This guy started asking Chris Dodd some tough questions. To be honest he was a total jerk, but he spoke truth to power. Seems like he lost his job at Clear Channel over it. Critics said that Clear Channel will act like fascists in the Bush administration, and they were right, but not in the way you might expect. They replaced his interview with Hannity (’natch).

Democrats need to be careful, putting ethically challenged career politicians like Dodd back in charge is not the change we need.

Dodd received more money from Fannie than any Senator other than Obama…putting him back in charge of the Senate Banking Committee is putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.

The ethical concern is here. How silly of me to assume that the press would report on this more. All the liberals over here know about Ted Stevens’ shameful shananigans (I don’t know how he’ll legislate from federal prison, but details), but no word on Dodd?

My friend replied:

I am, somewhat, coming around to your point of view about some liberal bias in some MSM (e.g. esp. NYTimes & NPR). But what is the alternative? Fox news? Yikes!

If NYTimes & NPR are biased, it is in failing to cover some news stories– silence implies consent. But other venues, like FOX, report opinions as news, instead of trying to remain objective and saving partisan vitriol for the op-ed page.

Me:

The little lady once complained why I read CNN instead of Fox. It was funny she asked me in this accusatory tone like I was betraying the movement or something. I said, ok, let me show you and opened up the front page of Fox and CNN side by side. CNN said something like:

“Stocks drop 10% a new one day record”

The Fox headline was: “Carnage on Wall Street!”

I told her my heart can’t handle that on a daily basis. To be honest I’m picky. I really like Rush Limbaugh because he has a sense of humor. Bill O’ Reilly yells a lot, and Sean Hannity is a complete idiot in my opinion. I don’t listen or watch any of them.

I like Real Clear Politics because it has an equally mixed bag of opinions. Instapundit is great, a law prof who is very tech geekie, and no cheerleader for anyone. I just about lost all faith in the NYTimes and started reading the Washington Post more often now, which is more highbrow and far less condescending. Fareed Zakaria is a complete jerk but I read him b/c Obama is a big fan of his. Newsweek and Washington Post are merged but Newsweek seems to be for the far left Obamamaniacs whereas Washington Post is for the grown up, mature, uh, Obamamaniacs.

In an attempt to remember to watch the Democratic Presidential debates tonight, I wanted to point to this article about Dodd’s dissatisfaction with the debate format.

Tonight is the first Democratic National Committee-sanctioned debate in Charleston, SC. After watching a few of these debates, I have to agree with Mr. Dodd wholeheartedly on this:

“They’re not even debates. You get 30 seconds to answer a question. It’s insulting to the audience,” Dodd said to a Des Moines Register reporter following a stop Saturday night at Ritual Cafe in downtown Des Moines. “If you have a 30 second answer on these issue, you have no business running for the presidency, or ever being elected.”
…
“It’s not terribly enlightening. It’s like throwing bumper stickers out – who gets an applause line. As if somehow that’s an informative discussion for the American people to draw better conclusions for who these people are,” Dodd said. “It demeans the office of the presidency, it minimizes the office – you look like a bunch of third graders.”

Of course the interesting thing about the debate is the fact that YouTube (a Google company, of course) is helping sponsor the debate by letting YouTube users submit questions over video. The L.A. Times talks about this question posed by one of these said users:

Sen. Clinton, I think you would make a great president. But there’s a question that deserves to be answered before the end of the primaries, because it could affect your ability to run against a strong Republican: Has your husband, Bill Clinton, engaged in adulterous behavior since he’s left office?

Wow…I’m sure that one will make the cut. Although, I’m not an Anderson Cooper fan (by a LONG-shot) I promise I will do my best to make it all the way through the debate and offer commentary.

DesMoinesRegister.com