Saturday, November 07, 2009

I hate shit like this:
One Democratic strategist said that shortly after an appearance on Fox he got a phone call from a White House official telling him not to be a guest on the show again. The call had an intimidating tone, he said.

The message was, "We better not see you on again," said the strategist, who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to run afoul of the White House. An implicit suggestion, he said, was that "clients might stop using you if you continue."

In urging Democratic consultants to spurn Fox, White House officials might be trying to isolate the network and make it appear more partisan.
And by shit, I mean journalism by Peter Nicholas.

The first paragraph asserts a claim from an anonymous source, concerning an unnamed offical, and the second and third paragraphs assume the claim to be true. The article makes no effort to inform the reader as to what motive anon. might have in making the claim, what anon.'s political views are, whether anon. had another candidate in '08, etc. By refusing to identify the "White House official," the author makes it impossible to rebut the claim with an unequivocal denial. And, of course, any douchebag can call him or herself a Democratic strategist (see Marshall Wittman, Dan Gerstein, etc.).

The article goes on to quote Pat Caddell, DILDO (Democrat In the Last Decade Only). (Yes, this is incorrect, because Caddell hasn't been a Dem. for more than 20 years (see below), but DMT20YAO is not as snappy.)
But Patrick Caddell, a Fox News contributor and a former pollster for Democratic President Jimmy Carter, said he has spoken to Democratic consultants who have been told by the White House to avoid appearances on Fox. He declined to give their names.

Caddell said he had not gotten that message himself from the White House. "They know better than to tell me anything like that," he said.
Very butch, Pattycakes! Just like the White House knows better than to tell Sean Hannity not to appear on FOX News. There's some people you just don't push around.
Here's what Nicholas fails to tell you about FOX News' own Jack Elam:
In 1988, Caddell left the Democratic Party after an acrimonious lawsuit with a Democratic consulting firm. Republicans would often cite Caddell's tirades against the Democratic Party on the floor of the House and the Senate.
...

His analysis on polls and campaign issues often puts him at odds with the current leadership of the Democratic Party. He has been criticized as often attacking Democratic politicians and predicting the downfall of the Democratic party. Critics point out that he has defended the Bush administration by claiming that Republicans did not exploit the issue of gay marriage in the presidential election of 2004. He also referred to Democrats in the House who voted against the Palm Sunday Compromise, which sought to reinstate Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, as "cold blooded" and denounced them.
Nicholas quotes an anonymous (and most likely, pretend) Dem. and a Frozen Caveman Dem. from the Miami Vice era to bash the Obama White House. To be any more dishonest, he'd have to disinter Strom Thurmond and have his remains denounce Barry X on behalf of the Democratic Party.

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