The Times They Are A-Changin'

This week, cable news channels severed ties with two right-wing hosts when Tucker Carlson and John Gibson were let go by MSNBC and Fox News, respectively.

Tucker Carlson is an annoying media figure for several reasons. First, he's the kind of newsperson that claims to be non-partisan, while at the same time referring to himself as "the most right-wing person I know." Secondly, that stupid bowtie. After years of being known essentially as "that douchebag with the bowtie," Carlson felt the need to announce on his show in 2006 that he was moving to the more conventional necktie. Now, his choice of neck apparel is no longer a high priority. Carlson will be replaced by David Gregory, MSNBC announced this week.




John Gibson has a long history of bigotry. Among his most notable outlandish remarks are his statement that non-Christians were "following the wrong religion," and that Hillary Clinton had made "a deal with Al Qaeda." He defended his network's incessant coverage of the Anna Nicole Smith story, accusing journalists who covered real news like the Iraq War of "news-guy snobbery." Recently, Gibson got into hot water for mocking the death of actor Heather Ledger. On March 12, 2008, Fox News Channel announced it was replacing Gibson's "The Big Story" in favor of "election-year programming." That could very well be the case, as for the first time in years, CNN's election coverage has garnered more viewers than Fox, continuing a general ratings slide indicative of Fox's alignment with the floundering Republican Party.


I found the following to be an interesting observation on how things are going in this country politically. After September 11th, Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect on ABC, and That's My Bush, a satire of formulaic sitcoms starring the current President airing on Comedy Central, were both taken off the air. While Bush got the axe due mainly to financial concerns, it would have been difficult to imagine a show lampooning the White House to be successful in late 2001. On the other hand, Maher's program was cancelled almost entirely due to comments Maher made about U.S. foreign policy in the aftermath of 9/11.

Today, roughly six years later, Bill Maher is back on the air in a similar format on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher. The show is currently in it's sixth season and has been nominated for seven primetime Emmys.

Similarly, Comedy Central is airing a new Bush-centered comedy, Lil' Bush. The show has received mixed reviews, but is now airing it's second season of episodes. While the show is lighthearted in nature, the light in which the title character and his "pals" are painted is quite scathing.

So making fun of Bush in America has been a real roller-coaster ride:

2001 (pre-9/11): Acceptable

2001 (post-9/11): Not Acceptable

2002 through 2007: Criticism of Bush appropriate, but not exactly comical

2007 to the present: Acceptable. He's a horrible president and we've just accepted it.

Who's That Nice-looking Young Man?

I was surfing the web the other day, and I ran across this advertisement on You Tube, of all places. It's an ad featuring a clip of John McCain from what appears to be at least 25 years ago.

Immediately, I thought, "Wow.... John McCain is advertising on You Tube and he's using a much younger image of himself. What kind of an idiots does he think we are?" Then I realized that there are probably a lot of Americans who have never heard of John McCain, have never seen a picture of him, or do not know that he will be 72 years old by the time the election rolls around. In fact, according to a recent Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, eight percent of registered voters had never heard of John McCain, in spite of the fact that he has spent the previous 6 months winning the Republican presidential nomination.

I certainly wouldn't put it past the McCain people to appeal to young potential voters (like those on You Tube) by placing ads featuring a more "alive-looking" version of Senator McCain. It's all about PR, and while placing ads of a 40-something McCain is not necessarily a dirty trick, it's pretty clear what their intentions are. With "change" being the political message du jour, the image of a stale old white man is probably not going to resonate with young voters. For those of you in the eight percent, here is what McCain actually looks like now:

Don't get me wrong. I'm certainly not suggesting that one's appearance should trump substance. I just think it's more than a little sneaky to show a picture of younger McCain on a website frequented by young potential voters. And while I don't agree with McCain on many issues and would not vote for him, I also think age is an issue. Young people have every right to vote for a younger candidate, just as older voters typically vote in higher numbers for the older candidate. Also, let us not forget that not too long ago the United States had a president in Ronald Reagan that many have suggested had symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease while in office. Again, I think age and appearance are certainly much less important than policy issues. That said, if Republicans are going to promote McCain's youthful appearance and attack the Democratic candidate for his/her lack of experience (and they will), Democrats have every right to use McCain's age against him.

GOP in '08: A One Trick Pony

"Terrorism...Terrorism...Terrorism...Terrorism..."

For months I have been predicting that the GOP will run a "campaign of fear" in 2008. From Rudy Giuliani's September 11 mantra, to the "Nuclear Iran debacle", the Republican candidates have made it clear that global terror will be a central issue in the the November election.

This idea was reinforced this week with the release of a new poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. The poll surveyed Americans on which political party, Republicans or Democrats, they believed would do a better job on a variety of issues. Of the twelve key issues, Republicans were seen as more favorable to Democrats on just one issue: Dealing with the terrorist threat at home. Despite a massive PR campaign by Republicans to paint Democrats as soft on terror, or even in bed with the terrorists, Republicans enjoyed a mere 45% to 38% advantage over Democrats on this issue. In comparison, Democrats held at least a ten percentage point lead on Republicans on nine of the twelve issues, including 25% or greater advantage on five issues.

On the environment, Americans favored Democrats to Republicans by a margin of 65 percent to 21 percent. As commanding an advantage as that appears to be, it does beg the question: Who are these 21% who think Republicans are stronger on the environment? That is the one issue in which Republicans have been proud of their failures. VP Dick Cheney has a habit of basing entire energy policy legislation on the recommendations of corporate energy lobbyists (here, here and here). But I digress...

In the Pew survey, even issues that the GOP and much of the media have touted as Republican strongholds have gone to the Dems. For example, in spite of liberals and their "War on Christmas," "Homosexual Mafia,", and "Partial-Birth Abortion" and conservatives trumpeting their "Culture of Life," and "American Values", Democrats even hold a ten point edge when it comes to "Improving morality in this country." While Conservatives like to appeal to the public with claims of lower taxes and derisive labels such as "Tax and Spend Democrats" and "Taxachusetts," Americans still view Democrats as stronger on the issue of taxes.

It appears the Republicans are beginning to understand that going to bat with one issue is going to be an uphill climb. If John McCain lives to be the Republican nominee, he will have to do three things:

1) Convince America that terrorism is the Number One issue in the 2008 election. It can't be seen as a secondary issue because Democrats win on any other issue. With the economic bubble beginning to burst, this is looking like a more and more difficult task with each passing day.

2) Overcome the public's gradual disillusionment with fear-based politics. Hillary Clinton was sharply criticized for her fear-mongering ad aimed at Barack Obama. You can bet that any fear-based pitch McCain dishes out will put the Clinton ad to shame. Personally, I think Americans are fed up with hearing about how they are going to die if they don't choose a particular candidate. And I hope they are tired of terrorism being used for political gain.

3) Distort and re-word the issues where Republicans are weakest. McCain has already started to do this. In an attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of undecided and less-informed voters, he has, on his official campaign website, disguised many key issues, hoping the public won't recognize them as strong Democratic issues. "Morals and Values" have become "Human Dignity." All immigration policy (which is an unbelievably complex issue) is lumped under the tough-guy heading "Border Security." His antiquated gun-control stance is nicely gift-wrapped in a package called "Protecting Second Amendment Rights."

I'll give it to McCain on one Issue: The Environment. Not that he's stronger on the environment than Democrats, because he's not even close. It's his attempt to make the environment a Republican issue that is, well, mildly hysterical. In his opinion, we should protect our national parks, not out of a desire to preserve nature or the future of our planet, but because it "is a patriotic responsibility." Later, he somehow manages to get "U.S. national security" into a discussion about his environmental policy, proving he will beat that drum even when it's not appropriate to beat it. And if it weren't enough to employ fear-mongering, McCain closes his statement on the environment with some good old fashioned religious pandering. Calling on Americans to be "caretakers of creation," McCain attempts to infuse just a touch of religious fundamentalism where, again, it could not be more further removed from the topic at hand.

So I have briefly outlined what the GOP's campaign strategy will be in 2008. Republicans are not stupid. They study polling data and they know which issues are winners, which are losers, and which issues just need a little change of context to be seen as favorable. Good luck with that.

Debbie Schlussel: TV Critic, Moron

Right-wing blogger and hate-monger Debbie Schlussel has been a frequent source of inspiration here at Down With Righty. To sum up her career, Ms. Schlussel is a far right bigot with perhaps the most unfortunate Midwest accent in recent memory. (Check her out) She HATES Muslims, so much so that her blog is more religion than politics. Nearly every post is about some alleged Muslim "terrorist" or some "liberal" organizations' attempts to give Muslims special rights. In Debbie's warped mind, every Muslim with any money is funding al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah. This is a person for whom referring to Barack Obama by the popular "Barack Hussein Obama" has become too tiresome. She has since adopted the truncated "B Hussein O," being sure to preserve in full the name most useful for Republican hate-mongering.

To this point, Ms. Schlussel has only been detected on my radar for her extreme political views. This week, however, she tried her luck as a TV critic, but the results were the same. In the midst of the a presidential campaign, a collapsing economy, and heated debates over waterboarding and wiretapping, Ms. Schlussel took time to gloat over the potential cancellation of a TV show. The show, "Aliens in America" centers around a white, American family and their live-in Pakistani exchange student. Despite generally favorable reviews from the likes of Entertainment Weekly and Salon.com, the sitcom, like most television programs, faces an uncertain future.

After a Detroit News article warned of the show's possible demise, Schlussel was quick to affirm her suspicions: Americans will not tolerate a show with a positive Muslim character.

She went on to claim that the show was "anti-American" propaganda where "Americans are a lesser life form and Muslims are G-d's gift to humanity."

So much is wrong here that I hardly know where to begin....

First, her assessment of the show is hardly accurate. The show is in no way anti-American. Since 9/11, Americans have generally viewed Muslims with greater hostility. Despite a heightened awareness of the religion, Americans are still largely ignorant about Islam. Highlighting these facts in a television show does not constitute anti-American propaganda. In an almost comical twist, Schlussel, the anti-Muslim activist, attacks the show for - of all things - portraying Americans as anti-Muslim. These Hollywood types have some nerve!

Secondly, what was it that Mark Twain said about the rumors of his demise? Despite Schlussel's claims that the show is "a big flop," "tanking," "faltering,"and "on life support," things are not nearly that bad. In fact, the show has simply not yet been renewed for next season. Before the WGA strike, the show was gaining in the ratings and receiving positive reviews. The show's future is simply up in the air, as is the case with most television shows. This is an especially uncertain year for TV because the writer's strike shut down production on most shows and killed any momentum any new shows may have gained.

Aliens' Raja (Adhir Kalyan) and Justin (Dan Byrd)

Perhaps the most disgusting element of Schlussel's post is the sick joy she oozes while bashing a sitcom for it's positive Muslim element. It's one thing to revel in the misery of others, but doing so because of xenophobic racist hate is extremely disturbing. And in case Ms. Schlussel isn't aware, many, many TV programs face the threat of cancellation every season despite the fact that very few feature a Muslim protagonist. In fact, just last season, the following shows were all cancelled:

3 lbs
7th Heaven
All of Us
Andy Barker, P.I.
Angela's Eyes
Big Day
Close to Home
Creature Comforts
Crossing Jordan
Day Break
Deadwood
Drive
Falcon Beach
Grease: You're The One That I Want!
Happy Hour
Help Me Help You
Identity
In Case of Emergency
Justice
Kidnapped
Lovespring International
Raines
Reba
Rome
Runaway
Show Me the Money
Six Degrees
Smith
Standoff
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Thank God You're Here
The Black Donnellys
The Class
The George Lopez Show
The Great American Dream Vote
The King of Queens
The Knights of Prosperity
The Nine
The O.C.
The Real Wedding Crashers
The Rich List
The War at Home
The Wedding Bells
The Winner
Traveler
Twenty Good Years
Vanished
Veronica Mars
What About Brian

So what's the point? Simply put, a lot of shows get cancelled every year. "Aliens in America" is not only NOT cancelled, but is currently airing new episodes. Even if it were to be cancelled, it would be very unlikely to be due to Islamophobia, as Ms. Schlussel has suggested.

So let's see.... Debbie Schlussel is a conservative who enjoys attacking Muslims and Hollywood. She makes false, ill-informed statements and takes comfort in the misery of others. Sounds like your garden variety Righty. How very uninspired and unoriginal, Debbie. Perhaps it's time someone did us all a favor and cancelled you.