Howard Fineman, Newsweek's Senior Washington Correspondent and Columnist, senior editor and deputy Washington bureau chief wrote in his latest column ...
"Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, was 50 minutes late for his briefing, apparently a record for tardiness, but few reporters in the White House press room bothered to feign outrage; they didn't seem all that eager to ask him questions anyway. When his boss flew to Missouri to give another of his 'high octane' (The New York Times), 'impassioned' (The Washington Post) health-care speeches, no cable channel covered the event. If you are president, the only thing worse than criticism is not being covered. And the truth is, we in the press are bored with Barack...the 'mainstream media' are losing patience with, and even interest in, their erstwhile hero."
Does anyone find right-wing vitriol in the words of Mr. Fineman? His employer, Newsweek/NBC-MSNBC is, after all, the proud purveyor of what is openly presented as the sensibility of progressive-ism; the anti-Fox if you will.
Had Fineman penned these same words a year ago would they have been perceived by his liberal readers as vitriolic or incendiary? Would they have been vilified for being just so much anti-Bush backlash rhetoric prompted by the year-long media love affair and shill-fest that was so overtly responsible for the election of an unqualified, un-vetted, unabashed radical leftist ideologue?
"Wow, the same intellectual rigor and [ideological] rigidness that brought us the super boy wonder George W. Bush, is in full display. Keep up the great work."
"You should be tired of it. You conservatives always repeat the same BS over and over again until I want to rip my freakin' eyeballs out of my head and throw them across the room. You and others like you remind me of this guy I work with, whenever someone tags me with an awesome slam I immediately make sure he hears about it because he'll repeat it so much that he kills the joke for everyone."
The foregoing were among the printable comments received in response to a commentary that I published on 2/27/09. It included the following...
...To a great extent, however, our current president is a media creation and is as well-produced as a top-rated TV series when he takes to the air. Of course, Obama's demeanor, oratorical skills and appearance are largely responsible for the media's ongoing favoritism...
...Nonetheless, that same slobbering media knows better than anyone that overexposure, backlash, ennui and "the next big thing" always take their toll on even the longest-running programs...
...Sooner or later the TV worms will turn because they know that people won't keep watching the same predictable story forever. The storybook plotline will, ultimately, be dropped or replaced by "the other side of the story", which we all know is rich with fresh programming content and the potential for increased audience and ad revenue.
It is an honor to have such a well-respected liberal media representative as Howard Fineman validate my own long-held opinion. Unfortunately for him, it will be anything but boring going forward as nasty die-hard lefties' comments about his honest assessment of Obama overexposure fill his inbox.
In related inside-out news, the New York Times published an op-ed that, for much of its wording, could have been submitted by a Tea Partier or one of those right-wing radio talkers...
"The country's [legislature] is no better than a rubber stamp and there is no real party system...there is a growing feeling that the government is afraid of civil society and would like to control everything...primitive economy and a society grown complacent because the government runs everything...I agree with [the president's] goal of modernization. But it will not happen if people are sidelined, if they are just pawns. If the people are to feel and act like citizens, there is only one prescription: democracy, including the rule of law and an open and honest dialogue between the government and the people."
The New York Times piece was actually written by Mikhail Gorbachev on the 25th anniversary of his perestroika reforms to warn that Russia is in danger of backsliding into the dark days of the Soviet Union as a result of the policies of Vladimir Putin.
Take heart Howard Fineman. Mr, Gorbachev is in a lot more danger from the extreme left for his truthfully critical comments than are either of us.