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06/12/2005: A Most Un-Popular Guy...
Writing about the nexus of Mark Felt as “Deep Throat” in the “Watergate” scandal and the investigative powers of a “Free Press”, Frank Rich (NY Times) makes the connection to the reign of King George II here in the U.S. and his attempts to intimidate those from criticizing his White House or Administration in this piece called Don’t Follow The Money:"…The fundamental right of Americans, through our free press, to penetrate and criticize the workings of our government is under attack as never before" was how the former Nixon speech writer William Safire put it on this page almost nine months ago.
The current administration, a second-term imperial presidency that outstrips Nixon's in hubris by the day, leads the attack, trying to intimidate and snuff out any Woodwards or Bernsteins that might challenge it, any media proprietor like Katharine Graham or editor like Ben Bradlee who might support them and any anonymous source like Deep Throat who might enable them to find what Carl Bernstein calls "the best obtainable version of the truth."
The attacks continue to be so successful that even now, long after many news organizations, including The Times, have been found guilty of failing to puncture the administration's prewar W.M.D. hype, new details on that same story are still being ignored or left uninvestigated.
THE journalists who do note the resonances of now with then rarely get to connect those dots on the news media's center stage of television. You are more likely to hear instead of how Watergate inspired too much "gotcha" journalism. That's a rather absurd premise given that no "gotcha" journalist got the goods on the biggest story of our time: the false intimations of incipient mushroom clouds peddled by American officials to sell a war that now threatens to match the unpopularity and marathon length of Vietnam….”
Sad state of affairs for both the Free Press (and the investigative journalism) and us (the public) to be credibly informed.
Yet there is a substantial segment of the populace “beginning” to recognize this “biil of goods” they’ve been sold in this fake “Uniter -working on issues important to you” of a President? (And who ARE you Folks come late to “smelling that ‘wake-up’ coffee” here???)
As Dan Froomkin (Washington Post) write in this piece; The Increasingly Unpopular President:”When President Bush says "polls go up, and polls go down," he's about half right.
Two new public-opinion surveys show Bush's poll numbers are dropping into solidly negative territory.
In the just-out Associated Press/Ipsos poll, Bush's job approval ratings and the public's confidence in the direction he's taking the nation are both at their lowest levels ever.
A whopping 55 percent of those polled actually disapprove of the job he's doing, compared to 43 percent who approve.
….
When is it time to start referring to Bush as an unpopular president? When his approval ratings are solidly below 50 percent for at least three months? Check. When his approval ratings on his signature issues are in the red? Check. When a clear majority of Americans say he is ignoring the public's concerns and instead has become distracted by issues that most people say they care little about? Check.”
How long can he remain this Un-Popular a guy before the public demands some changes in his policies and attitudes??
Karen on 06.12.05 @ 04:54 AM CST
