Monday, October 27, 2008

BS Machine IDs Gaffe Machine

(Click picture for source)

Mara Liasson (a fox in sheep's clothing) was at it again on ATC Monday night. Liasson was doing a piece on McCain's stump speech. After airing former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson's remarks that "You're trying to take advantage of the themes of the moment, the gaffes of the last week, trying to get any traction you can" - Liasson chimes in with this:
"On this day the gaffe McCain uses was from the Democrat's gaffe machine and Vice Presidential candidate, Joe Biden."
I really thought I misheard, and had to replay it from the web. Yes, she really did call Biden the "Democrat's gaffe machine." This struck me as a bit unusual, and shall we say a wee bit unprofessional. I've heard journalists refer to Biden as having a reputation for making gaffes, but to call him a "gaffe machine." Hmmm, where could such a moniker come from?

Well, what do you know, if it isn't one of the talking points of the McCain campaign (including a video the McCain camp put out). It's also interesting to Google "gaffe machine" and notice that it's a favorite smear term against Obama used by the likes of the venomous Malkin.

8 comments:

Kevan Smith said...

That is definitely "non-objective" language. I don't think NPR really cares, though.

Anonymous said...

Feh. If ya wanna know the contents of the Weekly Official Beltway Memo for Journalists Operating Under Pretentious Veneer of Conventional Wisdom, tune in to Popeye Mara.

RepubLiecan said...

Whenever Mara the Liarson comes on, I take it as reminder to turn off the radio and save a few electrons. That also works well in preventing a few neurons from firing wildly while listening to her spout forth the Republican talking points, which for her is conventional wisdom.

Porter Melmoth said...

The portrait says it all. She is the ideal NPR personality: conceited, smug, narcissistic, betraying a loyalty to the corporate puppet string pullers, even though she thinks SHE's one of the string pullers. In fact, she's just their cheap tool - like most of the NPR hack/shills.

Like Donny Gonyea, who apes her, she's always talking with a self-bemused smile on her mug, like she's in on every secret, and isn't is all so quaint and trite, and she's the smartest "achieving woman" in the universe, condescendingly talking down to the laughable peasants out there in the dumb-ass audience.

And with the big bucks coming steadily from Fox, her little NPR gig is ever so much fun to play around with.

Bottom line: a big fat F.U. Mara, for all those years of hideous 'reporting', which unhappily continue.

Porter Melmoth said...

Thanks for the credit for the picture, from Mara's true home at Fox.

I get a wry kick out of Fox News writing Fox as FOX, as if it's an acronym like NBC, etc. It's just so that the name will stand out more if it's all in caps.

The name of course comes from William Fox (Fuchs), the movie mogul, who went bankrupt and served a jail term for attempted bribery and perjury.

Anonymous said...

Heh - talk about 'sins of the father' there, Port~

Anonymous said...

"non-objective"?

Objectivity does not even enter into the equation for NPR.

It's all about "balance".

Wanker balance.

One right-wing think tank wanker balanced with one left-wing think tank wanker.

It was not always that way, but over the past decade, this is essentially what it has degenerated to.

The people at NPR have no more interest in objectivity than FOX news does.

Anonymous said...

It would be fun to speculate, pace Melmoth, what the "acronym" FOX stands for.

For Only Xenophobes?