Media Royalism and Censorship at the Huffington Post

It isn't just NBC going totally overboard over the sudden death of Dick Cheney's favorite dupe Tim Russert. The Huffington Post has been riddled with tributes to the fan of Turbo Bush and it is now censoring comments excoriating Mr. Potato Head for his role in helping the White House propagandize the public into the disastrous war in Iraq.

I have personally had at least half a dozen posts reacting to HP contributors' effusive praise of Timmeh refused even though those comments weren't profane, off topic or ad hominem attacks on other posters. Indeed, somebody there apparently has it in for me since I have had other comments censored, too. None of those violated any of the HP's posting guidelines.

There was a particularly inane column about Russert scribbled by Jamie Frevele about how 'Sundays wouldn't be the same without [him]." So I retorted that Frevele had pulled a Pee Wee Herman and declared Russert "The King of Sunday!" I facetiously added that since his death cast such a pall over that day that no broadcasting be permitted to take place as a tribute to this media god.

In that connection, in talking back at a writer of another Russert brown nose article, I asked him, "so what are you guys going to say when Mike Wallace dies? Wallace actually made you feel good about the media because he was its junkyard dog that nobody wanted to cross, grilling his quarry to the wall until they admitted something they were attempting to conceal."

"On the other hand, Russert was a teddy bear, a soft, inoffensive, lightweight toy nobody minded having around. If you are going to treat Russert as some mythic figure, then how do you eulogize Wallace? As God? Russert didn't even deserve to breathe on Wallace's microphone."

Yeah, I can see how you would think of this complaint as whining, but the fact is that the moderators let through other more inane posts such as, and I quote, "do yo know how horny scotch makes you?" That one appeared TWICE.

In one instance, I questioned a writer's piece on his recent trip to Disneyland, pondering whether this was some kind of product placement. Disney is notorious for its unnecessarily relentless and sometimes underhanded promotion of its properties and there just wasn't any journalistic reason for the guy to pen this article nor for HP to run it other than maybe HP was being paid off to do so by Bush cocksucker Robert Iger's outfit. They printed three comments that were all just "we love Disney" type blather.

So the Huffington Post is both serving corporate masters and its own elitist circle of media acquaintances and friends and not necessarily its readership. In doing so, it is taking the condescending tack that characterizes the mainstream media's attitude toward regular folks. That is just wrong.

Who Will Replace Russert on Press the Meat?

Joe Scarborough, currently a morning host for MSNBC and who could be using his tv time much as Ronald Reagan did, to help the nation become comfortable with him in preparation for either a Seanatorial (VERY likely) or presidential (look for GOP elders to buttonhole him about 2012) run, has been mentioned as a possible successor to Tim Russert on Meet The Press.

That would be a kind of Fox News move for MSNBC, which is attempting to differentiate itself from the Rupe-a-dupe" propaganda outlet, and would draw howls of protests from Democratic viewers. It is one thing to have been a Democratic operative, as Russert was for Mario Cuomo, but it is another to have been a conservative Congressman with a record that moderates and liberals may find distasteful heading up the leading Sunday political interview show.

The chief question here for me is whether or not out of professional courtesy Tom Brokaw will be offered the seat. Brokaw, who I remember from his days as a local anchor for NBC in L.A., is a pompous ass and will turn viewers off. Again, it is one thing to be a newsreader and quite another to be quizzing political leaders week after week for however long the show lasts.

Another candidate for the job, Keith Olberman, should stay right where he is. If he doesn't, MSNBC is out of business in a year.

Brian Williams is too vapid to be taken seriously and also too respectful of those he will be interrogating. Well, it won't be an interrogation so much as a slow pitch softball game.

Andrea Mitchell-Greenspan was way too friendly with the Bush Administration and her marriage to Alan Greenspan, Bush's former federal reserve chairman, only further hurt her objectivity. Plus let's face facts, many people just don't want to see women being hardasses. Ask Hillary Clinton.

Katie Couric is an airhead. Her stint at the anchor chair of CBS was also such as a disaster and still present in the audience's mind that she has no chance. Really, if they want a woman, they need to hire Rachel Maddow. But Rachel is a lesbian and sharp as a tack, someone that political figures, especially on the conservative side of the aisle, may find nettlesome to want to confront. Rachel is clearly the most qualified to do this job in terms of no nonsense temperment and high intellect, but lack of access will kill her chances here. She has been rumored to perhaps getting her own MSNBC program during weeknights. Please let that happen.

So I believe, and this is hardly original thinking, that if Brokaw turns the job down, White House correspondent David Gregory will be tapped to succeed Russert. Gregory earned the favor of the yellow elephants at GE by fondling Bill Clinton's cock during the Monica Lewinsky episode and his johnny come far too lately to be of any actual import tussles with Scott MacClellan have set him up to move over to Sunday.

Gregory is a bit of an empty suit, but he is brash and in today's news environment of all heat and no brains, he could end up being a long running staple.