February 15, 2006
American Clown Journalism 101
By Michelle
Malkin
Journalists
around the world are being targeted by suicide bombers, threatened
with "hate crimes" prosecutions and thrown in jail for
defending a free press from crazed Islamists.
You wouldn't
know it from the circus-show antics of the American media.
Vice President
Dick Cheney, as you all are aware from the Beltway press corps'
incessant flapping and yapping, was involved in an accidental
shooting during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas. The victim
is recovering.
It's the
me-me-media hyperventilators who need intensive care.
Peacock
Network News correspondent David Gregory, whose self-absorption
rivals the leading brand of paper towels, threw a snit fit over
the 18-hour delay in public disclosure of the incident. His exchange
on Monday with White House press secretary Scott McClellan was
a walking advertisement for beta blockers.
McClellan: "David, hold on, the cameras aren't on right
now. You can do this later."
Gregory: "Don't accuse me of trying to pose to the cameras.
Don't be a jerk to me personally when I'm asking you a serious
question."
McClellan: "You don't have to yell."
Gregory: "I will yell! If you want to use that podium to
try to take shots at me personally, which I don't appreciate,
then I will raise my voice, because that's wrong!"
McClellan: "Calm down, Dave, calm down."
Gregory: "I'll calm down when I feel like calming down!"
Funny thing
is, I can't recall the mainstream media melting down over the
30-hour delay -- presided over by Hillary Clinton, according to
internal records -- in releasing the late White House counsel
Vincent Foster's suicide note to authorities and her own husband.
Can you?
News anchors
who couldn't find the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights if
you put it under klieg lights pontificated about 28-gauge shotguns
and hunting etiquette. CNN personality Kyra Phillips, in a rare
moment of cable news humility, giggled self-consciously as she
asked a correspondent to explain the difference between birdshot
and bullets. "I think I might sound stupid," I heard
her say.
Yes, but
at least she didn't look stupid.
On that
front, Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank outdid them
all. Appearing on MSNBC to provide his fair and balanced analysis
of the political fallout from Cheney's accident, Milbank donned
a blaze orange stocking hat and matching reflective vest. Emulating
a hunter in danger of being shot by Cheney, Milbank looked more
like a Hooters parking attendant. Or a colorblind "Where's
Waldo?" wannabe. Or a fugitive from a prison crew assigned
to pick up roadside trash on Interstate 495.
"Lighten
up," you say. Okay. I suggest the Washington Post
run a large color photo of the costumed Dana Milbank with his
bylined pieces from now on. That way, all readers may enjoy the
hilarity every time Milbank's work as "Washington Post
National Political Reporter" is published as objective news.
The bad
joke of American journalism is made all the more odious by the
plight of endangered defenders of press freedom abroad. Last week,
Abdel Halim Akram Sabra, editor of the independent weekly Al-Hurriya,
journalist Yahya Al Aabed and editor of the Yemen Observer
Mohammed Al Asaadi, were arrested for publishing the Mohammed
Cartoons -- something most of our right-to-know poseurs in the
U.S. media still refuse to do.
The arrested
journalists' newspapers, along with another publication, Al
Rai Al Aam, have all been shut down for printing the cartoons,
which were first published by the Jyllands-Posten in
Denmark five months ago to underscore the chilling effect of Islamism
on European artists. In Johannesburg, South Africa, the high court
allowed a Muslim group to pre-emptively block the publication
of the cartoons by the nation's leading weekly, the Sunday
Times.
In Calgary,
Canada, the publishers of the Jewish Free Press and Western
Standard magazine face civil lawsuits by local Muslims for
publishing the cartoons. In Jordan and Algeria, a total of four
other journalists face trial for publishing the cartoons. The
original cartoonists have been targeted by Islamic terrorist groups
and are in hiding.
Yet, here
we are, as embassies blaze and editors cower in fear and radical
imams ululate against the West, watching our esteemed media go
Looney Tunes over an isolated hunting accident.
Who do you
think will have the last laugh?
Copyright
2006 Creators Syndicate
