitt went to Iraq and did it? Or when Conyers does it?

[stopbush]

8. Same story. Sure, DK, Conyers et al have AN effect - the base gets

energized and maybe, MAYBE the story eventually goes mainstream. But we all know that these stories would have been mainstream a long time ago if the Dems had embraced the opposition party strategy through the leadership, rather than having lone gunmen out there with their gonads dangling in the wind.

That begs the question of our Dem leadership, doesn't it? They could have gotten behind Robert Byrd in the run up to the war, fer Chriss sake, but they didn't.

[sandnsea]

13. So

Democrats can speak over top of the leadership as long as they agree with you, is that it?

[stopbush]

21. That's not what I said.

[sandnsea]

22. Yeah it is

When Democrats are saying what you agree with, but that the leadership doesn't, the leadership is wrong. When Democrats are saying something that doesn't completely mesh with the leadership, those Democrats should shut up. Can't have it both ways. The best one can hope for is that Democrats learn how to express their views without trashing each other. Find the common points, and they are and have always been there, and move forward.

All of the competing factions, from the far left to the DLC center-right, are guilty of missing the forest for the trees and engaging in burn this or that tree tactics that is going to leave us with no forest and no idea when or how it got burned up.

[second edition]

10. Frankly, I would rather here Kerry and see him than watch Reid

any day. If you feel that way about Kerry than I suppose Pelosi should also be doing all the talking for Murtha. I see nothing wrong with proposing plans, at least we are presenting ideas.

As far as the Today Show, it is just disgusting how they fawn over Bush and try so hard to make him look good.

I'm in a mood to write so I will e-mail them and tell them how obvious they were today.

[Cha]

16. Thanks for writing the mediawhores

on the today show..I want them held accountable so bad..I have a feeling it's that general electic war thing they got goin' on and they could give at shite about our boys and girls in uniform..not to mention the men and women.

[FreedomAngel82]

18. I love all of them going out

That way they can't say the democrats don't have a plan anymore. All the top democrats (doesn't Biden also have a plan?) have some plan that's better than George Bush's non-existance plan and they're really going out there and showing it. It doesn't really matter which plan we use right now: the whole point is we have one and the people can decide who they want to get us out of Iraq.

[karynnj]

23. Although Reid is the Majority leader, that is an organizational position

he certainly can not dictate the positions of the other Senators or say they can not speak for themselves. This is a legislative body with 100 independent members. I'm not from there, but I assume that Massachusetts wants Kennedy and Kerry to represent it.

You don't ask that all comments on Roe vs Wade be channeled through Reid.

[GR]

11. Today Is The Most Watched Morning Show...To Ignore Them Is Foolish...

Here's the letter I wrote them:

Dear Katie Couric/Matt Lauer:

Firstly, I think it is completely unbalanced and unfair to have a "rebuttal" to John Kerry when you've just spent a lot of time showing excerpts from Bush's speech. Given the time spent showing Bush speech excerpts it was only Bush who needed a rebuttal and Kerry was on to provide that rebuttal. Having an additional republican spokesperson unbalanced your reportage, two to one.

Secondly, as if it wasn't enough that you had to give Mary Matelin time to spew her disregard for Bush's legitimate critics and their very valid arguments, Matt added insult to injury by constantly trying to interrupt and challenge John Kerry and, rather than really listening to what Kerry had to say, attack him for his supposed "inconsistency." I saw no comparable effort to expose the blatant dishonesty of Bush's speech in which he professed a demand for nothing less than "total victory." Total victory, in its common meaning, is in all likelihood ultimately impossible and certainly within any acceptable time frame. Anyone who's been following our "progress" in Iraq knows it.

Thirdly, Katie, you let Mary Matelin say some very outrageous things without challenge. First she said that she wouldn't talk without the democrats having a plan while ignoring John Murtha's plan and the glaring holes in what Bush deceitfully calls a plan. Bush has no timetable, no concrete goals, no metrics of measurement of progress and, worst of all, NO END IN SIGHT within his so-called Strategy for Victory. It is not a "plan" in any real sense of the word.

But the most outrageous thing that Mary said was that it was perfectly fine to have our military write phony positive articles and pay Iraqi media to implant Arab translations of these phony positive articles in the Iraqi press. Of course, this propaganda effort is par for the course for the Bush Administration which has been caught doing the same thing right here in America by paying Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher, and others for favorable press coverage and putting fake reporters like Jeff Gannon into the White House Press Room and into various propaganda films about government agencies and programs disguised as unbiased news reports. To let Mary say that what we are doing in Iraq was fine, without challenge, is a horrific dereliction of your press responsibilities.

I hope you will reread John Kerry's famous speech about Vietnam because it is so applicable today... HOW DO YOU ASK A MAN TO BE THE LAST TO DIE FOR A MISTAKE? Would you send your girls to die for this endeavor? Would Matt let his children die for this?

Bush is sending young men and women to die in Iraq because he can't admit a mistake, and in this case, to make matters worse, like Vietnam, his mistake was buttressed by a panoply of lies and deceits. Don't contribute to the deaths of more young men and woman, both American and Iraqi, by neglecting your duty to challenge this deceit.

[WiseButAngrySara]

15. This is excellent GR. GGGRRRRRR...!!!! I hope you get a response. I

just read on another thread that Couric might become the new CBS news anchor! I never watch the Today Show. Not in the habit, and the few times I have viewed it, really important events should have been discussed, and I found the topics covered to be so much fluff.

[jenndar]

19. Beautifully stated!!

I had similar reactions to the show.

[Neecy]

2. When has the Today Show ever NOT been in full whoring mode?

[Debi]

3. I turned sound off as soon as I saw who the republican 'counter' was

Kerry didn't even get a chance to speak, just spoken to by Lauer. I saw how disrespectful of Kerry the Today show was by having Matlin be his counter and then how long they had her on, for God's sake. Not a single republican Senator available? Not a cabinet member in sight? Sad, sad, sad. Kerry should have told Today to piss off!

[stopbush]

6. You're correct. They denigrate Kerry by putting a

non-official like Matlin up against Kerry as a counter. An effective RW spin ploy if there every was one. You send a Senator, we'll send the cleaning lady.

Maybe the Dems should employ a comedian to counter every pronouncement by *.

[Cha]

7. Not to mention..didn't

couric interview bo yesterday about something that shouldn't be in his realm of expertise(which is only bullshit)?

[Neocondriac]

9. Well said....

but I have to believe after any appearance of battling Reps and Dems ,I always view them as yuking it up together afterwards and laughing up their sleeves at all of us.That's the saddest reality-the 'illusion of choice' we get fed!

[Debi]

20. His name is Al Franken n/t

[Lusted4]

26. Kerry should have asked her if any indictments were going

make there way around to her.

[karynnj]

24. Turning the sound off and saying rude things has to be the only way

to deal with Mary Matalin.

I wish people would demand an end to the way these shows have become. It's almost like what was once only normal for talk radio became the norm for cable and is becoming standard for the network stations.

The complete lack of civility is amazing. When the media was liberal, I remember seeing conservatives such as Goldwater being politely asked questions and allowed to answer. When a Matt Lauer feels he has the right to interrupt a prominent Senator or when a Chris Matthews cuts Howard Dean off after letting him say maybe 5 words, something is very wrong.

[Loonman]

12. Lauer is a shitter

He's got no skills.

[Cha]

14. But Democrats do have a plan..

and it took Murtha to bring it front and center. I can't believe les moonves wants this no nothing about interviews couric to be his "nightly news anchor" at 6:30pm!

And the irony of all this is that Kerry is right and they are all catapulting the propoganda.

I want the Dems to get together and figure out how to get the damn truth out on these corporate bottom line spin shows.

They can do it.

[FreedomAngel82]

17. I feel like pulling my hair out

I can't stand the disrespect either. :mad:

[Lusted4]

25. Kerry should have stated right in the middle of that crap,

"If you are going to repeatedly interrupt me, talk over me, and play this little sham of an interview, then it's over, because you don't need me here. From now on just get cardboard cut-outs of Progressives, prop them up here, then keep running this scam on your viewers and not waste our time."

[LittleClarkie]

27. And yet, to the other side, she's "Katie Communist"

Poor thing, ain't gotta home.