Those looking glass blues

(Read time: 3 minutes)

“ZIP IT!”

CNN’s Howard Kurtz, during “Reliable Sources” Sunday (LINK), questioned the White House Press Corps “tough” treatment of Tony Snow.

Kurtz, whose conservative bias bleeds through in a program which is supposedly a watchdog against media bias, discussed the “tough questions” in a segment titled “Are media siding with Democrats in subpoena standoff?” This, of course, refers to the current Justice Department scandal over fired U.S. attorneys.

KURTZ: "Ed Henry, you and your colleagues have been going at (Tony) Snow pretty hard on this issue. It sounds like you think the Bush proposal is a terrible idea."

As a journalist, I find it pretty tough to take the current media trend of couching every issue in terms of Democrats v. Republicans or liberals v. conservatives.

Whatever became of a muckraking media which asked the questions, exposed the wrongs and held scoundrels accountable?

Here’s the media’s role, plain and simple:

ED HENRY, CNN White House Correspondent: (Responding to Kurtz) "Well, the bottom line for me is that when you're a White House correspondent, you have a duty to ask tough questions. Earlier in the week, Tony Snow, when I asked him a question about Iraq, told me off camera to "zip it." He later apologized for that, but I think the bottom line is White House correspondents should not zip it, whether they're covering a Republican White House, a Democratic White House."

***

FALSE FACE

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay – aka “The Hammer” – has been all over the tube hawking his new book.

In the book and in interviews, he is accusing colleagues, or more aptly former colleagues – Republican and Democrat – of being amoral “sinners” and “hypocrites.”

Unbearable to watch this smirking crook being sanctimonious. If one is not blinded by the sparkle off his pearly whites, one can see through this charade.

DeLay, noted for his strong-arm tactics and House ethics violations, left his post after being charged (in Texas) with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme.

Mr. DeLay, you cannot hide behind your Christian testimony for, as Shakespeare observed, “False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”

***

TICK, ATTACK, DOUGH

What makes the right-wing tick? In full attack mode, a few conservative commentators – most notably Rush Limbaugh - couldn’t wait to pounce as soon as Elizabeth and John Edwards made public the return of her cancer. The bottom line: these hatemongers are being paid to hurt people for the pleasure of fools who salivate at public hangings.

***

TAKING THE TRICK

Attorneygate. Subpoena showdown. DOJ official to “plead the Fifth.” Pat Tillman. More U.S. deaths in Iraq. British hostages. Anna Nicole Smith’s autopsy results trump everything.

***

“OUT, OUT DAMNED SPOT”

My cable company, Charter Communications, has been running a spot on CNN and MSNBC, promoting Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” as “cable’s best morning news show.” The commercial ends with “Brought to you by your FRIENDS at Charter Communications.” (Emphasis in spot.) “Best” is debatable, and the company’s bias has been outted.