THE BRAVE, THE FEW, AND HATS OFF TO CAROL COSTELLO

A BRIEF HOMAGE TO THE BRAVE, THE FEW

Let's get it clear about this journalistic neutrality thing ... this concern of mine that the talking heads are locked into treating the candidates for POTUS, as if they had no critical function but were just presenting the newspaper facts. Many -- maybe most -- leave that level of honesty to John Oliver and Comedy Central. WTF! Funny. I suppose I'm expressing a difficulty with what the Little Orange Man would never call journalistic correctness ... but I would.

Quick example: Jake Tapper interviews Rick Perry. Asks him pointedly about Trump's treatment of Mr. and Mrs. Khan. Perry is very clear, essentially: The Khans attacked DT in a public forum (DNC) and therefore are not entitled to "a free ride" ... not entitled to speak without Drumpf striking back.

Tapper is silent on Sen. Clinton's response to being accused repeatedly at the RNC Convention of negligent homicide in the deaths of folk at Benghazi. I was frankly shocked. 

Consider, with me ... At the RNC in Cleveland just last month, Mrs. Smith railed on ... “I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son.”  Merrill, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, did respond with “While no one can imagine the pain of the families of the brave Americans we lost at Benghazi, there have been nine different investigations into this attack and none found any evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing on the part of Hillary Clinton.”

Please note the different responses. Herr Trump suggests that Mr. Khan is reading a script ... not able to write 5 minutes by himself. What? Is Drumpf doing the Trump innuendo thing ... y'know ...  that a Muslim lawyer is a trained monkey? And Mrs. Khan, just maybe (in the style of DT's innuendo), is a muzzled Muslim .. not allowed to speak ... and therefore her ideas are without merit.

Tapper is mute. The Clinton Team responded ad rem to Mrs. Smith and respectfully differs with her understanding of the facts. The Trumps? They respond with ad hominem attacks ... justifying it as just more counterpunching and Jake Tapper is silent. Played by Rick Perry ... OMG!

Then, at night, MSNBC and others give Trump a half hour freebie, as if he had something new to say. One could, I suppose, find tidbits that could be parsed into something not new but clever. Still, need I add, he could buy his own airtime, this Multi-Billionaire who would sooner show his whatever than his Tax Return. In short: 

MSNBC was played by the Trumps and the Trumpettes 

to give them another free lengthy advertisement.

It was almost forgivable when Trump was entertainingly offensive ... but free airtime for a teleprompter reader? Are we all being played by this man that even many of his Republican confreres see as a Con Man ... a Snake Oil Salesman ... a kind of Manchurian candidate kept standing by some clever writers who punctuate his folksy and often unconstitutional solutions with ideas that Trump uncomfortably reads. 

Damn ... Who is the Trained Monkey?

Khan, Drumpf or Us?

There are exceptions, though. Rachel Maddow gives thoughtful and well-reasoned essays at the beginning of each program. Something like a New Yorker piece ... the threads of an apparent complex weave separated into its component parts that are rewoven into a new fabric that fits motive-opportunity-intent-fact. Wow! 

But I would like to particularly express thanks to Carol Costello of CNN. More or less without exception, she refuses to be silent on spin ... refuses to let an unanswered question stand as if answered ... she refuses to pretend. My hat's off to you and Dan Rather, in particular.

Young Cuomo seems to try to keep people honest. Chris Matthews' pugnacious and interrupting style get in my way, though he and folk on the other side (Fox News) do, at least, let their truth be seen. Scarborough interrupts Mika B. often enough for me to experience it as offensive. Smerconish comes across as an honest man and very smart man ... Andrea Mitchell? another who won't let bullshit stand! Couldn't we replace Joe and Mika with Mitchell and Smerconish or even Mika and Smerconish!?

Still, watching the News, these days and in recent previous elections, has more or less restricted itself to analyzing Spin and the Pragmatics of Misrepresentation. I know I'm skipping many others who like Walter Cronkite are willing to speak the truth, as they see it ... but y'gets my point, I hope. 

It's reminiscent of an old irreverent joke/criticism about certain types of psychotherapy where the therapist mirrors the patient ... at least most of the way:

Patient: I feel so depressed.

Therapist: You feel so depressed.

Patient: I feel like jumping out that fucking window.

Therapist: You feel like jumping out the window.

Patient: (splat)

Therapist: Next, please.