Phil Donahue’s vindication: Media icon unloads on Fox, Cheney and what happened at MSNBC

[DonViejo]

Legendary TV host was fired for opposing Iraq war. Here's how he feels seeing the return of those who got it wrong

ELIAS ISQUITH

As has been well-documented, and will hopefully long be taught in journalism schools nationwide, the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was not the American mainstream media’s finest hour. There are plenty of obvious examples — Judith Miller’s reporting for the New York Times, Jeffrey Goldberg’s stuff for the New Yorker, almost everything Peter Beinart did at the New Republic — but perhaps the incident that best encapsulates the hysterical and illiberal atmosphere of the time is the way MSNBC treated Phil Donahue.

The talk-show legend was, at the time, one of the few voices in the mainstream standing against the march to war. He invited antiwar voices onto his show. He questioned the government’s argument for why war was necessary. He cautioned against rushing into an undertaking as grave, monumental and consequential as war. He was getting fine ratings. But he made Chris Matthews — at the time a huge Bush booster — uncomfortable, and network executives worried they’d look bad unless they, too, were “waving the flag at every opportunity.” So Donahue was fired. And then the U.S. went to war. And we all know how that went.

More than a decade later, Iraq is still in chaos — and the media is still giving ample airtime to the very people who created and perpetuated the jingoistic, authoritarian environment that made the suits at MSNBC so very concerned about looking out of step. But while the folks at the networks busied themselves with broadcasting Bill Kristol’s latest insights, Salon figured we’d give Donahue a call and ask him his thoughts about Iraq, the media and the current state of American politics. Our conversation is below, and has been edited for clarity and length.

First of all, what are you up to nowadays?

Well, as you may know, I produced a documentary. It’s an anti-Iraq War documentary. It’s titled “Body of War,” and it is available on Netflix. The film did very well in festivals. People’s Choice at the Toronto International Film Festival, for example, and we also did well in many other places. The documentary has played in quite a few places around the country. Alas, we’ve sold no popcorn, and no distributor would take it still. Iraq docs were falling off the marquee. It’s not “a take your girl to the movie” movie.

more
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/10/phil_donahues_vindication_media_icon_unloads_on_fox_cheney_and_what_happened_at_msnbc/

[riderinthestorm]

1. Big K and R. Along with cali's important OP about the Al Jazeera journos jailed in Egypt.

Important, troubling times for journalists these past ten years.

[myrna minx]

2. K&R - Wonderful innterview.

What a dark time that was.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Body of War was made in 2007, for clarity.

Very moving doc.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

4. Chris "We're-All-Neocons-Now" Matthews

[kentuck]

8. Chris Mathews was the main reason he was fired....

If the truth be known.

Chris was the new big name at MSNBC and had a lot of say about what was being reported.

[Duppers]

10. and the asshole now thinks his audience has amnesia!

[theHandpuppet]

27. Well, what's left of it

I stopped watching that hypocrite's show years ago.

[Auggie]

15. I don't recall Matthews being hawkish during the times I watched ...

maybe I missed something.

Or was Donahue's termination because of something else?

[2banon]

29. Ohhhh you missed it big time..

You must have tuned in to his show after he flipped his "pov".. I don't recall the specific event when that worm turned for him.. I suppose when it was crystal clear that there were no WMD's, and a torrent of evidence was revealed that the rational for war was manufactured by the Neo Cons. But yeah, he was For it before he was Against it.

[No Vested Interest]

40. Oh yeah. Mathews went all slobbery of GWB on the flight deck

with the "Mission Accomplished" sign.
He just assumes we forget or never witnessed it.
He believes he's an expert on political matters.

[Enthusiast]

45. Matthews plays an expert on political matters on TV.

We remember how ridiculous he can be even if he sounds reasonable at times (now).

[Auggie]

47. I was watching way before that ...

he was taking his show on the road to universities on occasion. Many students supported war and he questioned them repeatedly if they really knew what that entailed. I stopped watching Matthews soon after.

[Drunken Irishman]

46. Matthews, like today, was a wind vane...

He opposed the Iraq War leading up to it, but the second Baghdad fail, and Saddam's statue came crashing down, he took a very hawkish tone - especially when Bush did his aircraft carrier stunt.

Basically, he was against the war before he was for it ... and then against it again when things went south in 2004.

[No Vested Interest]

51. The question re Matthews re Iraq War -

Was he reflecting MSNBC/NBC policy at that time =pro-War?
Or was this his own stance?

[Drunken Irishman]

55. It's possible...

But watching Matthews, he seems to be a front-runner and has been for a while now.

[SomeGuyInEagan]

59. If he was merely reflecting policy, he did it very, very well.

He was seriously "slobbery" (as someone upthread correctly state) about GWB and the war.

He is a joke.

[Auggie]

57. Thanks

[heaven05]

79. exactly

NOT to be trusted.

[Doremus]

56. Apparently you weren't watching the day Tweetie said Dumbya gave him a chill up his leg. nt

[No Vested Interest]

60. That was the "Mission Accomplished" scenario, I believe. nt

[cali]

5. kick

[Brainstormy]

6. Great interview

I miss Donahue.

[samsingh]

7. kick

[freshwest]

9. I got to see the demise of 'liberal' media as I saw his show yanked off MSNBC. Prior to that, I'd

distrusted MSM from their discussions with Jackson who won enough votes to be considered a serious candidate for POTUS, or at least due the respect of anyone else.

It was blatant racism from talking heads years before Phil, from the men I felt were liberals acted as if Jesse had no accomplishments in life whatsover. It was the same treatment Obama was given, but he is an even greater affront to them.

The MSM is owned by MIC corporations. does not represent a free press, especially since cable 'news' ascended and the USA was hard right by their liberty to lie and distort instead of reporting news to inform us.

Every single word, image and sound should be viewed with skepticism, as they are not above tossing out some bait to get liberals to tune in and join the ranks of the misinformed.

[rbrnmw]

13. I voted for Jesse in 88 my first vote ever cast

[freshwest]

23. So did I, although it wasn't my first chance to vote. I was furious at the way they treated him.

I was naive enough to believe they could see the important ideals beyond the color of his skin.

In hindsight, maybe they did, and that is why they did not give him the sane deference as they'd given to the white candidates.

After all, he was a contender and had done things on the world stage. They talked over him as if he wasn't there - just like they do Obama.

Whenever I read dismissive posts about him, other civil rights leaders and Democrats on DU, I just want to

And I'm glad you got the chance to vote for him, too. Better days then, coming out of the civil rights era that Reagan was determined to end.

After watching JFK, MLK, Jr. and RFK gunned down for doing the right things for all, I thought the lessons had been learned.

I'm pleased to meet another supporter.

[rbrnmw]

41. was proud be his supporter

[RufusTFirefly]

19. "they are not above tossing out some bait to get liberals to tune in"

Bingo!

When will people ever learn? When corporate media appears to take a liberal approach, it's not an ideology. It's a business strategy. It's only because it's beneficial to their bottom line. And they will only take it so far. They aren't going to undercut their own pursuit of profit. It's really little more than titillation.

The U.S.-based news source that comes closest to trustworthy in this country is Pacifica. That's because it's truly listener supported. (And even Pacifica should be followed with a healthy skepticism.) Don't even get me started on National rePublican Radio. The general rule that Woodward and Bernstein followed (even though the former's motivations were suspect) is still the same: Follow the money.

Watch the commercials or listen to the ads -- er, I mean -- "underwriter credits." They'll tell you what you need to know about a network's priorities.

[freshwest]

24. Well said!

[Overseas]

11. K&R.

[Hissyspit]

12. More:

A lot of people — not just on the left, but those in general who either did not support the war from the beginning or turned on it early — were upset to see a lot of the most vocal, prominent and unrepentant supporters of the invasion being treated as experts, and resuming their role as pundits and talking heads. Did you share that frustration?

Yes. Oh, sure. How can you not, seeing Dick Cheney instruct us on foreign policy?

One of the things I don’t think has had enough attention [is that] every major metropolitan newspaper in this country supported the invasion of Iraq. Now, if there’s a major metropolitan newspaper in this country that condemned the invasion that I don’t know about, I’m happy to hear from them, and I will apologize, personally. Seventy-seven United States senators voted for the war. Hillary voted for the war, John Kerry voted for the war, Chuck Hagel voted for the war, and there were others; only 23 senators voted no. Of the 23, only one was a Republican — Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, and he lost his seat at the next election. (Thank God the voters of Rhode Island were good enough to elect him governor the following year.)

The war, which was … a massive blunder, never came up during the presidential contest in either ’08 or ’12. It never came up. The closest it came to the surface was Ron Paul, who did say on the stump, “Why are we invading all these countries? What are we doing?” As you see in my film, the actual debate on the floor of the House and the Senate, of the Iraq War resolution, which unconstitutionally gave Bush permission to invade, it wasn’t in any way obedient to Article I, Section 8 [of the Constitution], which states only Congress can declare war. Congress did not declare war. Congress did not want the job. It’s a third rail issue; if they’re wrong then that could be it. So they, hands over their eyes, handed the president a piece of paper which gives him permission if he thinks he should, and if it doesn’t work, they’re able to say, “Well, he said, he thought, he told us …”

I’d very much like you to see the behavior of the congressmen (in my film). They were summoned to the White House by WHIG, White House Iraq Group. This is a Karl Rove committee that included the advertising warriors who named our invasion “Shock and Awe,” and “Rolling Thunder,” like video games. And they gave them their talking points: “A smoking gun will become a mushroom cloud”; “The longer we wait, the more dangerous he becomes”; “Saddam has more weapons of mass destruction than Hitler ever had”; “I see Hitler in Saddam Hussein.” And they read this, they’re looking down at the piece of paper, in what was at most a shell debate, that led to the deaths of over 4,500 service people, men and women both, not to mention how many injuries, we’re not even sure, we’re not even sure how many Iraqis are dead, and the refugees are in the millions.

This is unbelievable. You’ve got to see this debate. It’s truly a very instructive piece on what you can do if you scare the people. George Bush took this nation, the mainstream media included, and led it right into this war. It was an amazingly executed, brilliantly executed, plan. The politics of fear. And so when I see Cheney, my god, Americans got a lot out of trying, we haven’t won a war, and we’re spending $2 billion a day on things that go “boom.” We have become a warrior nation. We have no respect for diplomacy. We have to be tough, and we don’t talk to people we don’t like. We don’t talk to Ahmadinejad; Putin talks to Ahmadinejad. We didn’t talk to Putin; Putin talked to us. And we’re beginning to show an unbecoming insecurity. We’re stomping around: “Exceptionalism! Exceptionalism!” Well, easy, big fella; it would be better if someone from another country said we were exceptional.

Do you think if the war had been debated more sincerely, and its presentation to the public hadn’t been so sanitized, folks like Cheney would have a harder time reemerging as they have?

Well, let’s understand that he’s reemerging on Fox, right? I mean, I haven’t researched this, has he been on any of the major networks? Has he been on ABC? He’s not been on “Meet the Press,” has he? I don’t know.

[NealK]

35. Thanks Hissyspit!

And this is like deja vu all over again with Cheney and his ilk beating the drums of war. Oh and it's nice to remember that Hillary voted for the war and she sure would do it again.

[mopinko]

70. money quote, for me

Well, easy, big fella; it would be better if someone from another country said we were exceptional.

[monmouth3]

14. Phil Donahue's voice is what we are really missing on the Left. Great interview..n/t

[Mnpaul]

67. Can we talk him into running for Pres.?

He has name recognition and he was correct about the Iraq fiasco.

[navarth]

16. A great interview. A voice that has been muzzled. Thanks for posting. nt

[KoKo]

17. With Iraq back in the News...wouldn't it be

great for Indie Theaters to run "Body of War."

There was so much activism in the years after Supremes stole election for Bush and then "9/11" --Afghanistan/Iraq Invasions...the Dean Campaign, Michael Moore's "9/11" Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and others. There were viewings of Documentaries in Indie theaters all over the country. But, then interest wained. There are many good documentaries out there on You Tube and private sites and on DVD. But there's little interest these days...even while the issues those documentaries addressed have been resurfacing in the last couple of years.

Would be wonderful to find a renewed interest by those too young to have known about them suddenly discover the history and that the truth was out there, but there were few who listened.

[arcane1]

39. I'd love to see "The Corporation" get a theatrical rerelease too

[RufusTFirefly]

64. Great film! Saw it at the Castro in SF and the Aquarius in Palo Alto

The filmmaker's were there for Q and A after the Castro screening.

I own the DVD and a T-shirt featuring the angel/devil logo



The original book, by Joel Bakan, is worth reading, too.

[arcane1]

65. Wow, I somehow never knew about the book. Thanks!!

[Uncle Joe]

18. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, DonViejo.

[polynomial]

20. political people and those media people

Those political people and those media people could be genial in an honest way present to America the decision to war in Iraq was a total blunder.

At least Hillary did say that it was the wrong decision. That type of honesty is what America needs to preclude to prevent horrible decisions like that from happening again.

The whole media episode was theater, intentional politically driven profiteering theater that MSNBC, and the other networks will have a difficult time to recover from. The news media in general has totally lost the confidence and trust by the general public.

Especially anything the media news endorses as a problem in America is going to be referred to documentaries such as those made by independents like Phil Donahue.

Those stories connected to mainstream media will be considered unacceptable. Most are now, anyone watching Fox news can feel and sense the bias emanating from the personalities presenting them.

It is obvious there are perverted minds at the inner product of American media corporate circles. Many of that perversion are influenced by extremist in religion or the banking system, or foreign money.

The cable system in America is out of control, the cost is way too much and the commercial advertising is pure profiteering rigged to launder money and favors.

As Rush Limbaugh admitted lately he is making embarrassing profits through commercials. We all know Limbaugh has lost his edge so how could he be making money in the so called free market system unless it is planed profits.

[blue neen]

21. Very interesting interview,

especially the info about the advertising warriors and "Shock and Awe".

[zeemike]

22. K&R for a great interview.

From one of the few TV personalities that has any integrity.

[hlthe2b]

25. Tweety tries to make himself look like a prime opponent of the war today, but Donahue speaks truth:

"But he made Chris Matthews — at the time a huge Bush booster — uncomfortable, and network executives worried they’d look bad unless they, too, were “waving the flag at every opportunity.”

[redqueen]

26. K&R nt

[theHandpuppet]

28. Another hearty k&r

Thanks for this thread!

[colsohlibgal]

30. Shameful

MSNBC's cheerleading for that trumped up war sickened me, and what they did to Donahue was and is inexcusable.

And Tweety? His gushing like a schoolgirl over the Shrub's fake flight fake victory landing on that flight deck will be available for listening forever.

Has MSNBC changed a bunch? I know Cenk Uygur turned down a lot of cash to stay there because he refused to bow down to what Corporate wanted.

[Enthusiast]

44. +1

I refuse to watch Tweety.

It's shame about MSNBC.

Their liberalness is a very thin veneer.

[AzDar]

31. K & R

[lexx21]

32. I remember him from back in the 1980's when...

he had several members of congress on his show and held their feet to the fire for giving themselves a rather large raise. His point of them already being rich to begin with and our economy being in the crapper......... By the time he was done the audience was ready to lynch those guys. That was the day he really gained my respect.

[NealK]

36. It sucks that these days are over.

[Mnpaul]

68. STFU O'Reilly

There are still people out there who haven't seen this gem so here it is again.

[Caretha]

73. I will never forget

that interview. It was such an intense time, I lived it, I watched while they desecrated one of the last liberal media voices. Listen to the whole thing. Bill O'Reilly and his ilk could not have been more wrong and been more responsible for the genocide on the poor people of Iraq. May his soul be damned!


I can only wish that they die a thousand times a thousand for those poor people they helped kill, be they American/British etc soldiers or the poor Iraqi people - their senseless deaths due to the hubris of soulless mother fuckers like Bill O'Reilly. (jurors please be lenient on my cursing...it is not meant in offense of any sweet human alive...but only to express my utter disdain for those like BO).

May the fires of hell be times a million for them.

I'm an agnostic - but damn it Karma has got to exist in order for justice to exist or I swear nothing is worth all this anguish.

[heaven05]

34. I never liked and still

don't like and totally despise chris matthews. I was very upset with the events of 9/11 and even said saddam should be removed if responsible and has WMD's. When bush the lesser joked about looking for the WMD's, I knew then he and the rest has lied. Plus all of them blinked a lot when talking to the cameras. It was just a feeling. I was upset with the Rather incident at CBS and this one too. Rather told the truth and was fired. I knew then the fan had been turned on high and the BS was blowing everywhere. Saddam after capture was never allowed a public statement and his court statements led me to believe he had been drugged or something. The whole thing stunk to high heaven.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

78. "I knew the fan had been turned on high

and the BS was blowing everywhere." Very, very well put, heaven05.

Phil Donahue's honesty and clarity remind me a lot of Michael Moore. They're both gifted communicators, and I wonder if they ever talk or get together. What a brilliant effect that collaboration might produce.

[ReRe]

37. K&R

Phil Donahue: Unafraid to speak truth to power.

Tweetie Pie: Go-along-to-get-along.
Thanks, DonViejo, for this TRUTHFUL Salon interview with Phil. It's long overdue.

[totodeinhere]

38. I generally support Phil Donahue. But on the other hand I have trouble forgiving

his active support for Ralph Nader in 2000. That was a nonstarter for me.

[calimary]

58. Hey, Keith Olbermann had the highest-rated show on MSNBC too. And look what happened to him.

[Enthusiast]

43. Way to go, Phil! I got my eye on Bernie Sanders too.

[pansypoo53219]

48. i know a GW! vet and he is forever going on about they didn't finish the job. the abrupt ending by

GHWB did not help keep us out. they hyped the evls of saddam to much back then. i keep haranguing him that GW1 was probably a mistake as well.

[Drunken Irishman]

49. I remember my grandma used to watch Phil's MSNBC show before she died...

It was a good show and, from what I recall, one of the better rated MSNBC shows of 2002 and 2003. It just goes to show that MSNBC isn't that much different than FOX and CNN - they just pretend to be more liberal at times.

[hootinholler]

50. kick to find after work. n/t

[malaise]

52. MUST READ

I'd like to see him on Rachel or Lawrence

[DAMANgoldberg]

77. I would too. but...

That has as much chance of happening as Keith Olbermann being invited back. Not going to happen. This is more of a Larry King, Abby Martin, or Alyona M. type of interview because they are at outlets that can and will air it. Heck Rachel catches it for having Dan Rather on.

I happen to like Rachel Maddow, but she is hamstrung in what can be said or talked about and even worse, so is anybody at CNN. Maybe Murdoch should buy Time Warner, be forced to sell CNN to Al Jazzera, the only news company with the $$ to make it work.

[snagglepuss]

53. k and r

[Stellar]

54. K&R

" Legendary TV host was fired for opposing Iraq war."

And Hillary lost to Obama and he became President because of it. Crazy world when you've got baggers in it.

[HangOnKids]

61. Phil was goring their cash cow

The entire war was a pretext for the largest theft ever in history. Phil had the courage to stand up and say NOT SO FAST. I will go to my grave knowing that none of these media assholes, Congress assholes, the Prez or Cheney, believed this was a necessary war, they all did it to get rich/richer.

Lousy fucking assholes, the entire lot, oh and murderers to boot. What a shit show by pond scum.

[tblue37]

63. K&R. nt

[McCamy Taylor]

66. Tweety did what GE did what the Pentagon wanted.

The Pentagon wanted this war. Note that when Bush tried to invade Iran in 2005, the Pentagan and GE and MSNBC and Tweety staged one of the first big "Hell no, we won't go" news media events. That was because the Pentagon refused to fight on three fronts.

Remember, GE is the mouthpiece of the Pentagon. MSNBC is the mouthpiece of GE. That makes Tweety the mouthpiece of the Pentagon.

[emsimon33]

69. K&R

[NRaleighLiberal]

71. brilliant. huge k and r!

[UTUSN]

72. Here's my Demopedia post on Tweety, including my seeing Tweety executing Phil on the air

[font size=5]Chris MATTHEWS [/font]

Etymology of "Tweety". During Campaign 2000 the media noise machine was swooning over the nicknames Shrub was giving some of them. Media Whores Online ran a contest to nickname Chris MATTHEWS. In the first three or so weeks, there was no clear, catchy front runner, with "The Screamer" sort of leading. Then one of MATTHEWS's own Hardball staff leaked to MWO that they themselves called him "Tweety" because of the Clairol shade of hair coloring he favored. This was immediately declared the winner. But in some quarters, it wasn't entirely satisfactory. For one thing, by the time the name was declared, the shade had changed to platinum, leading to a suggestion he be called "Carole LOMBARD".




Plus, "Tweety" sounded too affectionate.

Then M-TV held its 20th or 25th or whatever anniversary, and all the cable echo chambers were doing segments of Britney shedding her duds down to almost nothing. Not to be left behind, Tweety followed suit, with a guest "culture" commentator from Time Mag, the young humor columnist, Joel STEIN. The staff kept re-running the Britney clip, and Tweety was clearly DROOLING disgustingly. STEIN said, "You're beginning to creep me out." Tweety responded, "Yeah, well, wait till YOU're 50." This led to the suggestion that "Tweety" be modified to "Tweezer" to retain the hair reference while canceling out the affection factor and also adding the (dirty old) "geezer" angle.

Darrell HAMMOND "Doing" Tweety on SNL. Tweety's ego was massively stroked after the debut of HAMMOND's impersonation of him, either in 2001 or 2002. He said, "I am now an ICON: I have been 'done' on Saturday Night Live'." The funniest line in the debut was HAMMOND as Tweety, cracking himself up with, [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]"For the ... FIFTY ... people who watch this show[/FONT]...” (Hardball, not SNL). In the first few times HAMMOND featured him, the target was Tweety himself -- manically interrupting, spitting, and drooling. However, the characterization evolved, not true to the original, where Tweety became the "rational" character surrounded by oddball, extremist "guests", with HAMMOND-Tweety shaking his head in disbelief at their partisan spin.

"Turning" from Being a Democrat. He (like G.E.RUSSERT and Pat CADDELL) still trades on having been a Democrat in the CARTER/O'NEILL era. In the hothouse of big time political flunkydom, STATUS and POWER come from the SUCCESS of your boss. RAYGUN kicked Tweety's bosses' rears, and Tweety gravitated to admiring that "success". When he started up his media career he was mentored by G.E. RUSSERT, who had himself already started "turning" by "reaching out" to LIMBOsevic and expending his formerly-Lib-bleeding-heart on those poor wingnuts who had been maligned and marginalized by the Liberal Elite, lo those many years. Tweety started doing video valentines to RAYGUN, promenading arm in arm with Nancy. He might have tapped into the frenzy of the FAKE impeachment, but "hatred of the CLINTONs" isn't what made him turn. The last time he was identifiably a Democrat was sometime around 1988 when Hardball (the book) was published. Throughout the year of Campaign 2000 he savaged the Dem candidate daily and went on to years of bromance over Shrub, renouncing any Democratic heritage. He said his parents were “cloth coat" (Rethugs), and that basically what first drew him to the Dem side was Irish-Catholic pride over JFK. Not ideology, not idealism. He said the reason he joined the Peace Corps was specifically to avoid going to Vietnam.

How Tweety "Executed" DONAHUE on MSNBC. Tweety was on his book tour for another one of his "books" (large type, wide spaces between lines, blank half-pages). It was in the jingoistic hysteria in the run-up to the illegal Iraq attack. The book was about supposed "Americanism" -- an American Civ 101 ripoff about books and movies and cultural stuff that are essentially American (think, "The Great Gatsby&quot . So Phil welcomed him as a colleague and peer on Phil's show for the full hour to plug the book. From the moment he appeared, there was a strange, deadly snake look in Tweety's snake eyes. Phil was walking around the audience, apparently not sensing anything, while Tweety was motionless, following him only with his eyes. Phil brought up something or other questioning blind, kneejerk jingoism, and Tweety STRUCK! He started out with venom dripping, "You see, THIS is EXACTLY what's wrong with YOU Liberals: You are NEGATIVE about this country, you find NOTHING good about it," and on and on. It took awhile before Phil figured out what was happening. Later, Phil, devastated and spent, was sitting at the table with Tweety and, weaker and weaker, did some of his trademark shoulder shrugging and arm waving. Tweety delivered the coup de grace, "What's THIS (mimicking the movements)??!! What's with the --APE-- movements???!" Days or a week or two later, Phil's cancellation was announced and took effect.

How Tweety "Triggered" a Gun Incident (re: Kathleen WILLEY). At the height of the FAKE impeachment, Ms WILLEY claimed that a mystery jogger had threatened her or her cat or somebody, with the insinuation that there was a CLINTON connection. Several months later, there was gossip that the jogger had been identified. Tweety hosted her and it appeared they had discussed the identity off camera. He tried mightily to get her to say the name on the air, which she wouldn't do. Finally, he himself blurted it out, "Was it (Name/Surname)?" She wouldn’t confirm it. Within days there was a bizarre incident, with the mentally disabled brother of Pat and Bay BUCHANAN going with a gun to the house of the supposed jogger named by Tweety, where there were only some foreign exchange students present. Later it was determined that the person Tweety named on the air had NOTHING to do with the supposed jogger incident.

"Heroes" Tweety and Tom DeLAY. In the aftermath of the 07-24-98 shooting of two Capitol police officers when the slain officers were duly eulogized and called heroes, Tweety latched on to this, the way we have seen him attempt to glorify himself in other instances: Like saying he was assigned to Africa in the Peace Corps and "WALKED THE SAME GROUND" THAT CHURCHILL had passed through. Or when he said, "I am an ICON! I have been 'done' by SNL!". So now that the Capitol policemen were being called heroes, Tweety came forward to say that HE had been a Capitol policemen, TOO, JUST LIKE THEM, when he was starting out. It turns out that he had worked a (temporary?) job for three months as that. In all the years before the officers were shot and eulogized, he probably NEVER referred to that job, most likely thinking of it as a rent-a-cop turn, until he could see in retrospect the glory that he had been DESTINED to from the beginning.

But he is not the only glory hog. When that incident was happening, the news of the moment reported that Tom DELAY had hopped a plane out of town and immediately turned around in Houston when the incident was over. This show of courage is why he has been dubbed, "Tom-DePLANE!-DePLANE!-DELAY".

But searches of countless news reports of that time show no mention of the hopping-the-plane. Only this is left:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm /... "...House members, many rushing out of town, did not have to remain behind. DeLay slipped out the main door of the Capitol less than 15 minutes after the shooting. He looked stricken. Asked if he'd seen anything, he said, "Did I ever. I don't want to talk about it." Aides rushed him into his waiting car. ...."
------------

[Babel_17]

74. The New York Times, MSNBC, CNN with their hired Generals

and the failure of the mainstream media to seize the glaring opportunity of doing a ten year retrospective on The Iarq War. The fix is in to deny the American people accountability.

[Cha]

75. Oh fudge.. I think most of us remember how devasted we were

when we heard Phil Donohue got Fired from msnbc(fuckers).

And, here we are in 2014.. to PD..

[arikara]

76. K&R

I wish he'd come back. He's still needed.

[northoftheborder]

80. Thanks for the history behind the name "Tweety". And all the other ...

....history, the Donahue interview on "O'Really", the Tweety timeline history back when I wasn't paying attention to daytime shows (I occasionaly did watch Donohue) never have watched "Tweety" - mainly just can't stand his bullying of his guests and his excited pomposity. He is a hypocrite that's for sure.