Karl Rove's latest target: Dana Milbank and his over-the-line orange hat

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Once more, Karl Rove's fingerprints are visible all over the "liberal media."

Crossing the Line on a Cable Show?

By Deborah Howell
Sunday, February 19, 2006; B06

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/18/AR2006021801098_pf.html



Dana Milbank can be controversial with readers. The Post reporter has his fans -- and I can be one of them -- but I think his appearance on MSNBC last week was a mistake in judgment. Milbank wore hunting gear -- an orange stocking cap and striped vest and gloves -- on Keith Olbermann's show Monday night and made several meant-to-be-humorous remarks about Vice President Cheney's hunting accident. Here's an example from the transcript:

Olbermann: And will there be more hunting trips? I mean, would you actually go hunting with the vice president at this point, even dressed the way you are?

Milbank: I understand that Pat Fitzgerald has been offered an invitation to the next one.

Fitzgerald is the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case, in which Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was indicted on charges of perjury. The mail was swift and sure. I got hundreds of e-mails, many prompted by conservative blogs. A number of readers asked the same question as Mark O'Brien of Mechanicsburg, Pa.: "Is Milbank an opinion columnist or a reporter?" The answer isn't simple. Milbank, a national political reporter, writes the frequent Washington Sketch column on Page 2 and also does the occasional news story. Editors here do not consider him an opinion columnist.

Liz Spayd, assistant managing editor for national news, said Milbank's column, patterned after similar columns in British newspapers, "observes and reports about the theater of politics. He is a genius at capturing an element of how this city works in a voice that is original and delightful to take in. His column is not ideological. He doesn't take a stand on issues or pass judgment on policy. In that role, he has a little more freedom than a conventional staff writer might." A second question is easier to answer. From reader Eric Welch: "Does Dana Milbank's wearing of a bright orange hat and vest to cover the vice president's accidental shooting of a friend convey professionalism and objective journalism by Washington Post standards?"

[Ignacio Upton]

1. Dana Milbank is no friend on ours

And fuck Howell, as I still haven't forgiven her for repeating the false claims of "Democratic" involvement in the Abramoff scandal, and how she just shut down her blog to silence us.

[Canuckistanian]

2. Making fun of fake hunters is appalling!

[Yoda Yada]

3. ...But It Is OK for Rove, Hughes etc. to mock John Kerry?

Remember the childish picture of them in camouflage HUNTING GEAR that they all wore during the election campaign 2004?

Hypocrites! ...every one of them.

Let him who is WITHOUT "costume", caste the first stone.

[emdee]

4. He wasn't the only commentator to wear an orange vest....

Sounds to me as if Keith's show is really what's bothering them! :rofl:

And, also, now we'll be discussing whether the wearing of orange was appropriate or not --- veering the topic away from the shooting and beer and cocktails. Chapter 2 in Republican Handbook: Diversion

emdee