C-Span's Fascists' Friday continues - Buchanan states FBI staged coup.

[Democrat 4 Ever]

I have been writting C-Span this morning. And actually got a reply. Of course, I had to respond to that.

Message # 1 -

----- Original Message -----
From: ME
To: JOURNAL
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 7:47 AM
Subject: RE: C-Span's Fascists' Friday now every day

C-Span is coming perilously close to being an extension of NPR and the neocon arm of the Republican party. The neocon have effectively staged a coup over at National Public Radio by installing a blatant party hack as the head. I can't help wondering if another such coup has silently taken place at C-Span.

We now see that daily C-Span is slowly giving more and more air time to partisan GOP talking heads and allowing them to go on and on without any type of serious challenge to the outrageous statements they make. You allow these statements to stand unchallenged and, thus, giving your passive agreement to these statements. You allow callers on the repug lines to go on and on stating untruths, outright lies, and unsupported statements hitting all the GOP weekly talking points. The job of your hosts is not to debate each and every call but it would certainly help if they were at least informed enough to gently correct some of the outright untruths, misstatements and definite lies. The right wing has taken over the air waves and they are now extending their arm twisting to NPR and C-Span. They will not rest until all forms of legitimate and honest reporting is gone and is replaced by their Norquist's talking points.

I cannot decide if you have amassed a group of show hosts that are truly uninformed or just pushing an agenda for the neocons in a truly subversive way.

I know that today's climate in the media seems to push the idea that it is okay not to be fair and balanced while declaring that you are indeed fair and balanced. Black is white, up is down, and poor, biased reporting is a public service. Your hosts, programmers, your producers should all be ashamed and have trouble sleeping at night. You are helping a evil force in this country.

I realize that you get innumerable calls, letters and emails from the neocons stating the exact opposite. They are just as sure you give more time to the Democrats and the progressives. Just go back and check the tapes, the callers and the air time you have allowed each side. (One morning you had four calls on the repug line in a row (your host kept saying, "Caller from _______, on the Support Bush line, Caller from ________ on the Republican line, over and over. Meanwhile I keep trying to call in on the Democrats line and kept getting a busy. Either you had people on the Dems line you were not allowing to speak or you had the line busied out so calls could not get through. Check the tapes.

You should either come out of the closet and admit your bias or take steps to correct this terrible path of programming you have taken. You are currently just as guilty as Fox News, and I've always thought you better than that.

Sincerely,

ME

In response, I get this from C-Span


----- Original Message -----
From: JOURNAL
To: ME
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 9:03 AM
Subject: RE: C-Span's Fascists' Friday now every day


the next segment is with George Lakoff. You might want to watch it. He and Jesse Jackson have 1 hour & 15 minutes of the Journal program today, between them. Pat Buchanan had 45 minutes.

And then my second message. I don't expect to hear back again but I thought if we mounted a campaign to let C-Span know their biased programming is not going unnoticed. (I still believe in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Clause and that the Consitution can withstand an onslaught by the a$$wipes in the White House.)

----- Original Message -----
From: ME
To: JOURNAL
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 10:08 AM
Subject: RE: C-Span's Fascists' Friday now every day

I am watching Lakoof, just like I watched Jackson and Buchanan. The difference is that your hosts just lamely sit there and let Buchanan (and all of the right wing wackos that you book) spew any nonsense they want without any attempt by your hosts to question the nonsense they are saying. Buchanan stated the FBI staged a coup during Watergate and the guy just sat there agreeing. Nothing is challenged if it comes out of a Republican mouth.

Jackson and Lakoff are being grilled - good - I have no problem with that. Question them, make them support their arguments - just do the same thing for the neocons. You guys are screening calls and allowing callers that are very slanted in favor of all things conservative - no matter who the guest is. I'm not sure how you can justifiy that this is contributing to the discussion of the many issues facing this country.

Somehow you have it in your head that "giving" more time today to liberals you have somehow done your job. Not if you continue to skew the questions, comments and callers. Hold the neocons' feet to the fire - you are allowing them to regugitate repug talking points as if they are facts. You guys are ducking issues and parsing words to avoid certain serious events in our government - like the Down Street minutes, why we went to war, whether the economy is as good as claimed, etc.

DO YOU JOB. That is not a difficult, or unreasonable, request.

Thank you for responding to my email.

[sellitman]

1. Keep us posted.

Nominated and kicked!

[ooglymoogly]

2. will give that a kick and nom. eom

[leetrisck]

3. I got thru this morning to Buchannan

but barely got 3 sentences out when Buchannan interrupted. I said that every word he had said applied to Clinton/Louis Freeh situation and he actually said he didn't know if that had happened but if so, it should be investigated. Ha I said Louis Freeh slithered out of town

[The Witch]

4. I remember you.

You were one of the folks who made him squirm.

[gman16]

5. FBI staged breakin...

As much as I find Buchanan to be like a barking beagle who wants to get along with the big dogs, he might have a point that the break-in was staged. Considering the background of those involved and looking at their actions while in the building you could make a case that they set it up to be found and arrested. These guys were experienced and proficient in their jobs, yet they made stupid mistakes.
Consider the pardons (all, including Reagan's of Felt), who went on to have "good" careers, and so forth.
If Felt was DT with L. Patrick Gray helping along to protect the FBI's interests, the possibility of it being staged to arrive at the end result of removing Nixon seems plausible to me.

[Democrat 4 Ever]

6. How old were you during the era? I followed this story every

single day back when...

This bunch fought the story with every thing in their arsenal. There is no way that Nixon and his cabal wanted to be caught doing anything. The FBI didn't want to get caught, the Attorney General, the White House attorneys, none of them wanted to get caught - they ALL just wanted to throw an election by any means possible. They just never imagined that they would be thrown out on their ear if their dirty tricks came to light. They are still pissed they didn't get away with - not that they are ashamed they broke the law.

Liddy, Colson, Buchanan, are all just repug thugs who are trying to rewrite history. Redeeming Nixon is all along the lines of canonizing Reagan. Just repeat their propaganda long enough and loud enough and some people will buy it. They try it 30 years ago and they are trying it again now.

Commander Cuckoobananas and his bunch are all cut from the same cloth. It is was they do, they just can't help themselves.

[gman16]

10. Set-up?

"There is no way that Nixon and his cabal wanted to be caught"

Thats assuming Nixon and his cabal knew of the break-in BEFORE it happened. The evidence that has been released indicates Nixon and his men taking part in the cover-up. If you study Nixon's reactions to the news of the break-in and his actions after, you could argue that he had no prior knowledge of the event.

"The FBI didn't want to get caught, the Attorney General, the White House attorneys, none of them wanted to get caught"

I would agree, (aside from combining the FBI, AG, and the WH as one entity acting in concert) the composition of those who participated in the event diverted attention away from the establishment, and the evidence found on the persons opened the door to the White House and others (a mistake if part of your job is securing plausible deniability).

Nixon and his merry men did participate in violations of the law, they were "crooks", but what took Nixon and his band down was pro-action in the cover-up.

[Democrat 4 Ever]

12. Exactly how old were you during this? Do you recall any of the

times or are you just repeating something you read, watched, heard? Nothing you espouse is supported by any evidence. Nixon and his bunch were crooks long before they hit the WH. They just perfected to an even higher degree after they got in.

On C-Span this morning even Buchanan acknowledged that as soon as he heard about the break-in he knew something was up with the WH. Said there was "too much paper" flying back and forth in the days before the break in not to point towards some kind of involvement. Said he was immediately suspicious. I always think Buchanan is lying if his lips are moving but I think his desire to pump up his own place in history today, he let his ass overload his mouth and he said too much.

[BurtWorm]

8. Really? You think Felt or the FBI may have staged the breakin

to entrap Nixon into covering it up? They must have been brilliant plotters to pull that off!

[ProfessorGAC]

15. It Could Happen Burt!

Sure, yeah that could happen! We'll stage a break-in; do it sloppily; get people to fall on the swords; then HOPE the upper echelon of the administration would actively pursue obstruction, bribery, money laundering, and lying. That's some good hopin'.
The Professor

[BurtWorm]

16. That's the ticket, professor!

;)

So now we can stop thinking of Nixon as an evil, paranoid, controlling bastid! What a relief!

[TWiley]

11. Buchanan is a Republican. They are inherently dishonest.

In fact, If a republicans lips are moving, then they are lying.

Gordon Liddy (who has an ego with the mass of a black hole) would want to get caught? I don't buy it. They were simply drunk with power and considered themselves un-prosecutable.

Felt simply did his patriotic duty and exposed an abuse of power. It had to stop somewhere, and he was brave enough to admit that, and take action.

[Jacobin]

14. Um, the "Plumbers" as they were known, were Nixon operatives

One was a member of CREEP, the committee to reelect the president.

He was caught fucking red handed and arrested in the DNC headquarters.

Why is tripe like this posted? It is simply gibberish.

[Orrex]

7. Valid concerns, but some of your points are problematic

On what basis can you make the claim that CSPAN lets through only Repub-friendly callers, unless you have access to the full roster of incoming calls?

Also, claims about the leeway given to Repub vs. Dem callers are difficult to address unless one provides analysis more precise than "You allow callers on the repug lines to go on and on stating untruths, outright lies, and unsupported statements hitting all the GOP weekly talking points." Anything less than a detailed accounting of the aired calls amounts to a rant based on anecdotal evidence. I'm sure that if you asked a Republican viewer, you'd hear an equivalent assessment of CSPAN's tolerance of Left-leaning falsehoods. You need to provide documentation if you wish to persuade.

I caution also that the tone of the first letter is, IMO, unhelpfully confrontational; rather than simply stating the case, the letter seeks to attack CSPAN. Regardless of the validity of your claims, this pitbull style of rhetoric will make your argument no more likely to sway opinion. And by referring to "repug lines," you automatically turn your legitmate complaint into a narcissistic rant.

On the other hand, I agree that CSPAN2 and BookTV seem to include a disproportionate number of speeches and discussion panels hosted by The Heritage Foundation and the AEI. I saw The Richard Dawkins piece of a few weeks past aired twice (though it may have been more) but the stultifying "Ronnie and Nancy" bit has been aired, at last count, exactly one gazillion times. Ditto the Michael "Global Warming Is A Myth" Crichton crap-piece, which was aired at least twice in primetime, IIRC.

Maybe it's a case of too few big-name, Left-leaning headliners for CSPAN2 to air opposite the very well-known names that the Right hauls forth. I don't know--even in this, I must admit that my observations are anecdotal and hardly conclusive. More data are needed.

[ananda]

9. boycott

Boycott!

[Jacobin]

13. And Barry Goldwater was in on it?

Poor Pat. He's off his meds again.


(Goldwater is the guy who went to see Nixon privately and told him that the jig was up and that there were enough votes in congress to impeach and convict him.....Congress, that is, NOT the FBI)