Two items.  First, Daily Kos recommended a conservative blog, RealClearPolitics.  I don't agree with much of it, and in fact I find the logic at times to be really incredibly specious.  That said, it's a more tolerable source that something like the WSJ editorial page for hearing what the right has to say. 

Second, let me take this moment to tell a writer that I usually like, William Raspberry, to shut the hell up.  Raspberry's editorial in the Post today criticizes Al Franken's show on Air America because, in Raspberry's view, Franken is simply offering as many lies as the right-wing press, just with a left-wing slant, and thus lowering the level of public discourse.  He says this as a lefty himself.  Normally, this wouldn't be worth commenting on, but this is just such incredibly shoddy journalism that I find it insulting.  Note:

--Raspberry says this:

"The Franken show, as I understand the concept (I haven't been able to find it on my radio yet), is to stick it to the right the way the right has been sticking it to the left. "

Perhaps the editors of the Washington Post could ask that their editorial writers actually research before writing.  Raspberry criticizes Franken without listening?  I'm sure he hasn't read the book, either, which is meticulously researched.  Not just blather.  Don't criticize without knowing what you're criticizing.

--Raspberry actually says this:

"I enjoy both Bill Maher and Dennis Miller. They are funny, though often in a biting and somewhat ideological way. But they understand that they are entertainers, and they don't carry water for particular politicians. "

What?????  Dennis Miller isn't carrying water for Bush?  Is this a total joke? 

Look, this isn't a big deal.  But it's really representative of media problems we have.  Do you think a conservative commentator would ever  take Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter to task for lowering the public discourse?  Never.  Ever.  Why should we take this from the so-called liberal media?

To my mind, Franken, et. al., are simply offering truth in place of the lies of the right.  And if they're mocking Limbaugh and O'Reilly and Coulter and Hannity, so be it.  Don't give me this high-minded crap, Raspberry, unless you actually read and listen and have any idea what you're talking about.

12:17:06 PM    comment []