Conflict of Interest Kurtz Strikes Again

The ash burns on Howie Kurtz's ass are getting more noticable by the minute.

Update: Erik Wemple keeps his speculation clean.

Libertarian Old Police Blotter: Joe Gone to Prison Edition

I can't find anything to tie Joe Francis to the Republican Party, although he shares many of the G.O.P.'s views on women.  So I'll make this a "Libertarian Old Police Blotter."

Anyway, here's the good news:

Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild fame has been accused of hitting girls in the past. But this time the charges stuck.

The L.A. City Attorney's office triumphantly stated that Francis was convicted by a jury today of "three counts of false imprisonment, one count of dissuading a witness from reporting, and one count of assault causing great bodily injury":

Prosecutors say the 40-year-old enticed three women into his limo outside Hollywood's Supperclub. Two of the women thought they were simply being driven to a parked car nearby. But no, the City Attorney's office says:

 Instead Francis took them to his place and got into a physical altercation with two of the women as he tried to separate them from their companion.

If there's any justice, Joe will spend the next five years in prison. Congratulations to the prosecutors for their outstanding work.

As One Hack Falls, One Hundred Hacks Rise Up to Take His Place

Coverage of Howard Kurtz's sacking by The Daily Beast pays tribute to Kurtz by being just as hacktacular as Kurtz himself. A choice nugget:

The question of Kurtz’s future, in terms of both reputation and relevance, now turns to CNN.

It took two people to write that.

It's all there in the PoliticHo article -- worthless anonymous quotes which insult but don't inform, "seems" and "it is unclear"s as hedges for ass-pulled speculation, Twitter reprints.  It's almost as if Kurtz wrote it himself.

Dylan Byers is either laboring under the misimpression that his crap is superior to Kurtz's, or he knows his crap is just as bad and that his employer doesn't care.

Howard Kurtz's Conflicts of Interest Reduced By Nine Percent

So what does a right-wing hack do after failing downward from a Washington Post Co. property and a virtual joke (NewsBeast)?

He can follow his fellow hack, Mickey Kaus, and write bitter anti-immigrant screeds at the Daily Choler. 

Don't worry, folks.  Howie has several other jobs he can do poorly.  I mean, what are the odds that CNN will wise up?

The Washington Post reports the story by defining irony down:

People familiar with both sides — media people ironically speaking anonymously about other media people — agree that there was mutual antagonism and tension for several months.

And then there's Maude:

Kurtz has expressed dissatisfaction with deep cutbacks and in his bureau site’s increased emphasis on liberal commentary, including the addition of two former Obama administration officials as columnists.

Yet not a peep out of him about the hiring of Megan McArdle or "The Royalist."

But I repeat myself. 

Fright or Flight

Eric Alterman makes a persuasive case for the worthlessness of Maureen Dowd.

Maureen Dowd herself makes the same case every time she is published:

"BARBARA BUSH is a word that rhymes with fright."

Blight?
Parasite?
Anti-semite?

My vote: Shite.

If You See Something, Say Something

You've probably seen reports that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was so radicalized and bloodthirsty that he disrupted a worship service by shouting because the imam was praising a religious pacifist:

Here's one account:

About three years ago, I saw Krauthammer flip out in synagogue on Yom Kippur. The rabbi had offered some timid endorsement of peace — peace essentially on Israel’s terms — but peace anyway. Krauthammer went nuts. He actually started bellowing at the rabbi, from his wheel chair in the aisle. People tried to “shush” him. It was, after all, the holiest day of the year. But Krauthammer kept howling until the rabbi apologized. The man is as arrogant as he is thuggish. Who screams at the rabbi at services? For advocating peace?

Elsewhere, the man had frequently cheered the slaughter of innocents through bombing.

The mosque kicked Tsarnaev out of its congregation.   

An Art Lover Inquires

How much do you think it would cost to commission a Jon McNaughton painting of Ben Carson battling Kermit Gosnell in the skies over Jerusalem, and call it "Undercard of The Armageddon"?

Plato and Bacon

The Man of Virtue sings of Bowdoin and the NAS:

[In his Forward to What Does Bowdoin Teach?, Bill] Bennett begins by asserting that “Plato… remarked that the two most important questions in society are ‘Who teaches the children?’ and ’What do they teach them?’” Unfortunately, Plato “remarks” no such thing, at least in any of the works known to me (I invite readers to correct me if I’m wrong). I suppose that the phrase could be a reasonable, if rather simplistic summary of Plato’s thought about education. But the actual source appears to be a Michelle Malkin column. The phrase also appears, without a specific citation, on a number of cut-and-paste quote sites. Misquotation happens all the time, of course. But it’s a bad start for a defense of traditional education–particularly one that claims that Bowdoin students aren’t learning enough about Greek philosophy.

Here's something else Plato didn't say:

The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.

And Plato wasn't talking about Butterbean Bennett when he didn't say it, though if the quote fits, wear it.

Anyway, had Plato answered the questions he didn't ask, his preferred answers would not have been "homeschoolers" and "wingnuttery."  If one wanted to stoop to conquer, one could argue that Plato was Melissa Harris-Perry back in the day.

In the same two-page Forward, at page 10, Butterbean also uses a fake Lincoln quote.

Many institutions frown on this sort of thing.

But we shouldn't be too hard on Big Bill.  When you pay someone minimum wage to bloviate under your name, you're bound to get inferior work product.

(link via Dr. Berube)