BROADCAST MEDIA: SHILLS FOR THE REPUBLICANS

Okay, so Fox executive Roger Simon sends down to his media troops each day a memo detailing the stories to be covered and the slant they should take. So who sends the memo to the right-wing talk radio yahoos? I ask this because, having listened to Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Darrell Ankarlo for at least a few minutes almost daily since the runup to the Iraq invasion, (I added Laura Ingraham, Hugh Hewitt and Michael Medved a couple of months ago) it is patently obvious to me that they're all reading off the same set of talking points.

In fact, it's riotously funny sometimes to switch from channel to channel and hear not only the same subjects being discussed, but the same arguments and the same language used. Oh sure, they have to assert SOME individuality, so they may vary the tone a degree or two here and there -- and they may have a different way of saying, "Hey, don't accuse me of shilling for George Bush! I don't always agree with him. In fact, I vehemently disagreed with his apologizing for the '16 Words in the State of the Union Address.' And now I've been proven right, since Joe Wilson is a lying scumbag and Sandy Berger is obviously the greatest threat to our national security since the sneaky Nips during WWII." A couple days ago I switched channels four times driving home from work and on every channel heard virtually the same program on all four. How can this be "coincidence?"

Worse, it's happening on cable and network news. "Kerry has to talk more about policy and explain how he differs from Bush"????? Ladies and gentlemen, the man has tried; he's delivered important policy speeches completely overlooked by a lazy media a-twitter with the thrill of MAYBE uncovering an "important" scandal like they enjoyed during the Clinton years -- but only if it involves a Democrat. They're more than content to obfuscate or completely bury any negative and REALLY important news about BushCo.

It's maddening to see the right-wing broadcast media shill shamelessly for the Republican Party, but it's downright disheartening to see the same thing happening in mainstream so-called journalism.