Next week’s Inspection arrives upon your digital doorstep a bit early to keep in step with the news cycle.

It’s an age old tradition: from at least Nixon to Obama. I’m sure LBJ did it occasionally. Kennedy disarmed with charm so well I doubt his picking out media and complaining happened much. But the surly LBJ and even more surly, in private, Nixon, simply couldn’t resist.

“But Ken, Barack picked out a specific network.”

Not only have presidents and their spokesfolks picked out specific networks, like CBS, but also papers: The Washington Post, The New York Times, and specific network hosts like, um, Dan Rather? You remember: he did a report on Bush II and the evidence was not the original form that exposed his problematic service record as part of the Guard? And even though the secretary who typed it said the information was correct, the form just wasn’t the original one. But the administration used this glitch; making sure what was accurate was perceived as a lie.

“We have always been at war with… (whatever was convenient to claim “we’ve always been at war with” at the time)

-1984

If any of this is “fair,” then there is nothing “unfair” about Obama picking out FOX. As Barack himself said, you’d be hard pressed to find a single positive comment regarding President Obama on what shouldn’t pass as “news” anyway: FOX News. Unless you consider lies, slander and all kinds of fabrications reported as “news” as actual “news.” When it comes to the content of FOX “News, the whole Pacific Ocean filled with urine, and less savory items, might be puny in comparison.

Essentially all the whining about Barack pointing to FOX amounts to two things: “Shut up! Shut up!” …and the Right demanding they have the exclusive right to press criticism.

I am not for repressing the press. I am for “freedom of the press,” even if what is called “press,” in the case of FOX, makes yellow journalism seem a bit more actual journalism-like in comparison.

If Murdoch and company want to continue with this Frankenstein resurrection of Joseph Goebbels-style journalism, that’s what freedom is all about. In fact I recommend that the Left do the same. Hire Jon Stewart and other comedians to run a 24 hour counter “news” network. The President and more leftward talking heads use this as constant source material for press conferences, fire side chat-like talks and columns. Might lighten up otherwise droll material.

The only problem here is that I don’t think we’d ever get the 24 hour a day lie-a-thon that is FOX. Unless of course we do it tongue in cheek with direct references to unmask FOX and other Reich Wing sources… unmask those who love to wear that Leatherface with a rhetorical chainsaw Halloween costume as they go on what they call “news” to rip apart the very concept of journalism.

“But, Ken, that will make the media even more f… d up.”

If you insist on playing by the rules and let others slide you will lose every time. They can do and say; will do or say, anything. They will rule print and the airwaves. The only answer is to go one better and beat back. They’ll whine and whine: these victimizers who constantly lie about actual victims like the poor, the abused, minorities. They will do what they do all to well. Do better than any of the aforementioned:

Play the victim.

Tough bananas baby.

We’re just following the example you’ve set all too well.

As the title of this Inspection says…

“All’s fair in love and media bashing.”

-30-

Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over 30 years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks and into the unseen cracks and crevasses that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.
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Ken Carman and Cartenual Productions
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