The Mouse chooses ex-Nixon staffer to replace Charlie Gibson. Your liberal media strikes again.Atrios: Bush Cult
Remember her Dixie Chicks "interview?" Oh my.
Just adding to Greenwald's Bush cult post, in honor of Diane Sawyer I thought I'd remind everyone, as I occasionally do, what inspired the greatest mainstream-media supported national ragegasm I've seen in my lietime. It's hard to imagine now, but Natalie Maines didn't spit on a returning Vet or wipe her ass with the US flag while on stage. She said:
Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.
- Jim Lewis (Slate, April 25, 2003): No More Whistlin' Dixie Diane Sawyer's indecorous performance with the Dixie Chicks.
Last night's Primetime Thursday, which featured Diane Sawyer interviewing the Dixie Chicks about their recent woes, was one of those broadcast moments that make you want to put your foot through the television. In case you've been out working in the garden this past month, the occasion for the show was a relatively innocuous remark the Chicks' lead singer, Natalie Maines, made at a concert in London just before the war. "Just so you know," she said from the stage, "we're ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas." The Associated Press picked up the line; country music stations fanned the flames; and within a few weeks the Dixie Chicks' newest record, Home, which had been No. 1 on both the country and pop charts, was being boycotted across the country.
This is silly but not unpredictable. What followed was disgusting: CD-crushing radio promo events, vandalism of Chick Emily Robison's home, threats on the Chicks' lives, and a campaign of hatred directed at three of the most talented women in the music industry. Bruce Springsteen occasionally gets flack for his political remarks, but he doesn't get called a slut.
The Chicks themselves may have inadvertently made things worse. When Jonathan Franzen ticked off the Oprah folks, it was as distressing to see his furious backpedaling as it was to see the arrant frenzy that his remarks occasioned. It would have been easier on him—and probably shortened the story's news life—if he'd just insisted, "Yeah, I said it. Yeah, I meant it. If you want to talk about it, we can do that. If you want to scream at me, I'm going to have to tune you out and get on with my life." God knows Maines and her two bandmates might have saved themselves a little heartache if they'd done the same.
Still, they have the burden to bear of being from Dallas, where women tend to be a) spirited and b) polite. Not always an easy balance to maintain, but last night Maines did her best. When Sawyer prompted the three of them to ask for forgiveness, in a gruesome moment of utterly fake primetime piety, the trio paused. You could see them struggling with their pride, their conviction, and their desire to get along; I was half-hoping they'd suggest Sawyer kiss their three asses (and I'd be surprised if the notion didn't run through their minds). Instead, Maines kept her cool and her dignity. "Accept us," she said. "Accept an apology that was made ... but to forgive us, don't forgive us for who we are." And she went on to point out, as if it needed to be said, that the practice of dissent is fundamental to democracy.
That wasn't good enough for Sawyer. She spent an hour trying to bend the Chicks with a combination of false sympathy and crass sensationalism. Time and again, she cut back to a typeset insert of Maines' original remark, as if Maines had called for the pillage of Crawford. "Ashamed?" Sawyer said, incredulously. "Ashamed?" In the tradition of a Stalinist show trial, the women were forced to affirm their patriotism and their support for the troops. At every point they—who are, after all, entertainers with no particular training in political science—were thoughtful, modest, and firm. At every point Sawyer tried to force them into a crude, Manichaen choices. "Do you feel awful about using that word about the president of the United States?" she asked at the start of the interview—in a prime example of the sort of leading question no self-respecting first year AP stringer would ask. "Well," replied Maines, carefully, " 'awful' is a really strong word." Later, when Maines was trying to apologize and clarify, Sawyer said, "I hear something not quite, what, wholehearted. …"
Well, I heard something not quite—what—honorable in Sawyer's presentation of the affair: an attempt to take a trivial matter that had blown up into an absurd controversy, and blow it up even more under the guise of simply covering the story. Essentially, she asked the women to choose between abasing themselves on national television or stirring up more hatred against themselves. It was a depressing moment in an ugly time.
For what it's worth, I have profoundly mixed feelings about the war, and if I were to sit down with Natalie Maines, I'm sure we'd have much to disagree about. But, just so you know, I'm proud that the Dixie Chicks are from Texas. What's more, I'm embarrassed that Diane Sawyer is a member of my profession.
Jim Lewis writes regularly about art for Slate and is the author of the forthcoming novel The King Is Dead. He lives in Austin, Texas.
National Review's Jay Nordlinger -- and others at that magazine -- are upset that a school is showing a year-old video in which various celebrities spout feel-good platitudes about public service, and -- for a fleeting second -- Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher vow to "serve Obama." This sentiment -- a desire to "serve" the President -- is something conservatives would never adopt, apparently:
When I read about that celebrity video where they say, “I pledge to be of service to Barack Obama,” I thought that the people do not deserve to be American citizens, because they have no idea what America or a liberal republic is. . . . Also, it strikes me that "I pledge to be of service to Barack Obama" is the product of a thoroughly secular mind, which is another marker of contemporary America. . . . Did conservatives ever say “I pledge to be of service to Ronald Reagan”? I never heard it -- and the notion is preposterous.
I'm always amazed -- even though I know I shouldn't be -- at people's capacity simply to block out events, literally refuse to acknowledge them, when they are inconsistent with their desire to believe things. Do Nordlinger and the other National Review political experts really not know about this episode, obviously much more consequential than some admittedly creepy though entirely trivial moment in a celebrity "pledge" video:
According to the [Justice Department] OIG report released today, Angela Williamson, a deputy to Monica Goodling at the [Bush] DOJ, was intimately involved in her bosses' scurrilous hiring practices, attending interviews and often conducting interviews herself. Here's a sampling of the same questions that Goodling:
After Goodling resigned, Williamson typed from memory the list of questions Goodling asked as a guide for future interviews. Among other questions, the list included the following:
Tell us about your political philosophy. There are different groups of conservatives, by way of example: Social Conservative, Fiscal Conservative, Law & Order Republican.
[W]hat is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?
Aside from the President, give us an example of someone currently or recently in public service who you admire.
Prior to Goodling herself testifying before the House Judiciary Committee about her screening of prospective DOJ hires to make certain they were sufficiently devoted to serving George Bush, she shared with a Justice Department official this vow: "All I ever wanted to do was serve this president." And she didn't have a "secular mind." Even as Attorney General, Alberto Gonazles actually thought his "client" was the President. The entire DOJ was structured to ensure that its employees, including prosecutors required to act with apolitical independence, were what they called "loyal Bushies." Pledging "to be of service to George W. Bush" was the prime mandate of the Justice Department, which is why it was headed for his second term by Bush's most loyal servant.
Beyond the DOJ, huge swaths of the right-wing movement were devoted to an unprecedented veneration of George Bush. A whole industry on the Right was created to convert him into a warrior-deity, including truly creepy reverence books by National Review writers (see here for various illustrations). Some on the Right actually speculated that God intervened in our elections because he had hand-picked Bush to be our leader. Even Bill Kristol admitted that the GOP had turned into little more than a Bush-centered personality cult, telling the New York Times: "Bush was the movement and the cause." More than any single, discrete issue, what motivated me to begin writing about political issues was the warped climate of hero worship constructed -- by the Right and the media -- around George Bush as a "War President."
If you search long enough on the Internet, can you find examples of random people or vapid celebrities guilty of excessive Obama worship? Obviously. One can find virtually anything using those methods. But the personalized veneration of George Bush, particularly during his first term, was systematic and engulfing. It was the fuel that drove most of the abuses and transgressions of that era. The New York Times' Elizabeth Bumiller infamously confessed that asking hard questions of Bush was "frightening" due to the prevailing political climate. To read right-wing pundits proclaiming that such a sentiment would never be embraced by a conservative is really remarkable -- only because it's such a powerful testament to the ability of people to just forget and/or completely whitewash even the most recent history.
DougJ: It’s Luke Russert’s world, we’re just living in it
Interesting back and forth about Jenna’s “Today” show gig in a WaPo chat::
Florida Chick: Dreadful pandering, this hiring of Jenna Bush for the Today show. It wasn’t enough that she was green-lighted for two books? With two years teaching experience and an unimpressive academic record? She would be lucky to get the teaching job on the merits she earned. Same greased skid as the dad had. I am boycotting the Today show. This is almost as bad as the Luke Russert hire, which was all-time bottom for “if you’re famous you’re in.” I am disgusted. boycott.
Roxanne Roberts: To elaborate: Think like a TV producer. Who’s going to get viewers: An education expert with years of experience who no one has ever heard of? Or Jenna?
Jenna, of course. The topics covered in a five-minute segment should be well within her talents (plus she’ll have producers helping to make her look good.) She can be quite charming when she chooses, and will appeal to the morning television set. This isn’t C-Span, people.
and
I’m with Florida Chick: Jenna Bush’s new job is especially galling at a time when thousands of journalists with real training and experience have lost their jobs. “Within her talents?” I didn’t realize being born to privilege was considered a talent these days.
Amy Argetsinger: Well, let’s break it down here. If you were outraged when Summer Sanders and Tiki Barber and Giada de Laurentiis got “special correspondent” gigs on “Today” without prior journalism experience, then go ahead and be outraged here. It’s possible you haven’t seen “Today” lately; we’re not talking about NBC News so much as we’re talking about the show that gives over an entire hour to Kathy Lee Gifford. This is in the realm of celebrity spokesmodel stuff.
I’d probably be more worked up about this if this were a full-time actual journalism job—it’s just a once-a-month personality-driven thing. And even if it were… you know, this is how the world works. The Kennedys and Cuomos and Shrivers and Buckleys and Russerts all sent kids into real journalism jobs where they basically started right at the top, without having to labor in the trenches and small markets. It happens all the time.
I mostly agree with the question-answerers. There’s nothing at all unusual about “Today” hiring Jenna and it’s less egregious than Chris Wallace, Cokie Roberts, and Luke Russert, who purport to be something other than spokesmodels.
But this will strike many as more blatant. With so many things, the Bush family has been the reductio ad absurdum of modern American medio-politics. There are times when I think they almost deserve our thanks for this.
Update. I almost added Andrea Koppel to this list, but it sounds like she’s somewhat qualified and worked her way up at least a little bit. I was disturbed to learn she is married to Ken Pollack, though.
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