BY DAN
KENNEDY
Notes and observations on
the press, politics, culture, technology, and more. To sign up for
e-mail delivery, click
here. To send
an e-mail to Dan Kennedy, click
here.
For bio, published work, and links to other blogs, visit
www.dankennedy.net.
For information on Dan Kennedy's book, Little People: Learning to
See the World Through My Daughter's Eyes (Rodale, October 2003),
click
here.
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
GOD ALMIGHTY. I was up until
nearly 5 a.m. on a top-secret mission, so only now am I starting to
clear my head and take in the latest coverage. To begin, two good
pieces on the missing link at the Republican National Convention: the
religious right.
The New York Times' David
Kirkpatrick proved how evil and nefarious the liberal-media
conspiracy really is by - gasp! - worming his way inside a
gathering of Bible-thumpers and telling
the truth about what he
heard. His lead:
At a closed,
invitation-only Bush campaign rally for Christian conservatives
yesterday, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas called for a broad
social conservative agenda notably different from the televised
presentations at the Republican convention, including adopting
requirements that pregnant women considering abortions be offered
anesthetics for their fetuses and loosening requirements on the
separation of church and state.
Kirkpatrick was able to attend this
"Family, Faith, and Freedom Rally," even though it was closed to the
press, because he "was invited to the event by participants who
accompanied him." Did that amount to subterfuge? Kirkpatrick doesn't
really tell us enough to judge. He does write that "in an e-mail
message to The New York Times, Nicolle Devenish, the campaign's
communications director, criticized the newspaper for covering an
event that 'was closed to the press' as 'not professional or
appropriate.'"
It certainly seems to me that what
he found was newsworthy enough to warrant sneaking in, as long as he
didn't actually misrepresent himself. Read it for yourself and
see.
Meanwhile, the Boston
Globe's Charlie Savage finds that at least some of the Godly are
upset at all those moderates being trotted out at the podium every
night. Savage writes:
Since the convention began
Monday, they say they have not only been kept from the spotlight
of prime-time speaking spots, but have been offered few official
outlets at all. The lineup of meetings where delegates spend the
day before the nightly rallies have offered scant forum to those
who want to discuss faith and politics.
Savage also observes that Karl Rove
has made a fetish out of trying to motivate the four million
evangelicals who supposedly stayed home in 2000. To that end, he
quotes a religious-right figure named Rod McDougal as saying, "I
think they're making a mistake. We didn't realize they were going to
eliminate and censor everything about God.... They need some people
of faith up there."
Gee, I didn't realize that John
McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Laura Bush were
atheists. Shows you what I know!
ALL THEY WANT IS A PLANE AND A
MILLION DOLLARS. The lying Swifties, having taken John Kerry's
presidential campaign hostage, are now making demands that Kerry must
meet in order for them to call off their sleazy ad campaign. It's a
four-point
list, but it basically
comes down to one thing: Admit you're a lying, disgraceful,
worthless human being and we'll go away.
Why are these people still hanging
around, many days after virtually every single one of their claims
has been shown to be bogus? Here's
some more Somerby. Read it
and scream.
NEVER COMPLAIN, NEVER
EXPLAIN. House Speaker Dennis Hastert refuses
to apologize for
linking
George Soros to the international drug cartels.
ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT? Don't
laugh. Well, okay, laugh. The Globe's Sarah Schweitzer reports
on our absentee governor's New York moment here.
Newsweek's got a picture of him on a goddamn horse, which,
sadly, is not online, though the story
is.
Meanwhile, the Herald's
David Guarino reports
that Romney wouldn't exactly have much of a record on which to
run.
CONTINUING COVERAGE. While
I'm holed up here at Media Log Central, my Phoenix colleagues
are running around New York, uploading constantly. Click
here
for the Phoenix's continuing coverage of the
convention.
posted at 12:37 PM |
2 comments
|
link
2 Comments:
Love your stuff as always. Anyone lampooning the religious right is fine with me. Might be worth noting however that the republicans didn't have bad enough judgement to allow the right wing equivalent of Al Sharpton to address the nation.
You might want to take a critical look in house. I have been devouring everything I can on both sides of the spectrum regarding the convention and your Adam Reilly on Laura Bush was hands down the worst piece I have read so far. Was he a late season call up from the minors?
Phil
Good thing they didn't get a picture of Romney on the horse. Whether they got the picture from the front or from the back, they'd get a good shot of a horse's ass.
Post a Comment
MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
