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For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens of America.
William Kristol is living proof of how the American media has turned the concept
of meritocracy upside its head and now puts chronic failures at the top of
the pundit pyramid.
Kristol is the scion of leftists turned Neo-Cons. He has the East Coast pedigree
that used to be a prerequisite for entrance into the neo-liberal ruling class.
But somewhere, something went horribly wrong.
As the paid shill of Rupert Murdoch, who underwrites the Weekly Standard that
Kristol "edits," Kristol has emerged as the favorite Neo-Con "expert
spokesman" on the mainstream media. This is despite the reality that Kristol
has a record of being a smiling booster of just about every failed "Masters
of the Universe" foreign policy pursued by Bush and Cheney.
Lately, Kristol has been advocating the nuking of Iran when not doing the
Sunday morning "news show" circuit, boasting about what a great job
Bush is doing in Iraq. He's the kind of insider that the D.C. media establishment
thinks of as a "nice guy" and "one of them."
Before we get around to the reason for Kristol receiving this week's coveted
Media Putz honors, we wanted to share this excerpt from
Wikipedia:
"Kristol graduated in 1970 from The Collegiate School, a preparatory
school for boys located in Manhattan. In 1973, he received a B.A. from
Harvard College, graduating magna cum laude in three years. Later, in 1979,
he received
a Ph.D. in government, also from Harvard. During his first year of graduate
school, Kristol was fellow conservative and also government doctoral candidate
Alan Keyes' roommate. In the 1984 general election, Kristol inadvertently
voted for the Communist candidate against Speaker of House Tip O'Neill, a
Massachusetts
Democrat, assuming that O'Neill's sole opponent was a Republican. In fact,
the Republican Party failed to field a candidate against O'Neill in 1984.
"Many years later, in 1988, Kristol would run Keyes' unsuccessful U.S.
Senate campaign against Paul Sarbanes in Maryland. After teaching political
philosophy and American politics at the University of Pennsylvania and
Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Kristol went to work in government
in 1985, serving
as chief of staff to Secretary of Education William Bennett during the
Reagan Administration, and then as chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle
under
the first President Bush. Kristol was dubbed 'Dan Quayle's brain' by The
New Republic upon being appointed the Vice President's chief of staff."
Hey, a man who was considered "Dan Quayle's brain" is certainly
worthy of great attention by the mainstream media! After all, that's some accomplishment,
being Dan Quayle's brain and all.
Wikipedia also notes, "After the Republican sweep of both houses of Congress
in 1994 Kristol established, along with neoconservative John Podhoretz and
with financing from Rupert Murdoch, the conservative periodical The Weekly
Standard. In 1997, he founded, with Robert Kagan, the Project for the New American
Century (PNAC). He is also a member of the conservative think tank the American
Enterprise Institute from which the Bush administration has borrowed over two
dozen members to fill various government offices and panels. Kristol is currently
chairman of PNAC and editor of The Weekly Standard."
Which brings us to the specific recent reason for Kristol occupying the Media
Putz hat this week: a July 15 column in
the Washington Post that
the Washington Post prominently
promoted online with the teaser, "Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol
will chart the remarkable -- and often ignored -- successes of the Bush administration."
Many BuzzFlash readers took note of this "Neo-Con in Wonderland" view
of a presidency that has made us more vulnerable as a nation to external threats,
at a grave cost in lives and hundreds of billions of dollars.
Our winning nominator is Martin Scully of Mountain Home, Arkansas. Scully
wrote of Kristol's exercise in fantasy writing:
"I think I have finally
found the profound difference between so called conservatives and liberals.
Years ago the 'conservatives' were all considered to be somewhat "cuckoo".
As examples of this you have the old line 'John Birchers,' Joe McCarthy, and
who can forget the young & crazy William F Buckley (just listen to
this asshole for 10 minutes and he will put you sound asleep).
"I nominate Bill Kristol for this week's Media Putz for his final flight
from reality. This guy surely must be a comedian at heart, because every
time I see him open his mouth on TV I immediately break out in laughter.
Oh yeah,
the difference between liberals and conservatives is liberals tell the
truth no matter where it takes them, and are solidly based in reality. Conservatives,
mislead, misconstrue, spin, bend, and outright lie, and based on 'Wild
Bill'
Kristol's latest column are DEFINITELY not dealing in reality and therefore
must be getting their 'messages' from outer space or maybe it's the old
'the Devil made me do it' defense."
Bill Kristol loves to be perceived as a player in the Bush White House, which
is kind of like feeling macho because you hang out at the Gotti crime family's
poker club.
But the problem with Kristol, Cheney, and Bush is that they always come up
with a losing hand.
Bill Kristol, if ever there was a Media Putz who is the poster child for being
dead wrong, you're it.
With Kristol, you need a crowbar to separate the facts from the fiction, if
you can find any facts in his endless, chipper blather. With columns like this
one, you remind us how easy it is to separate journalism from the truth.
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