So I'm watching post-convention coverage and I hear the following:
Real fake journalist Ted Koppel telling Jon Stewart, America's most trusted newsman, that the Swift Boat Liars' lies have resonance because John Kerry made such a big deal of his Vietnam service and so the lies must be heard and heard and heard and heard. He then compared the SBL to the President and said, essentially, that the press must report the fact of something being said as a fact. The truth may catch up a week later or six weeks or, I suppose, never. Koppel wasn't too concerned about if the truth would catch up. His comparison involved BushCo's speech tomorrow night and the surprising revelation that Koppel is a drug-dealing pedophile, which, before tonight, I had not known to be true. Stewart seemed to have so many thoughts racing through his head during Koppel's ridiculous lecture that he appeared, for a split second, to be speechless. He settled on telling Koppel that the media are suckers who are being gamed and the public deserves better - but not in those words.
Koppel also had an interview with David Brooks and George Stephenopolous. It was the consensus among the three men that BushCo will win in a landslide because while the GOP loves BushCo, the Dems do not love Kerry and only plan to vote for him because he isn't BushCo. He is liked but not well-liked.
So, Ted made two HUGE RNC talking points the basis of two separate bits for his show. And still, as he throws any vestige of credibility he had left away with both hands, he begrudges The Daily Show the trust they have earned.
Matthews and his panel of clowns was appalling - it looks like I was right and that Chris has been brought to heel. Was there ever any doubt?
cross posted at my blog