Joe Conason Calls Out Pat Buchanan's Hypocrisy Over the Obama Administration-Fox Dust Up
By Heather Saturday Oct 24, 2009 5:00pm
Good for Joe Conason for pointing out that Pat Buchanan of all people has no business complaining about the Obama administration daring to point out that Fox News is an arm of the Republican Party after all of the things the Nixon administration did that Buchanan himself was involved in. Chris Matthews sure wasn't going to do it.
Media Matters has a nice run down of why this latest meme by the right calling the Obama administration "Nixonian" is utterly ridiculous.
Conason wrote about many of the points he attempted to make to Buchanan during this segment in his column at Salon this week--
Criticizing Fox News isn't "Nixonian." But Fox News is:
With outraged Washington journalists and Republican politicians crying "Nixonian!" over the public scuffle between the Obama White House and the Fox News Channel, what began as a mundane spat is turning into a cosmic jest. Somewhere, Nixon himself is enjoying a mordant laugh to hear this shrill defense of his old servant Roger Ailes, the television wizard whose deceptive campaigning ushered him into the presidency more than 40 years ago -- and who then became the living symbol of everything negative and nasty in American politics during the two decades that followed.
To understand what is going on today, it is essential to remember that where Ailes came from, "Nixonian" was not an insult but a badge of honor -- and seething hatred and even persecution of the press, rather than mere criticism, was a way of life.
Whatever the merits or defects of the strategy pursued by Obama's communications office in pushing back against Fox News, the furious backlash inside the Beltway is badly overwrought. Mainstream defenders of the conservative cable channel suddenly seem to be afflicted with a strange amnesia, causing them to forget not just the numerous episodes of partisan distortion that have permanently pocked its reputation, but the dirty war against the press and the First Amendment that was waged by the Nixon gang in the late '60s and early '70s. That lost memory does a disservice to journalism and history.
Transcript via Lexis Nexis below the fold.
MATTHEWS: Pat, where`s the line in terms of looking bad? When do they begin to look bad?
BUCHANAN: Well, the White House staff looks bad already, I think, very bad. They look petty, the three of them going out there, saying the same thing. but the problem is, Barack Obama, Chris, the greatest asset this presidency has is Barack Obama, the fact that he`s a -- he`s a pleasant guy, that he`s got persona and he`s very attractive. He`s the greatest political asset in America today.
And you depreciate and minimize that asset by getting him involved in this urinating contest with Fox News. And they`re dragging the president down into it. And you can see from your clip today that the president said, Look, I`m not losing sleep over this. This isn`t my problem. He wants to be...
MATTHEWS: Yes. Can he keep...
BUCHANAN: ... up and away from it.
MATTHEWS: Joe, can he keep his troops out there, firing away on Fox, and keep above the battle and get away with it? Or sooner or later, does some reporter say to him, Are you singling out Fox for denial of press privileges here at the White House?
CONASON: Well, I -- look, I think...
MATTHEWS: Are you doing that, Mr. President?
CONASON: First of all, I think it`s funny to hear Pat, who worked in the Nixon White House, which constantly attacked the press in the pettiest, meanest and sometimes illegal ways, to suddenly complain that the Obama White House is doing something wrong here. That`s number one.
Number two, look, it`s best to let the president be above the fray. On the other hand, when you have a network that is organizing rallies and has Glenn Beck as the anchor for the coverage of the tea party rallies...
MATTHEWS: Right.
CONASON: ... then you`re going to have some pushback, and you better have some.
MATTHEWS: So Nixon`s your standard of morality.
BUCHANAN: Chris...
CONASON: Not mine. Not mine.
(LAUGHTER)
CONASON: No, I don`t think there`s...
BUCHANAN: Let me respond to that...
CONASON: I don`t think there`s a viable comparison.
BUCHANAN: ... the Nixon...
MATTHEWS: Well, let me take a look. Here`s what the White House says it`s doing. And Pat, I think they make their own case here, which you will respond to, I think. David Axelrod, who`s a smart guy -- and I think he`s a mensch -- but here he is saying something I think we can argue about. Quote, "This is a discussion that probably had to be had about their approach" -- that`s Fox -- "to things. Our concern is other media not follow their lead."
So here`s Axelrod, who`s a good guy and I think a straight shooter, Pat -- I think you`d agree...
BUCHANAN: Right.
MATTHEWS: ... admitting that they`re concerned. It`s not that Fox is Fox, but that other networks like NBC, ABC, CBS, et cetera, et cetera, AP, will begin to follow their lead in going after people like Van Jones, by looking for ACORN stories, by focusing on stories that help the right.
BUCHANAN: Well, but wait a minute...
MATTHEWS: That`s an amazing admission on his part.
BUCHANAN: The question is -- the question is not whether those stories help the right but whether they`re valid criticisms of the administration. And I don`t think what Axelrod is doing here is very bright. The reason is, he`s suggesting what the other networks, smaller networks and the big networks and the newspapers ought to do and not do.
CONASON: Yes, I agree with Pat about that.
BUCHANAN: That`s not his job. They can determine whether ACORN is a story.
MATTHEWS: Right.
BUCHANAN: They can determine whether Van Jones is a story.
As for Nixon, let me say this. That was a premeditated attack on all three networks in 1969, which the president reviewed and I wrote and nobody else in the White House was aware of. And it was a major public open assault.
CONASON: It went far beyond that, Pat, and you know it.
BUCHANAN: It wasn`t petty in the least.
CONASON: It went far beyond that. They -- look, they audited Bob Greene`s taxes...
BUCHANAN: That was a big attack and it succeeded.
CONASON: Come on. It went way beyond that. You helped -- there was an enemies list that was drawn up. Dan Schorr was on it. They were going to audit all their taxes. They tried to get Scaife to buy "The Washington Post." They attacked the "Post`s" license...
BUCHANAN: What is wrong...
CONASON: ... when it came up for renewal. Come on.
BUCHANAN: Welcome to politics!
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: OK...
BUCHANAN: None of these guys were audited. Nobody was indicted for that. And quite frankly, Nixon continued that up until 1972 and won 49 states.
CONASON: Well, until the IRS commissioner...
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: Pat, if Roger Ailes were in a situation compared right now to Barack Obama, would Nixon be auditing Roger Ailes right now?
BUCHANAN: Well, we didn`t audit -- if they had audited somebody, they would have caught them. Somebody wrote up a list and said, This is who we ought to go after...
CONASON: They audited Bob Greene at "Newsday"...
BUCHANAN: and nobody did anything.
CONASON: ... as a matter of fact.
BUCHANAN: But you know, Chris...
CONASON: For investigating Bebe Rebozo.
BUCHANAN: ... your hero is FDR. What did they say about FDR? We love him for the enemies he has made.
MATTHEWS: Right. Well, let me ask you, Pat...
(CROSSTALK)
BUCHANAN: ... real enemies.
MATTHEWS: Let me get this straight on your thinking.
BUCHANAN: Sure.
MATTHEWS: How far do you go with enemies lists? Is it all right to - - it`s all right to do some trash talking. Everybody does it. You say who you don`t like. Fine. Is it OK to audit people? Is it OK to deny them licenses, to say, We`re going to do something to Katherine Graham at "The Washington Post," which I can`t say on television, which John Mitchell said?
CONASON: The attorney general of the United States.
MATTHEWS: Can you make those kind of threats and still be legitimate?
BUCHANAN: Let me tell you what I think you can do. I think auditing somebody is probably illegal and you ought to be caught for it, but having friends of yours challenge a license, or frankly, going with anti-trust, breaking up the networks -- Chris, they were an enormous power.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
BUCHANAN: They were a major adversary. How do you deal with them? You should do it aboveboard.
CONASON: Well...
MATTHEWS: So it`s OK...
CONASON: ... it wasn`t aboveboard.
MATTHEWS: ... to keep Rupert Murdoch from getting his hands on "The Boston Herald" and things like that, and "The New York Post."
BUCHANAN: Well, Teddy Kennedy put that in a bill!
MATTHEWS: I know. And so it goes on...
BUCHANAN: You remember that, Chris.
MATTHEWS: ... doesn`t it?
(LAUGHTER)
BUCHANAN: It`s the name of the game. Welcome to the NFL!
Login or Register to post comments.
Helen Thomas must be chortling.
I miss Conason. He used to be around all the time.
on Al Franken's radio show. He was probably my favorite regular guest on that program. The man definitely has a voice made for radio. It's a shame as usual, that he wasn't allowed to talk more during this interview, but that's par for the course with Tweety. His interrupting seems to be getting worse lately.
and he gives the reichwankers planty of room to spew.
he interrupts everybody. He just makes sure the reichwankers have more time to talk in between those interruptions...lol. You're exactly right though on who he gives more time to talk. I'm still aggravated at him for that segment where he gave the guy from the Southern Poverty Law Center about two seconds to talk while he carried on for ten minutes with the Tea Bagger. I hope he tells Tweety to stick it if he ever invites him back on again after that fiasco.
The derision on this website for Chris matthews is almost comical. I agree his interviewing style leaves something to be desired, however are you people so insecure that you can't tolerate any opinions other than your own. The reality of this attitude is you're no differant than fox or rush the oxymoron, Beck or Hannity.
I listen to Pat Buchanon when he says the white house shouldn't get the President involved in the mud slinging, because he's right. I disregard what he say's about Nixon's methods at getting back at the people who were investigating him, because I lived through it and it's revisionist history. Conanson agrees with him on the same point I agree with him.
Seriously, everybodies gotta shut the fuck up and listen, then make a determination.
Yeah Pat's a old bigot, that's his handicap, not mine.
Sure it's convenient to not remember what they did. But they did it and Conason revealled it and Faux Opinion, Buchannon and all of the GOP suffer multi-A.D.D. from their vicious acts. It's measured in their arrogance and highlighted in their stupidity.
The truth is: they are very easy to mentally disarm. Conason makes Buchannon look foolish. Purely foolish.
Obama is right, Fox is not legitimate as an adult (as we knew it) program. Why go there with serious issues?
Anti-Democratic Dementia!
Conason would have asked Buchanon if the US justice department should trade Kissinger to Switzerland for Polanski. The guy was a mass-murderer on an epic scale and he was never brought to justice. Polanski is small potatoes compared to Kissinger.
That Pat is always up in arms about nothing and making an ass of himself. Thanks Pat. That's Pat!
Ask MSNBC and Hardball for what because i don't know. they're the ones that keep bringing him on the show. Does "stupid bigot" really need this narrative as the official opposition here? I don't think so.
If you have to be a stupid bigot to oppose "medicare for all" then you don't need to be represented in the discussion really, do you.
If you have to be a stupid bigot to feel the way Pat does then your view doesn't need to be represented in the discussion really, does it.
If Pat has to be a stupid bigot to say the thinks he does then MSNBC doesn't need his opinion to "round things out" do they.
the night before. tweety really sux!
...who told him "you better watch your mouth!" and at the end of the show said "I'll see you LATER, Frank"
People don't realize how strong and fit those "faggy" ballet dancers really are...I mean, how "limp-wristed" can you be when your job is to pick up 105-pound girls over yer head for a couple of hours at every performance and practice? (and keep time and stay in step!)
Frank Gaffney had better stay away from Ron Reagan if he doesn't want a variety of wounds and bruises.
In 1850 he probably would have had to apologize publicly or risk being shot to death in a duel, what he said would have been regarded as a mortally unendurable insult! Fuck Frank Gaffney!
Joe Conason RAWKS - he is a serious guy and has the facts.
Can we please disagree with the man without wishing death on him?
..but I just wrote that I suspect Ron Reagan might physically assault Gaffney if he comes near him, the insult to Reagan and his late father was very personal, and if someone insulted me and my father that way, there would be some sort of serious trouble. No threat or advocacy of violence here, just an observation.
Language police take note, no threat or advocacy of violence here!
If Reagan struck Gaffney, he should be charged with assault, insult or no. So should you, if you strike a person who insulted your father. As should I, if I did it.
should have been set up in front of the White House and the Nixon administration should have been 'hung', one by one, for treason with all of our elected officials in the stands seeing what 'betraying the Public Trust' gets you.
Not having the Rumsfelds, Cheneys, and the rest would have been WORTH the 'collateral damage'.
Every REAL scandal since then has had these 'traitors' at the root of all that evil.
Bad apples
America was made to keep Rumsfelds and Cheneys away.
Mob rule? No thanks. Y'all are in the same pile with the idiots who bring guns to Obama speeches and with Glenn Beck and his Louisville Slugger.
Not having the Rumsfelds, Cheneys, and the rest would have been WORTH the 'collateral damage'.
Bullshit.
about 95% of the Watergate hearings and the precedent was set that boosted the confidence of the 'fledging' neo-con-cabal that they could pull this kind of 'shit' off.
Those 'cancers' that were allowed to survive THAT scandal reared its ugly-head again with Iran-contra.,,,and I watched MOST of those hearings, also
Ollie North should have been tried for treason along with all the other PARDONED traitors, instead, the cons turned him into a celebrity, just like they had with G Gordon Liddy another traitor.
The RULE OF LAW and its appropriate execution of capital punishment for treasonous crimes is what I described and comparisons to the 'tea-baggers' is inane...
full of shit
Bassface, I was stunned when Ollie walked. Absolutely stunned. I wasn't a voter yet.
I also remember what Mitchell said that Matthews could not repeat and yay, it's a blog, so we can say it:
Woodward actually found a vintage laundry wringer and gave it to KG as a gift! lol.
TODAY, pull on the thread that is Jack Abramoff and 'follow the money' and you 'take down' most rethugs and a few Dem-con 'celebrities from the last 20 years.
Watergate is scoofed at now but go back and rent 'All the Presidents Men', people feared for their lives and that 18 minutes of 'erased' tape in context with what they DIDN'T erase is telling.
Read 'Dark Alliance' By Gary Webb and get a glimpse of the drug-running, illegal weapons dealings and 'October Surprize'BS that the San Jose Mercury News broke but was tamped down by the cons.
All of these scandals had the same faces behind the scenes and that 'cancer' stll feeds of the weak-kneed, like Harry 'where's my knitting' Reid.
I'd settle for public humiliation....maybe tar and feathers and run out of town on a rail...followed by being sent to the countryside to live with peasants for a period of "self criticism and re-education" -a couple of years of shoveling pig shit would do them some good! (hey they're all freaked out about Mao, I thought some Maoist problem-solving might be appropriate!)
I thought some Maoist problem-solving might be appropriate!
"Maoist problem-solving" was totalitarian. Totalitarianism is what I'm here to fight. I stand with More and the rule of law.
Most of the "totalitarian" (a right-wing meme) excess came long after the 1949 defeat of Chiang and his band of thieving criminals.
The "sent to the countryside for self-criticism" business was a result of young people up in arms about Party insularity after years of too much cronyism, it was supposed to be a "people's justice" solution, largely leveled at corrupt local Party leaders...
And in this case, a snark at defusing angry speech....
(As a matter of fact, we've got some Party leaders who could benefit from a couple of years shoveling pig shit ourselves!)
let alone humiliation. People have been known to die from their skin falling off after being burned by tar that is hot like lava.
The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins lists the following origins under the entry for "run out of town on a rail":
"At Salem, on September 7, 1768, an informer named Robert Wood ’was stripped, tarred and feathered and placed on a hogshead under the Tree of Liberty on the Common.’ This is the first record of the term ’tarred and feathered’ in America. Tarring and feathering was a cruel punishment where hot pine tar was applied from head to toe on a person and goose feathers were stuck into the tar. The person was then ignited and RIDDEN OUT OF TOWN ON A RAIL (tied to a splintery rail), beaten with sticks and stoned all the while. A man’s skin often came off when he removed the tar."
Such a lying tool!
I can't watch this confused old dinosaur anymore.
How about hearing from somebody under age 70 instead.
Most of the country has moved on since 1992, when Pat hit his peak.
Just the other day, I was wondering what happened to the bigot Buchanan. I hadn't seen him in a while. Now, two days in a row I have seen his ugly mug. I liked him better when he was out of sight.
After the election, you would have thought he was Obama's press secretary, what with all the prime-time this idiot got on cable. What does this asshole (along with all the other exposed GOP charlatan's) have to say that is even remotely pertinent to today's political realities?
Has morphed into a dangerous force,a permanent intimate appendage of the minority party which(barely)disguised as a news organization,is perfectly free to actively obstruct and undermine the office of the democratically elected president.Although voters asked for change,they will ultimately get none,because even though the GOP,because of their inept,aggressive,manipulative and autocratic machinations were sent packing,their propaganda arm is in full swing.
Ya, it looks very much like FOX corp. must be regarded and treated as a political organization and subject to the rules as such.
Isn't there laws on the books about political parties that could be used against them and their 24 hour campaigning? The content of their programming is probably the only evidence that would be required to make a valid case.
...why Gibbs didn't defend their criticism of Fux with the point that Rachel made last night--that no other news organization is actively organizing anti-gov't protests and actively inciting hatred against the president.
is having a similar problem with Venezuelan broadcast organizations. Obama however knows the difference between a threat and a challenge.
The danger we face is not with what Fox commentators say but with Fox's ability to eclipse important issues with Beckian theatrics that take up space on C&L and others. Once these so-called losers remotely control the content of Left websites by learning to steer hard news aggregator perceptions, we won't know what hit us.
wouldn't it go underground and be harder to track the thinking? or no?
We Eclipse and Obfuscate, you stay uninformed.
(It isn't just them either)
Pat Buchanan ran away last night from the truth of Nixon's police state tactics....
Ben Stein also worked for Nixon
The late William Safire also worked for Nixon
Pat Buchanan looked very pale last night...Pat looks like he is very ill......
Obama calls out Fox News as if Murdoch is unique for having a "point of view". That he happens to be the Crazy Racist Uncle of the bunch is beyond the point. All five of our Media Owners have the same agenda. Extensions of the Ruling Class. They are an arm of the corporate state. Symbiotic as bees to flower. If progressives/libertarians don't preface discussion about Fox News with the larger reality of our military, constitutional democracy, and 4th estate (the last check against those powers), we're swinging with their bullshit. The context is empire and the corporate system that fuels it.
http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2004/Republic...
Looks like an interesting article, I'll have to check it out.
To try to summarize my point, let me woefully paraphrase William Buckley
"The Republican Party serves as the pyrotechnics of our political class".
In other words, they're the loud noises that distract you.
..." merely irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas"
Like irritable bowel syndrome? That was the money quote, lol
Lewis Powell just before Nixon nominated him to SCOTUS wrote the con-gameplan that directly resulted in the formation of the Heritage Foundation
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_account...
Powell gets an honorable mention in my link also
Pat's concern trolling.
My wife enjoys the judge shows on FOX in the afternoon. I enjoyed watching Mad TV and Cops on Saturday evening. With Cops available on TRUE TV and Mad TV canceled, my personal FOX viewing has ceased to be. My wife is pretty fierce in her fanship of the three judges, though!
Saw you on stage at Lincoln Center where you
effortlessly took apart the conservative just
like you did Pat Buchanan. Buchanan had Daniel
Shore followed by the FBI and, of course, when
elite conservatives do it it's alright. It's
not only alright it's laudable. When Alan Greyson
kicks up a storm by throwing back what a conservative
does everyday it's considered, you know, bad form
not to mention low class.
Of course when the 80 YO Shore had the opportunity
to confront Buchanan, Pat was allowed to ignore him
and Shore could not rise to the occasion.
Joe Conason needs to stay around for awhile with maybe
his own show. Now THAT would be something.
Login or Register to post comments.