What Passes For Journalism These Days….

is ambush and mindless gotcha questions, this time with MSNBC’s David Shuster, and his quarry, GOP Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn:

Shuster: “Let’s talk about the public trust. You represent, of course, a district in western Tennessee. What was the name of the last soldier from your district who was killed in Iraq?”

Blackburn: “The name of the last soldier killed in Iraq uh—from my district I—I do not know his name…

Shuster: “Okay, his name was Jeremy Bohannon. He was killed August the 9th, 2007. How come you didn’t know the name?”

Blackburn: “I—I, you know, I—I do not know why I did not know the name…”

Shuster: “But you weren’t appreciative enough to know the name of this young man. He was 18 years old who was killed, and yet you can say chapter and verse about what’s going on with the New York Times and MoveOn.org…
“Don’t you understand, the problems that a lot of people would have, that you’re so focused on an ad. When was the last time a New York Times ad ever killed somebody? I mean, here we have a war that took the life of an 18 year old kid, Jeremy Bohannon, from your district, and you didn’t even know his name.”

Doesn’t Shuster understand the problem a lot of people have with the press is the high-handed, blind-siding,  self-righteous agenda-pushing bloviation of people like Shuster?

Would anti-war selected-not-elected Phil Hare know who was the last person killed in Iraq in the 17th? If the soldier didn’t belong to a union, I seriously doubt Hare would know or care.

Of course, there are a lot of problems with the childlike thinking of Shuster, including the silly soundbite “When was the last time a New York Times ad ever killed somebody?”,but forget that—-the delicious irony here is that Jeremy Bohannon was NOT from Blackburn’s district.

So where did Shuster get this bogus information? From MoveOn.org, who contacted the producers of the show in order to get this “gotcha” question on the air. Sweet!

What a hoot! Personally, I don’t care if MSNBC wants to shill for MoveOn.org or any other anti-war organization. Unlike some Democrats, I think we need MORE POVs in the press, not less. If MSNBC wants to shill for the ghost of Pol Pot, Stalin and Hitler, power to ‘em, but please don’t claim you are part of the “objective press”, because 1) it doesn’t exist, and 2) you just look stupid when you engage in advocacy journalism, and DON’T EVEN HAVE YER FREAKIN’ FACTS RIGHT!

All Republicans foolish enough to appear on MSNBC will have been warned—-MSNBC is a tool of the anti-war left, so be prepared for lame@ss ambush  ”gotcha” questions.

Is it any wonder why the press has such low credibility and approval ratings with the public?