Fair And Balanced
David Gregory has Mortimer Zuckerman, Newt Gingrich, Erin Burnett, and some historian on discussing the economic crisis. Newt went on a diatribe, blaming the economic woes on the Obama “war on those making over 250,000,” Claire McCaskill, and compared letting the Bush tax cuts expire to Smoot-Hawley.
No one on the panel so much as flinched.
There were no Democrats or anyone there to rebut Mr. Gingrich.
Liberal media.
*** Update ***
Gingrich has, for all intents and purposes, been given this entire show just to peddle talking points. It amazes me how he is able to do it all with a straight face. Not once does he break down, even when giving the “no one had time to read the stimulus bill” nonsense. I couldn’t do it. I would get halfway through, start laughing, and have to admit “I am so full of shit. I have no idea why any of you are even listening to me.”
It is impressive. All these guys care about is regaining political power. I’m afraid I am just done with Meet the Press.
DougJ
MC Rove.
joe from Lowell
The Republicans have been hitting this note for months – literally, since before he took office – but as the recent Wall Street Journal poll demonstrates (84% saying Obama inherited the economic troubles), nobody is buying it.
I have to wonder if continuing to bang this drum is serving only to make the Republicans look more ridiculous.
Sam Simple
Someone should have mentioned The L Curve to that porky, serial cheating tub of shit, Gingrich:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woIkIph5xcU
Comrade Jake
Please tell me the ratings for that show are tanking.
Tymannosourus
Seconded. D. Gregory just seems like a complete asshole.
Comrade Stuck
I simply cannot watch dufus Gregory. I can watch Fox News Sunday because at least they are honest at pounding wingnut talking points, and usually Wallace has at least one actual dem to rebut them. Gregory is just pure hackery all the time.
SometimesUzeful
Wall Street has destroyed trillions of dollars of wealth, and all Gingrinch talks about is what the government has done wrong. Gingrinch in fact looks just like a smug Wall Street banker lecturing the government, while he picks everyone’s pockets.
I did notice Zuckerman making faces, but I also saw a sort of resignation that unfortunately you have to listen to blowhards like this and hope noone takes them seriously..
Tymannosourus
@joe from Lowell:
My faith in the electorate is briefly restored.
Violet
Same here. David Gregory is more concerned with David Gregory’s career than with anything having to do with news or truth. I shuddered when he was put in charge of MTP and my worst fears for how he’d manage the show have been realized. I really hope the ratings have tanked. I know I’ve quit watchting.
4tehlulz
Did Newt say he was going to Go Galt™? That would be some good news.
Joshua Norton
Or Fairly Unbalanced.
MTP’s ratings have gone into the crapper since Hairdo took over. He makes Katie Couric look like Walter Cronkite.
Dennis-SGMM
Blissfully not-watching the Sunday morning shows here on the Left Coast, as I’ve blissfully not-watched them for several weeks now. There’s no use watching them when they’ve become so accustomed to taking Republicans seriously that they’re unable to stop even when that party has been thrown out of office and gone batshit insane as a result.
It’s tempting to categorize Gregory, et al, as lazy, or stupid, I’ll settle for well-trained.
TheOfficialHatOnMyCat
Gingrich is trying to pump up a shrinking and demoralized base that has nothing in its craw but resentment and birther slogans.
It’s going to take a little more than a MTP appearance for him to effect the comeback.
What you watched is basically a death rattle.
Jay
Here’s 2 examples of David Gregory’s Tweets:
and
What a fuckin’ tool.
Comrade Stuck
They are currently locked into 100% critic mode and all over the lot firing at any moving target, and apparently believe they are scoring well.
What their desperate and panicked minds don’t see is an egregious violation of a common and well known rule in politics. If you do nothing but criticize and offer no new alternatives for remedy, the public will brand you as grousing stone throwers and part of the problem, even if you make a good point in finding fault. But I guess if you have no new ideas that’s better than being a wallflower.
kommrade reproductive vigor
If I gave even a microscopic fuck about the future of the GOP I’d agree with John when he said they need to shut the hell up for a few months. I mean, it’s a little damn jarring when they switch from "The economic problems are all in your head so shut up and go shopping," to "Waaaah! The economic problems are ‘cos of socialism & war on the rich!"
But I don’t give a fuck, so I personally thank MtP for giving Newt a megaphone.
Comrade Jake
The interesting thing to me is how often McCain shows up on these morning shows. I realize that was basically his schtick before running for Pres, but it’s kind of amazing he doesn’t realize just how irrelevant he is at the moment. I suspect most people are really kind of sick of listening to the grumpy old man talk.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Crap, I forgot to put a space in soc
ial
ism
and now I’m in moderation.
Seriously, whoever designed the filter has some serious issues.
DougJ
I agree.
Dennis-SGMM
@Comrade Jake:
Maybe he’s trying to mount a coup d’état against Limbaugh.
Jim
I have to say, you’re all being a bit unfair to David Gregory. Does anyone think this show would’ve been any different if the Sainted Monsignor were still moderating?
on a day like this you want to hang out on the quad
Jesus. Guy’s been out of college for twenty years, and he’s still thinking about "the quad"?
Davis X. Machina
Someday, I’d like to see the backstage help and floor crew for one of these Sunday shows just take over the set: the cameraman or -men—if there are any left, they’re often robots now—sound tech, electrician, makeup people, etc.
I bet you’d hear a different story. No houses on the Vineyard there…
TheOfficialHatOnMyCat
Ratings? Gregory is not exactly setting the world on fire.
Violet
Well-trained by whom? The muckety-mucks at their respective networks? If the ratings fall, and keep falling, perhaps they’ll rethink their strategies. Muckety-mucks usually like good ratings.
I was a devoted MTP viewer when Russert was in charge. I watched it fairly regularly when Brokaw took over, mostly because of my election obsession. I gave Gregory a chance, but I can’t watch him. I haven’t switched over to one of the other Sunday morning shows either. I’ve watched them all, off and on, but none of the hosts seem to be willing to hold guests’ feet to the fire. So my TV is off on Sunday mornings now. I suspect I’m not alone in this.
GP
Newt is making a comeback.Now that is something new. Spare me
joe from Lowell
Does anyone think this show would’ve been any different if the Sainted Monsignor were still moderating?
Yes.
And that’s saying something.
Hunter Gathers
Meet The Press is now only slightly less enjoyable than a swift kick in the teeth.
CalD
I used to love to watch Joe Biden go on MTP and give Russert the beatings he so richly deserved. Other than that, it’s a complete waste of electricity.
TheOfficialHatOnMyCat
That’s the really weird part about this GOP implosion …. all the data I’m seeing are pointing toward a collapse of support. What in the world would make them think that they are scoring well?
I have to conclude that they don’t actually have a forward-looking strategy at all at this point. They look and sound like people who are frantically trying to justify their own past positions and don’t care about the future of the GOP at all. Therefore, I have to take them as people who don’t care about the future of the GOP at all.
Right now I don’t see that the GOP has a future as a viable second in a binary system. Their numbers are in absolute collapse mode.
Balconespolitics
The really sad thing is that if you go to any right wing blog and start the same discussion – you’ll rapidly be informed that Gregory hosting MTP is just one more sign that the media is completely in the pocket of liberals.
DougJ
“Circus dogs jump when the trainer cracks his whip, but the really well-trained dog is the one that turns his somersault when there is no whip.”—-George Orwell
Jay
@Jim: I’ve become convinced that Twitter is a Rorschach Test of self-awareness. Gregory FAILS.
El Cid
Gregory is a pathetic dick and any tiny amount of admiration I had for him being willing to ask moderately honest and comparatively difficult Iraq policy questions to Lord Almighty Bush Jr. is now gone.
Bad Horse's Filly
No politics for me today. Just finished clipping everyone’s nails and brushing them all. No bleeding. It’s a good day. Off to enjoy the weather and ride for an hour. But keep up the good fight. I feel good knowing everyone at BJ is keeping an eye on things. ;-)
smiley
@Jay:
But he’s a French-speaking fuckin’ tool. That really impresses the higher ups.
Dennis-SGMM
I don’t think that the networks really give a shit about these shows. They’re likely given air time so that the networks can trot them out as examples of how they’re "doing the public good," should the FCC come knocking.
Davis X. Machina
In 1972, Pauline Kael, the New Yorker’s legendary film critic, was stunned that Nixon won. " "How could that be?" she demanded. "I don’t know a single person who voted for Nixon."
Redhand
I tuned in briefly today and my reaction at seeing Gingrich was "WTF are they putting this retread tool on for? His comments that Obama needs to have "a serious dialogue across the political spectrum" (or some such bullshit) "now, rather than in 2012" was just the sort of hypocritical garbage I’d expect from Gingrich. Not to mention how interested the Repubs were in consensus the last eight years.
The low point in the whole snippet I saw was when Hairdo asked Gingrich about his presidential aspirations. Did he also have to blow him to get him on the show? What a craven asshole!
MTP makes about much sense watching as the McLaughlin Foodfight. Complete fucking waste of time.
Mike in NC
MTP is now officially part of the Right Wing Noise Machine. Maybe Gregory and Gingrich can work out some co-hosting deal.
wvng
Steve Benen had a relevant post yesterday titled ASSUMPTIONS….
HRA
I watched 1 or 2 of MTP with Gregory at the beginning. Now the TV is not on until 1 pm on CNN.
I have noticed Gregory making multiple appearances (almost daily) on Morning Joe to plug MTP. It’s a sure sign of MTP tanking in the ratings.
TheOfficialHatOnMyCat
For real fun, catch the replay of Peter Orzag deconstructing the incredibly foolish and stupid John King on CNN right now.
It’s a mismatch. King is setting a new standard for idiot journalism here. You have to see it to believe it.
cleek
even sadder than that: the GOPers might actually have valid criticisms. the DC/NYC media does seem to be wired for GOP rule, but it’s also really shallow and lazy. they screw everyone by failing to ask meaningful questions or provide useful analysis.
i can’t believe anyone here actually watches that shit.
John O
Gave up on MTP when Gregory took the helm. He’s a tool.
The TV news business is never going to be worth crap as long as it consists nearly entirely of rich people talking to other rich people.
Iowa Housewife
Newt is full of shit and he makes my husband yell swear words at the tee-vee
TheOfficialHatOnMyCat
@Davis X. Machina:
Not sure what your point is, but if we comparing 2008 to 1972, then the comparison is inapt. That was still at the front end of the GOP hegemony.
Now, we are at the end of that period and the beginning of a new period.
JL
Boehner was on Face The Nation stating that the republican stimulus bill would have created more jobs. One would think that Bob Schieffer could have asked him to explain his plan. Boehner also said that we should freeze government spending. One would think that a news person could simply say WTF
smiley
@TheOfficialHatOnMyCat: I had that on in the background and couldn’t believe it. Shorter John King: Things haven’t changed yet and it’s all Obama’s fault. The fact that the omnibus spending bill was negotiated last Fall doesn’t matter.
Edit: Train to Las Vegas was just mentioned by Cantor and King didn’t call him on it. King is obviously a Republican.
Laura W
I noticed Morning Blow making an appearance on MTP last Sunday.
An even surer sign.
Davis X. Machina
Kael talked only to other people like Kael—of course she was surprised Nixon did so well.
The crew on MTP live in a world no less insular than Pauline’s little corner of the Upper West Side.
TheOfficialHatOnMyCat
Cantor on CNN now. Parallel universe stuff.
"We need to cut back on spending and create wealth and create jobs."
The problem is that King is not conducting an interview, he is just basically being a straight man.
Gus
Cantor is on CNN. Just used the "train from Disneyland to Las Vegas" line. John what’s his ass didn’t blink. These guys can say whatever the fuck they want with no fear of being called on it by these useless "journalists."
Andy K
@Davis X. Machina:
After today’s MTP and Friday’s Hardball (see Tweety’s incredulous reaction to Taibbi’s comments on stem cell research), I’m convinced it’s time for GE’s news division to start utilizing GE’s entertainment division as consultants.
Leelee for Obama
Turned off every single show after a few minutes. My life is too short to waste listening to drivel.
Did, however, catch the few cogent moments with Snuffalupagus, when Claire McCaskill spoke actual words.
Sad, sad , sad. Stretch should get out on the quad and maybe discover a clue?
Schieffer breaks my heart when he doesn’t followup.
John (Bash) King married the dark side when he got involved with Dana Bash (nee.Bush)
What garbage.
El Cid
I don’t remember John King cutting into and interrupting Bush Jr. officials like he did Orszag and telling them they weren’t answering the question.
"EARMARKS!! EARMARKS
I ASKEDED YOU ABOUT THA EARMARKS
ANSWER NOW
"
garyb50
It was during the John King interview that my wife & I just looked at each other, said "Fuck it," and went out on the back porch to watch birds. We can’t even leave TV on long enough to get to MTP.
gwangung
Like it was happening the previous eight years…
Jay
@garyb50: Any Cedar Waxwings? Other than raptors, they’re my favorites.
jcricket
Right, when one person says, "The moon is made of green cheese" you don’t just report it as fact, or "some say the moon is made of green cheese, some say rocks, you decide".
Newspapers and TV should be no one’s press-release "printing press", and I don’t expect them to spout their personal opinions every time they are reporting on any politician’s latest speech. But stopping the faux-objectivity with some basic real objectivity would be nice. For example:
This doesn’t even require the press become experts in anything, just use some fracking common-sense when it comes to who the trustworthy people are. When you currently have Republicans offering either no actual proposals, or attempting historical revisionism on a massive scale ("New Deal and FDR caused the Great Depression") – the reporting should look like Democrats are the only ones’ with viable ideas, because they are.
TaosJohn
I have "been done" with ALL teevee news and so-called news magazines (Time, Newsweek) for about a dozen years. My Sunday mornings and weekday evenings are my own. How did this happen? Gut reaction and resistance to the incessant barrage of corporatist/militarist swill… New ideas, the truth (whatever that is), virtually any kind of happy, creative ideas are not to be found there.
I can personally guarantee that if you wean yourself from those sources (takes several years) and ever go back—by watching teevee news at a relative’s house, perhaps, or picking up a magazine in the dentist’s office—you will be STUNNED and APPALLED at the shallowness, emphasis on eye candy, and brazen propagandistic thrust of what you encounter with fresh eyes and a clear head. Beyond that, there are no guidelines.
Eek!
flounder
Thankfully MTP comes on too early here for me to torture myself.
Did catch ‘This Weak?’, where the reliable Claire McKaskill was matched up against some Chamber of Commerce robot, that Republican senator that doesn’t think Obama was born in the U.S., and Republican lite Senator and cravenly egotistical Evan Bayh.
The Chamber of Commerce tool actually sounded reasonable compared to Bayh’s "me first" act. To think that asshole was vetted for VP…
Then we got to the "Roundtable". George ‘I lied Hiatt helped me’ Will, Bobo Brooks, and Cokie ‘visiting your dying Grandma in Hawaii is un-American’ Roberts, and weak tea E.J. Dionne.
Everyone should write in to Howie Kurtz on Monday and ask him about his thesis that all these Sunday shows were packed with Republicans for years because they were in power. He loves taking questions on how that thesis is working out.
Balconespolitics
@JL:
Is it common knowledge that Bob Schieffer is the brother to Bush pal Tom Schieffer? Yep – for those who have been paying attention, the same Tom Schieffer who brought Bush into the Texas Rangers deal, whereby the partners basically loaned Bush half a million to "invest" in the Rangers, and then gave him 25 million as Bush’s share when the Rangers sold.
This only hit me this AM when I was watching local TV interview Tom Schieffer – who is both running for Gov in the Dem Primaries coming up … and telling everyone that he doesn’t regret voting for Bush twice.
I’m not quite sure which is more delusional – voting for Bush twice and not regretting it … or thinking you can go around talking about it and win a Dem primary for County Comptroller, much less Governor.
Tecumseh
Look, MTP has been in a downward spiral since Lawrence Spivak left as moderator. Ditto for Face the Nation (George Herman).
Fred
I’ve heard this claim a couple times, and am looking for a specific timeline with which to debunk it. I remember the blogosphere picking over the bill over the weekend between passage and Obama’s signing, but the time from conference (which was rightly held without the a-holes who had no interest in doing something right) to passage was pretty compressed, no?
Max Renn
Last week on The Newshour Gwen Awful gave Grover Norquist and a retired GOP Congresscritter 15 minutes to bash Obama and the budget as commie, all under the guise of defending poor Rush from his attackers. It was appalling. Until some of these DC scum feel real pain themselves, nothing will change.
Legalize
I could barely stand MTP when Russert was on. I don’t watch any of these stupid fucking shows on Sunday mornings any longer. Who would want to waste his or her Sunday with this trash. It’s much more fun to catch some SportsCenter, make breakfast, and talk to the girl about Watchmen, which we saw last night.
I liked it.
Of course now I’m at work. Which is still better than watching David Fucking Gregory.
joe from Lowell
I don’t want to get too far out in front of the intel here, but I’m ready to draw the tentative conclusion that Dwight Howard is a good basketball player.
I’m open to alternate theories, but the picture is starting to come into focus.
KDP
@Fred 64
If you go to the White House Blog, you will find that the ARRA was on the Website, with a comments form from the 13th
FRI, FEBRUARY 13, 2:05 PM EST
ARRA for comment
until the 17th when he signed it. Now, one could quibble that counting 5 days, inclusive, from post to signature does not meet his commitment to five days of public review before signing; however, it was five calendar days. Those who want to claim that the Obama administration is not meeting this commitment seem not to be checking the White House blog. Those who claim that bills should be available for review before they are passed through the Congress seem to be unaware of the several sources for reviewing and monitoring pending legislation. Search "congress pending bills" in google and the first several hits are sources for monitoring this activity.
So, ARRA was in its various forms throughout January and available for review by interested constituents through the sources returned under the "congress pending bills" search string while the bill itself was posted and available for comment on the White House blog for 5 calendar days though perhaps not for 120 hours.
The post of the president’s departure to Colorado for the signing was here:
TUE, FEBRUARY 17, 9:49 AM EST
Time to sign it
While the signing post is
TUE, FEBRUARY 17, 4:25 PM EST
Signed, sealed, delivered: ARRA
Nellcote
re reading the bill: Isn’t that what all those extra gop staffers are for?
re Sunday shows: Take a look at who the sponsers are. Can you say military industrial complex?
That said, GPS w/Fareed Zakaria is nearly always worth watching. It’s a whole other level of discourse and I don’t feel that I’ve wasted an hour of my life that I’ll never get back.
re Gregory: If you hadn’t seen him ask probing questions at the press briefings and only relied on what he actually reported, you would never mistake him for being more than a Hairdo.
Tom Q
It’s aside from the main topic, but because it bugs me: that quote from Pauline Kael has never been verfified—if you Google it, the only hits come from right-wingers asserting that she said it. (I’ve also scanned the various collections of her criticism, and never come across it)
I was a faithful reader of Kael at the time in question, and she was not remotely provincial enough to have made such a comment. She was in fact critical of such blinders-on liberal commentary going back to Johnson/Goldwater. The only context in which she’d have said anything like that quote would be in explaining the mind-set of deluded East Coast urbanites.
Which does sort of bring us back to the issue at hand: the prime point, that practitioners of a dying regime can be the last to recognize their own irrelevance, is clearly correct. Just don’t lump Kael in with such limited thinkers.
vacuumslayer
But, but…Obama is punishing the successful. (I guess only folks making a quarter of a million dollars a year can be counted as true successes.)
lilysmom
One hour watching D. L. Hughly on CNN is more useful.
Chuck Butcher
Being PDT, I just watched the last couple minutes, an unreset clock…
It was as though they got together a panel to say one line with one person to sort of sputter, well, well. I have no idea what Gregory’s role is supposed to be as performed. Ask a set-up question, everybody gives the set response, move on. I’m not even sure what it is I’m supposed to think I’m watching. I quit.
daybaron
I so looked forward to Tim on Sunday, now can’t stand the drech. couldn’t be much worse if it was tweety.
The Cat Who Would Be Tunch
@joe from Lowell: The thing that worries me is whether people will keep thinking that Obama inherited the economic troubles. Not exactly a perfectly analogy, but I still remember the dramatic increase in the number of people that thought Saddam and/or Iraqis were involved in 9/11 after the previous administration ramped up rhetoric for the Iraq war. Say something often enough…
Chuck Butcher
Apparently if you question the make up of the panel or the questions on Gregory’s blog it goes into ‘moderation’ at 3PM Sun and stays there.
Ray Sawhill
Tom Q. is right about Pauline Kael. I knew her, and though she was definitely of the left she was anything but party-line. She was highly critical of many lefties and lefty pieties, and quite an irreverent person generally. Lefties often got mad at her.
I never asked her about that notorious quote, but even if she did say it I can guarantee that she didn’t say it in the haughty, self-satisfied tone that people seem to want to attribute to her. She’d have been laughing as she said it in a semi-self-mocking, the-world-is-absurd-and-amusing way that she often spoke in.