The Hate-Bush Network, Minus Bush
By: Floyd and Mary Beth Brown
FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, February 16, 2009
You won't
hear executives at MSNBC chanting "yes we can." The network that they
cobbled together as a TV version of the left-wing screed Air America is
in the ratings dumper. Advertising dollars that have never been easy
are getting thinner.
Since the inauguration of Barack Obama,
Bill O'Reilly and the Fox News Channel have owned prime time -- although O'Reilly has owned prime time for years. One night
last week, for example, O'Reilly scored 3.5 million views compared to
Olbermann's 1.4 million. Keith Olbermann may need to go back to sports.
MSNBC is in big trouble without Bush to bash. Olbermann, Rachel Maddow,
and Chris Matthews have filled their shows with nothing but
anti-Bush hysteria for the last year. Now that their punching
bag-in-chief has left Washington, they are lost.
Bush hating
came naturally for MSNBC; their commentators lampooned “Dubya” at every
opportunity. In addition to attacking Bush, they enjoyed trumpeting bad
news with the hopes that it would make President Bush look bad.
After
Bush’s farewell address, Matthews came on the air and bashed Bush as a
stupid buffoon who hung out with jocks, and proceeded to laugh at the
notion that he reads books. This from the same Chris Matthews who said
he “got a feeling running up his leg while listening to Barack” and
also said it was “his job to make sure this presidency (the Obama
presidency) works.” More people tuned into his diatribes that mocked
the Bush presidency than the few who tune into his rants supporting
Barack Obama.
Another commentator who loves to hate Bush,
liberal activist Rachel Maddow, said on her show following the farewell
address, “this is the start of the part where we don’t have President
Bush to kick around anymore… there can be no promise that we won’t be
compelled to try to keep on with the kicking around.” She spoke with
the caption, “goodbye and good riddance,” situated behind her. She then
proceeded to kick Bush around for ten minutes straight, blaming him for
everything from Katrina, 9/11, the existence of Hamas, the recession,
and “two worthless wars”. She had practically filled her show with
anti-Bush rants and guests. After January 20, she has struggled to find
new material.
But we give her credit for attacking Obama,
albeit from the left. She is a critic of the reluctance of the Obama
administration to prosecute President Bush and Vice President Cheney
and other officials for so-called "war crimes" related to interrogation
tactics used on terrorists. She is giving relentless coverage to
left-wingers’ calls for a Soviet-style inquisition.
Media bias
is not something unique to MSNBC, they just take it to a whole new
level. As the balance of the left-stream media gushes over how much
Obama works out, the same media complained about Bush’s “weird
obsession” with exercise. While they went gaga for Obama's
inauguration, the same correspondents complained about how much Bush
spent on his more modest 2004 event. While the media were slamming
Sarah Palin, they ignored Barack’s propensity for gaffes including “57
states” and Afghani-Iraqi translators. While the media drilled
Republicans for a “culture of corruption,” they give Eric Holder, Tim
Geithner, Bill Richardson, and Hilda Solis a free pass, saying they
made honest mistakes.
MSNBC could look on the Obama
administration with an eye of skepticism and provide needed details
about his Cabinet picks and their corrupt and shady dealings. They
could help Obama succeed by acting as a watchdog to keep him from going
astray; instead they seemed poised to help him “succeed” by acting as
his lapdog and propaganda office.
If MSNBC and the rest of the
left-stream media continue to attack George Bush and the Republicans,
even though neither are in control of anything, their attacks will
sound even more insipid. Partisan propaganda is putting the media on
the path to irrelevance. They could start a renaissance by serving as a
less biased source that reports what is actually occurring. Just check
out how many times ABC's Jake Tapper was viewed on Youtube for
challenging Robert Gibbs on administration ethics.
Americans
are not stupid; they know FOXNEWS is more balanced. O'Reilly talks to
Susan Estrich, Al Sharpton and other leftists brave enough to face him.
We searched for similar balance on MSNBC and find none.
MSNBC
could drastically improve their ratings performance by exposing all of
the pork in the stimulus bill, the negative side-effects of increasing
healthcare, environmental regulation and big-city political machine
corruption. MSNBC could continue rebuilding legitimacy by exposing the
corruption of labor unions. MSNBC hosts love to bash big business,
fine, but why not hold big labor accountable and shine some light in
their direction. Just a clear and simple examination of how Obama’s
stimulus-policy money will be spent would increase their credibility.
Being
students of the media, we won’t hold our breath. We suppose they will
continue attacking Bush and praising Obama, until their viewers are all
gone. NBC executives are doing the shareholders of General Electric a
disservice if they don't start changing this programming to secure a
larger audience.
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