Category Archives: cable tv
Robert Lee Removed From University of Virginia
ESPN removed Robert Lee from the University of Virginia. Not the statue. Robert Lee the announcer. He’s the guy scheduled to do the play by play for Virginia’s opening game against William & Mary. In the hope of avoiding offense, ESPN removed him from the game.
Robert Lee and the Horse He rode in On
Meanwhile USC students want Traveler the Trojan Horse removed from Southern Cal games. Traveler was also the name of Robert E. Lee’s horse. That would be Robert Lee the general, not the announcer.
Alt Right Antifa Moral Equivalency
Democrats, the media, CEOs, Republican leaders, conservative pundits, and Mexican bandits hammered Trump for saying there were two sides to the Charlottesville brawl.
And if there were any “very fine people” in Charlottesville, as Trump said there were, they weren’t to be found among the alt right or antifa combatants. Maybe he meant very fine thugs.
Moral Equivalency
The moral equivalency thing is what really brought trouble for Trump. The idea that neo-Nazis and KKK types were the moral equals of the protesters they were fighting was too much.
Maybe, but the antifa types are pretty bad. Here’s Jonah Goldberg:
These goons and thugs oppose free speech, celebrate violence, despise dissent, and have little use for anything else in the American political tradition. But many liberals, particularly in the media, are victims of the same kind of confusion that vexed so much of American liberalism in the 20th century. Because antifa suddenly has the (alt-)right enemies, they must be the good guys. They’re not. And that’s why this debate is so toxically stupid. Fine, antifa isn’t as bad as the KKK. Who cares? Since when is being less bad than the Klan a major moral accomplishment?
So maybe it’s not moral equivalency. Just Extremely Ugly vs Very Ugly.
Trump Body Slams CNN Logo
No doubt you’ve seen the clip where President Trump body slams a CNN logo. Naturally, Trump retweeted it. The NYT has a good video back story to the tweet here.
The tweet was beneath the dignity of the presidency. But what else is new?
Media Condemns Trump Body Slam
I thought the clip was amusing. But others saw it as an incitement to violence against members of the media. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press issued a statement reflecting that view.
As it happens, I’m a member of the steering committee for RCFP. It’s an organization with a proud history defending unpopular speech. This is a case where we should have defended unpopular satire, not condemn it.
Here’s the RCFP statement:
On Sunday, President Donald Trump made a public statement on Twitter that glorified physical violence against members of the press.
Bruce Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, made the following statement:
“We condemn the president’s threat of physical violence against journalists. This tweet is beneath the office of the presidency. Sadly, it is not beneath this president.
“No one should be threatened with physical harm for doing their jobs. Journalists are your neighbors, they’re your friends. Journalists perform a critical function in our society, one the Founding Fathers felt was so necessary that they enshrined it first in the Bill of Rights.
“They wrote that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.’
“Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of our democracy. The press are the people’s window into the halls of power, and most importantly, they are the people’s check on that power. When the president attacks the press, he attacks the people.”
Morning Trump Tweets Morning Joe
fiance’s 
Trump tweeted that Mika Brzezinski bled badly from a facelift. Mika mocked Trump’s small hands. And said it was only a chin tuck.
Morning Joe
Morning Joe spent the better part of his show defending the honor of his feminist fiance. Mika said Trump picks on women. Joe’s coat holder, Donnie Duetche, offered to go mano a mano with the president in the schoolyard. Like in the old days.
In the old days Trump’s hero, Andrew Jackson, took it outside with his enemies. He fought duels, and killed people.
Democrats say Trump’s already working on that.
Check it Out
A New York Post headline called CNN The Most Busted Name in News.
As they say, “check it out.”
The Daily Caller published a litany of woe, calling it the network’s “month long nightmare.”
Project Veritas’s undercover sting reporter James O’Keefe managed to catch a CNN health and medical beat producer calling the network’s coverage of Trump “bullshit.” He still has his job. But three other CNN Journalists lost theirs. They were fired when a story about a Trump connection to a Russian investment fund was retracted.
Check it Out
The discredited “dossier” in the cartoon refers to a former British spy’s opposition research against candidate Trump. One of his more lurid claims was that Trump hired Russian prostitutes to perform a golden shower on a Moscow hotel bed previously occupied by Barack and Michelle Obama. BuzzFeed published the dossier and CNN was one of the first mainstream media outlets to report on the story.
Reality Show
Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic says this isn’t so much about fake news. It’s about a reality TV show starring Donald Trump. And it will lead to violence. Really.
