Invisi-Bill

I was interested to hear Richardson based on some of the online hype he had been getting. Color me unimpressed. He was cranky and unfocused in the dabate. Nothing he said was of any interest to me.

And "the most conservative Democrat" isn't going to do him a whole hell of a lot of good in the primary.

I don't think he's going anywhere near the first tier.

Are you guys really not going to comment on the Bill Moyers' show:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html

It seems that the show lobbied some serious charges against Time Magazine, such as that your hiring criteria for pundits seems to be that they were spectacularly wrong about the Iraq war. Another charge seems to be that Time Magazine employee Bill Kristol is too scared to defend his position and declined to be interviewed for the show?

Anway, the Swampland Blog's silence on this matter seems to show your own lack of spine on addressing some serious charges.

Great review of the Brian Williams fiasco...

"There was hardly an inane smear, knock, superficial or unfair attack made against any of these candidates that Williams did not go OUT of his way to highlight or demand that they defend themselves against. We had the price of haircuts, misquotes about positions on Palestine, ties to Walmart, not to mention an entire segment on Giuliani's despicable "die under Democrats" rhetoric from yesterday, instantly elevated to the status of accepted mainstream gospel and framed as such. If most of the questions had been prefaced with the words "Karl Rove says" their slant could not have been more obvious. Even the questions selected from viewer emails seemed to be selected with that criteria in mind.

When Williams was not doing that he left no stone unturned trying to dredge up a virtual laundry list of every possible divisive wedge issue he could work in, positions on abortion, guns, illegal immigration, and even the confederate flag. The few other actual issues touched on were exploited as an opportunity to hurl other accusations, for example on the health care issue one of stealth tax raising intentions. The energy issue he tried to turn into an Al Gore, how dare you own a light bulb witch hunt, and so on.

And in his grandstand play of the night Williams painted a grim scenario of two American cities wiped out by Al Qaeda and demanded to know how each of these candidates would retaliate. The question itself was custom designed to drive fear into the heart of what deserved to be a thoughtful debate on the issues, and to substitute blind ignorant rage for sound policy. It had to be TWO cities of course because we've ALREADY lost one and a half cities under George Bush. The question begged the answer of what kind of revenge would you take, as if revenge were a policy goal. How fitting from the mouthpiece of a company in the nuclear weapons business.

What we need to do is take the debates out of the hands of right wing spin kings and get some moderators who aren't so bent on warping the whole affair. It's hard to imagine as long as self-interested corporations are the sponsors. But at least tonight our candidates were able to hold their own.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_thepen_070426_moderator_hurls_most.htm

Thanks, Karen, that's an interesting profile.

Democrats are fortunate this time around-- there are, as you point out, loads of qualified candidates. By contrast, you can make a pretty solid case that none of the top 3 Republicans are electable in the GOP primaries. (Giuliani has zero chance of emerging as the GOP candidate. Zero).

It seems to me that Richardson needs a lot of implosions ahead of him to sneak in there. The top three candidates have recognition, TV appeal, money, and organization. In another year, he could be the front-runner.

Oh, and can't wait to hear your take on the Moyers documentary.

Specifically, do you think the media did a good job during the run-up to war? Why or why not? Do you agree with Elizabeth Bumiller of The New York Times, who said "I think we were very deferential, because in the East Room press conference, it's live. It's very intense. It's frightening to stand up there."? Also, do you have any thoughts on Time's refusal to hire people who were right about the Iraq War as commentators?

Catch Wolf: He is discussing the Lt. Col.'s piece about the failure of the 'General Staff' with Max Clellan.

Don't know if I influenced the discussion, but I did share the link with Wolf to the Armed Forces Journal op ed.
Anyway the discussion has legs.

Keep Kickin'

LKL needs to do several acts of contrition, over and over again for the 'sound byte' he played of Edwards' response to who he looked to for moral guidance. I thought he hit that one out of the park and Larry King cut it to 'my wife'. And to the snipe that said 'he just couldn't say Jesus', I would like to inform them that as a Christian, I pray to the LORD. I end the prayer with 'in Jesus' name, Amen' These droids. CNN needs to play his entire response and apologize to Elizabeth for the obvious embarrassment of the 'byte' saying that Elizabeth was the ONE. From a Gayle Sayers 'Brian Song' moment to another 'Love means...'

Hey, Karen ask Richardson about his 'major league contract' and the leaker problem he had as Energy Sec.?

"By contrast, you can make a pretty solid case that none of the top 3 Republicans are electable in the GOP primaries. (Giuliani has zero chance of emerging as the GOP candidate. Zero)."

Actually, I would love Rudy to be the GOP candidate -- he has so much baggage, he couldn't possibly be elected. I'm concerned their nominee will be another actor. Although there is a Wow! picture of Mrs. Thompson with Paul Wolfowitz --
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/013776.php Could make for an interesting campaign.

Well Karen, you push any story you can get on either Hillary, Edwards or Obama no matter how ridiculous(ie: haircuts, buttons on websites, unbuttoned collars, size of their houses) and then turn around and decry that Richardson can't get noticed because he lack's the celebrity of the 3 front runners. Does that make sense to you? It doesn't to me. You're the one pushing those gossip stories here on this blog, you could easily write up Richardson, maybe something on his ties, or a mis-told joke about the truth...you know, journamalism.

BTW Karen, what say you about the Moyers documentary?

Meant to write 'or a mis-told joke about the troops'. I guess I just miss stuff like truth, or questions actually being answered. Is it just me, or is this attitude that a question is not something to be answered but rather a jumping off point for the person being questioned to launch into a soliloquy on any subject matter irregardless of its pertinence to the question, trickling down into all aspects of everyday life? Socrates is weeping. Pelt members of the MSM w/rocks and garbage whenever encountering them. Please.

This blog seems lately to be all about the Presidential race for an election that's not happening for a year and a half.

Commenters have rightly been asking about the Moyers documentary and the Broder Op-Ed.

And what about the emails the DoJ is not sending to Congress without even a pretense of a legal argument? All they are saying is they have (unspecified) "substantial concerns". For details see:

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003111.php

I find it astonishing that Bill Richardson thinks he could EVER survive a presidential race with all the skeletons in his closet.

A shame, but a fact.

A couple of quick questions:

1. Did Brian Williams lose some money in a hedge fund? The guy had a hard-on for asking if hedge funds "do anything good for America." WTF was that about?

2. When will TIME deign to speak on Mitt's 'Osama Bin Laden isn't worth capturing' comment? Anyone?

This was posted over at Atrios in regards to the possible inside man at the DoJ holding up investigations. Looks like it could be pretty big if substantiated.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/17145860.htm?source=rss&channel=krwashington_nation

And I do like Richardson on paper, quite a good resume given all of the mending we'll need pertaining to foreign affairs once the Cowboy has left the stable. But from what I've read over the debate, he has dropped in my book.

I too am still waiting for a post about Rudy's fear-mongering and Cut-and-Romney's disregard for capturing the person actually resposnsible for 9/11.

I would vote for Richardson in a heartbeat. I agree he's the pick of the litter.

Karen

I'd like to add my voice to those calling for some kind of response to the Bill Moyers' piece. Or, better yet, TO YOUR READERS AND COMMENTERS.

What exactly is the point of this site? Not a single one of the esteemed transcribers participates openly in substantive discussion of actual issues that people care about. Even when those people are commenters to their own blog posts. I think it was Ana who begged our patience, as Swampland is a "side" project. Thank god, I guess ... if they gave it any more attention they would drive away the only people worth reading (the commenters), and it would be as inane and useless as the magazine.

Cfaller: The hedge fund was a direct attack on Edwards as he had a short term job with a hedge fund following his loss in 04, which the MSMers of BW's persuasion want to use to 'slap' John. It is kinda like the haircut thing. Much a do about nothing.

Paul, have you seen David Sirota's piece? He thinks that beltway journalists are in total freakout mode right now, because they've just been publicly humiliated.

I believe it. Look, these people are, deep down inside, WEAK. And when weak people are confronted, they run away and hide and snuggle up to something comfortable (a blankey, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, etc). And that's what we've seen on this blog. Karen, Joe, Jay, even Ana- all of them are suddenly hugging their blankey, i.e. the next election. For a DC pundit, there's always comfort and an easy column in a horsey race.

Disgusting.

linda, but Brian Williams then followed up with Hillary, asking her (almost verbatim) "do hedge funds do any good for America?" Maybe I imagined it, but it looked like Hillary was as surprised by the question as I was. I mean, what the hell does Senator Clinton have to do with hedge funds? Why continue the discussion? And why such a tremendously loaded question? It was weird.

Paul-- I don't think it's fair to say that the posters here are unresponsive. Karen and Ana in particular have been good about responding, as has Joe.

Jay went way out of his way to act petulently in response to valid, empirical criticism a little while back, but when he's poked his head up since then he's been all right.

That said, the Moyers documentary is something that they really ought to address. It just aired a day or two ago, though.

cfaller-- I don't think Sirota's got it right. He points out two nonresponsive, ill-founded efforts at refutation of the Moyers piece.

That's not a freakout; that's... oh, let's call it "pulling a Carney"-- waving away inconvenient facts in a transparently unconvincing manner.

Now, Carney eventually admitted that there was something to the USAs story, once it became politically acceptable to say so. It got there through the efforts of reporters like Josh Marshall. Maybe, just maybe, the Moyers piece will spawn a similar sustained effort that dents the agreed-upon inside-the-beltway narrative.

But really, I think that the Kristols (he's a rebel) and Krauthammers Time magazine and the NYT think the same thing that Carney and the DOJ thought when the USA story broke-- it doesn't matter whether or not it's true, because it doesn't have legs. They've never really faced accountability, so why should they expect it now?

I predict that in this case, they will be right-- Moyers' pointing out of facts in plain view won't have much impact on them. We shall see.

Sirota's column is here:
www.workingassetsblog.com/2007/04/in_the_lead_up_to.html

that was actually a good post, Karen.

A tad short on substance (I mean, other than being the NRA's favorite Democrat in the race it would be helpful to know where he stands on a few issues), but what do policies and positions have to do with elections? Its all about process, right?

And just to be contrary, I don't care if you comment on the Moyers show or not. I mean, you could rip your own heart out and put it on the table as part of your apology for playing your part in the "buying of the war", and we still wouldn't satisfied. ;)

cfaller: Just a guess, but didn't BW have to follow a format to keep it 'ligit' and ask Clinton also?

Hey, I'm into forgiveness. Just SHOW me that you see the tangled web that you (MSM) have woven and the truly dire consequences of 'patriot police' reporting. Now, change for gosh sakes. Let the games begin, quickly, so we can get out of this quagmire of corruption. Toss the 'useless' overboard and quit buying all the 'think tanks' retreads.

Hi Karen,

I'm really curious if you could comment on what you see the "mission" of TIME Magazine could be. Most companies have mission statements - what is Time's purpose(aside, obviously, from selling lots of advertising)?

I searched this website but could not find it. However, in the Time Magazine Media Kit (http://www.time.com/time/mediakit/1/us/timemagazine/index.html ) this quote is featured prominently:

“Because of the blizzard of information out there, there is not only a need but a hunger for one brand to make sense of it all. TIME is the guide through chaos. TIME converts information into knowledge, confusion into clarity.”

Rick Stengel,
TIME Managing Editor

So, I guess the question is - does this quote reflect what you see the Mission of TIME Magazine to be?

If it does, how does the continual employment of the journalists and pundits (like Bill Kristol) who were spectacularly wrong about WMD's and the war convert "information into knowledge, confusion into clarity."

It seems like hiring pundits who have been so wrong in their assessments actually does the opposite. They convert information into confusion.

So, Karen, what do you see as your goal as a reporter for TIME Magazine? Is it just a paycheck?
From what I saw on the Bill Moyers program, Time Magazine seems to be converting information into confusion.

Your continued silence on these matters only adds to that confusion.

I still like the look of Richardson although it is clear from comments hear and elsewhere that party leaders, and those in the know in New Mexico, fear that the Republican oppo machine would find him easy prey.

I'll also pile on and say that the Time should respond to the Moyers documentary, as should many others. Including many on this side of the pond. The story goes the Hobart Mercury in Tasmania was the only Murdoch paper to initially resist the war (out of 160 plus papers worldwide) but it got Noticed and quickly pulled into line. Now, thats what I call message discipline.

And I meant to say. Let's not give Brian Williams that gig again. Too tabloid in his instincts (which I was not expecting)

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/04/rush_limbaugh_p.php

Rush Limbaugh's Lovely "Racially Charged" Songs About Barack Obama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBca97GFs6s&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Etalkingpointsmemo%2Ecom%2Fhorsesmouth%2F2007%2F04%2Frush%5Flimbaugh%5Fp%2Ephp

Correct - we need to hear about the Moyers special. The media is very guilty, but not admitting your mistakes is being as bad as... well... Dick Cheney.

I wonder why Time was so anxious to hire all of these columnists after their terrific propaganda work for the government? Hmmm. Is the English tranlsation of "Pravda" = "Time"?

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/04/26/moyers/index.html

The fraud that was manufactured by our government officials and endorsed by our media establishment is one of the great political crimes of the last many decades. Yet those who are responsible for it have not been held accountable in the slightest. Quite the contrary, their media prominence has only increased, as culpable propagandists and warmongers such as Charles Krauthammer (now of Time and The Washington Post), Bill Kristol (now of Time), Peter Beinert (now of Time and The Washington Post)… have all seen their profiles enhanced greatly in our national media.

Moyers did a superb job of questioning both Tim Russert and Peter Beinart, and both were -- appropriately and enjoyably -- extremely defensive about their behavior. Beinart… participated in one of the most vile smear campaigns against a war opponent, Scott Ritter. The smear campaign was necessary precisely because Ritter was one of the very few individuals in this country who actually knew what he was talking about when it came to the Iraqi weapons program and its "relationship" to Al Qaeda, and continuously warned (to little effect) about all of the warmongers' false claims about those topics.

William Kristol, a conservative columnist who, Moyers says, "led the march to Baghdad behind a battery of Washington microphones . . . has not responded to any of our requests for an interview, but he still shows up on TV as an expert, most often on Fox News."

People like Bill Kristol and Krauthammer will only go and sit with the likes of Brit Hume and speak only to Fox audiences, so they are never reminded of the literally countless falsehoods they churned out not only to justify the invasion but to profoundly mislead Americans for years about the ongoing occupation. And they both continue to issue one-way decrees from the pages of Time and The Washington Post, where they are never held to account for what they have done.

Susan23 cites this masterful blurb from Rick Stengel:

“Because of the blizzard of information out there, there is not only a need but a hunger for one brand to make sense of it all. TIME is the guide through chaos. TIME converts information into knowledge, confusion into clarity.”

Yeah, that's great. Very targeted, specific, concrete, and unique. It really distinguishes Time's mission from that of all those other news sources out there.

I think I'll start a PR firm that tries to help organizations maintain a positive image for their internal and external publics.

Or an ad agency that tries to sell products and enhance brand identity.

If you want to hire me, I can work for a salary slightly lower than Stengel's. You're quite welcome.

Interesting post. You claim: "He is by many measures the most conservative Democrat running," but only provide a single such measure as evidence: "...Richarardson had the highest rating of any candidate from either party from the National Rifle Association."

What other issues does he lean right on? Any? I'm not sure he deserves to be labeled as "conservative."

I just checked the other columnist listed under Joe's number about Edwards. Kristol and Krauthammer are no longer listed.

Somebody want to verify this 'gem'. Don't want to spread false rumors leading to premature celebration.

If they keep them on why don't they just change their title from columnist, to right-wing propagandist.

A lot of Republican scandals breaking right, left and center tonight.

Many of them are fallout from the USA scandal.

A post on those would be peachy!

Nothing on ProstituteGate yet? Where's Ana when you need her? http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/04/senior_official.html

atothek: Richardson is very big on lowering taxes for the wealthy, and he helped Bush win in 2004 by blocking recounts of New Mexico's votes, despite serious election problems.

It's pretty much what you would expect of a Citibank-American:

http://www.blueoregon.com/2006/12/who_do_you_supp.html#c26987194

Elvis -

I may have missed it, but I have yet to see an actual comment (through the ... gasp ... comment system) from any of the "writers". Certainly, I can't deny that there have been posts initiated by comments, but I haven't seen any that deal with *substantive* issues (not Joe Klein defending his name-calling) raised by commenters.

For example: Karen, maybe nobody pays attention to Bill Richardson because there have been so many "Why doesn't anyone take Bill Richardson seriously?" stories. I see no substantive policy content in the current post, just tired "process". And publishing travel schedules? Seriously? Why don't we start talking about the "Gang of 500" and how smart Karl Rove is?

When I read the comments here, I see many articulate, intelligent readers who are being ignored by "journalists" pandering their inside-baseball stories. There is a place for discussing campaign strategy, but that place is not the front page (unless your campaign strategy is, ahem, voter suppression).

What I want is for the Time reporters to tell me what *our employees* are doing about helping us. The end. *Our employees* should be busy doing things to make our lives better and easier, and if Time wanted to, they could have quite an interesting magazine discussing what to do, how to do it, who should do it, when they should do it, where they should do it and why they should do it.

Wait a second ... who, what, where, when, why and how ... Uh-oh, it's revenge of Writing and Editing the News 101!!!

I've got an idea:

Since Time has enough faith in neocon LIAR, propagandist, and warmonger Willam Kristol to hire him as a writer, why not invite him to guest blog here on Swampland and "dialogue" with some of the usual commenters.

(heh, heh, heh)

“Because of the blizzard of information out there, there is not only a need but a hunger for one brand to make sense of it all. TIME is the guide through chaos. TIME converts information into knowledge, confusion into clarity.”

Rick Stengel,
TIME Managing Editor

(titter titter. gulp. heh. snort gulp. chuckle heh. heh. gulp. hoot. giggle. gulp. GUFFAW! clutch abdomen. roll back. GUFFAW! ..... good one)

@amberglow, yeah that is just a classic. Never seems to be a shortage of 'abstinence only' bastards cheating on their wives.

I think that this guy is smart enough to realize early on in the race that he will not become president but he to run a "vice-presidential" campaign and that is exactly what he is doing.

Wow... now that I have watched the Moyers special... This is amazing!

This is exactly how I felt at the time... as if reality as it had been defined was being warped..

What is really cool about the Moyers series is that a smaller news organization like Knight-ridder will now be considered legitimate while a huge organization like Time-Warner will NOT.......

This is something that us in the blogosphere have known for a long time.

You forgot his three No Hitters with the Dodgers.

"...we need to hear about the Moyers special..."

What IS it about Make More Boat People you don't get?

The weather in Rwanda must be lousy too, eh?

wow.... two spam posts hit withing 2 minutes of me posting... i wonder if you are the same lameass persons trying to supress talk about the Moyers piece.....

I wish I got paid to do something I believe in...

DO YOU?

Gnebba perbma globbobibbim oo xnekkexqrek bompthompapzluirmlimimnim. Gbmorgbmibgnikgnok, ullaloola sneeurch v tlreklekle. Lebedelba hudduga fsneerfs.

Well i think Richardson has probably the most experience. I think he will make a good president. exuse my language but he had the balls to confront some of AMERICAS enemies, face to face in order to release some hostages, now can u picture Bush doing that NO! bush is full of himself. he's not focusing on what best for the united states. Obama has no experience i dont even know why hes on this debate, how would you know how to fight if you never learned,

Don't you recall when Richardson was in charge of getting Monica Lewinsky a new job to get her out of DC?

Your Commenters are your Readers. Your Readers are your Customers

Your Customers are asking you to address the charges made in the Moyers piece.

You seem to be ignoring your Customers' requests.

That's not the kind of thinking that earns an MBA at Harvard.

Can we see the diploma?

While Richardson likely has the best résumé of any candidate, Dem or Rep, a presidential election is, in the final analysis, a cult of popularity.

Bill Richardson may not get the popular vote needed to be the next president. If not, whomever achieves that pinacle will do well to consider him for the position of Secretary of State.

"Your Commenters are your Readers. Your Readers are your Customers."

Time is not profitable and I doubt the Time Warner cares. They're making plenty of money off cable and they need a media outlet to promote their political agenda, which in the end is more about protecting cable franchises (and the like) from protection than anything else.

Plus a lot of Time's money comes from advertisers.

If you think that Time magazine cares about what you "the customers" think, then you are very naive indeed.

What's interesting is seeing Joe, Jay, Ana, and Karen pretend that they're something more than cogs in the propaganda delivery device that is Time magazine. I'm sure they'd protest -- Joe will tell us "but I oppose Chinese sweatshops and Time Warner makes money off of those", Karen will say "but I wrote something mean about Gonzales once, and he's been a Time Warner ally!". At least Ana and Jay don't pretend. But maybe that's even worse.

meant to say "more about protecting cable franchises (and the like) from COMPETITION than anything else"

Please, note that Kristol and Krauthammer are no longer listed as Time Columnists.

The real thing is that Condi is on the Sunday talkers. I'm waiting to see if Wolf and George have the B*lls to ask the tough questions. It anybody is the in the inner circle of the the 'patriot police' and has been the center of failure from N'tl Security Advisor to SoS, it is MS Rice.

The true OMG, is that Tenet is going to appear on CNN. The program of smush is Larry King Live. Do ya' suppose he'll bring on Poppa/Momma Bush and their dog or the pop psychologist or Judge Judy to carry forward the non-conversation and help Tenet with his anger and sense of abandonment. Hey, Larry you blew the Edwards post debate thing big time after the support Mitt on Monday.

Tenet on LKL would make one think that Tenet is 'pop culture-entertainment' in the catagory of Michael Jackson and Baldwin. Or Dr. Phil, who when paired with true 'professionals' looks like Jerry Springer cleaned up. Maybe Dr. Phil should review empathetic listening and basics of therapy to get his creds back having gotten losted in the world of made for TV reality 'I'm the Man' showmanship.
I got books.

"Please, note that Kristol and Krauthammer are no longer listed as Time Columnists."

that is VERY weird....

one possibility -- neither had a column in the dead tree edition this week, so they aren't part of the columnist pull-down window. (Their website is really weird. For instance, Justin Fox's Curious Capitalist is listed as a column, but when you click on it, no columns show up.)

p_l: VERY weird is that Kristol is usually a regular with a column appearing every Fri.

Also, very weird is the guests that are listed on the Sunday talkers. Rice is appearing. Does the WH consider her 'safe'? Although I haven't seen any recent polls, she traditionally has the best ratings. Boy, it looks like in this campaign forever season, that Moyer's maybe created an avoidance reaction. Boy, would I like to asking the questions.

I didn't check Faux, too scary.

I still want to see 'honest' reporting about the latest round of AQ arrests. The Saudi thing was not a just happened major round up and the al-Iraqi is just a 'shipped to Gitmo'. This followed by a Pentagon release that they busted a weapons cache with 'Iranian markings'. The UN Human Rights Report came out with more negatives than this week with Petraeus.

Just a reminder: It took the GOP 109th 118 days to get the supplemental to Bush in 06.

This here is a dying blog. Despite the title - "Swampland; a blog about politics in the nation's capitol" - it's been three days since they made a post that wasn't about the election (you know, the one a year and half from now). It's like they don't really care to report or reflect on current events in our current government.

They seem to be particularly scared of addressing their commenters. They seem to lack a spine in regards to charges lobbed by Bill Moyers.

So, yeah, this here is a dying blog. It's commenters raise too many embarrassing questions. It will either be reborn without comments or changed into an all election all the time blog or simply erased.

OT:
Take a look at this post on Digby.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/truths-consequences-by-digby-since.html

There has been much talk in these comments about the failing of the MSM. The story above may give sharp insight into why they act as they do.

"It's commenters raise too many embarrassing questions. It will either be reborn without comments or changed into an all election all the time blog or simply erased."

Nah. Right now i bet they're selling the controversy Klein generates as a way for advertisers to get onboard. They're willing to lose money on this if it generates buzz online. Everytime an Atrios or other person slams Klein on their blog with a link back to here, they're more than happy.

The Washington Post feels the same way about Broder, and the online buzz and slams he gets--it's all eyeballs to tell advertisers about.

"Everytime an Atrios or other person slams Klein on their blog with a link back to here, they're more than happy."

Sure, but they can get that without having comments turned on. They might sell the controversy, but they can't like the fact that on their own site, the discussion being generated is not about what they have written but about what they haven't.

Not writing things doesn't sell anything and it's got to be a little embarrassing for their commenters to continually point out what they are skipping.

Hey Joe, Could you kindly read this and again tell us what you think of Broder.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200704280002

Why is Richardson not getting more traction? To me, it's simple: he just doesn't have the looks to be a successful presidential candidate. (Bush really doesn't either--but note that he didn't get more votes than Gore when he ran.) And it's not just his genetic endowments or lack thereof: he also tends to have a rumpled, sloppy appearance.

I'm not saying these are the ideal criteria to choose presidents; I'm just being realistic.

It should also be noted that Richardson did not look great when he was taken out to the woodshed in those hearings when he was Energy Secretary; and of course being the most conservative Dem in the race isn't going to jazz up primary voters. Plus there was an accusation by his lieutenant governor (his running mate and fellow Dem) that he has a habit of touching her inappropriately (and there is talk that he behaves inappropriately toward other women as well).

-Alan

Kudos to the anonymous post about Time pundits and how they do not bring up serious news issues or dig deep for truth in stories. Everyone should watch the Bill Moyers show on PBS: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html. Sure, one can argue that bringing up problems with the news media doing PR spoon fed reguritations pieces rather that real investigative journalism is not fit to be brought up when talking about Bill Richardson but it is time for Time to face this criticism. Time, where are you? Once you were a leader of digging deep and putting up stories that hit the truth, no matter how painful it may be to a corporate or government sponsor. I look forward to the return of those days since I know you can do it as a premier news organization. Until that time, I will stick with The Guardian and Knight Ridder and Seymour Hirsch at the New York Times.

Tom T,
The point I was trying to make is that if your readers/customers leave, your clients/advertisers will bail too. Demanding answers from unresponsive pundits gets boring, and people give up. After a short surge of traffic from angry readers, the negative slope of the traffic count raises hell with the advertising sales department.

Of course Time doesn't give a hoot about our feelings, but they require our eyeballs or they have nothing to sell.

I'm pretty close to the point where I delete Swampland from my bookmarks. Waiting for answers about Time's hiring and editing policies has grown tiresome, and I'm inclined to give up on them.

C. Turner Joy: great Digby link about the martyrdom of Ashleigh Banfield. Count that as one of the heads on post that Joe and co. must gaze upon when they think of going off the Time reservation.

"but they require our eyeballs or they have nothing to sell."

I still say that they're a tiny fraction of TW's total business, so if a $50 million dollar loss (say) can effect government policies that nets the company an extra $200 million (say) in government policy value, then they'll always the extra profit over the increased readership.

It's a no brainer. The point isn't really that Joe and Karen feel pressure to write stuff about how "left wing extremists" are bad and Liebercrats are good -- it's that they would never have been hired if they weren't the kind of people who wrote that crap to begin with.

Do you think they'd let Paul Krugman or Jim Hightower write for Time (-Warner)? Of course not, even if it increased readership.

It's amazing that not more people see this -- it's obvious.

Pelosi turned over the DEM Sat. radio time to Lt. Gen. Odom. Transcript:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,269063,00.html

Bush's weekly was weak so will not reference. He, like much of the MSM following the Moyer's thing, seems to have gone to places that are considered safe.

"Reliable Sources" hosted by the Oh, so Media Ho---wie is totally avoiding any discussion of Media and Moyers from the summary of topics to be discussed. Seems to be the game plan. No professionalism to see here, move on.

Although, I have to say that some coverage of 'events' have improved. Will be checking out Week at War to see the response there.

Of course, none of this would have anything to do with the fact that Bill Richardson has done a cr_ppy job in all the positions that he has held. Not to mention that his positions with DOE are in direct opposition the the ones he is now espousing as a governor.

Color the electorate right in not noticing that Mr. Bill is invisible for the simple reason that he can't get it right, no matter how hard he tries. Plus, as President, he won't have someone else to lay the blame on when one of his decisions goes awry, as they are known to do.

Color me glad he isn't getting much notice. He certainly isn't worth it.

So you guys aren't going to join in at all?

http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&q=bill+moyers

17,941 hits--almost all of it is on “Buying the War.”

this time richardson has no chance for a more basic reason. he is a he. our nation has a chance to help elect a woman this time just because--wow, men have not shown the requisite maturity to do gov't very well. so, women rate in '08.

so it's clinton/obama, probably, maybe clinton/edwards, MAYBE clinton/richardson.

I do agree, Richardson should be rated higher and should take a place among the top three candidates. We need experience, ideas, and someone who is effective in communicating. I believe that he has all these components. Both Obama and Clinton are worthy opponents but not the best choice. Bush did not have much experience and i think that Obama and Clinton have a similar standing.

Tom T,

Agree, Time is a minuscule piece of TW, and the people they hire are the ones most likely to spout the desired nonsense. Ana was brought on to add hip pizazz, and mock both sides in her who-cares-so-long-as-I'm-amused way.

But, they, and their advertising sales department, do care about numbers. Sure TW likes having a mouthpiece that can keep them in favor with the people in power in our govt, but that equation has changed (2006) and is likely to change more (2008). TW's new regulators will mostly be appointed by someone who ain't from the GOP. That will make Time, and it's sullied reputation, less useful, and it will either support itself on advertising, or be cut loose, to be absorbed and gutted by some other media company. That would mean the streets for Joe, Jay, Karen, Ana, and the resident neocons. Eventually, it always comes down to profit or loss, and loss isn't accepted indefinitely.

This is an outfit that specializes in hiring and promoting prognosticators with skills on par with Slam Dunk Tenet (no, I don't buy his 4th quarter conversion). That can't help but come back to haunt them.

Amazing, most of you people commenting have been deluded into thinking you have all the answers. Was this the result of all those self-esteem workshops in school? You're laughable.

"Was this the result of all those self-esteem workshops in school?"

Are you accusing us of going to Regent University?

Looks like the "special" interest groups will win out yet again. Oh well, see you next year, when the price of gasoline tops $4.00 a gallon on average by state. Good luck to all of you who can't take another hit; cause it's coming if we don't try other options. If we all think we know where this is already headed, then why not try to sculpt it to the advantage of all of us? Why wait for interest groups that do NOT represent the core of America? I say vote for him. Look at it this way: how much worse could it get? Oh, wait; you tell ME....because you know already, right?

And to think; this country was built on the unknown.... good to see that Wall Street is up.....just in time for ratings, I think.

My final thought: Money won't buy everything; which is good, because it won't buy anything if we're not careful.

God bless America

.... sorry, I didn't mean to mix church and state, I was quoting the head of our government...

Methinks this is what the Al Qeada story was meant to distract us from.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/28/ross-white-house-madam/

Obama bin Laden and Hillary haven't got a chance in a general election. They're worthless headline-seekers. Richardson has an excellent chance. He has a long-time record of service to this nation.

"Amazing, most of you people commenting have been deluded into thinking you have all the answers. Was this the result of all those self-esteem workshops in school? You're laughable."

Rick Stengel sock puppet alert!

I finally sat down and watched the entire show Moyers Buying the War. That was one fine piece of television. I give Timmeh and Howie props for consenting to their interviews but, jaysooos, can Howard Kurtz BE a bigger media apologist? He's got a sweet gig. Poor Timmeh! The phone in his Nantucket mansion doesn't make outgoing calls, but he wishes that SOMEBODY who knew about aluminum tubes would have given HIM a call! Apparently he works those sources HARD by sitting by the telephone waiting for their call! And did he know that the administration was coming on his show to talk about the story they planted in the New York Times that morning. Why, no, he had NO IDEA what they were going to talk about! That's how you run a successful Sunday morning political talk show, I guess. By knowing nothing, seeing nothing, planning nothing.

CBC is getting hammered a second time after CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller attempted a feeble defense of that notorious press conference, they were taken aback on Public Eye that people actually CARED about the massive failure of the beltway big-ego press to question the premise for going to war. So Knoller petulantly says, what would YOU ask. He's hearing all about it. He's a little more gracious than, say Jay and Joe, rather than hurling down invective on us "conspiracy-theorist liberal extremists" who have the unmitigated GALL to ask, nay!, demand that the prima donna press do their job, he acknowledges the passionate response and promises to read the responses. And he's got 19 pages so far, with more coming minute by minute. Like the scene in Airplane? When they all line up to "calm" the hysterical woman? Who knows? Maybe he'll "get it" eventually.

>Yeow! Knoller Feels Readers' Wrath
Posted by Brian Montopoli

Update:

(CBS)
I’ve got to admit I was stunned by the nature, depth and fury of the responses to my blog post yesterday (below) about the Bill Moyers Journal report on the news media and the War in Iraq.

Read those comments and you’ll see there’s alot of anger, no, make that rage directed at some of us – maybe all of us – in the news business.

In fairness, some of you had legitimate points of view to express. Fair enough. Others just wanted to tell me I was a jerk or worse. One of you even called me something that got Don Imus fired.<

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2007/04/26/publiceye/entry2730924.shtml

James: They just don't get it. I'm going to go hijack Karen's new thread.

Richardson is the only qualified contender!
Experience--thoughtful--cool headed--did I say experienced?

We live in a fame built world---being a name is more important than quality. Sad for our nation!!

Yes, Richardson's resume is great, but his performance was less than stellar. His hand gestures were awkward/annoying/disconcerting.
He kept glancing down at the obviously numbered points he wished to make. I suspect, like most people, public speaking still causes his stomach to churn, but I would have expected a less amateur performance from a sitting governor with his background.

Also, I was not overly impressed with his explanation about giving Abu Gonzales a pass--even if, as he said, an honest explanation. Thank you, but I find Richardson's willingness to give Gonzales a pass no better than Bush's willingness to appoint him to be AG, based on his loyalty to Bush. Incompetence and malfeasance can't be attributed to ethnicity or class.

Richardson makes a point of being the most "moderate" (which means conservative) Democratic candidate, and he's pro-NAFTA and pro-"free trade." Why would I or any other Democratic primary voter favor him?

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