Subject: Bartcop IS The Press

Dear Bart,

You know I think you're a fine service provider, commentator, and general good guy.
But I have a teeny bone to pick with your coverage, and it's not even specific to you.
It's something you share with -- gulp -- Rush Limbaugh and Pat Buchanan.
You need to quit blaming The Press for public opinion.

Please, for the love of all that is holy, stop complaining that Bush's goofs, conflicts,
and flat-out crimes are not being reported by The Press. They clearly ARE being reported
by The Press, otherwise you, in your K-Drag chateau, wouldn't know Cheney about them.
It's not like people are meeting you in dark alleys with tips about W's slippery pipeline deals;
everything you and I know about these things comes from The Press.

When Conason publishes one of his sharp columns, it is indeed published in The Press.
When Paul Begala skewers a Pelican*, he does it right there on the TV, in The Press.
Molly Ivins is The Press.
Slate is The Press.
BARTCOP is The Press!

When the New York Times, The Washington Post, The LA Times, The Wall Street Journal,
and even Rupert Murdoch's USA Today have run stories about something (like Klayman's
lawsuit against Cheney/Halliburton, to take one of a thousand examples), that's as mainstream
as The Press in this country gets, and it's a waste of time and energy -- not to mention dishonest
-- to gripe about The Press leaving these things unreported.

The underlying complaint, and this comes from Limbaugh/Buchanan/Satan too, is really that
The Press IS performing its function. It's not the job of The Press to beat drums for our pet causes,
but we want them to do that anyway. When a story like Monica gets an inordinate amount of press time,
it's not because The Press is out to assassinate Bill. It's because other folks like Newt Gingrich and
Ken Starr are doing THEIR (evil) jobs, beating THEIR drums, force-feeding The Press with material
they know will be printed. It helps when there's cock involved, because then you automatically get
Gary Bauer, Jerry Falwell, and a heavenly host of other right-wing cocknuts interested and THEY
crank up their drum-beating, press-feeding machines. It would be unethical for the press NOT to
report that the Center for Good Things, Puppies, and Tax Cuts strongly condemns cock.

Silence in The Press is not the problem. The problem is that we on the
play fair/clean air/no terrorism-for-Jesus side of the field are working with paper megaphones while
the bad guys have expensive loudspeakers. A fact stands alone** -- one story, often too detailed to
paint a clear moral lesson -- but a thousand monkeys on a thousand typewriters can feed The Press
new interpretations, opinions, and (potentially unfounded) assertions, each of which turns into another story.
Which do you think will get more time in the dim public consciousness of America, where more than half
of the people (outside Delaware) think Delaware is a city: one story about a fact or a thousand complaints
about the fact, half of which say it doesn't exist?

It's point blank untrue to assert that Bush's crimes aren't being reported in the press. It IS true that
they're being expertly played down, muddled, and spun in The Press by people like Coulter, Matthews,
and O'Reilly, who have a vested interest in beating the pro-Bush drum, seeing those crimes misunderstood
by the public. Many of those people have television shows. It is also true that there are people like Lyons,
Scheer, and Rall publicly beating the anti-Bush drum, playing up the same crime stories in The Press.
Many of those people don't have television shows.

Sorry, Bart (and Rush, and Pat, and Pat, and George...), but it's not up to The Press to shoulder the burden
of making Bush's crimes and misdemeanors hit home for the average American voter. That's OUR job;
online, face-to-face, at rallies and conventions, with our money and our votes, in the government and,
yes, through The Press.

It ain't always fair, otherwise it wouldn't be a fight. But at least it's a good fight.

Beat the drum with the big hammer,

-DaveS

Editor

The (soon-to-exist) Bean Magazine
 

 Dave, I disagree.
 Many of the stories printed here are from papers in the UK,
 because Bush's good puppy press refuses to report what the whole world is saying,
 that Bush is a maniacal, bullying and controlling demon without a shred of brains.

 Funny, when Matt Drudge speculated that perhaps Clinton fathered a baby with a crack whore,
 the NYTimes put that on the top of their front page.

 But when Bush's National Guard papers say he couldn't be found for 18 months,
 that FACT is carefully hidden by the major media who are owned by billionaires
 who'd rather have a tax cut than an honest president.

 You said "It's not the job of The Press to beat drums for our pet causes," which is fair,
 but for ten long years we had to read about "The liar says he never inhaled," but the story
 of Bush's having to do community service, (allegedly for getting caught with heavy weight coke)
 got a weekend or two of coverage, then they dropped it.

 Why ten years for pot and two days for felony coke possession with intent to sell?

 There are dozens more examples - think about the 9 kids who died when Bush's Enron buddies
 were playing with George's new submarine. Sure, they talked about it for two weekends, and then
 they hung that captain who was following White House orders to entertain Bush's oil buddies.

 On the other hand, we STILL hear weekly stories about Clinton renting the Lincoln Bedroom,
 and nobody even died there. Bush's deaths are ignore while they chase after Clinton.

 Don't tell me it's the same.

 The press has more interest in Clinton's zipper than why Bush had to pardon Reagan's cabinet
 for worldwide crimes involving billions (or trillions) of dollars.

 One more:

 All thru impeachment, everyone reading  bartcop.com  knew that Gingrich was screwing somebody
 not his wife and putting the hotel bills on his American Express card. You know how we knew?
 Because someone sent me a link from The Irish Times, which means even Europe knew about it,
 but the "liberal press" in Washington agreed to keep quiet so they could get Clinton.

 Every reporter in Washington knew it, too, but they only wanted to rail against Clinton,
 so they just shelved the proof that Gingrich had been cheating on his second wife.

 Don't tell me it's the same.
 
 
 
 

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