glenn greenwald « With A Passion

Usually, it’s easy enough to bash MSNBC for it’s hosting of the views of Mr. Invisible Grand Wizard Hood himself, Pat Buchanan, but now, the shit seeps deeper. By now you may have seen this piece, Glenn Greenwald’s haymaker barrage on MSNBC, specifically with regard to GE’s control over Countdown’s one sided feud with The Bill-O The Clown Show & last week’s three-time guest host Richard Wolffe, which just about murders the network in a way we havn’t seen to date. Sidebar: will this dent the number of times we’ll see Salon.com honcho Joan Walsh doing spots on Countdown? It’s curious how she did a spot, probably knowing what we all know now, on a Wolffe-hosted broadcast of Countdown.

Did O’Reilly ever, and I’m quoting the NYT article that Greenwald cites, lead “an exceptional campaign against General Electric, the parent company of MSNBC.”? It felt like BillO was just throwing slop that never stuck?

Is it just me or is Olbermann’s response to the NYT, “I am party to no deal,” so definitive and vague that he’s going to have to bring it harder on Monday?

In late 2007, Mr. O’Reilly had a young producer, Jesse Watters, ambush Mr. Immelt and ask about G.E.’s business in Iran, which is legal, and which includes sales of energy and medical technology. G.E. says it no longer does business in Iran.

Mr. O’Reilly continued to pour pressure on its corporate leaders, even saying on one program last year that “If my child were killed in Iraq, I would blame the likes of Jeffrey Immelt.” The resulting e-mail to G.E. from Mr. O’Reilly’s viewers was scathing.

One thing I give KO kudos for is that I don’t think he ever went to bat for G.E./Immelt. Please, correct me with evidence if it’s there. Also, I don’t know how O’Reilly can say that about G.E. when he defended Bush, he of no-bid contracts, for so long, and hey, what about those electrocutions from KBR installed showers?

But the completely noncoincidental timing of when KO retired the Bill O’Reilly fight is amazing, and here are the choice grafs from Greenwald:

Though Olbermann denies he was part of any deal, the NYT says that there has been virtually no criticism of Fox by Olbermman, or MSNBC by O’Reilly, since June 1 when the deal took effect. That’s mostly but not entirely true. On June 17, after President Obama accused Fox News of fomenting hostility towards his agenda, and Fox responded by saying that the “other networks” were pure pro-Obama outlets, Olbermann did voice fairly stinging criticisms of Fox as “more of a political entity than is the Republican National Committee right now, only it’s fraudulently disguised as some sort of news organization.”

But a review of all of Olbermann’s post-June 1 shows does reveal that he has not ever criticized (or even mentioned) Bill O’Reilly since then and barely ever mentions Fox News any longer. And on June 1 — the last time Olbermann mentioned O’Reilly – Olbermann claimed at the end of his broadcast that he would cease referring to O’Reilly in the future because ignoring him (and “quarantining” Fox) would supposedly help get O’Reilly off the air (“So as of this show‘s end, I will retire the name, the photograph, and the caricature”).

I’m gonna need Olbermann to bring some defense this week if I’m gonna keep downloading the podcast, or try and be his Devil’s Advocate again. What’s funnier though is that Charlie Rose cared about trying to squash the Countdown/Factor beef, and was the Obama to the Gates/Crowley that was Immelt/Murdoch.

After the Liberal Hero’s Welcome Rachel Maddow got on Friday’s Real Time, is she Greenwald’s next target, now that he’s taken down Chuck Todd and Countdown? Glenn seems to have the scope trained on NBC, so it’s either her or the easy targets like Tweetie or Ed. Then again, you’d have to find substantive fault with Maddow’s coverage to attack her.

Tomorrow is April 8, and 1 week into the spookily titled The April Experiment. If you saw the Halloween 2008 episode of Bill Maher – and you remember how he said “Nancy Peloooooosi” in a spooky voice – you know how I stretch the R out in experiment.

Which is to say that while I am pushing myself to improve, I’m still an esoteric weirdo. One who tries to go to bed before 11pm in order to wake up at 6AM and then make it to the gym. I’ve done it three times in the 7 days since April started. Pretty happy with the way it’s going.

And in lieu of work, here are links and descripts to/of what is getting pixels on my screens lately:

The Required Reading, which I’m late to the game on plugging, is:

The Big Takeover, Matt Taibbi’s colossus of an article about the backstage dealings with the economy, a piece that makes me want to castrate Hank Paulson on live television.

And here is an interview-slash-feature about Taibbi’s work and his own backstory.

Trent Reznor talks to DiggNation about his experience running his own version of a record label.

Ta-Nehisi Coates thinks on Mos Def vs. Christopher Hitchens from the Maher from a week from Friday. The embedded video in his post is no longer functional. Here is a link to a YouTube of it. Here is where I say I’ve decided to no longer embed videos on the blog. Embedding clips is cute, but really, I’m not making videos, not yet at least, so why should a blog of my writing and linking feature clips, which at WordPress is something that doesn’t always work right, MSNBC’s faulty video embeds come to mind.

Also:

A big piece from Glenn Greenwald on the troubling matters coming from Obama’s DOJ.

The Brüno Trailer is fucking epic.

2DopeBoyz are getting their OkayPlayer on.

Flying Lotus and Blu hooked up for a collaboration.

And now, for thoughts, without links, about the two white rappers of the moment, who really do not need links. Asher Roth is new for rap, but comedy fans might know him by his real name Dane Cook. I’ll keep making that joke until I find the leak of his upcoming record and when it doesn’t gargle ass-crack sweat. Eminem’s return song/video came out today, it’s called “We Made You,” you can find the song and video if you google it, and to be honest it’s proof that Marshall Mathers refuses to change his schtick. He still uses that busted fake mid-east accent. He still rips on female celebs who won’t fuck him. He still dresses up like male celebs who are hasbeens, his not-so-distant-future territory. He takes no risks on the song, none. Personally, I think the era of the white rapper as being important without really bringing much of anything to the table is done. Then again, we’ll see how their upcoming records sell. My esteem for a country that puts Nic Cage’s Knowing at #1 for the weekend box office is so low that I could see both of their records moving units despite a lack of any reason for that happening other than melanin deficiencies.

MSNBC’s Unanswered Credibility Questions, Raised & Very Warranted, by Glenn Greenwald.

Dispatch From The Shallow End Of The Get Up