Politics Daily

House Votes to Cut Federal Funding for National Public Radio

Politics Daily Staff — 2011-03-17T16:51:00+00:00

Filed under: House, Democrats, Republicans, Media, Congress

As expected, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted Thursday to ban federal money for National Public Radio, but the bill might not be taken up by the Senate and faces opposition from the Obama administration.

The measure, sponsored by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), also would prevent member stations from using taxpayer dollars to pay dues to NPR or acquire programming from it. Stations could still use federal money for administrative expenses associated with day-to-day operations.

The bill passed 228 to 192 in a largely party-line vote.

House to Consider Bill to Defund National Public Radio

Politics Daily Staff — 2011-03-16T21:38:00+00:00

Filed under: House, Republicans, Media

The House is set to take up a measure that would eliminate federal funding for National Public Radio, which has been tarnished recently by bad publicity and resignations.

The bill by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) was considered by the House Rules Committee Wednesday.

The Hill wesbsite quoted House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's (R-Va.) office as saying the GOP-controlled chamber would vote on the Lamborn bill on Thursday.

"This is an exciting and significant step forward in the ongoing effort to protect taxpayer dollars from supporting programs that are fully capable of standing on their own. Taxpayers should not be on the hook for something that is widely available in the private market," Lamborn said in a statement.

"I wish only the best for NPR. Like many Americans, I enjoy much of their programming. I believe that they can survive, even thrive, in the free market without the crutch of government subsidies."

Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York, the top Democrat on the rules committee, criticized the effort to push the measure through Congress without hearings, USA Today reported.

"NPR plays a valuable role in providing millions of Americans with in-depth reporting and is often the only source of reliable news in rural parts of the country," she said. "It is under attack in the name of fiscal responsibility."

Lamborn said his bill would cut all federal money to NPR, but NPR affiliate stations could still use federal dollars for administrative expenses associated with day-to-day operations.

The latest move follows the release of a secretly taped video by a conservative activist purportedly showing former NPR fundraising executive Ron Schiller criticizing Republicans and tea party activists during a meeting with phony Muslim donors. However, analysts who examined the full version of the video suggested the editing was misleading and left out important context for the controversial remarks.

Ron Schiller had already announced he was leaving NPR for another job when the video surfaced last week. His departure was accelerated. Then NPR's president and chief executive, Vivian Schiller (no relation), resigned abruptly.

Earlier, the House passed a massive budget-cutting bill that, among other things, would rescind all federal funding this year for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which helps support NPR. The Senate rejected that measure. On Tuesday, a stopgap spending bill passed by the House to keep the government operating for three more weeks contains $50 million in cuts to the CPB. It is now before the Senate.

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Fox News Adds Indiana Democrat Evan Bayh as Commentator

Politics Daily Staff — 2011-03-15T12:58:00+00:00

Filed under: Senate, Democrats, Republicans, Media, Governors, 2010 Elections, Conservatives

Former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh, an influential voice for moderation during his 12 years in the U.S. Senate, has signed on as a political commentator with Fox News.

Bayh, 55, chose not to seek reelection last year -- and his seat was subsequently lost a Republican in November, Dan Coats.

"I'm pleased to offer analysis of public policy and politics to the millions of Americans who get their news from Fox," Bayh said in a statement issued by the network. He will "lend a valuable point of view" and will be part of Fox's coverage of the 2012 presidential race, Fox Senior Vice President Michael Clemente said.

In Indiana, Bayh is a household name. He is a former governor and the son of Birch Bayh, who also served in the Senate and ran for president in 1976, losing the Democratic nomination to Jimmy Carter.

A lawyer, Bayh recently joined the Washington firm of McGuireWoods and became an adviser to the New York-based private equity firm of Apollo Global Management, according to the Indianapolis Star.

Fox News, often criticized for leaning too heavily on conservative Republican commentators, recently suspended former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum from their contributor roles because both are edging toward candidacies for the GOP presidential nomination.

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NPR Sting Video Was Edited to Accentuate Negative

Politics Daily Staff — 2011-03-15T10:58:00+00:00

Filed under: Republicans, Scandal, Gaffes, Media, Video, Conservatives, Tea Party

A surreptitious video depicting an NPR fundraiser criticizing Republicans and tea party activists during a meeting with phony Muslim donors was edited, leaving out important context for the controversial remarks.

The sting, conducted by conservative video-maker James O'Keefe, led to the removal last week of NPR chief executive Vivian Schiller, who was not one of those shown in the video but took responsibility for her subordinates' loose talk -- including a comment asserting that the tea party movement is "scary" and "seriously racist."

But an analysis of the full, two-hour video -- a much shorter version lit up the Internet -- shows that NPR fundraisers Ron Schiller (no relation to Vivian) and Betsy Liley also talked positively about Republicans and conservatives during their lunch date with the bogus donors. And they make it clear to the prospective contributors that their money would not influence news coverage.

"There is such a big firewall between funding and reporting," Ron Schiller says in the longer version of the video. "Reporters will not be swayed in any way, shape or form."

NPR reporter David Folkenflik and The Blaze, a conservative news aggregator set up by Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, analyzed the longer O'Keefe tape and discovered the short version had been edited in a misleading way. Some of Ron Schiller's remarks were run out of sequence in the flow of questions and answers.

While Schiller does say the Republican Party has been "hijacked" by the tea party and Christian evangelicals -- and is "fanatically involved in people's personal lives" -- it is evident in the full tape that he is not giving his own view but rather quoting two influential Republicans, according to reporter Folkenflik. Schiller does not challenge those assertions, but they are not his.

"Except for a couple of unfortunate forays [into] political opinion, I think Ron Schiller actually did a fairly remarkably good job of explaining how NPR works and what you can and cannot expect if you contribute money to the NPR foundation," said Al Tompkins, who teaches journalism ethics at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla.

But the first version of the video that showed up on the Internet last week seemed to confirm conservatives' suspicions about a liberal bias at NPR. And the revelations came as Republicans in Congress pushed to cut off federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which allocates financial support to NPR. While Schiller, in the video, said NPR "would be better off" in the long run without federal money, he also said losing the government assistance would be very hurtful in the short term.

Ron Schiller had already announced he was leaving NPR for another job when the video surfaced last week. His departure was then accelerated.

O'Keefe, who employs people he calls citizen journalists for his hidden camera stings, first popped up in 2009 with a video showing a worker for the liberal community activist group ACORN giving improper tax advice to individuals masquerading as a pimp and prostitute. Last year, O'Keefe pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor after being charged with trying to tamper with the phone lines in the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.)

O'Keefe did not answer requests this week for comment on the editing of the video, Folkenflik said.

Folo Tom Diemer on Twitter http://twitter.com/tomdiemer

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Americans Turning More to Mobile Devices for News

Bruce Drake — 2011-03-14T00:01:00+00:00

Filed under: Media, Polls, Poll Watch

The struggling newspaper industry has been frantically trying to reinvent itself to stay alive in the digital age by beefing up Web operations and packaging its contents for mobile devices. But while there has been rapid growth in the use of smartphones and tablets, like the iPad, to get news and information, a new study did not find a lot of bright spots for local papers.

A survey conducted Jan. 12-25 by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the Knight Foundation found that nearly half of all Americans - 47 percent -- get at least some local news and information on their cellphone or tablet computer.

Forty-two percent use their devices to check up on the weather, 37 percent use them to get information on local restaurants and businesses, 30 percent search out local news, 24 percent follow local sports scores and updates, 19 percent want to find local coupons and discounts, and 15 percent get news alerts.

But while more and more newspapers have developed "apps" for this mobile audience, only 13 percent say they have used them. And that number includes not only apps from news organizations but specialized apps that provide online classified advertising, like Craigslist, and such programs as the Girl Scouts' Cookie Locator app, which helps users find the nearest location to buy Girl Scout cookies.

Only 10 percent of adults who use mobile apps to connect to news and information pay for them, which works out to just 1 percent of the overall adult population.

About three-quarters of those surveyed said they would not be willing to pay to get full access to the content of their local paper online.

Worse yet for newspapers is that a plurality of those surveyed - 39 percent - say the loss of their local newspaper would have no impact on their ability to keep up with news and information in their area. (Forty-two percent of those who are mobile news consumers say the loss of the paper would have no impact). Thirty-nine percent said it would have a minor impact.

Only 28 percent said the loss of the local paper would have a major impact and those tend to be adults over 50, non-Internet users and people who have lived in their community for more than 20 years.

The study said that tablets, like the iPad, "have become one of the most quickly adopted consumer goods of the recent era," with their use almost doubling in four months time, from 4 percent to 7 percent.

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The Gridiron Club's 2011 Political/Media Roast and Toast Lyrics

Annie Groer — 2011-03-13T11:43:00+00:00

Filed under: George W. Bush, Senate, House, Democrats, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Dick Cheney, Nancy Pelosi, Ron Paul, Humor, Media, Bill Clinton, Governors, Congress, Conservatives, Harry Reid, Republic of Dish, Barack Obama, John Boehner, TSA Screening, 2012 Elections, Egypt Crisis

Once again, you won't see this costumed spoof on C-SPAN or YouTube, unless someone among the record 633 invited guests at Saturday night's 126th annual Gridiron Dinner surreptitiously captures the singing, dancing and wise-cracking and posts it online.

Of course there's always a chance an adroit cellphone or camera-toting guest will violate club rules, either at the dinner or at Sunday's matinee reprise show, thus busting an image-less tradition in place since 1885.

Say what you will about the irony or hypocrisy of a group of journalists barring media cameras from broadcasting the onstage antics (C-SPAN has been asking to do just that for a quarter century). Only the speeches by President Obama, Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana (cracking jokes for the Republicans) and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius (doing stand-up for the Dems) will be on the written record, although many more details will likely leak out.

In a nod to the times, tweeting, Facebooking and other instant communication about all aspects of the dinner were embargoed until it ended.

So in the interest of semi-transparency, herewith the lyrics from every parody performed
this weekend by nearly 100 journalists and a handful of vocally-blessed ringers with truly great voices.

Don't Stop Believin' (Journey/Glee)

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADERS singing about Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Obama

DEM CHEERLEADER 1

He came from Ha-wai-i, with hope, change and audacity.
Now two years later and he is on the run.

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADER 2

In a designer blouse, not long ago she ruled the House. She lost her power, and it's just no damn fun.

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADER 1

He calls her on the telephone.

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADER 2

Says Nancy, are you all alone?

BOTH

For a moment, they both shut their eyes, and dream on and on and on and on.
What if midterms, had turned out very differently?

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADER 1

What if red states had turned blue?

CHEERLEADER 1

What if we could, cap and trade and then we'd save the whales.

CHEERLEADER 2

Health care for all,

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADER 2

Dental too!

BOTH

Don't stop, believin'.

REPUBLICAN CHEERLEADERS 1& 2

Who are you deceivin'?

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADER 1

We're cooked.

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADER 2

We're through.

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADERS 1 & 2

Whoa oh oh!
Don't stop believin'.

REPUBLICAN CHEERLEADERS 1& 2

Dudes, you must be dreamin'.

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADER 1

Farewell.

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADER 2

Aloha.

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADERS 1 & 2

Whoa oh -oh!

CHORUS

Don't stop!

LIVIN' ON A PRAYER (Bon Jovi/Glee)

REPUBLICAN CHEERLEADER 1

Boehner used to work in a bar.
Palin hunts for moose, they're not very far.
Like Russia, they're in her yard.

REPUBLICAN CHEERLEADER 2

Bachmann would repeal this whole room.
Newt is back for more, O'Donnell might fly in soon, On her broom.

REPUBLICAN CHEERLEADER 1 & 2

Now, that we're run by the Tea Party
Let's fire all the unions, make them work for free.
With God and money we rule the House for now,
Just don't ask us how.

REPUBLICAN CHEERLEADER 1

Are we screwed next year?

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADERS 1 & 2

Hell yeah! You haven't got a prayer.

REPUBLICAN CHEERLEADER 2

Senate seemed to be so near.

DEMOCRATIC CHEERLEADERS 1 & 2

No way, you haven't got a prayer.

CHORUS

Haven't got a prayer!

TIME WARP (Rocky Horror Show/Glee)

SPEAKER

And now the part, where we sing 'bout ourselves.
I apologize, boss, if this causes any stress.
But fair is fair, and no one is exempt here,
So now it's time, to poke fun at the press.

PRESS CHEERLEADER 1

I remember, when newspapers were dying
Network ratings in the dumps, it surely looked like the end.
The furloughs were appalling, but then Bloomberg started calling.
We're back in business again.

CHORUS

We're back in business again.

PRESS CHEERLEADER 2

There's Arianna on the left.

PRESS CHEERLEADER 1

Glenn Beck's on the right.

PRESS CHEERLEADER 2

Juan Williams works for Fox now.

PRESS CHEERLEADER 1 NPR?

Not so bright.

PRESS CHEERLEADER 2

Is that Jul-i-an Assange there?

PRESS CHEERLEADER 1

No, he's not that insane.

BOTH

But thanks, Jules, your leaks were our gain.

CHORUS

We're back in business again.

REPORTER

I took a flogging, before I started blogging,
Each morning I write tweets, then switch to video.
I like to write at Starbucks, it's like the newsroom 'cept it don't suck,
Maybe I'll go to work at Patch, and cover 'burbs in Kokomo.
Politico sent out a news alert, in just one hour it's the thirty-third.
The cycle never stops, 24-7 in the know.
Enrollment's up in J-school. We're the cool kids but not that cool.

DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICANS CHEERLEADERS AND REPORTER

So welcome to Gridiron, my friends.

CHORUS

Welcome to Gridiron, again.
Wel-come to Grid-iron, a-gain.

KNOCK AROUND BARACK (Rock Around the Clock, Bill Haley)

Cast portraying Republican Reps. Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ryan, Darrell Issa

CANTOR

House went up 63, thanks a lot Barack
Six more seats in the Senate, thanks a lot Barack
Boehner's now the Speaker, and the Dem's are still in shock
We're gonna knock Barack around the clock
Pick your spending cuts, and come with us
We'll put it all in an Omnibus

RYAN, McCARTHY, ISSA

We're gonna block Barack around the clock
We're gonna block block block it's our bedrock
We're gonna rock gonna rock our great big voting bloc

CANTOR

When health care dies, and earmarks flee
We'll owe a debt to the tea par-ty

TRIO

We're gonna move Obama to the right
We're gonna mock mock mock his election fright
We're gonna talk, gonna talk, and then we might indict

CANTOR

Republicans will have our way
We'll protect your wealth when you pass away
We're gonna knock Barack around the clock
It's just a recipe for more gridlock
We're gonna block, gonna block Barack around the clock.

CHORUS

We're gonna block Barack around the clock
It's a recipe for more gridlock
We're gonna knock, gonna knock Barack around the clock.

A BOEHNER MEDLEY (From: Johnny Angel, Shelley Fabares, and It's My Party, Lesley Gore)

Cast portraying John Boehner

LEAD SINGER

Johnny Boehner (GIRL GROUP: Johnny Boehner), he's our Speaker (he's our speaker)
He's got charm and grace and such élan
We Republicans are thrilled
That he's our No. 1 man

Johnny Boehner (GIRLS: Johnny Boehner), how we love him (how we love him)
He's the one who some of us adore
How we hold our breath when votes
Are counted on the House floor

He gets headaches
All his ducks in a row
Shot down by his own folks
No wonder that he smokes
In his loafers, and his bright-colored ties
At least he wears a shirt
While others online flirt

Johnny Boehner (GIRLS: Johnny Boehner), we still love him (we still love him)
He's so orange, suave and doctrinaire
If his convictions have to die
At least he'll do it with flair

ALL SHOUT: LOOK! HERE HE IS NOW!

BOEHNER (It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To)

Nobody knows just how hard it can be
Keeping a caucus in line;
Right wingers go their own way.
They pay their speaker no mind.

I'm try'n to show them some leadership here
Some gravitas and some gu-uts;
How did I end up in bed
With all these Tea Party nuts?

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to,
Cry if I want to, Cry if I want to;
You would cry too if it happened to you.

LADIES OF MAINE (Lady of Spain, Eddie Fisher)

Cast portraying: Republican Sens. Jim DeMint; Sen. Rand Paul; Sen. Olympia Snowe

DUET

Ladies of Maine, we abhor you
Loyalty means nothing to you
How could you work with those yahoos?
Just when we needed you most?

Stimulus money, how could you?
Gays and abortion, why would you?
Tea party's now aiming for you
Ladies of Maine, you'll be toast.

CHORUS:

Ladies of Maine, you'll be toast

REPUBLICAN MEMOIRS (Paperback Writer, The Beatles)
Cast portraying George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney

BUSH

Hey Dick and Rummy, did you read my book?
It took me DAYS to write, you should take a look
it's based on my mem'ry of decider days
how I got Saddam,
Even when I learned that he had no weapons

CHORUS

He had no weapons

RUMSFELD

Iraq's my story and I do confess
How because of YOU it became a mess
Paul Bremer, Condi Rice and Colin too
Screwed the whole thing up
Never told me that we needed more troops there
Needed more troops there

CHORUS:

Needed more troops there...troops there....troops there...

CHENEY

Mine will come out soon and then I'll settle scores
Like Iraqi prisoners you'll be on all fours
Al Qaeda's working to destroy this place,
Still a real grave threat
But Obama knows that we did the right things

CHORUS:

We did the right things

BUSH, RUMSFELD, CHENEY

If you really like them you can have our rights,
We can make a movie for you overnight.

BUSH: Brad Pitt, RUMSFELD: George Clooney, CHENEY: and Matt Damon too.

They can play our parts
Just as long as they can make us look macho
Make us look macho

CHORUS:

Make them look macho...macho...macho

FINGER IN THE WIND (Candle in the Wind, Elton John)

Cast portraying GOP Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham

MCCAIN:

Gays in the military
Used to never bother me at all
I was happy once letting
The Joint Chiefs make that call
And on immigration,
You know my old stance was withdrawn
And my message, it became:
"Hey Juan, get off my lawn." [shout this line]

And it may seem to you I lived last year
With my finger in the wind
Never knowing what to cling to
'Cause I had to win
And when it comes to all your judgments
Frankly, I don't give a damn.
I still have my Senate seat
And my best friend, Lindsey Graham

CHORUS
He still has his Senate seat
And his best friend, Lindsey Graham

LEADER OF THE PAC (Leader of the Pack, the Shangri-Las)
Cast portraying Mitch Daniels and Girl Group

SPOKEN:

MITCHETTE 1

Is she really gonna give to HIM ?

MITCHETTE 2

Well, there she is. Let's ask her.

MITCHETTE 1

Betty - Is that Mitch's PAC you're supporting?

BETTY:

Mm-hmm

MITCHETTE 2

Gee - it must be great giving to Mitch.
Is he doing anything for you?

BETTY

Uhn - uhn

MITCHETTE 1

By the way, where'd you meet him?

SUNG:

Betty:

I met him at the O-M-B
He read tax code and rules to me
You get the picture?

MITCHETTES

Yes, we see

BETTY:

So now I give to the AIMING HIGHER PAC.
(Motorcycle Noise)
Some folks say he's a true heavyweight (Mitchettes: weight, weight)
Though he may come from a really dull state

MITCHETTES

(Watcha mean when ya say that he comes from a really dull state?)

BETTY

They said he had no height
But I fell for his might
That's why I give to the AIMING HIGHER PAC
(Motorcycle Noise)
One day I might want somebody new (Mitchettes: new, new)
But till then Mitch will just have to do

MITCHETTES

(Watcha mean when ya say that ya might want somebody new?)

BETTY

My Hoosier's plans are grand
But sometimes he seems bland

CHORUS

But still she gives to the AIMING HIGHER PAC

THE IMPOSSIBLE TWEET (The Impossible Dream, from Man of La Mancha)

SARAH PALIN character

To tweet the un-thought-about tweet
To own my own name through trademark
To scorn those who opine against me
To shoot caribou on a lark

To give those at C-Pac the shaft
To star in reality shows
To bear the unbearable liberals
To blog about things I don't know

This is my quest
To side-step the press
To run if I want to
Not under duress

To fight for the right
And to lay waste the left
To be willing to refudiate
Without knowledge or heft

And I know if I only stay true
To my Tea Party base
That my books and my speeches will sell
If I just show my face

CHORUS

And her world will be richer for this
Who needs work or an office to seek

PALIN

I'll rise as a modern-day Shakespeare
To tweet the un-thought-about tweet

I'VE SEEN EVERYONE (I've Been Everywhere, Hank Snow)
Cast portraying Karl Rove and various GOP presidential candidates names in the song

ROVE

Well, back in the day, you know
They called me the ARCHitect
I had a certain knack for knowin'
Who the people WOULD elect

But this time I dunno unless
There's someone I've missed
And, listen, man, I've looked at
Every hopeful on the list!

I've seen every one, man
I've seen every one, man
Sure as the mornin' sun, man
They all wanna run, man
Egos by the ton, man
I've seen every one.

I've seen...
Romney, Huckabee, Christie, Giuliani
Johnson, Huntsman, Daniels and Pawlenty
Roemer, Cain, DeMint, Santorum
Trump, Bush, Bachmann, Barbour and Bolton
Perry and Pence and Palin and Paul
Gingrich, too, I've seen 'em all.

Tim is excitin' -- NO, not very
But HE's got Red Hot Smokin' Mary
Cain's an expert with a pizza
Mitch, he's shorter than Scalia
Haley hopes he can win it all,
And history'll get an overhaul.

I've seen every one, man
I've seen every one, man
Sure as the mornin' sun, man
They all wanna run, man
Egos by the ton, man
I've seen every one.

I've seen ...
Huckabee at his weekly weigh-in
Sarah Palin out surveyin'
Eye of Newt and chin of Romney
Guy in drag, that's Giuliani
Mitt, he's drivin' fast and far
With man's best friend strapped to his car.

John McCain, I guess he's history
What he's thinkin', it's a mystery
Where the heck is Harold Stassen
Guess he's pushin' up the grass..an'
Someone mentioned Alan Keyes

CHORUS (Shouted)

Not again!! Oh, spare us please!

CHORUS

We've seen every one, man
We've seen every one, man
Sure as the mornin' sun, man
They all wanna run, man
Egos by the ton, man

ROVE

I've seen every one.

EVERYTHING's COMING UP ROSES (Gypsy)

Cast portraying Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid

PELOSI

Things are swell!

REID

Things are fine!

PELOSI

Harry's still got his JOB, I got mine

REID

Now we're back.

PELOSI

Frick and Frack.
REID

Nancy, everything's coming up roses!
PELOSI

Lost the House
REID

That's okay

PELOSI

Running things was a drag anyway

REID

Budget cuts? Not for us

PELOSI

Honey, we would be holding our noses!

REID

Who needs winning! Power's lost its lus-TER

PELOSI

My head was spinning!
REID

It's our turn to filibus-TER!
PELOSI

We give up! To the right!
REID

Let them get 60 votes every night!
PELOSI

Our stimulus ... will stimulate!
REID

Any year now! Just you wait!
PELOSI

There's really nothing left for us to do!

REID

Nancy, everything's coming up roses for me and you!
PELOSI

Boehner's in charge; let's see how much that he can do!
BOTH

The mess that we left him will mess up his Tea Party!
CHORUS

Everything's coming up roses for you and for me!

JUST LIKE A LIBERAL (Bob Dylan's Just Like a Woman)

Cast portraying Howard Dean

HOWARD DEAN

Nobody feels any change
Since that election night Chicago - it's all the same!
Everyone supposed, we knew `The One' we chose
But lately we seen the emperor has no clothes
Now we're wondering: Who's that man?

(refrain)
He looks just like a lib-ral
Yes he does and he writes books just like a lib-ral
Yes and his knee jerks just like a lib-ral
But he works with ... the Re-pub-li-CANS

John Boehner's his new friend
Can you believe they cut the rich man's tax again?
What were those campaign pledges worth?
Quell the oceans, heal the earth
Don't ask don't tell the country of your birth
End the war, close Guantanamo - "No we can't!"

(refrain)
He's so cool just like a lib-ral
Yes he is Harvard Law School just like a lib-ral
Suffers us fools, just like a lib-ral
SOLOIST and CHORUS: But he rules with Republi-CANS

MY FAVORITE FRIENDS (My Favorite Things from "The Sound of Music")

Cast portraying Sec. of State Hillary Clinton and global leaders named in the skit:

(Spoken) Oh, no! We said WHAT about WHO?

How dare that Wiki-Leaks publish our super-secret cables? Can you imagine
a world where diplomats say what they really think about foreign leaders?

Well it would certainly make it more fun to listen to Hillary Clinton. Here
comes our frequent-flying secretary of state now.

HILLARY CLINTON, singing:

A thin-skinned French MIDGET who goes by Sar-KO-zy
A dirty old man that they CALL Berlus-CO-ni
A nut job named KARzai who we must defend
These are a few of my favorite friends

Kim JONG-il's a drunken delusional FAT man
MedVEDev and Putin are Robin and BATman
In a Mafia state run by Russian made-men
CHORUS: These are a few of my favorite friends

Germany's MERK-el is timid and NER-vous
QuaDAffi's had sexy UKRAINian nurses
Prince ANdrew's bad language can SOMEtimes offend
CHORUS: These are a few of her favorite friends

After long flights
When this job bites
When I'm feeling bleak
I simply imagine my favorite friends
When they see their WI-ki leak

IT WAS NEWS TO ME (You Belong to Me)

Cast portraying CIA Director Leon Panetta:

PANETTA

See the pyramids along the Nile.
Authoritarians were just our style.
Revolutions brewing all the while
How was I to see?

Tunis, Cairo, those kids ran amok
Hid their plans where we would never look
A very secret place they call Facebook
It was news to me.

Could it be that after all those years
Of giving tyrants cash and guns and gear
Egypt, Bahrain all that oil so dear
Won't belong to us?

CHORUS

Won't belong to us!

_________________________________________________

TSA MEDLEY (Heigh-Ho from "Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs" and Give up the Funk)

TSA SCREENER

Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! To frisk you we must go! We'll reach way down and grope around!
Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho.

Heigh-ho Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! We'll goose you 'til you glow!
We're going to look, in every nook! Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho!

If you say NO, say NO! To X-Ray you must go! And we'll divulge your every bulge!
Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho!

Heigh-ho Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! This may feel kind of low!
If it's a pain, then take the train! Heigh Ho! Heigh-Ho

HARRIED AIR TRAVELER

You got a late flight to catch, you're in line, losing time
There's a whole lot of waitin' goin' on (Heigh-ho!)
You feel a hand on your waist, moving 'round, slidin' down
There's a whole lot of feelin' goin' on (Heigh-ho!)

Don't touch my junk! (Heigh-ho!)
CHORUS: Don't touch my junk! (Heigh-ho!)
I know my rights! (Heigh-ho!)
Stay outta my tights! (Heigh-ho!)
When did the courts (Heigh-ho!)
Let you into my shorts? (Heigh-ho!)
Yo, screener punk! (Heigh-ho!)
CHORUS: Don't touch my junk!
_____________________________________________________________

SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW (from the Wizard of Oz)

Cast portraying Health Sec. Kathleen Sebelius and characters from The Wizard of Oz

SECRETARY SEBELIUS

Somewhere over the rainbow
Mandates lay.
We made sure they won't start 'til
After Election Day.

Somewhere over the rainbow
Cost curves bend,
And the savings we promised
Will cause the debt to end.

But if you have a slacker son
Who's sitting home upon his bum,
He's covered.

And if conditions pre-exist,
You won't lack coverage due to risk.
Don't you just love this?!

Somewhere over the rainbow
Folks will see
A better system if it's fine
with Justice Kennedy.
Some day they'll thank us, yes they will,
But only after
They...get...very ... ill.

TRIANGULATE (Twist and Shout)
Cast portraying Bill Clinton

Well, take it from Bubba now (CHORUS: take it from Bubba)
Tri-ANG-u-LATE! (CHORUS: tri-ang-u-late)
Fake it, fake it, Obama now (CHORUS: fake it Obama)
For me it worked great. (CHORUS: It worked great)

You're going to look so tight (CHORUS: look so tight)
You're going to look so slick (CHORUS: look so slick)
Play the left against the right now (CHORUS: left against right)
Just like I did in 96 (CHORUS: ninety-six)

[8-bar dance break]

CHORUS

Aaah, aaah, aaah, aaah, (squeal)

Well, it's really not that hard now (CHORUS: not that hard)
Tri-ANG-u-LATE! (CHORUS: triangulate!)
Your opponents aren't that smart now (CHORUS: not that smart)
You know they'll take the bait (CHORUS: Take the bait, oooh!)

You're a silver-tongued devil, (CHORUS: silver-tongued devil)
There's no one so deft (CHORUS: none so deft)
You can own the whole center now (CHORUS: own the whole center)
If you freak out the Left (CHORUS: freak out the left!)

CHORUS

Aaah, aaah, aaah, aaah

"MAKE IT STOP" ("Start Me Up" Rolling Stones)

RED CHEERLEADER 1

Yeah we started up
So long ago you thought we'd never stop
Since we started up
You wondered when the show would ever stop

We've been on so long
Bill Daley's nappin' on a table top
Seventh course is done
Alan Greenspan's beggin'make it stop, make it stop, make it, make it, make it stop

We've made you ladies sigh
We've made you grown men cry
We singe but never fry
Sometimes we're cute, sometimes we're mean
Sometimes out meaning is impossible to glean

CHORUS

Time to stop
Time to stop

"THE GRIDIRON PLAYERS'' ("Livin' on a Prayer" Bon Jovi)

BLUE CHEERLEADER 1

They got some nerve to stand up on stage

They're barely employed, they don't act their age
They lust for . . . your gaffes

They been from Dogpatch to Camelot
Coverin' politicians some were clean some not
For tellin' truth to power they're OK but -- for laughs
Is this all they got?

Whoa-oh the Gridiron players
Whoa-no they don't have a prayer
They got a band, pretty costumes to wear
But whoa-no they don't have a prayer

CHORUS

Whoa-oh the Gridiron players
Whoa-no they don't have a prayer
They got a band, pretty costumes to wear
But whoa-no they don't have a prayer

"THE GRIDIRON-RON'' ("Da Doo Ron Ron," Crystals)

RED CHEERLEADERS; BLUE CHEERLEADERS; OLD NEWSBOY;
GOOD-GIRL & BAD-GIRL GROUPS
RED CHEER 1

Tonight we showed the world the way to get along

RED DUET

At Gridiron-ron at Gridiron

RED CHEER 2

Just drink a glass of wine and sing a silly song

CHORUS

At Gridiron-ron at Gridiron
RED DUET

Strange bedfellows
Dancing dosi-dos
'Til the curtains close
CHORUS

At Gridiron-ron at Gridiron

BLUE CHEER 1

Sebelius tried sell us medicine

BLUE DUET

At Gridiron-ron at Gridiron
BLUE CHEER 2

Mitch Daniels rocked us like a crazy man
CHORUS

At Gridiron-ron, at Gridiron
BLUE DUET

Monday we will fight
But we're friends tonight
By the rosy light
Of Gridiron-ron of Gridiron

OLD NEWS

We started up the show in 1885
CHORUS

The Gridiron-ron, the Gridiron

OLD NEWS

Some of us remember 'cause we're still alive

QUINTET

At Gridiron, son, at Gridiron

QUINTET

O say can you see
Sweet Civility
Baby 'tis of thee
We sing at Gridir'n at Gridi-ron

CHORUS REPEATS VERSE

O say can you see . . .

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In Today's Manic Journalism World, What Would Lou Grant Do?

Suzi Parker — 2011-03-12T22:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Media, Woman Up

In this manic age of journalism, what would Lou Grant do?

As some may have read in these pages and elsewhere, after two years Politics Daily has lost its lease with AOL and will be vacating this space soon. Some of the newspeople who work here will bring you news from other "verticals" at AOL, and some of them will report from new Web addresses. I'll still be reporting, as I always have, from various other outlets and chasing a new story sooner rather than later.

It's in my blood. As a kid, I was obsessed with "Lou Grant," the CBS drama that ran from 1977 to 1982. While other kids loved Barbie dolls and GI Joe, I loved newspapers. (Yes, I was a geek.)

Crotchety Lou Grant, played by Ed Asner, left a job as a television news producer (after being fired) and an ex-wife in Minnesota to return to the newspaper business at the fictional "Los Angeles Tribune" as its city editor. Newspapers were in troubled waters, and it was up to Grant, who got his journalism start in newspapers, to figure out how to increase circulation. Weekly, he had to battle a changing journalism world, the advertising department, and a bossy publisher while making sure his reporters told compelling stories.

Even the opening credits for the show that first season fascinated me. A bird chirps, a tree falls, that tree becomes newsprint, and that newsprint becomes liner in the bird cage. To me it symbolized there was another story to write the next day and the one after that. Watch here:

So, if Grant was an editor these days, how would he deal with the rapid changes buffeting the industry?

First, he'd learn the lingo (while cussing under his breath) as to not look stupid. "Content" has become the new term for "copy." "Clicks" replace "circulation." "Content management system" is the new printing operation. "Unique visitors" is the equivalent of how many people buy or subscribe to a newspaper.

He would chortle and realize today's news biz, even the digital aspect, is in many ways the same as it ever was. The clash between the advertising department, striving to control editorial content for dollars, and the editorial side still exists. The publications that thrive on tragedies, disasters, and juicy scandals are still out there, too, except they loom on your browser instead of at the grocery market check-out. Lazy reporters who plagiarize other reporters' stories? Yep, they still exist, too.

One critical element remains most constant -- readers' craving for good stories.

In every episode of "Lou Grant," Grant knew a compelling story was always worth seeking out, investigating and then clearly explaining to readers. Grant also realized that taking chances for a front-page -- or these days, it would be called "viral" -- story was worth the expense and the agony of dealing with higher-ups.

He was a harsh editor who put his reporters through long hours, challenging edits and tight deadlines. Journalists, cub reporters and veterans alike, all need that direction once in a while.

In the series premiere, Grant acknowledges he doesn't know anything about the new-fangled machines -- desktop computers -- that have come into the newsroom since he left ten years earlier. But that doesn't stop him from plunging in with gusto.

In the 1970s, television was newspapers' biggest competitor. The competition was stiff. The medium could broadcast live from a breaking news story and reach thousands immediately. Radio, with the same immediacy, was a stiff competitor as were fully engaged wire services with countless reporters who moved fast to cover breaking stories with the basic who, what, when, where, why and how.

Lou Grant and his staff hardly acted like dinosaurs slugging around waiting for their extinction.

Instead, they reported the stories of their day, finding new angles on police corruption, spousal abuse and Nazi sympathizers long before it was vogue in mainstream television. Sure, "Lou Grant" was a TV show, but it won 13 Emmys, and I learned a lot about journalism from it.

My hero on the show was Billie Newman, an intrepid girl reporter with a heart. She started her career in the lifestyles pages where women were relegated back in the 1970s. But when she was sent on assignment to interview a famous author and he ended up dead, Newman took the story and ran with it. She scooped Joe Rossi, the star reporter in the all-boy newsroom, and won Grant's heart.

Grant, Newman and Rossi would be unstoppable in the current Wild West frontier of journalism. Social media, search engine optimization, or whatever the next big technological advancement in journalism might be -- it would not intimidate Grant's newsroom. While Grant might not understand some of it fully, he would see it as a useful tool to reach more readers.

He would tell his reporters not to miss a tweet or a Facebook post by a possible corrupt politician or news figure. He would press them to excel at multimedia (360-degree photographs, audio and video) and realize that media now work across a cross-platform system that allows readers to read their stories almost anywhere (in the newspaper, on an iPad, through an app). But most of all, he would tell them not to just report, but dig deeper, investigate a story. With deadlines looming, he would stress to them to balance the brave new world while adhering to the tried-and-true rules of old-school journalism -- ethics, original reporting (in the field), and fairness.

And he would see -- even now -- journalism as an honorable profession.

Without a doubt, over a stiff drink at his local watering hole with his staff, Lou Grant would seize the 21^st-century challenge. (Today, colleagues in virtual newsrooms like ours kick back in closed Facebook groups.) Hell no, Lou would say, this technology won't beat us. We're reporters. We tell stories. Now get to it.

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Race, Crime and Justice: It Was Never Just About Henry Louis Gates

Mary C. Curtis — 2011-03-12T22:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Media, Crime, Race Issues, Woman Up, al Qaeda, Law

The summer of 2009. It was that long ago when the arrest of an African American scholar at his home by a white police officer in Cambridge, Mass., had the country choosing sides and a president convening a beer summit at the White House to cool things down.

What most remember as a political spat that ensnared Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates, Sgt. James Crowley and President Barack Obama didn't start or end that summer. When Harvard Law professor Charles Ogletree -- Gates' lawyer and friend -- visited Charlotte, N.C., recently, it wasn't just to sign copies of "The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Race, Class and Crime in America," his book published last summer.

It was also to seek remedies for an issue so raw that it was barely touched on by the time a photo-op -- with the president, Vice President Joe Biden, Gates, Crowley and smiles all around -- took the story out of the headlines.

Confessions of a 'Content Cop': Reader Comments, Civility and Censorship

Nathan Grady — 2011-03-11T20:12:00+00:00

Filed under: Media

I'm one of those people some Politics Daily readers seem to hate. I'm a "content cop," one of about 10 comment moderators responsible for maintaining practical civility on this site. I am part of what we jokingly call the Politics Daily police department -- "the PD PD."

PD articles -- including this one -- give readers a chance to post a comment. That's part of our attempt to "cultivate a civilized and thoughtful forum" among different viewpoints -- what columnist Jeffrey Weiss dubbed a "civilogue."

But not all reader comments make it past the guards. Many readers get angry about that, claim that our filtering system is a biased form of censorship and call the moderators Nazis, Marxists and other names that shouldn't be repeated in polite company.

Here in sanitized form is one such attack (that of course was never posted):

"I've attempted two very cogent posts and you ******** have not allowed them through your shallow, narrow, liberal, minds. You must be ******* politically correct liberals so **** you all."

After reading hundreds of distasteful comments about me and my colleagues from people who clearly felt disenfranchised by not seeing their words on this site, I thought I should respond.

First, some background: I work the early morning monitoring shift, which means I'm on the job by 7 Eastern time. When I begin my dawn patrol, the first task is to read the backlog of comments from the previous seven hours. Yes, there is an overnight gap in which no content cops patrol the site, and therefore no comments are posted. Many commenters are unhappy about this fact. Here's one:

"mr. comment moderator what is it with you. it is now 1:18 the last comment you allowed to post was at 11:47 is everyone there asleep?"

Yes, quite frankly, they were.

Sorry for the inconvenience, but there's only a few of us and the clock never stops. Between midnight and 7 a.m. Eastern, no new comments can be approved for posting, and all conversations or spirited debates then happening in "real time" must come to a close. Rest assured, though, that all comments submitted during that period are still read and processed the next morning.

I read approximately 100 comments every 8-12 minutes. That's about seven seconds per comment, which translates to a turnaround between submission and posting of somewhere between "live" and five minutes. That's on an average news day. On heavy news days, we can get 100 comments every 90 seconds or so. Clearing them and getting as close to "live" as possible is frantic work -- and honest mistakes, such as inadvertently blocking an acceptable post, occasionally happen. To all those "victimized" by said mistakes, I'm sorry.

When you send a comment, moderators see it in a window that includes the IP address and name of the commenter, as well as when it was submitted, but I judge each submission only by four criteria, indicated by buttons in the corner of the window: Approve, Spam, Profane, Irrelevant.

That's it. There is no button for liberal or conservative, no fast track for comments in support of or opposing any partisan stance, and no panel of editors intent upon advocating our articles. We judge each comment on its civility and its relevance, nothing more. Comment moderators aren't merely automated word finders programmed to remove all comments containing offensive language.

What we're looking to screen out are comments that are profane, non-contributory, or otherwise counter-productive to the civilogue we seek. We block posts that essentially slander or personally savage another individual -- be that person a public figure, one of our writers, or even other readers who have posted comments. In fact, profane terms often aren't used in such comments.

Here's one: "Hey [name deleted], Your obvious, pathetic, slobbering love-affair with that snake-oil salesman, [name deleted] makes me wanna puke!!! When you're finished gushing over him, you might wanna get a mop and clean up your puddle of drool underneath your desk."

The unfortunate part is, after all that uncivil bashing, the writer then made a cogent point about the article and the topic. If only he'd used that thoughtful approach throughout his piece instead of stepping into the gutter of needless slander. (Unfortunately, there is no editing tool that would allow moderators to remove offensive material.)

Incivility comes in many forms. An insult, threat, or baseless accusation against an individual -- and that includes calling President Obama a "traitor," Nancy Pelosi or Sarah Palin "ugly," or Sen. John McCain "gay" -- will not be posted. Insults or inflammatory labeling of individuals have no place in thoughtfully expressing disagreement. Explain why you believe someone's point is misguided -- rather than personally attack that person -- and you will likely to see your comment posted.

Civil discourse is seldom enhanced -- and comments are usually not posted -- when people use purposely misspelled expletives in a lazy attempt to be clever or a poor attempt to avert automated word-find programs targeting curses. Occasionally, "strong" language can emphasize a point, but when discussing the serious issues of the day on PD, find an acceptable alternative in your surely extensive vocabulary.

Relevance is also key to getting a comment approved. Posting rants about some personal crusade that's not germane to the story does not advance the discussion. This is not to discount your personal experience, but it must be framed by the context of the article.

So, in summary, here are some tips that should be obvious:

-- Make your points without belittling anyone's faith or religion.

-- Don't mock someone's physical appearance.

-- Similarly, it is not acceptable to criticize someone for something they could not possibly have chosen, including race or gender.

-- Also unacceptable is saying that the writer "deserves" some tragedy or punishment. To suggest that anyone deserves harm inflicted upon them is malicious and not what Politics Daily is about.

-- There is often also a correlation between phrases suddenly WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS and comments that can't be approved. Such "shouting" brings nothing to the table.

-- And spam -- often promoting a business -- death threats, racist, sexist or similar "hate" comments are not permissible.

And I, for one, can't wait to read your comments about this article.

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My Sign-Off From Politics Daily

Melinda Henneberger — 2011-03-11T15:16:00+00:00

Filed under: Media

True to form, I was too busy to go to the meeting and missed my own firing yesterday; don't you hate it when that happens? (All my life, my mom has been saying I'd be late to my own funeral, so could we please not tell her she was right?) There were a few other mix-ups, too, with the result that some AOL employees were invited to the Meeting of Death by accident, while others who were supposed to have been on the layoff list were walking around like Bruce Willis in "The Sixth Sense." Also in error, I mistakenly received some last-minute communications re: the best time to tell an AOL News editor who had cancer surgery yesterday that he needn't hurry back.

My termination became even more anti-climactic after my plane almost crashed at Reagan last night; we got caught in a wind shear and just as we were about to slam into the tarmac, the pilot pulled up violently and we went from horizontal to vertical in a second; I haven't been that scared since, in a mad rush to get home to my family one Friday night in 2000, I jumped into a four-seater with a pilot shouting, "Come on, I think we can beat it" as a storm moved toward Cape Cod. The storm won that one, though when they finally reopened Logan an hour later, the pilot did commend me for having remained so silent as we were being thrown around; even in extremis, one rarely screams the Hail Mary.

Anyway - message received, God! - all of this is by way of explaining why I am mostly feeling so grateful today. Though I have not yet heard exactly when Politics Daily will go dark - by Monday, HuffPosters will be running it on an interim basis - this really was the best ride ever, with a team I was unbelievably fortunate to have been able to pull together. I learned more in the last two years than at any time since the Dallas Morning News made me their baby night cops reporter. (No, silly, I was not covering baby cops.) And I owe a sincere debt of gratitude to AOL, because like the parents you might not always agree with, without them we would never have been here at all.

My compadre Carl Cannon always referred to Politics Daily as "Melinda's third child," and far more than my flesh-and-blood offspring, PD was for good and for ill an awful lot like me - committed perhaps beyond reason to that whole "without fear or favor" thing, and so stubbornly old-school that it didn't even cuss in print.

After former AOLer Marty Moe hired me to build a politics site -- my first day was Obama's Inauguration Day -- he threw me the keys and set me and the small band of writers and editors I hired free to commit journalism. Though it seems so long ago now, the months right after our April '09 launch were as sleep-deprived as my early time as a mom; just as I once watched my infant daughter who'd come home on a heart monitor almost all night long, producer Michael Kraskin and I often worked from 5 a.m. to 1 a.m., thrilled every day at the miracle of it all.

My online iteration was quirky for sure; unlike any other political site I'm aware of, our staff of eight included a full-time religion writer, the remarkable David Gibson. And because there's no substitute for (reportorial) boots on the ground, our military writer David Wood went to Afghanistan for us twice. When I hired the force known as Alex Wagner, I was widely assured that I must have lost my mind, handing the White House beat to someone with a background in...human rights? Of course, I mention these unorthodox decisions because they all paid off so well - and to me at least, prove that some of the best decisions do run counter to conventional wisdom.

We were never just for political junkies, but aimed at everyone who cares about the civic life of our country - and were committed to growing the number of people who do care. We defined politics so broadly in the belief that politics properly understood encompasses just about everything. The civil discourse that PD contributor Jeff Weiss dubbed the "Civilogue" offered a rare zone of civility to those put off by the vitriol and name-calling that passes for our national conversation. Of course red meat works, online and off, but we found that there was another, under-served audience of people yearning to kick important ideas around respectfully, with others they may not agree with yet do not view as the enemy. We effectively offered counter-programming, and - this is what I most hope doesn't get lost in the larger story of AOL and the Huffington Post -- our numbers showed it works.

With only eight full-timers and another dozen key contributors, we built a readership of between 8 and 9 million readers (unique visitors) a month, including about 2.5 million external monthly referrals from outside the AOL network. (In other words, our non-AOL traffic was almost on par with the total readership of the much better funded, fully-staffed, and in-the-black Politico.)

As the NYT's David Carr wrote some months ago, "News is the killer app.'' And readers, it turns out, want the same thing they've always wanted - to learn something they didn't know. Without exception, everyone on our team has also told me that this is the best job he or she has ever had, and many have done the best work of their careers.

So yes, I'm incredibly proud of what we achieved, both in terms of our product and our process, and though it was clear long before the merger with the Huffington Post that the PD Way was not the AOL Way, I have nothing to complain about because no editor ever had a freer hand; in two years, no one from corporate ever told me to do or not do anything at all - well, other than making sure I followed through on budget cuts and completed the required course work at "AOL University."

All I've learned in the last two years has actually made me more rather than less optimistic about the future of journalism; though PD didn't survive, quality does work on the Web. I'm even hopeful that I may get to try and put together a new start-up with the old url - a request that I'm told AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is seriously considering, for no reason other than that he'd rather see us live on, too. And whatever he decides, I wish all of my former AOL colleagues only smooth landings.

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NPR's Schiller & Schiller: Many Political Missteps on the Road to Resigning

Jill Lawrence — 2011-03-09T20:05:00+00:00

Filed under: Media, Budget, Analysis

In retrospect it seems inevitable. Take a hostile political environment, a red-hot spotlight and relatively inexperienced leadership, mix well, and you get tumult at NPR.

Political naivete and tin ears are the threads running through the saga of Vivian Schiller, forced out as NPR's CEO on Wednesday, and Ron Schiller, no relation, who quit as NPR's top fundraiser on Tuesday. Vivian Schiller is widely credited for dramatic improvements in NPR's web presence and mobile applications, and she is a strong defender of NPR's journalism. But there's no ignoring the multiple embarrassments that are undercutting NPR's mission and efforts to keep Republicans in Congress from ending its federal funding.

Stung: NPR Execs Caught in Candid Chat With Would-be Muslim Donors

Politics Daily Staff — 2011-03-08T12:50:00+00:00

Filed under: Scandal, Gaffes, Media, Video, Conservatives, Ethics, Tea Party

A video made surreptitiously by a conservative sting artist shows phony, would-be Muslim donors meeting with two NPR fundraisers who are caught on the tape making candid, awkward comments about the Republican Party -- and also talking bluntly about the ouster of commentator Juan Williams.

The sting operation, produced by conservative activist James O'Keefe, shows NPR fundraisers Ron Schiller (who has since announced his departure from NPR) and Betsy Liley at lunch with two men masquerading as wealthy Muslim donors. That the NPR people appear to tell the supposed contributors what they want to hear is not an unusual approach for fundraisers.

But against the backdrop of a possible cut off of NPR funding proposed by the GOP-controlled U.S. House, Schiller can be heard saying that "very little of our funding comes from the government." That is correct. "In the long run," he said, "we would be better off without federal funding." That's at least debatable. Then, talking about the GOP, Schiller added: "The current Republican Party, particularly the tea party, is fanatically involved in people's personal lives and very fundamental Christian -- and I wouldn't even call it Christian." In answer to a leading question about the tea party movement, he adds, "Basically, they believe in white, middle America, gun toting -- it's pretty scary. They're seriously racist."

Schiller, who said Tuesday night his resignation as NPR Foundation's senior vice president for development would take effect immediately, went on to say that he was proud that NPR let Juan Williams go last year after Williams said on Fox News he would be concerned if he boarded a plane with fellow passengers in Muslim garb. "He lost all credibility and that breaks your ethics as a journalist." Schiller says.

NPR, in a statement, said: "The fraudulent organization represented in the video repeatedly pressed us to accept a $5 million check, with no strings attached, which we repeatedly refused to accept. We are appalled by the comments made by Ron Schiller in the video, which are contrary to what NPR stands for. Mr. Schiller announced last week he is leaving NPR for another job."

O'Keefe's Project Veritas gained notoriety in 2009 in another covertly made video that showed individuals posing as a pimp and prostitute seeming to get advice on gaming the tax system from a representative of ACORN, a liberal community activist organization. O'Keefe went too far last year when he and three others were charged with attempting to tamper with the phone lines in Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, received three years' probation, a $1,500 fine and 100 hours of community service.

Watch the new video, courtesy YouTube.

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Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich Suspended by Fox News, Citing Possible White House Runs

Christopher Weber — 2011-03-02T19:06:00+00:00

Filed under: Republicans, Media, 2012 President, Conservatives, 2012 Elections

Fox News announced it would suspend the contracts of contributors Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich because both are likely to run for president next year.

Political anchor Bret Baier said on air Wednesday that the suspension would last for 60 days.

"Then on May 1 their contracts will be terminated unless they notify Fox that they are not running for president," Baier said.

He added that the suspensions were a result of "Fox policy."

Former Senator Chris Dodd to Head Motion Picture Association

Politics Daily Staff — 2011-03-01T15:55:00+00:00

Filed under: Media, Culture

Former Connecticut senator and one-time presidential contender Chris Dodd has been named chairman and chief executive officer of the Motion Picture Association of America.

Dodd, a Democrat who served five terms in the U.S. Senate from 1981 to 2011 and
headed the powerful Senate Banking Committee, said he was "truly excited about representing the interests of one of the most creative and productive industries in America, not only in Washington but around the world."

"In several important ways, taking this step represents a continuation of my work in the Senate, from advancing the interests of children and families and creating and safeguarding American jobs to the protection of intellectual property and the expansion of international trade," said Dodd.

Barry Meyer, chairman of Warner Bros., said Dodd has the "right political instincts and experience" to lead the film industry against content piracy.

The MPAA has offices in Washington and Los Angeles and advocates for the U.S. motion
picture industry and home video and television industries. Dodd replaces Dan Glickman and acting chairman Bob Pisano.

In 2007, Dodd announced he would seek the Democratic presidential nomination, but he dropped out of the primary race after placing seventh in the Iowa caucuses.

Dodd attended Providence College, served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic, and then received his law degree from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law in 1972. He served in the Connecticut National Guard and the U.S. Army Reserves and practiced law in Connecticut before being elected to Congress in 1974.

He also served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the reelection campaign of Bill Clinton in 1995-1996.

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'Ignore Sarah Palin Week': Website Encourages Looking Away

Tom Diemer — 2011-03-01T12:46:00+00:00

Filed under: Republicans, Humor, Media, Sarah Palin, 2012 President

A liberal group, apparently frustrated with all the attention its nemesis keeps getting, is promoting "Ignore Sarah Palin Week," urging like-minded souls to change the channel or surf to another Web page whenever the ubiquitous former governor of Alaska pops up.

Left Action said it has collected more than 32,500 pledges from partisans willing to take part in the effort, which began Sunday.

"You betcha we're ignoring her," the website announced, mimicking Palin's folksy dialect. "We've tried debating her, arguing with her, boycotting her, voting against her, and yet . . . she keeps coming back. Much like a vampire or a nasty fungus."

Despite the unflattering references, Left Action told those taking the "pledge," that "We wish only the best for Sarah Palin and her family. We just don't want her to be president, and we just want to take a week off from paying attention to her. . . . Have fun in the comments but keep it nice, and no threats -- even in jest, okay?"

Washington Post Columnist Dana Milbank took a similar tack last month, vowing that he would not write about the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate for the entire month of February.

Palin commands extraordinary media attention, seemingly without even trying hard as she confines most of her newsy comments to Facebook and Twitter postings or appearances on Fox News. Yet she is covered by the mainstream media with the kind of intensity normally reserved for a politician in high elective office. She has toyed with the unceasing speculation as to whether she will run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

Left Action describes itself as a "network" of more than 1 million activists "fighting for progressive causes."

Folo Tom Diemer on Twitter http://twitter.com/tomdiemer

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Natalie Portman's Motherhood Shout-Out Gets Raves From This Feminist

Joanne Bamberger — 2011-02-28T21:25:00+00:00

Filed under: Media, Woman Up

Natalie Portman has been getting flack for her Academy Awards acceptance speech for her role in "Black Swan."

Not because of anything she said about the uber-psych-thriller role that won her the award or because of any Oscar night faux pas like forgetting to acknowledge her fellow Best Actress nominees. She's coming under fire for a speech that acknowledged her nascent motherhood as "the most important role" of her life, referring to her ever-growing pregnancy, which I must say was beautifully draped in a luscious plum-colored Rodarte gown that I wouldn't mind owning.

Some women are shaking their heads over the reference to her soon-to-be-born baby by saying, "Really?" Of all the things you've done in your life -- receiving the Best Actress award at the Oscars, earning a degree from Harvard, and building an impressive filmography -- you're really going to say that getting knocked up and pushing out a baby is the highlight of your life?

Salon writer Mary Elizabeth Williams asks:

"When you're pregnant, especially for the first time, there are a lot of amazed and awed moments in between the heartburn and insomnia. But is motherhood really a greater role than being secretary of state or a justice on the Supreme Court? Is reproduction automatically the greatest thing Natalie Portman will do with her life?"

The thought that somehow Portman has betrayed the "sisterhood" by embracing her soon-to-be mom status is a discussion we shouldn't even be having in the 21st century. Critics such as Williams are missing the point of Portman's comments.

Portman's sentiments about motherhood aren't about the physical acts involved. Politics Daily's Lizzie Skurnick tweeted during the awards show, "Like my garbageman could give you the greatest role in life, too, lady." But taking on the role of mother isn't about a night of hot sex or a really cute belly bump or forsaking your life for the little person you've produced who gets to call you Mommy. It's about being honest with yourself and getting to a place where it's OK to be the collection of all your life experiences, including becoming a mother, and being empowered by them all. I can say that as a longtime career woman and card-carrying feminist who didn't think motherhood would ever be in the cards.

As ambitious as I am and with all the things I've accomplished, on some level being a mother is the greatest role of my life -- not superior to others, just the greatest in terms of challenges and rewards. Because in the end, careers come and go, jobs end without notice, those whose support you thought you could count on turn on you, and sometimes even family lets you down. But there is something about being a parent that no one can ever take away from you that makes the experience the "greatest." I am proud and happy about the many accomplishments I've achieved in my life, but nothing can ever replace or replicate the quiet moments or the crazy times I've had with my daughter -- even when I wonder if I'll survive the really trying times of her tween and teen years.

There was a time when I never thought I would write words like these. I've got degrees and accomplishments and many other things in my life that I am more than happy about. But in the end, many chapters we look to for self-definition are transitory. My experiences as a mother -- the good, the bad and the in-between -- will be with me forever.

The larger issue when it comes to those who want to smack down Portman for her reference to the impending birth of her first child is the serious lack of appreciation in our society for what being a mother means and assuming that once you give birth or adopt a child, you somehow lose the brains and the drive that helped you achieve those earlier accomplishments in the first place.

If you step off the career ladder for a moment to be a mom, you're blasted by the feminists you thought were your allies, as well as younger generations who castigate you for not being true to your original feminist values. And once you accept the moniker of "mom" into your life, those who took you and your profession seriously are suddenly willing to toss you onto a mommy track that suggests that your parental role means you're no longer dedicated to other goals.

I am one of the most ardent feminists around. Just ask some of the women who know me, including those on the political right. They'll more than vouch for my credentials on that front. I admit that there was a time when I would have been echoing those who are slapping their foreheads and rolling their eyes about Portman's mommy comment. But becoming a mother leads to change in many things, including the way we think about our priorities, our accomplishments, and how we view the world. I say it's time for others to recognize that the experience of motherhood adds, not subtracts, from the full picture of being an accomplished woman.

We're still the same people we were before we had kids, even for those who don't choose to see that. But that's OK -- because we know our motherhood experiences enhance, rather than diminish, us, even if skeptics don't.

You can follow Joanne Bamberger on Twitter and Facebook.

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Will 'Dancing With the Stars' Land Christine O'Donnell?

Sandra Fish — 2011-02-27T22:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Media, Woman Up

Whether it's Christine O'Donnell, Todd Palin, Eliot Spitzer or Tipper Gore, "Dancing With the Stars" needs a politician when the season 12 lineup is announced Monday night.

Why do they need a politician? Well, look at the popularity boost the show got last fall when a politician's daughter -- Bristol Palin -- made it to the finals of the show.

Many quibbled with the selection -- what made Bristol a star? Her claim to fame was as an unmarried, teenage parent whose mother, Sarah Palin, is the former governor of Alaska and the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee. She wasn't the greatest dancer, though she improved markedly over the season, and her shyness contrasted with the ebullience of other contestants.

But her political connections brought plenty of intrigue: Would Sarah Palin show up in the studio audience? (A couple of times.) Were those boos for her when she did? (No.) Were mom's supporters gaming the system? (Probably not.) Would she really win? (She came in third.) Her presence and the controversy surrounding it led to the show's highest ratings ever.

"Dancing With the Stars" could use a political celebrity presence in this and future seasons, too.

O'Donnell, the failed tea party candidate for a Delaware U.S. Senate seat and a Palin-family fave, appears to be the safest bet for Season 12.

She noted on her Facebook page last week that she'd received an official invitation, asking fans to for their advice. Some 400 comments later, she posted, "The facebook comments about Dancing w The Stars list great pros and cons. Thank you for your input. Still undecided. Book comes first."

That may be, but we're betting on O'Donnell. She'd be a great feature on the show with her sunny persona. She probably could use the cash that comes from appearing on the show, given the controversy during her campaign over whether she used contributions for her living expenses. But would she dance to The Eagles "Witchy Woman?" (Hey, she's the one who came up with the campaign ad that began with her proclaiming, "I'm not a witch.")

If O'Donnell doesn't accept her invite, Todd Palin is a remote possibility. One of the DWTS judges indicated last fall that perhaps the show needed a "Palin vacation." Todd just came off a tough second-place finish in Alaska's Iron Dog snowmobile race. And if his wife is planning to run for the GOP 2012 presidential nomination, an announcement likely would be necessary in the middle of the reality show's season.

Perhaps the show can find another last-minute political replacement if O'Donnell says no.

Our money says she's in. And that will be a good thing.

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'Parker Spitzer' TV Talk Show Breaks Up: She Goes, He Stays

Luisita Lopez Torregrosa — 2011-02-25T18:50:00+00:00

Filed under: Media, Woman Up

NEW YORK - Kathleen Parker, a prominent political commentator, is leaving CNN's "Parker Spitzer," the much-ballyhooed prime-time talk show she co-hosted with Eliot Spitzer, the formerly disgraced governor of New York.

Parker, 58, a Pulitzer Prize-winning opinion writer, said in a statement Friday night, "I have decided to return to a schedule that will allow me to focus more on my syndicated newspaper column and other writings." Parker writes a politically moderate op-ed column for The Washington Post that is syndicated nationally.

Nir Rosen's Offensive Tweets Shouldn't Have Surprised Us

Matt Lewis — 2011-02-17T08:59:00+00:00

Filed under: Media, Foreign Policy, Military, Matt Lewis and the News, Islam

As I recently noted, Nir Rosen, a left-wing war journalist, resigned his NYU fellowship amid uproar over offensive Tweets he sent immediately following news of the brutal sexual assault suffered by CBS reporter Lara Logan in Egypt.

As the news about Logan was breaking, Rosen Tweeted several utterly disturbing remarks, including:

"Lara Logan had to outdo Anderson [Cooper]. Where was her buddy [General Stanley] McCrystal."

"Yes yes its wrong what happened to her. Of course. I don't support that. But, it would have been funny if it happened to Anderson too."

"Look, she was probably groped like thousands of other women, which is still wrong, but if it was worse than I'm sorry."

"ah f--- it, I apologize for being insensitive, it's always wrong, that's obvious, but I'm rolling my eyes at all the attention she will get."

This was shocking rhetoric, but after examining Rosen's past writings (and Tweets), none of us should be terribly surprised that he would have so viciously attacked Logan. And yet, those past comments about other topics (including Israel) and other people (Wolf Blitzer, James Rubin, Tom Friedman, et al.) have drawn surprisingly little controversy.

As The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg recently noted,

Many of [Rosen's] tweets are given over to expressions of hatred of Israel, and wishes for its destruction. He openly advocates for violence against Israel: "Yes to a 3rd Intifada. This time hopefully with the support of the Palestinians citizens of 'Israel,' " and he states that "Israel's existence is a blight unto the nations." He also appears to believe that Iran should be a nuclear power: "I wish all these Sunni Arab dictators on Wikileaks would explain what the hell is so bad about Iran having nuclear weapons." On October 10th of last year, he tweeted, "new racist Israeli citizenship law should be celebrated. It exposes what Zionism really is, will further ostracize Israel, speed its demise."

The creepiest tweet of Rosen's is this one, I think, from December 3rd, 2010: "On Hannuka, Just think, if only the Greeks had been better at counterinsurgency we wouldn't have these problems today. Where was Petraeus?" The meaning of this is fairly obvious: Hannukah marks the defeat of a Syrian-Greek empire by a Jewish insurgency. If the Greeks had won, the Jews would have been slaughtered. He also wrote that same day, "genocide is modern concept (except when jews are doing it on god's orders in the old testament) greeks were just hellenizing."

Bing West, an author and former assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs under President Reagan, has taken special umbrage to Rosen's past actions, coming close to accusing him of being a traitor.

West, for example, took issue with the

October issue of Rolling Stone magazine, wherein Nir Rosen, an American reporter, described his visit with Taliban forces in Afghanistan. Rosen left no doubt about his active cooperation with the Taliban fighters. "They have promised to take me to see the Taliban in action: going out on patrols, conducting attacks," he wrote, ". . . once we are on the road we should take the batteries out of our phones, to prevent anyone from tracking us."

As disgusting and outrageous as Rosen's Tweets about Lara Logan were -- and I condemn them -- it's worth asking ourselves this question: Why did those comments bring down Rosen so swiftly when his hatred of Israel and possible collaboration with Taliban fighters provoked a collective yawn?

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How Could Nir Rosen Not Have Known his Lara Logan Tweets Crossed the Line?

Jeffrey Weiss — 2011-02-16T23:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Media, Culture, Ethics, Egypt Crisis

I'd never heard of Nir Rosen until Tuesday, when he became the author of the most reviled Tweets on the planet.

Shortly after CBS sent out a news release explaining that correspondent Lara Logan "suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating" from a crowd of Egyptians following the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Rosen started posting Tweets. (I'm cleaning up the language of his quotes here, by the way, but making no other changes.)

"Lara Logan had to outdo Anderson. Where was her buddy McCrystal."

"Yes yes its wrong what happened to her. Of course. I don't support that. But, it would have been funny if it happened to Anderson too."

"Look, she was probably groped like thousands of other women, which is still wrong, but if it was worse than I'm sorry."

His posts were quickly retweeted, triggering a tsunami of revulsion. Rosen took another post or two to realize what he'd stepped in:

"ah f--- it, I apologize for being insensitive, it's always wrong, that's obvious, but I'm rolling my eyes at all the attention she will get."

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