UPDATED - ColdType

Redstone [chairman, CEO, Viacom] have any
idea who Ed Murrow was.”
Av was also specific when asked about the performance
of the White House press corps: “Since
9/11, the press corps has allowed the administration
to wrap itself in the flag. The press, it seems
to me, has been watching the public opinion polls
almost as much as the administration, which
explains why it has taken quite a while for it to
resume the kind of normal adversarial relationship,
much less the kind that was rampant during
the Clinton years and the Nixon years.”
Beat the press?
AV’S comments were mild compared to Matt
Taibbi’s analysis in New York Press. He writes
about the performance of the press at the eighth
press conference that Bush has held since taking
office. (Clinton had 30 by the same time in his
presidency.)
“After watching George W. Bush’s press conference
last Thursday night, I’m more convinced
than ever: The entire White House press corps
should be herded into a cargo plane, flown to an
altitude of 30,000 feet, and pushed out, kicking
and screaming, over the North Atlantic.
“Any remaining staff at the Washington
bureaus should be rounded up for summary justice.
The Russians used to use bakery trucks, big
gray panel trucks marked “Bread” on the sides;
victims would be rounded up in the middle of the
night and taken for one last ride through the
darkened streets.
“The war would almost be worth it just to see
Wolf Blitzer pounding away at the inside of a
Pepperidge Farm truck, tearfully confessing and
vowing to ‘take it all back.’
PRODUCING THE WAR
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“The Bush press conference to me was like a
mini-Alamo for American journalism, a final
announcement that the press no longer performs
anything akin to a real function. Particularly
revolting was the spectacle of the cream of
the national press corps submitting politely to
the indignity of obviously pre-approved questions,
with Bush not even bothering to conceal
that the affair was scripted.”
Perle is pissed
RICHARD PERLE says he will sue Seymour
Hersh and The New Yorker for the story this
week reporting that Perle has business interests
that conflict with his policy role. Perle also, it has
been revealed, is a director of Hollinger International
Inc., an investor in The New York Sun,
which uncritically backs Ariel Sharon, and
baited anti-war marchers as traitors. As you
would expect, the paper also supports Perle’s
polices. It broke the story of the lawsuit quoting
Perle thusly:
“I intend to launch legal action in the United
Kingdom. I’m talking to Queen’s Counsel right
now, Mr. Perle, who chairs the Pentagon’s
Defense Policy Board, a non-paying position, told
The New York Sun last night. He said he is suing
in Britain because it is easier to win such cases
there, where the burden on plaintiffs is much
less.”
Last weekend Perle went over the top
denouncing Sy Hersh as a terrorist during an
interview on CNN, as we have reported. Hersh,
up at Harvard to get a prize for his work, criticized
the Bush Administration, according to the
Harvard Crimson: “It’s scary,” he said. “I wish I
could say something optimistic. I think this guy