Editorial: What falls through the cracks

So what's goin on in Iraq? You can't tell from the mainstream media in this country.

Bombings and destruction gets a happy face and words like "pacification" let you think we're winning hearts and minds. Basra remains the riddle as the press hunts down The Riddle That Is Harriet and attempts to reassure that lifelong single Harriet Miers had a longterm romantic relationship with another lifelong male, both believe in family and go to the same church but (while the Times asks not "Is it true?" but "Is it still true????") apparently they never got around to hiring the wedding planner.

Nothing wrong with being a lifelong single. Jess doesn't think he'll ever get married. But no one's rushing to reassure you that Jess is in the midst of a lifelong relationship or that he's a "good Christian" (translation, Jess hasn't "waited").

It's a curious kind of news. Someone working for Homeland Security attends the D.C. protests and it's left to Elisabeth Bumiller, of all people, to inform you of that.

Anton Scalia? Well there's an interesting story. We did an editorial on John Roberts, not surprisingly against John Roberts being confirmed, and we never got so many e-mails from Republicans, all belonging to the same lobbying group. We're thrilled with the increase in readership and we hope you learn something here. But judging from your e-mails disputing basic facts in the editorial, Fantasia ain't the only one in America with reading problems.

But one thing we noted in that editorial was that Bully Boy nominating Roberts for Chief Justice was a slap in the face to those already serving.

We're sure Scalia didn't see it see that way. We're sure he was pleased as punch and we were way off the wall on it being a slap in the face. That's why he was front and center, counted and accounted unlike the Florida ballots in 2000, when John Roberts was sworn . . .

Oh wait. He wasn't there. Funny how that detail didn't get a great deal of attention. He had a "previous engagement." Kat says that's always a good line and that, in fact, she used it herself last month when a former boyfriend begged her to attend his wedding.

We're sure Scalia truly had a "previous engagement," "a prior committment," and that if he had attempted to beg off, the reply would have been: "How dare you! Sir, how dare you! Our fish fry happens every other week! A Supreme Court Justice is confirmed at least every ten years! How dare you!"

Or maybe the food had already been ordered and the hotel room booked and he was afraid of being billed a "no show." Who knows?

But we're sure that having done the bidding of the ultra right-wing faction of the American Taliban for years, he was pleased as punch to be passed over by the Charlie Brown-like, according to the press, John Roberts. Pleased as punch indeed.

So where we are we media wise now that attention to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has died down? Basically right back where we were before.

The press tentatively questions the Bully Boy. That's not really bravery. His approval ratings continue to sink. Just when you think he has to have reached bottom, there he is grabbing another bottom! If it were Bill Clinton, the press would be circling like sharks.

So you've got a war that's unpopular, you've got a people who want the troops home now, and you've got the press and other factions ignoring it. Thinking, apparently, that if they instigate Operation Happy Talk or Operation Guilt Trip, we'll all suddenly change our minds and say, "Deaths or no deaths, let's stay in Iraq!"

Is the press that stupid or do they just think we are?

Everything's happy, everything's pretty.

Even though the fatalities out of Iraq continue to mount, even though the terrorism threat (Operation Try To Scare The Hell Out Of America) didn't quite pan up and isn't standing up to scrutiny, even though we're deprived of headlines like "Skulking Scalia Says Adios to Roberts' Confirmation." Everything's just pretty, everything's just rosy.

How long do they think they can keep this up?

We're reminded me of the moment in Fast Times at Ridgemont High when the hyper perky and hyper chipper cheerleader (Cindy played by Kelli Maroney) has finally had enough and lectures the gym that it's not easy standing up in front of everyone and cheering all the time, that, come to think of it, they don't even like the name Spirit Bunnies.

Neither do we. But Spirit Bunnies for the Bully Boy seems like a good monicker for a mainstream press (New York Timid we're thinking specifically of you) that sits around whimpering, "Please, sir, may I have another?"

So Spirit Bunnies, at what point do you have your own public snit fit and start lecturing about how hard it is to stand up in front of everyone? Or was Bill Keller's "circle-jerk" confessions and "arm chair media critics" carping about as nasty as things get? Oh, Keller, you make it so easy.

Something is happening but you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Keller? (To steal from Bob Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man" which originally appears on Highway 61 Revisted.)

But Keller's not the only one. There's a debate going on right now about NPR and whether or not it's worth yet again (and again and again) attempting to save it from it's foes in Congress.
What's the point?

Forget the content for a moment. Forget the viewpoints. But answer us a question instead. Is NPR committed to going out over the traditional broadcast air waves because recent events suggest otherwise. In fact, recent events suggest that it will follow PBS' move to leave the public airwaves. Anyone want to explain how public television is public television if you'll need satellite or cable to get it?

There's a big change that's coming down and we're not impressed with the debate on it.

We're not impressed with consumer advocacy groups who aren't arguing the root issue which is where will the people go who don't get cable or satellite because they can't afford it? (Lip service is sometimes given to "subsidies." As though everyone who should qualify would or the fact that this notion doesn't rest upon the assumption of a generous Congress -- a myth when it comes to individuals and not corporations.)

We know our readers. (Our intended ones, no offense lobby group Repubes.) They're young, many of them have at least one child. We long ago made the decision that we would only review broadcast TV because it wasn't fair to our readers who couldn't afford cable or satellite.

But a change will be coming down shortly and no one seems overly concerned about those people.

Our airwaves, because we do own them, will be sold at a huge profit and TV will move away from a good available to all but a good available only to subscribers of cable and satellite. Who's discussing that and who's addressing how it will effect the many people in this country who are living paycheck to paycheck?

It will hit the poor, the working poor and the lower middle class hardest because if we've learned one thing from the monopoly system we're living under it's that when you have to pay for a good the price sky rockets. So when cable or satellite are a requirement to watch television, don't kid yourself that the monopoly system (which seems to order around the cities they are supposed to serve) won't once again raise prices. And don't kid yourself that those eyesore cable trunks that are always supposed to be addressed will be.

But no one wants to discuss that. No one wants to discuss much of anything. We live in Operation Happy Talk times. The only good to come of it is that people are catching on.

And the mainstream press wonders why their viewership and subscription base is down?

[Note: This editorial was written by Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava of The Third Estate Sunday Review', Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills), Mike of Mikey Likes It!, and C.I. of both The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review.]