Still Life with Media Whores

Still Life with Media Whores (2005)

Here's a new one. The image that is. Not the concept. Sadly, it's been with us for quite some time.

Media Whore of the Moment -- Chris Matthews:

The only hard ball this guy deserves is a bowling ball dropped down his pants from 50,000 feet. First, Matthews compares filmmaker Michael Moore to Osama Bin Laden. That's pushing the straw man fallacy about as far as it can go. McCarthy smeared his foes as communists, so now pundits have a green light to tarnish anyone who opposes Bush's war as a terrorist and mass murderer? I think John Kerry pegged it:

You'd think the only focus tonight would be on destroying Osama Bin Laden, not comparing him to an American who opposes the war whether you like him or not. You want a real debate that America needs? Here goes: If the administration had done the job right in Tora Bora we might not be having discussions on Hardball about a new Bin Laden tape. How dare Scott McClellan tell America that this Administration puts terrorists out of business when had they put Osama Bin Laden out of business in Afghanistan when our troops wanted to, we wouldn't have to hear this barbarian's voice on tape. That's what we should be talking about in America.

Vying for a slot on Fox News, are we?

[Image from The Internet Weekly Report]

But Matthews was just warming up for a little butt-slapping between macho men about Brokeback Mountain on Imus in the Morning. Roll tape from The Daily Howler:

MATTHEWS (1/18/06): Have you gone to see it yet? I’ve seen everything else but that. I just--

IMUS: No, I haven’t seen it. Why would I want to see that?

MATTHEWS: I don’t know. No opinion on that. I haven’t seen it either, so--

IMUS: So they were -- it was out when I was in New Mexico and -- it doesn’t resonate with real cowboys who I know.

MATTHEWS: Yeah--

IMUS: But then, maybe there’s stuff going on on the ranch that I don’t know about. Not on my ranch, but you know--

MATTHEWS: Well, the wonderful Michael Savage, who’s on 570 in DC, who shares a station with you at least, he calls it [laughter] -- what’s he call it? -- he calls it Bare-back Mount-ing. That’s his name for the movie.

IMUS: Of course, Bernard calls it Fudgepack Mountain...

Yuck it up, boys. You're no better than threatened, moralizing fundies who condemn films they've never seen. The Howler goes on to point out what our chuckling homophobes above missed:

The film closes with a brief conservation between Heath Ledger and his daughter, who by then is 19. When they speak, the daughter’s clear-eyed thoughts on the future throw her father’s tragic life into relief. What a deft, unexpected conclusion! We thought of shining Hector on the walls of Troy, sharing a moment with his baby son before going off to die at the hands of Achilles. The luminous moment between generations! Homer provides one in that famous scene. For our dime Brokeback Mountain does too.

And Matthews finds Michael Savage "wonderful"? What a role model of reason and civility. Perhaps Matthews can't recall why Savage's show was bounced from MSNBC:

After cutting off a self-identified gay caller whose comments were edited out of the broadcast, Savage referred him as a "sodomist," a "sodomite" and said, among other things, "You should only get AIDS and die, you pig."

Wonderful -- or just make you wonder? Play on to the wingnut gallery, Chris. Soon you'll be arm wrestling and slandering critics-cum-terrorists with the cream of the dumb asses -- with the truly gifted wild-eyed wacks -- with the oh so wonderful Dobsons and Limbaughs and Coulters.

I'm only sorry that duel thing with Zell Miller didn't work out -- for all of us.