John McCain will be speaking in a few minutes about Syria at the American Enterprise Institute. He’s been calling for arming the rebels.
Then CSPAN is airing discussants on his talk. Three of the five–Michael Rubin of AEI, Lee Smith from the Weekly Standard, and Ammar Abdulhamid of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies– are dyed-in-the-wool neocons. Though maybe it could be said that Abdulhamid parrots neocon talking points while working at a neocon thinktank. While another discussant, David Schenker, hails from the Israel lobby thinktank, Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Is this a real discourse? Can you get ahead in D.C. if you’re not for U.S. aggression in Muslim world? Let’s remember what the eminent Leslie Gelb of the New York Times and Council on Foreign Relations said about the necessity of maintaining one’s career by supporting the Iraq war 10 years ago:
My initial support for the war [in Iraq] was symptomatic of unfortunate tendencies within the foreign policy community, namely the disposition and incentives to support wars to retain political and professional credibility. We ‘experts’ have a lot to fix about ourselves, even as we ‘perfect’ the media.
When is the media going to open up to leftwing and realist voices? For instance, Alex Pareene on the Senate’s three war-crazed amigos.
When John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman join forces, you can be sure of one thing: It will involve state-sponsored violence.
You got a beef with C-SPAN, but then you refer to Leslie Gelb as “the eminent” – somehow I dont think you meant simply “highly visible”. This ass hat cheerleads for war because he wants to keep up his “credibility” with his “community” (funny how anytime someone refers to “community”, they’re usually talking about a bunch of assholes) and you give the guy his props. This is how clowns like the ones you mention end up on C-SPAN, because apparently, in your “community” Phil, everyone always maintains their Title, regardless of what they do.
Thanks for pointing this out Phil. There seems to be a real take over at Cspan although callers on Washington Journal have been pushing for the discussion to open up.
In a six week period Washington Journal had Barbara Slavin, Yoghi Dreazen, Anne Marie Slaughter (who push that negotiations with Iran have been exhausted) and then two individuals from WINEP link to washingtoninstitute.org Micheal Singh and Ash Jan who were both pushing for a military attack on Iran and repeating totally unsubstantiated claims about Iran. This is fair balanced and accurate coverage?
Have not seen Flynt or Hillary Mann Leverett or any other experts on CSpan or Washington Journal who address the situation with Iran based on facts for a very long time
Tney did have Dr. B on awhile back
link to c-spanvideo.org
RE: “When John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman join forces, you can be sure of one thing: It will involve state-sponsored violence.” ~ Pareene
MY COMMENT: Yes, but they are such “drop dead gorgeous” men! That makes them incredibly difficult to resist. Especially Lindsey, with his alluring, bloodshotten, baby blue eyes!
Be still my heart!
I completely agree that CSPAN has been airing neo-cons lately. This past weekend as I was just flipping through the channels there was Glen Beck on either C-SPAN or C-SPAN 2 and Jonah Goldberg on Book TV. No good when these people are given a platform to spew falsehoods while anything to the left of them is left out.
It’s really bad that you have to be a war-crazed thug to get ahead in DC. War pays big bucks, though. It expands the military-industrial-Congressional complex.
You can’t get ahead in DC calling for cutting government spending. Everyone wants to spend more, more, more. The war issue is symptomatic of the larger issue, which is that DC has become the new Rome, the new London, existing for no other reason than to continue to exist, greedy, bloated, sucking the countryside dry, leaving devastation in its wake.
On one of the AfterWords segments in 2009 it featured Pete Hegseth and Kimberly Kagan and was such a shameless sales job for pro-israel/neocon ideas and influence that I contacted C-SPAN to complain – several times. Never got any response. Here is the date I noticed the neocons had penetrated the programming at C-SPAN:
link to c-spanvideo.org (nauseating – you’ve been warned)
good for you…keep contacting until you get a response
Can anyone name any of the major print or broadcast media outlets that is not owned or managed by members of the Israel Lobby? What is the definition of “fifth column” anyway?
re
Boiled down, Gelb offered obeisance to the pro-Israel community. For Gelb’s generation, this is the banality of evil. Nothing eminent about it.
But since you mentioned C Span — I grapple with this all the time: Is C Span merely the neutral platform or does C Span, too, express & reflect a strong pro-Israel bias for the sake of “maintaining political and professional credibility?”
Ask Connie Doebele, who was forced to recite her mea culpas for the sin of attempting to schedule an appearance by David Irving during an appearance by Debra Lipstadt in a discussion of the latter’s book about her victory in a trial in which the former was vanquished. Subsequently, C Span moderators are more likely to pull their punches, as a close watcher of the venue will have noticed. C Span moderators who fail to sufficiently chastise remarks about Israel or I lobby, or who encourage positive remarks about Iran or Palestine, will be called out by name on CAMERA. On the other hand, Steve Scully was perfectly comfortable, and was not sanctioned for, selecting to read an email that was openly defamatory of Islam.
The young professionals at C Span and throughout the Washington, DC media & policy community reflect the increasingly Israel-observant requirement if they wish to “retain their political and professional credibility.” As Jack Abramoff observed in a discussion of congressional corruption , young staffers to legislators do most of the work, man the gates, and most easily seduced by Abramoffian ‘lobby’ tactics.
Furthermore, the generation of young people coming up who will be taking those positions have spent their entire educational career being sensitized to holocaust, first, through mandatory holocaust studies in US taxpayer-funded public schools, and also in universities where the David Horowitz agenda is gaining ground. I was watching an event the other day in which the opening shot of the audience had the Georgetown University banner in the background and kippad heads of most if not all of the audience members in the foreground.
In the seventh century, Lombards conquered Padua and claimed as one of their prizes the University of Padua. History is written by those who control the education of the young.
Ravished?
RE: “C-SPAN is ravished by neocons” ~ Weiss
SOFTLY SPOKEN AS ON MR. ROGERS’ NEIGHBORHOOD: Can you say Comcast? Sure you can!
COMCAST AND THE OTHER CABLE SYSTEMS FUND C-SPAN!
SEE “NBC and the Israel lobby”, 11/26/11
SOURCE – link to mondoweiss.net
Brian Lamb was recently on WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi show. I had called with the statement/question “Brian Lamb is one of my heroes for creating CSpan.” Then for Brian “has Cspan ever been pressured by a special interest group to be silent about particular issues” Was switched onto the show and the connection was bad (first time this has happened to me ). If Lamb is ever on another talk show (did get through to ask him a question on the Diane Rehm show) I hope folks call in and ask him whether Cspan gets pressured by the I lobbby more than any other group to not cover the I/P issue. Or call into Washington Journal during open phones and ask that question. While callers seem better informed about this issue it does appear that Cspan in general (as Phil points out) and Washington Journal are having guest on who lean hard towards supporting Israel no matter what they do.
Really wonder how much the right wing group Camera is having on CSpans willingness to cover this critical issue. Camera objects to any questions or comments about what Israel is doing, or the power of the I lobby in congress and their push for a military confrontation with Iran based on unsubstantiated and trumped up claims.
link to camera.org
You have to wonder how much pressure Cspan is feeling and bending over to from the I lobby. This is at Camera’s Cspan watch website. How many other special interest groups have CSpan watch websites?
link to camera.org
“Moreover, except for the rare guest on Washington Journal who questions any of the numerous anti-Israel or antisemitic charges leveled by callers, these invariably false charges are tacitly accepted. Why does C-SPAN repeatedly permit bigotry and misinformation targeting Jews and the Jewish state? No other ethnic or religious group or nation is repeatedly vilified on these broadcasts.
According to C-SPAN’s Web site, more than 28 million viewers tune in each week – making it an information source of potential significance. Among its most popular programs is the Washington Journal despite its persistent failure to adhere to journalistic standards. The 3-hour daily public affairs and call-in show has been given a free pass for too many years from its major patrons such as Comcast, the largest cable television provider in the country. Neil_Smit@cable.comcast.com is the e-mail address of Neil Smit, President of Comcast Cable and most prominent member of C-SPAN’s five-member Board of Directors executive committee. Courteous, concise e-mails should urge Comcast to make clear to C-SPAN executives that Washington Journal must not continue providing an open platform to anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli bigots. A few seconds tape-delay, like those used by most call-in radio shows, should be sufficient. C-SPAN chief executives are sswain@c-span.org, rkennedy@c-span.org.”
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Brian Lamb just retired in March. Wondering if this is changing things
When Jacob Heilbrunn discussed his book, They Knew They Were Right, at the Nixon Center a few years back, he mentioned that he had interviewed Bill Buckley while putting the book together.
Buckley was not responsive to most of Heilbrunn’s questions, particularly when the subject was Buckley’s magazine, National Review. Neocons have overtaken Buckley’s life’s work, of course, and taken it in a direction he might not have wanted it to go. That had to hurt.
I wonder if Brian Lamb feels the same way about C Span.
Philip Weiss, do you support the Free Syrian Army against the evil Assad?
link to moonofalabama.org
So anan – the enemy of my enemy is my friend?