Regular listeners of my show know that I’ve, at times, been critical of Ed Schultz. But nothing I’ve seen or heard from him before raised my ire as his segment last night on the Keystone XL pipeline.
I happened to catch him shilling for the project with former Montana governor Brian Schweitzer on a couple of occasions, and was incensed when he basically concluded that even if the US acted responsibly with regard to the future of the planet, other countries like China and India won’t, so we might as well reap the monetary profits from raping the earth.
But last night, he joined the ranks of the false equivalency kings over at the Fox fake News Channel by decrying the fact that the KXL protests aren’t as big as the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s.
I know it’s a long segment, but it’s worth watching.
First of all, the world is a different place in 2014 than it was in 1969. The war was on full view in gruesome graphic living color on all three networks, and even a random UHF station. There were no cable news pundits or hate talk radio hosts on a non-stop loop telling you that the war wasn’t real, and people weren’t dying, and that your son, brother, or best friend wouldn’t really be drafted and send off to die in the rice patties of Vietnam. And if there were, the American people weren’t stupid enough to believe the lies.
It’s a false equivalency, a flawed analogy, but that didn’t stop Schultz from invoking it at least five times in that one piece.
You’ll notice that, this time, he didn’t proclaim his support for the pipeline. No, I think he got too much push back from the viewers who know enough to see through his bombast. This time, instead, he misspoke (400 was the number of protesters arrested at the White House on Sunday, not the total number of those assembled, there absolutely IS a global movement working incredibly hard and for years to save the planet – just visit 350.org for one example, and his classic Freudian slip, “we can’t downplay this enough” was more than telling).
Yes, I spent the first segment of the show today dissecting Schultz’ hypocrisy and hand-wringing, and ended with the Green News Report‘s Desi Doyen telling us about the new Carbon Tracker report debunking the State Dept Shill Sheet, and letting us know that the time for public comments on Keystone ends tomorrow night at midnight.
Voice your concerns by submitting an official public comment here.
The media is also failing us daily in their responsibility to offer up news – objective news. Our “public airwaves” are controlled by giant media conglomerates whose chief motivations are bigger profits and pushing the political agenda that allows them to keep setting bigger profit records.
Unfortunately, we’re seeing that play out with the stilted, propaganda-like coverage of Ukraine. I honestly don’t know what to believe, though I tend to trust the independent real news sources who don’t have to answer to any corporate overlords. So, I check out what Robert Parry is writing at Consortium News about “America’s Staggering Hypocrisy ” and “Putin or Kerry: Who’s Delusional?”
Crooks & Liars’ managing editor Susie Madrak joined me as she does each Wednesday morning – today to discuss the media’s failure to objectively and accurately report the news on Ukraine (or anything else, for that matter).
I played this song during today’s pre-show music and at the end of the show as well. The band is Boxing Gandhis and, much to Ed Schultz’ probable dismay, they recorded this gem in 1994. Written from the point of view of the Earth, it’s called “If You Love Me Why Am I Dying?”…
Ed, to his credit, just made a strong statement against the pipeline. This minute. Of course, by arguing the other side, he had his cake and ate it too. Actually, I salute him for providing all sides to the story. It just showed how weak the pro side was and how many different types of people were against it.
Ed may have started out “pro”, but he did a great service for the “antis,” by interviewing Indians, ranchers, as well as vegan hippies against the pipeline.