Will Bob Schieffer play dumb with Dick Cheney this Sunday?

[babylonsister]

http://mediamatters.org/blog/200905080026


Will Bob Schieffer play dumb with Dick Cheney this Sunday?

May 08, 2009 3:10 pm ET by Eric Boehlert


Cheney's appearing on CBS's Face the Nation, apparently as part of his on-going anti-Obama smear campaign. (What else do you call Cheney's claim that Obama has made America less safe since taking the oath of office?) The question is, will Schieffer in his comments and questions to Cheney make this point perfectly clear to viewers: that what Cheney is doing with his high-profile attacks on the new administration is unprecedented. Period.

We have simply never seen, in modern American politics, the losing VP belittle a new president, just weeks into his first term, the way Cheney now routinely does in the media. Why? Because those were the ground rules the press established: if you, or your side, lost the November election (and especially if your side lost in a rout), you went away for a long time and remained silent. (Think Michael Dukakis or Bob Dole.)

Just ask Al Gore. The press used to consider it beneath contempt for the losing side to take partisan swipes at the White House winner during the early days of his presidency.

That's how the game was played for decades. But Cheney mounts a sustained anti-Obama media campaign and the Beltway press doesn't flinch. The press corps acts like it's normal; like that's what all former VP's do right after they vacate the WH. It's not. It's unprecedented.

Will Schieffer at least make a passing reference to that, or will he play dumb?

[Warpy]

1. He'll apply his lips firmly to Cheney's flabby arse

for as long as he can persuade the Great Man to stay still.

If he offended the Great Man, he might never get him back on the show!

Journalism is dead.

[ControlledDemolition]

16. So Cheney can fart-board him? n/t

[Greybnk48]

2. Why are people not boycotting these repug shows?

Every week for years they've been a Repug forum to attack the Dems. Yet people continue to support them, some of my family members included. I don't get it and refuse to watch.

[Atman]

4. There is no point in boycotting. The shows aren't created for the viewers.

These shows are created for the politicians. If only twelve people watched, the self-serving (and GOP-serving) broadcasters would still create "news" stories about what was said, and that "news" would make it into their evening news broadcasts, their print outlets, wherever and whenever was needed. These shows and the network news is one big daisy chain of bullshitters sucking on each others naughty bits.

So maybe boycott their advertisers? Nice try. You seriously think you can boycott Archer Daniels Midland or GE? They could give a fuck what we think. They advertise on these shows for the tax write-offs. Advertising is tax-deductible, which means we, the taxpayers, actually PAY FOR GE to advertise itself on it's own networks. It's just a big clusterfuck which we, the people, really play no part in. They do it for themselves.

.

[Blecht]

3. Does the Pope shit in the woods?

Is a bear wet?
Is water catholic?

[Gabi Hayes]

7. I believe it's...

does a bear piss in the cathedral.....

[liberal N proud]

5. Quite simply - YES

He will suck up just as if Cheney were still the VP

[Truth2Tell]

6. Does the Pope wear a funny hat? nt

[tom_paine]

8. Dumb and toadying and throwing up softballs as fast as he can.

Typical GOPM$M masquerading ever more laughably as the "Liberal Media".

[eleny]

9. He'll be humping Dick's leg

Dumb? I report, you decide. :D

[spanone]

10. the more chenee talks the deeper he digs his own grave....sing, dick, sing.

[mulsh]

11. hard hitting, insiteful journalist Bob Scheiffer will be exactly the

dodder drooling old has been codger he's been for the past few years. If he had any journalistic integrity he wouldn't be "interviewing" cheney at all.

[tularetom]

12. Cheney has decided the American people are so dumb

and the media so inept and the "opposition" party so wussy that his best course is to bluff it out. ("Yeah, we waterboarded some ragheads and yeah, we knew it was torture but we did it to protect you, you ungrateful bastards. Now what are you gonna do about it it? Nothing? I thought so.").

And it might work. Here in Amurka.

Problem is, people in other countries will read the same crapola and have a totally different reaction. The dumbass is actually implicating himself in crimes that he will most likely be charged for by some foreign country.

So fine, let him babble.

[Demeter]

13. He's NOT Playing, Sister

It's a gift.

[gratuitous]

14. That was my thought - "play" dumb?

Nope, Schieffer will be absolutely amnesiac about the last eight years while Cheney snarls on about the injustice of it all! A man of Cheney's stature having to explain his mysterious and ineffable ways to the hoi polloi. Schieffer will nod agreement, and go on to the next fluffball on his pre-approved list of questions.

[Supersedeas]

15. instead of honoring democracy and the New Admin--BS will continue to acquiesce to Bush/Cheney

The Corporate Media is showing their true colors