Bob Schieffer To Stay on FTN A Little Longer

I don't always catch the live broadcast of Face the Nation on Sundays.

It comes on here in Cleveland at the same time as Meet the Press and CBS insists on making it the shortest of the Sunday shows at 1/2 hour, so it usually gets relegated to podcast territory.

But I always enjoy Bob Schieffer. He's one of those guys who comes off as an old school reporter and keeps whatever real political beliefs he has as far away from the table as is reasonable.

I was glad to read this afternoon that there's no definite retirement date yet...he had previously said he was going to ride off into the sunset after the next President gets sworn in.

Al Sharpton and Death Threats

According to CBS and the people at National Action Network, race-baiting bigot, the Reverend Al Sharpton, has been getting more death threats than normal.

I have a few observations here.

• It would be a real shame if we were no longer treated to Al's manipulation and hijacking of news stories that have anything to do with race.
  
• 
  
• The National Action Network, and Al himself, would have aboslutely no interest in hyping, fabricating or just creating the death threats as a way to garner sympathy. Naw.
  
• 
  
• This story does bring back memories of another New York original...Morton Downey Junior.
  

For those of you who are too young or unhip to remmeber this loudmouth, Morton Downey Junior's claim to fame was a talk show in the late 1980s and early 90s on WWOR in New York. Downey's show can probably be called a precursor to both the O'Reilly and Springer formats. While he ostensibly covered issues of social interest, they were really just to provide a jumping board 
for him to blow
smoke in the face of his guests and scream.

But towards the end of his career, he jumped the shark like no one else ever has.  He stumbled in for TV cameras in San Francisco claiming to have been beaten up by Nazi Skinheads.  In fact,  he even had  a Swastika painted on himself.

It later became widely believed, after no one was able to verify any of his claims, that it was a self-inflicted stunt for publicity.

Now wait just one minute.  Doesn't that sound a lot like the Tawana Brawley case?

How could these two have both come up with schemes like this and Al is still around claiming to be threatened by boogeymen?

Could their be any connection between the two?

Best Synopsis of Imus' Ill-Fated Handling of His Ho Situation

No one ever seems to learn that it's not the original sin that brings most people down, but their poor handling of the aftermath.

While no one knows if Imus could have survived the Rutgers situation, one thing is for certain. He lost his job, but he also handed over a lot of his dignity and control of the situation. Rather than controlling the story and speaking to the parties directly affected right off the bat, he appealed to race-baiting bigot, Al Sharpton.

Mistake.

This line from the Times today pretty-well sums it up for me.


By seeking absolution from people with their own political agenda, Mr. Imus lost custody of his apology.

NY Times Article by David Carr, 13-April-2007

Katie Cougar

I can't really explain why I find this story amusing, but I guess I do.

Katie's been on the prowl and the cougar has caught her prey.

The NY Post and other outlets seem equally enchanted by Her Royal Perkiness.

Pot Meets Kettle

The recent billion-dollar lawsuit that Viacom filed against YoutubeGoogle recently gets more interesting now that folks realize that Viacom's iFilm appears to have its own share of copyrighted material it does not own.

Hilarity ensues.