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   Dan Savage, the brilliant and foul-mouthed sex columnist, has become one of the most important ethicists in America. Are we screwed?
 The federal government is supposed to issue new rules about debt levels for students in for-profit colleges. In the meantime, the states are working on their own regulations.
 Washingtons budget hawks want to decimate the federal workforce to shrink the deficit. It will have the opposite effect.
 There arent nearly enough counterterrorism experts to instruct all of Americas police. So we got these guys instead.
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December 30, 2009
THE OTHER KING.... Most of the time, when a Republican congressman named King is in the media saying bizarre things, the culprit is Steve King of Iowa. But let's not overlook just how nutty Peter King of New York is, too. Over the weekend, for example, King appeared on CNN and said the Obama administration has "refused to use the word 'terrorism.'" That's obviously false. More specifically, the Republican lawmaker said, "Even when the president gave his speech at West Point about the troops going to Afghanistan, he didn't use the word 'terrorism.' He spoke of 'extremism.'" That would be an interesting observation if it weren't completely wrong. From the president's West Point speech:
Now, the point isn't just that King is a rather confused partisan clown who routinely says things on national television that aren't true. The point is King remains a prominent Republican spokesperson on national security issues despite being a rather confused partisan clown who routinely says things on national television that aren't true. Is there no one in the House or Senate Republican caucuses who can speak intelligently and honestly on these issues? What's more, is there no one in the media who cares that King routinely lies to national television audiences? As Jason Linkins explained, "It seems to me that if the aftermath of the Crotchfire Attack on NWA Flight 253 proved anything about Representative Peter King (R-N.Y.), it's that his main strength as a national security expert is to have excellent intel on the location of various television cameras and the means to get in front of them very quickly. His alacrity, naturally, comes at the expense of his ability to say anything sensible to those cameras once he's found them, but in the current media universe that doesn't matter: the shininess of pointless political static supersedes the need to actually broadcast anything remotely intelligent." —Steve Benen 8:00 AM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (13)
Comments
His alacrity, naturally, comes at the expense of his ability to say anything sensible to those cameras once he's found them, but in the current media universe that doesn't matter ... Exactly. Since there are literally no consequences for lying, why not lie as much as you can to make your partisan case? This is exactly why "mainstream" journalism is dying. They forgot how to do their most basic job. "Is there no one in the House or Senate Republican caucuses who can speak intelligently and honestly on these issues?" No. This has been another....(h/t Atrios) Posted by: azportsider on December 30, 2009 at 8:03 AM | PERMALINKI am surprised that Peter King has the gall to talk terrorism, he is one of the infamous cash supporters and fundraisers of IRA terrorism, why the mainstream media does not mention this is beyond me.I'm afraid my blood boils everytime I see him on TV, an old schoolfriend of mine was paralyzed in the Brighton bombing, and he was raising funds for that! Posted by: Joan on December 30, 2009 at 8:04 AM | PERMALINKI posted the other day, that in the 24/7 world of TeeVee, Facts Don't Matter. The reason for this is that today's "journalism" students are required to take Hair, Teeth, and Makeup, while Fact Checking is an elective course. . . Posted by: DAY on December 30, 2009 at 8:20 AM | PERMALINKWell, I just copied and pasted the quotes from the President's speech and emailed it to Rep. King. I told him that he's terribly misinformed or a liar. either way he needs to go back on CNN and correct himself. I think he should be flooded with messages like that...and I think whenever these people go on tv and lie they should be buried in an avalanche of emails. Posted by: SaintZak on December 30, 2009 at 8:24 AM | PERMALINKAs said above ...Republican makes outrageous lie...**crickets**. Democrat makes reasonable statement and every wingnut on the planet is canvased for a fair and balanced report. Posted by: john R on December 30, 2009 at 8:26 AM | PERMALINKSaintZak: CNN is who you need to be flooding. They, along with the rest of the SCLM, allow lies to be "reported" instead of "exposed". Posted by: howie on December 30, 2009 at 8:29 AM | PERMALINKhowie: I also emailed CNN. I told them they needed to correct King's statements themself or book him again to retract and correct his comments. Posted by: SaintZak on December 30, 2009 at 9:08 AM | PERMALINKThose of us who live in the NYC area are subjected to this ignorant racist warmongerer's utterances costantly. It never fails to embarrass. Unfortunately, as someone who grew up on Long Island, I can sadly promise that he'll be reelected until he dies. Posted by: Gummo on December 30, 2009 at 9:34 AM | PERMALINKA few months ago, Steve, you would have finished this piece by saying, "Maybe King didn't get a chance to see the speech himself, but if he did, why he was unable to recognize basic words is a mystery." Has the idiocy of the right got you down now? Are you abandoning the whole pretend-objectivity project when it comes to out-right calling republicans liars? Was there an editorial meeting about it? Has the mood among the more centrist left media changed from being conciliatory? I am heartened by the new direction, but think it might be worth a ponder. Posted by: inkadu on December 30, 2009 at 10:22 AM | PERMALINKIt would be nice if some one who was actually a reporter would go find out if all these guys are repeating talking points sent out be the RNC/Karl Rove/Roger Ailes et al, as I see the same things repeated both by the politicians like King and Demint and on blogs (meme that the Obama has replaced the term "terrorism" with "man caused-disaster" is being repeated endlessly and mindlessly). A year is about the burn out life of a White House Press Secretary. It might time to replace Robert Gibbs with a more combative figure who would point out the lies and put the media on the defensive for not calling out the lies and serving as stenographers to liars. Posted by: sherparick1 on December 30, 2009 at 10:57 AM | PERMALINKLying to the media is certainly not new, but I have yet to see any enforcement of the truth in American Media for decades. How long does it take to search online for the speech and then use the "Find" tool to see if the word "terrorism" was used? I'm sure anyone reading this could do it in under a minute. Or put another way, they could have fact-checked King while he was still being interviewed with plenty of time to spare! If there's one thing a person or group of people could do to make America a better place, it would be to force the MSM to fact-check in real time and be held accountable for any failure to do so. Heck, I'm motivated! Considering how most American wars get started - Vietnam, Iraq, etc. - this is literally a matter of life and death... Posted by: Kiweagle on December 30, 2009 at 11:42 AM | PERMALINKMy sister worked for King just out of college, after working on a relative's US Senate campaign, and she quit in disgust when he harassed her repeatedly (including calling her frequently at home and saying things like "you should see what talking to you is doing to me right now" while his wife Rosemary was out with the kids). When she quit, his secretary processed the paperwork quite matter-of-factly and said if she wanted to say she was laid off, they would back her up so she could collect unemployment benefits (she didn't take them up on this sleazy offer, by the way). It was clear the secretary had done this before. If King does decide to run for Senate, my sister has already told me she's going public with this, and fully expects other women to come forward. Posted by: sullivanstravels on December 30, 2009 at 12:15 PM | PERMALINKPost a comment
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