Fairly unbalanced
“Regular viewers of ’Lou Dobbs Tonight,’ on CNN, might be surprised at the venue that Dobbs chose for lunch not long ago: the Grill Room of the Four Seasons, a midtown bastion of the very same political and business ’elites’ that he denounces daily on his television program.
“Lou Dobbs [is] the Harvard-educated anchor of CNN’s ’Moneyline,’ which in the 1990s served as a sort of video clubhouse for corporate America. But, in the past four years or so, Dobbs has been reborn as a populist — a full-throated champion of ’the little guy,’ an evangelical opponent of liberal immigration laws. …
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” ’It’s very different from any program you’ll see on TV, by intention,’ Dobbs said, as we ordered the $56 Dover sole. ’What you won’t see on our broadcast is “fair and balanced journalism.’ You will not see ’objective journalism.” The truth is not “fair and balanced.” There is a nonpartisan, independent reality that doesn’t give a damn, frankly, what two Democrats and two Republicans think about anything or say about anything.’ ”
— Ken Auletta, writing on “Mad as Hell,” in the Dec. 4 issue of the New Yorker
Ted and the Reds
” ’I am greeting you as a representative of all the Kennedys. …’
“Thus Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev welcomed visiting U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy in March 1990. …
“During the Cold War, the behavior of Western politicians in their contacts with the Soviets varied quite widely, from hostile polemics to shameless collaboration. What was Senator Kennedy’s place in this wide spectrum? …
“[N]o other senator contacted the Soviets as often as Kennedy did. Nor were his relations with Moscow at all restricted to official visits. His chief of staff, Larry Horowitz, would journey there on Kennedy’s instructions several times a year. No other U.S. senator had a similar envoy. …
“Serious questions about Kennedy’s role in the Cold War have been asked more than once before. From time to time, some bits of his mysterious story are revealed — only to demonstrate that much more of it still remains in darkness.”
— Vladimir Bukovsky and Pavel Stroilov, writing on “A Phenomenon Called Senator Kennedy,” Monday in National Review Online at www.nationalreview.com
Race and reaction
“The Michael Richards mess — a sitcom star, nearly a decade past notoriety, talking trash in a Los Angeles comedy club — seemed like a one-day story. But as always with such things, it is the reaction to the event that is of interest. …
“It has been pointed out that Richards is apologizing only because the incident was captured on tape. If it were not for the You-Tubing of America, the pressure on him to apologize would be infinitely less. It was only when millions of people were able to view the incident that some public statement became necessary. …
“Those black Americans who have resurrected the use of the most notorious racial epithet as an ironic statement of rebellion or racial pride or God knows what else are reaping the whirlwind by doing so. Gangsta rappers and their ilk have made the word more casual and less taboo, while also insisting that only they have the right to wield it. Outbursts like Richards’ are inevitable in a climate that on one hand is overrun with political correctness and on the other mocks the very idea that there is such a thing as bad taste.”
— Paul Beston, writing on “Last Thoughts on Michael Richards,” Monday in the American Spectator Online at www.spectator.org
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