Randi Rhodes: Attack of the Press

CNBC has been trying to tear down the Occupy Wall Street movement almost as hard as Fox News built up the Tea Party movement. So far the biggest beef the rightwing media seems to have about the protestors is grooming. Nicely done—if you just talk about the way someone looks, you don’t have to discuss their ideas. The rest of the corporate media isn’t doing much better at covering the protests, though they are doing a decent job of covering them up.

Congressman Peter King fears that the protests will bring back the 60’s. King says that back then, “the left-wing took to the streets and somehow the media glorified them and it ended up shaping policy. We can’t allow that to happen!” In other words—we must not let public opinion shape public policy… if it conflicts with Peter King’s opinion, that is. If it weren’t for those stupid 60’s protestors, we could still be in Vietnam! And we’d still be winning! We’d still be just a few steps away from final victory! A lot of people who lived through the 60’s don’t remember them. Peter King remembers the 60’s... he just doesn’t get the 60’s.

Then on Bill Maher’s show, Alan Grayson dismantled PJ O’Rourke the way Michele Bachmann wants to dismantle the EPA. Grayson made point after point about Wall Street greed, income inequality, and the disappearance of the middle class. PJ O’Rourke responded with comments about bongo drums. PJ O’Rourke is commonly called a “humorist.” At this point in his career, PJ is a humorist in the same sense that Gretchen Carlson is a journalist. PJ used to be with the National Lampoon. Now he’s with the Cato Institute, and he’s probably not even the funniest person there.

Finally, Herman Cain said that he doesn’t believe that racism “holds anybody back in a big way today.” Really, Herman? Try putting on some workman’s overalls and hailing a cab. Mr. Cain, maybe you can be the head of a pizza company. But try to deliver a pizza to a rich white neighborhood in a car without a pizza company logo on it, and you’re getting pulled over.

Today’s Homework | Discuss

OWS NYC: Gerraldo Rivera and a crew from Fox News were driven off from the site of the protests yesterday by chants of “Fox News Lies!” Proof once again that the people at Fox News are actually afraid of the truth...