The Sleep Time and Rise "n" Shine Thread For 12/14-15/08- The Read: Jamison Foster of Media Matters On Media's Latest Stupidity

Part of the stars of the great Media Matters website is their Vice President, Jamsion Foser.

Foser is just outstanding, as everyone else at that site is, at calling out the television and newspaper media for terrible or dishonest reporting that is truly hurting not only the profession, but even the country.

On Friday, Foser highlighted the latest embarrassing charade of journalism to hit the American public: Linking President-elect Obama with Ron Blagojevich.

In Foser's column, he lists a bevy of the idiotic examples "supposed quality journalists" have come up with to associate Obama with Blago Stupidio:

At Obama's press conference yesterday, the third questioner asked, "What's wrong with politics in Illinois?" Chris Matthews made sure viewers knew that "Barack Obama, of course, rose to political power in a city, Chicago, in a state, Illinois, known for corruption."

ABC's Rick Klein chimed in: "[W]ith one stiff wind, Chicago has grabbed Obama and his transition -- and blown it off-course. ... The underbelly of the Obama political operation, with all its Chicago tints and taints, is now fair game for reporters looking for a story." (Nonsense. If the "Obama political operation" has an "underbelly" featuring actual wrongdoing, it's fair game whether or not a governor is busted in a scandal that has nothing to do with Obama. And if that "underbelly" hasn't actually done anything wrong, Blago's bust doesn't change that -- regardless of tint or taint.)

On his radio show, Bill O'Reilly asked Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass if it is even possible for Obama to have existed in Chicago without being dishonest, leading Kass to reply: "Yes, that is possible. It's also possible that he was found as an infant in a reed basket floating in the Chicago River."

Foser is so alarmed by this novel episode of brainless and shockingly bad reporting and coverage from the media, that it brings back flashbacks of how the Clinton was idiotically hounded by the media for Whitewater over a decade ago:

The similarities between the media's current behavior and their shameful performance in the 1990s doesn't stop with their bizarre suggestions that geography is destiny.

One of the central flaws of the media's coverage of the Clintons was that they portrayed nearly everything as evidence of guilt. Perhaps most perverse was the suggestion that the conviction of Clinton Justice Department official Webster Hubbell was evidence of wrongdoing by the Clintons. What made that so perverse? Hubbell was convicted, essentially, of stealing money from the law firm in which he and Hillary Clinton were both partners. Hubbell, in other words, stole from Hillary Clinton. The Clintons were Hubbell's victims -- and yet many journalists portrayed his conviction as evidence of their guilt.

Among the many fools Foser thankfully mentions in their shame of practicing reporting this week is "world class drip" Howard Kutz of CNN and the Washington Post:

Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz complained that it took Obama "24 hours" to decide that Blagojevich should resign, worrying "that kind of excessive caution" could "define his presidency."

Obama called for Blagojevich's resignation within 24 hours, and Howard Kurtz thinks that wasn't fast enough. It's so fast, Kurtz had to measure the time elapsed in hours rather than days. And yet, Kurtz thinks it constituted excessive foot-dragging. This is simply not a sane assessment. It's a desperate attempt to find something to criticize about Obama. Obama is not involved in the scandal, so Kurtz sits by with a stopwatch, trying to document Obama's slow response to it.

This must read from Foser shows how great he is, and how it is a blessings that there is a Media Matters out there. A site specializing in calling out the ones who love to do the "calling out". And being the watchdog for the "mad dogs" of the pathetic media in this country.