Ken Auletta, meet Greg Palast

[buycitgo]

watching the APPALLING display of ignorance by Ken Auletta, who, when questioned on a range of subjects, displays a cavalier lack of knowledge, combined with a supercilious dismissal of his betters.

case in point:

caller just mentioned Greg Palast, asking what Auletta thought of his work. He replied that he "wasn't aware of his work" (translation: didn't have a CLUE as to who he is.)

Then, when asked about Noam Chomsky, said he was a good linguist, not a very good political analyst.

Time after time, he revealed his shocking ignorance.

to his credit, Brian Lamb read an Eric Alterman review of one of his books, in which he criticized Auletta for trading access to his subjects in return for always putting them in a positive light, for "writing for his subjects, rather than for his reader."

Auletta pled "not guilty," of course, but Alterman PERfectly characterized him with that pithy phrase.

too bad Brian didn't read a few of Ann Coulter's reviews when he had HER on.

Auletta also gave three weak reasons for why the press has been so easy on the chimp.

more on that when I can remember details

[buycitgo]

1. he mentioned that he reads 7 papers a day

NYTimes, Financial Times, WSJ, WashPost, NYDaily News, NY Post, and the Weekly Reader for Adults

says he goes to Pointer online for news, google news, and, occasionally, to drudge (for the links)

sure

sounds like a CW bovine ruminant to me

[buycitgo]

2. now he's babbling on about Jason Blair

who cares? that's a wingnut issue.

what about Jeff Gerth?

John Tierney?

Kit Seelye?

all front page editorialists/cum government propagandists in the cloak of journalists

give me a break

[Devlzown]

3. Who's Ken Auletta? n/t

[mandyky]

4. Hard to believe he was with RFK

He also said Dean "scream" was Dean's fault due to saying we are no safer now that Sadam is caught and other Dean "gaffes". I doubt Mr. Auletta ever comes to DU for news, huh?

[buycitgo]

5. thanks for reminding me

he ALSO said that Dean repeated the rumor about Bush knowing about 911 in advance, "insinuating that he believed said rumor"

quotes are paraphrase, but Auletta clearly tried to make it seem that Dean was implying that the rumor was TRUE.

which HE DID NOT do!

anyone have the specifics on that?

ALSO, AFA Dean saying that the world is NOT a safer place since Saddam, well.........hellllllllllooooohhhhh, Mr. Auletta!

from which planet are you visiting us?

who in their right mind would argue we're safer now?

have you noticed all the colored alerts since then?

how bout the FIFTY percent INCREASE in US deaths in Iraq since then, not to mention the manyfold increase in Iraqi casualties

welcome to the world of Media WHOREDOM, Ken

[mandyky]

8. I was listening to the Diane Rehm show

when Dean mentioned the "conspiracy theory" about shrub being warned by the Saudis. I think Diane Rehm had asked him a question about the 9-11 commission investigation and Dean was talking about how politically it would benefit shrub to be open and provide documents due to theories - and he gave the Saudi warning thing as an example of theories that gain a foothold when shrub is stonewalling on releasing things.

[buycitgo]

9. thank you!

that's exactly the sort of thing I was talking about

it's like when someone quotes another person saying something really racist, then gets accused of saying it him/herself

that's EXACTLY what the media whores do best.

reminds me of what they did to Gore WRT Love Canal

[buycitgo]

6. Now, he's semi-justifying dumbo's lack of news consumption

saying that Bush doesn't trust news sources, so he relies on his own staff to tell him what he needs to know!

no real comment upon how pathetic it is to have a leader who is SO lazy and uninvolved that he lets others do his THINKING for him!

if you don't believe that's at the core of this lazy, shiftless, ignorant nincompoop's aversion to engagine in the slightest bit of intellectual engagement.

but, like most "liberal" media whores, he's bending over backward to be unbiased.

[buycitgo]

7. Oh, yeah.....he thinks Britt Hume is a "good journalist"

says he at least admits his bias

also says Russert is in the same league as Hume; both very good journalists.

well, at least he's got them in a category together.

Britt Hume????????

guess you missed him mocking Hans Blix's accent while he was also dismissing his performance as chief weapons inspector.

bet you missed his fawning over the CIA plant David Kay the past few days, too.

excellent journalistic practices, there, eh, Ken.

[thebigidea]

10. I was half listening to this... what suddenly made me go "hmmm?"

was a reference to my call the other day taking Wes Pruden to task for distorting Scott Ritter's words mere minutes after he said them. Sure, I may not have been able to say "mediawhore" without being cut off, but it was amusing being called "part of a system of checks and balances" for CSPAN.

[mandyky]

12. You're one of the ones who called?

Good for you! That Wes Prudin is a piece of work, finally he sorta fessed up and said regarding Ritter - "well, he had a sneer in his voice whatever he said" or some such BS. Lord have mercy.

[kaitykaity]

11. Thanks for posting this. Now I won't

waste my time with the guy. (Somebody should clue in
Bill Moyers so the guy won't pollute NOW anymore.)