Excellent article about 'Jack Cafferty: Cable's noire newsguy'

[mandyky]

http://mkanejeeves.com/?p=191

By Ed Naha

<snip>
Most older liberals weren’t born with silver spoons embedded in their mouths…maybe popsicle sticks if they were lucky. Most came out of hard-working families. My Dad was a factory worker, my Mom was a mom and my first real summer job, at the age of 16, was working for the city, hauling trash and cutting weeds.

We don’t like being lied to and we acknowledge the reconfigured Lou Dobbs on CNN and the always brilliant Keith Olbermann on MSNBC as our last vestiges of truth-telling on cable news networks.

But, I would also add a third name to that list. A fella named Jack Cafferty, encased in CNN’s train-wreck of a show “The Situation Room.” He’s only on a few minutes every hour, soliciting and, later, commenting on, viewer e-mails. But, this guy is a primo-muckraker. A throw-back. A caustic gem.

Two weeks ago, when Rumsfeld proposed that leaving Iraq was the equivalent to our leaving post-war Germany to the Nazis Cafferty, shirt-sleeves rolled up, dead-panned: “The other overriding lesson that none of them ever seem to learn is that they shouldn’t just open their mouths and say stupid things.” Ow!

The greatest thing about Cafferty’s on-air snarkiness is that he instigates viewers to be equally snarky. The sarcastic e-mails pour in by the thousands. It’s the cable news version of “The Smirking Chimp.”

</snip>

[MadMaddie]

1. Cafferty always brings a smile to my face....

He is getting a lot of attention....and he is reading the great rants.....

[NoAmericanTaliban]

3. He is the only bright spot on 'The Situation Room'

& has become more & more open with his critizism of Bush & Co.

[babylonsister]

2. "He has an allergic reaction to crap." Great article, and I agree

mostly. Sometimes Cafferty is the only saving grace of that show.

[boot@9]

4. he speaks my

language! Most of the time the only worthwhile segment on the "SR".

[Minnesota Libra]

5. I absolutely love Cafferty, I wish he'd run "The Situation Room" nt

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Great article -- K&R!

[Pacifist Patriot]

7. Couldn't stand him on the morning show. Excellent relief from...

Blitzer in the Situation Room.

[warrens]

9. Imagine his position then

Second banana to Paula. Oh the humanity.

[CrispyQ]

8. "CNN’s train-wreck of a show “The Situation Room.” "

:rofl:


Great find. Thanks!

[mandyky]

10. Be sure to show Jack some love

during today's Situation room - if you like, send him the URL to the article!!

[pacalo]

11. I'm glad to see Cafferty get recognition. This was a great article.

[SoCalDem]

12. Did they mention the hit and run from a few years ago?

He hit a guy, and just drove off and went to work at CNN.. He lost me there.. I'm glad he speaks out and says things we like, but he was pretty callous when he hit that guy..

http://www.thenationaldebate.com/drdarchive/080603TND.htm

CNN anchor who ran over cyclist dodges jail

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/106768p-96571c.html

By BARBARA ROSS and BILL HUTCHINSON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Cranky CNN newsman Jack Cafferty copped a plea yesterday that will spare him any jail time for running over a bicyclist in midtown.He will pay a $250 fine and perform 70 hours of community service after pleading guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, a traffic infraction.Cafferty, 60, co-anchor of CNN's "American Morning" show, was as crusty as ever as he showed up at Midtown Community Court.

"You're here for my traffic ticket?" he growled as news photographers zeroed in.

But once inside, the curmudgeon let his attorney, Seth Rosenberg, do the talking, entering his guilty plea.

Cafferty made the deal after being charged with reckless driving, second- and third-degree assault, harassment and leaving the scene of an accident. Had he been convicted, he could have gotten up to a year in jail. Cafferty's Cadillac struck bicyclist Billy Maldonaldo, 48, at W. 42nd St. and Ninth Ave. the morning of May 14.

The biker banged up his elbow, scraped and cut his hand, and his knee started swelling as Cafferty cruised away.

Traffic Control Agent Kevin Martin and at least five pedestrians witnessed the accident and chased Cafferty's sedan, screaming at him to stop as it blew two red lights while dragging Maldonaldo's bike, officials said.

When cops caught up to Cafferty a day later, the newsman said he didn't know he hit the bicyclist.

Maldonaldo's lawyer, Ernest Holzberg, said Cafferty sent a $250 check to replace the bike and a busted Walkman, and promised to reimburse Maldonaldo for cab fare to doctor visits.

Holzberg said he also expects Cafferty's insurance carrier to pay for the elbow surgery Maldonaldo needed.

Still, the lawyer said, Maldonaldo is "unhappy that he Cafferty did not acknowledge that he knocked him down."

Originally published on August 6, 2003