Instant Ignorant Dolts - Rick Stengel and Time Magazine

We haven't done much with Glenn Beck, here on The Garlic.

It's already satire, as soon as he opens his mouth, and we don't want to get into the daily "Look what Beck Said Now" circus.

His prodigious lunacy, long ago, granted him being grandfathered into The Garlic's "Ignorant Dolt" roster.



It would be one thing, like a major news periodical, say, Time Magazine, decided to look into the smegma that is Glen Beck, the lies, the racism, the fomenting of anarchy, and report on that, even acknowledging that the Flying Monkeys of the Right Wing Freak Show eat it up like happy soup.

But no.

Editor Rick Stengel has decided to do a puff, cheerleading, piece, that gives credibility to Beck's ranting lunacy by using the 'straw man" argument that the liberal left is just as bad.

Funny, I don't remember the Liberal Left foaming at the mouth that The Commander Guy wasn't a U.S. Citizen, or continually depicting him in offensive racial caricatures.

If someone has a tape of "The Cheeseburger That Sweats" (aka Rush Limbaugh - (H/T Barry Crimmins)), singing "Bush, The Hapless Honkey", get it posted asap.

Time's cover story this week, written by David Von Drehle, is "Mad Man: Is Glenn Beck Bad for America?"

You can go read it, and it take some time, as you will have to gather yourself up off the floor, having fallen down laughing so many times, you may end up with some bruises.

Or, you can read Greg Mitchell's deconstruction of it;

New TIME Cover on Glenn Beck Ignores Facts, and Worse

I have no quarrel with TIME magazine devoting a cover to Glenn Beck -- so long as the accompanying story sticks to hard facts and harsh truths. The issue coming tomorrow, online today, sadly fails to do so in an apparent effort to woo the rightwing with a ludicrously "balanced" treatment of equally dangerous and wacko "ranting" coming from left and right.

It starts right away with a first paragraph that claims that only "liberal sources" estimated the protest crowd in D.C. last weekend as about 70,000, while conservatives say up to a million or more. Actually, virtually all mainstream media sources, along with nonpartisan factchecking organizations such as PolitiFact, cite the lower number.

[snip]

There's a scattering of extreme Beck quotes lost in many paragraphs on the money deals. And groups like Media Matters are accused of "cherry picking" the bad ones. But then, they are just part of the "rant industry" on the left. There's a long, long graf quoting Beck on 9/11 and the Freedom Towers but no mention of his attack on the 9/11 widows. It notes his assault on the Obama "czars" and "he has some radical-sounding sound bites to back it up."

Ignorance and possible racism are never raised, despite polls showing that frightening numbers of conservatives believe that Obama was born in Kenya or may, in fact, be the "anti-Christ."

There's more that Mitchell has, and, also Glen Greenwald, taking Stengel, and Time, to task in his "Time Magazine: the liberal bias of facts"

It is also rather odd that Stengel would opt to puff up Beck in this weeks' 'Time', considering, just yesterday, Salon ran with an excellent expose on Beck - "Meet the man who changed Glenn Beck's life: Cleon Skousen was a right-wing crank whom even conservatives despised. Then Beck discovered him."

Beck is idolizing, and preaching the word of, a man who both the Republican Conservatives AND the Mormons booted out, not wanting any part of him.

If you can't cut it with either of those two, man, you gotta be so far off-the-planet, the Hubbell Telescope couldn't find you.

Mitchell offers an Update in his post;

Just got the print edition. In editor's note, Richard Stengel actually writes, "One of our jobs as journalists is to be the referee, the honest broker who sorts through the accusations and says, This is fact, and this is fantasy." Then explains that's why they put Von Drehle on Beck.

I guess Stengel hasn't gotten around to reading the Salon piece, or anything much else on Beck, and just ran with "the fantasy" stuff.

Rick, how's about being that "honest broker" next week, and place on your cover The Garlic awarding you the Ignorant Dolt Crown and Sceptre.

You, Rick Stengel, are today's' Instant Ignorant Dolt.


Bonus Links

Jamison Foser: How Time magazine enables Glenn Beck's lies

John Cook: Leftist 'Terrorizer' of Children Is Now Glenn Beck's Official Portraitist

David Weigel: Time Magazine Disputes Time Magazine’s Reporting

Steve Krakauer: MSNBC Forced To Talk About Glenn Beck

Will Bunch: UPDATED: Where Glenn Beck gets his ideas

Some More Donuts, There, Mr. Halperin?

About the only thing missing for Time Magazine's Mark Halperin, during his appearance yesterday on 'This Week with George Stephanopoulos', was having "McCain 08" tattooed on his forehead, and the Dead Campaign Express bus parked on set, behind him.

How much did the Rove Rats pay him to test out a new line, or, was he just putting a marker down, to get in the running to be Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain's Press Secretary, should the sky fall in this Fall?

Halperin must be covering the campaign that’s running in Bizzaro World, for, incredulously, he offered this honed, priceless observation, speaking of the McCain Dementia on not knowing how many houses he owns, and the Obama Campaign seizing the opportunity for teeing up a few long balls with it.

From Think Progress;

HALPERIN: My hunch is this is going to end up being one of the worst moments in the entire campaign for one of the candidates but it’s Barack Obama. […] I believe that this opened the door to not just Tony Rezko in that ad, but to bring up Reverend Wright, to bring up his relationship with Bill Ayers.

WTF!

What's next, that, Halperin goes out a limb, puts his (or what's left of it) professional reputation on, that, maybe, that Phelps kid has a chance to pick up a medal or two in the Olympics?

Jesus, this comes from a Time Magazine writer?

I wouldn't mind seeing the magazine take a poll with their interns, and see if any of their assessments match Halperin's.

If anyone has been awake, even for a few minutes, over the past few months, they wouldn't be able to avoid the garbage that McCain and his Rove Rats have been hurling at Obama.

Kevin Drum;

t really does make you wonder what planet Halperin is living on. Last month McCain hired Karl Rove protege Steve Schmidt, and since then he's run ads mocking Obama's celebrity, charged (repeatedly) that Obama puts his career ahead of his country, pretended that Obama had refused to visit wounded soldiers unless the press was along, run an ad saying that Obama was responsible for high gas prices, and conspicuously declined to comment on Jerome Corsi's bestselling claim that Obama is really a secret Muslim. At this point, who cares how McCain "says he's going to run his campaign"? Halperin can look at McCain's actual campaign and see what kind of campaign he's running. It's been sunk in the gutter for weeks now.

If the Stumblin' Bumblin' McCain Campaign becomes any more negative, any more nastier, they'll do a disservice to the Right Wing Freak Show - they'll make them look liberal.

Can someone offer a prize, something good, to the first photographer who grabs the shot of Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain delivering a coffee and a box of donuts to Halperin.

Help Me Mr. Wizard!


Bonus Halperin Hijinx Links

TPM Video - Mark Halperin: McCain Gaffe Excellent News for McCain!!!

Matthew Yglesias: On the Tire Swing

Josh Marshall: Ride that Tire Swing!

Ron Chusid: Mark Halperin Continues To Spread Republican Talking Points

Steve Benen: ALL NEWS IS GOOD NEWS FOR MCCAIN...

The Bob Dole For The New Millennium

"I have neither the time nor legal background to figure out who’s right." ... Joe Klein and Time (Stood Still) Magazine Follow-Up

Power comes from lying ... Lying big and getting the whole damn world to play along with you ... Once you got everybody agreeing with what they know in their hearts ain't true, you get them by the balls

Senator Roark, from “Sin City - That Yellow Bastard”

Yes, we have to employ one of our favorite lying quotes again, only to begin to capture the conflagration raging over Joe Klein and Time Magazine's obtuse behavior in intentionally misrepresenting - lying - about the FISA Debate and pending legislation.

We weighed in on it yesterday with "Top Ten Cloves: Reasons Time Magazine Hasn't Corrected Joe Klein's Egregiously Error-Filled FISA Articles", but that wasn't even a thimble-full of scorn that is being flung around;

Jane Hamsher/Firedoglake: Shorter Time Magazine: Equal Time For GOP Propaganda

emptywheel/The Last Hurrah: Time Gives Up on the Truth

Crooks and Liars: Joe Klein: Accuracy??? We don’t need no stinkin’ accuracy!

Klein, along with editors Priscilla Painton, Josh Tyrangiel and Rick Stengel don't have their heads buried in the sand, their walking around with sandboxes encasing their alleged brains.

Here's Stengel, taking the helm, adding "the correction" to Klein's original smear piece;

In the original version of this story, Joe Klein wrote that the House Democratic version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) would allow a court review of individual foreign surveillance targets. Republicans believe the bill can be interpreted that way, but Democrats don't.

This is after Klein himself offered "I have neither the time nor legal background to figure out who’s right."

Ohhh Boy! ...

While Glenn Greenwald has been all over this, as well as numerous other writers and bloggers, just in case the folks at Time Magazine are confused - by their own work and writing - U.S. Representative Rush Holt, writing on The Huffington Post, offers them "What's Really in the RESTORE Act", even though Editor Stengel and Klein appear completely disinterested in getting the facts straight.


We'll cue up Que Sera Sera, while you peruse Part II of the Joe Kleinpalooza


Glenn Greenwald: Everything that is rancid and corrupt with modern journalism: The Nutshell

Marty Lederman/Balkinization: All You Need to (Not) Know About the Proposed FISA Fix

Think Progress: Time’s false balancing act.

Kagro X/Daily Kos: More on the Time idiocy

Glenn Greenwald: Demand answers from Time magazine; (Updated below - Update II, Update III: "Response" from Rick Stengel Update IV, Update V)

Digby: Time After Time

Joe Klein and Rick Stengel seem to be taking the greatest of pleasure in burning the truth

Top Ten Cloves: Reasons Time Magazine Hasn't Corrected Joe Klein's Egregiously Error-Filled FISA Articles

News Item: Joe Klein digs Time's hole deeper still

10. Waiting to hear back from the NSA, on listening to wiretaps of critics before responding

9. Being that Klein, and Time, tilts Rightwing, nobody has a blue pencil

8. Worried, if they take action, could cause more heart trouble for Vice President Dick Cheney

7. Hoping that Klein gets subpoenaed and thrown in jail like Judy Miller, so they can really play it up

6. Editors Priscilla Painton, Josh Tyrangiel and Rick Stengel don't ever read Klein's columns

5. Sought opinion from new Attorney General Mukasey, who indicated he wasn't prepared to say if it was an error or not

4. Sticking with and standing by Priscilla Painton's “That assumes that there are errors,”

3. Afraid if they discipline or suspend Klein, he'll bolt right over to Fox News

2. White House hasn't given them the O-K yet

1. Can't do anything; Clause in Klein's contract allows him to write like a buffoon and make up whatever he wants










Buckle Your Seatbelts, It's a Joe Kleinpalooza!

Ryan Singel: Time's Columnist Joe Klein Butchers Wiretapping Debate

Atrios: Bizarro World

Daily Kos: Klein's "shameful" er, "journalism"

Matt Stoller: Joe Klein's Meltdown

Crooks and Liars: TIME, please spare us Joe Klein on FISA

Glenn Greenwald: Time magazine's FISA fiasco shows how Beltway reporters mislead the country

Our Girl Condi Gets A Theme Song - Neocons and Lovers

Well, Well, Well ...

After being pushed back into the shadows, first by our Decider, make that Decision-Maker's, New Way Forward Surge Speech, and then his sans-New Orleans, Civilian Reserves Corp-laden SOTU, and following that, we had Vice President Darth Vader making his splash, beating down Wolf Blitzer and topping his "final throes" with declaring our Iraq Occupation to be "enormous success", and sandwiched in there was the First Lady and Liz Cheney picking on poor Condi.

What's our top globe-trotting, piano-playing, error-admitting diplomat to do?

If you're Super Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, you grab the cover of the latest U.S. edition of Time Magazine, perhaps as a forerunner to a statement declaring 2007 as "Year of the Condi".



The puff piece "The Weight Of The World" certainly paints poor Condi as caught between a rock-and-a-hard place and how-could-that-happen-to-someone-so-brilliant?

And in a second article, an interview "This Can Be Done Through Diplomacy", no doubt she'll be standing on the carpet in the Oval Office, having to explain to Dubya" why she's reading from the Iraq Study Group pages and not his.

Yet, while not ready to go off with Cheney and Rumsfield to one their Armageddon Retreats, Our Girl Condi is putting Dubya's legacy ahead of hers and is dancing the beat of the Surge.

Maybe she is a Neocon, dressed in diplomat's clothing.

So, while The Garlic has, on many occasions, put the musical spotlight on the two people who keep getting in Condi's way - Bush and Cheney, we decided that Condi needed some theme music to call her own.

Inspired by a recent Song Parody contest, The Garlic cues up the "Wives and Lovers", retitled for the occasion to "Neocon and Lovers".

Neocons and Lovers

Hey, little Condi
Comb your hair, fix your make-up
Soon he will open the door.
Don't think because
Theres a surge in Iraq,
You needn't try any more

For Neocons should always be lovers, too.
Run to his arms the moment he comes home to you.
I'm warning you.

Day after day,
There's Cheney in his office,
And men will always be men.
Don't send him off
With your hair still in curlers.
You may not see him again.

For Neocons should always be lovers, too.
Run to his arms the moment he comes home to you.
Hes almost here.

Hey, little Condi
Better wear something pretty,
Something you'd wear to go to the Sit-Room.
And dim all the lights,
Pour the lies, start the spinning.
Time to get ready for Iran.

Oh, time to get ready,
Time to get ready,
Time to get ready
For Iran.


Links

Time Magazine - "The Weight Of The World"

Time Magazine - "This Can Be Done Through Diplomacy"

Rice's Rhetoric, in Full Retreat

Miss J's Newsvine Parody Contest - Song Lyrics

Top Ten Cloves: Things About Condoleezza Rice Becoming NFL Commissioner