Give Me a One-Handed Anchorman
Charlie Gibson on ABC's World News Tonight: The cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe stems from the fact that the country is "paralyzed by political infighting."
There's a tyrant, Robert Mugabe, who wrecked the country, murdered opponents with impunity, drove his opponent into exile, and still came in second in the first round of presidential voting. There's an opponent who, after brutal repression, withdrew from the second round, calling it a "violent sham." Since then, under international pressure, he has scrambled, with indifferent success, to negotiate some leverage. The resulting situation, in the view of ABC News, is characterized as "political infighting."
And I'm the queen of Bavaria.
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Well Done!
December 4, 2008 7:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Political infighting?.......How so, Charlie?
And here's a question for his royal highness.
Was that tonight's lead story? Or did it come after a report on the hiccup in the economy?
December 4, 2008 8:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Didn't you mean ......
...... in what respect, Charlie?
-- ARG
December 5, 2008 7:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Twenty-two minutes does not give much time to give you "THE WORLD NEWS." The Big 3 news shows (does Fox regular channel news count?) don't have any reporters to speak of anymore because of money and lost ratings and because they pay their stars fifty million dollars.
NBC just gets their stories from MSNBC & CNBC. Williams has it kind of easy.
I never watch that crap anymore. 22 minutes. I remember John Camarron Swazee (sp) with a sign on his hat (everybody had to wear hats in those days) that said: "Smoke Camels.) He had 15 minutes with one commercial I think. Come to think of it his silly show said something about news around the world.
December 4, 2008 8:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
dickday -- His silly show didn't say anything then about news around the world. Unless you meant news "in the US about" the world?
Although international news around the world is declining, also, because most countries feel more interconnected with others than the US does, even today, news elsewhere is still more international.
Mugabe has, pretty much single handedly, destroyed his country. Poll the US and see who knows. Or Europe.
The US administration needs to get a grip. Otherwise we will end up without governments in Somalia (present), Sudan (coming), Zimbabwe (close), Iraq (possible), Afghanistan (predictable), and others. And it will spread.
What sort of world do we want?
December 4, 2008 9:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nothere--This is a tragic situation and Zimbabwe and Darfor (sp), the AIDS epidemic primarily in Africa and the Caribbean....we just do not pay enough attention to the rest of the world and I have thought for half a century that U.S. meant us. It is no coincidence.There is us and the rest of the world. Us and Them.
But there are places to get info on television and one place is BBC that will broadcast on C-Span, PBS, and CNN from time to time and I get a lot of good accountable information. Oh and this new Fareed guy on CNN Sunday noon is really good. Good solid world news.
Politically, there is going to be a change. And,this change is going to occur from top to bottom and bottom to top.
At any rate, you are doing your part, I am going to do my own research on this mess tomorrow.
If you bother to read this, did you bitch to ABC per the web or anything? Frankly, every little complaint causes a tiny bit of pain and I personally like ABC to be in pain, I hate Gibson.
December 4, 2008 10:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Likely the lines read by Gibson were not written by him, but by a much lower-paid employee who doesn't know anything about Zimbabwe and found it mindlessly easy to collapse into two-handedness sooner than actually learn anything about Zimbabwe. This is not a function of the brevity of these 22-minute shows. This is a function of intellectual slovenliness and unseriousness.
December 5, 2008 10:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Todd,
just think about the state of modern day journalism, a high priced anchor has to rely on an intern type, who maybe couldn't find Zimbabwe on a map, to write the copy for him.
December 5, 2008 1:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, the lines may have been read by Gibson, but the point is: He read them, he owns them.
December 5, 2008 4:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
I didn't know that you're gay, let alone Bavarian. You go, girl!
In all seriousness, keep up the good work exposing the corporate card-reading shysters masquerading as objective reporters of the news. I'm sure Mr. Gibson thinks he's devoid of ideology, but we who know better need to keep exposing examples like this to the persuadable among those who don't.
December 4, 2008 9:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Republicans have a goal of seeing the same 'infighting' here in the Homeland, expect every move of Obama to be filibustered and derided as surrender to terrorists, socialists, criminals, gays or lazy union workers and welfare deadbeats.
Republicans have been dealt a setback with the defeat of McCain/Palin, yet they feel their work unfinished, even Mugabe took more than 8 years to ruin his country.
December 4, 2008 9:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't sell George Bush short. He did a fine job of ruining his country, even if he did have to compress it all into 8 years - even if it did seem like 80 years.
December 4, 2008 9:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Endless filibustering is a recipe for continued Democratic electoral success.
Given the reluctance of the Dems to challenge the IR paradigm shift (not to mention the domestic agenda since '72) that has taken place over the past eight years, we'll see what that means in terms of policy.
December 4, 2008 10:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
But couldn't they make the GOP actually do it ... at least once? I want to see them forced to talk for at least 36 hours!
That's my hope for the new congress: if the GOP wants to play the game ... actually make them play the game.
December 5, 2008 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I disagree about filibustering being blamed on the GOP. People want results, and we have a Dem President and a Dem majority in Congress. Most people think of filibustering as what they saw in Mr Smith goes to Washington. The repubs have mastered the art of spin and blame.
Fortunately, there may be one or two republicans who will vote with us because they want change as well, but make no mistake about it, if grid-lock is what goes on in DC, the majority party will be blamed for it.
Recall that Congress has very low approval ratings, and even though there was only been a dem majority against a republican prez for 2 years, the whole Congress got blamed for accomplishing nothing; there was no voice crying out that they needed 60 votes to get anything done. Most people don't even know what that means.
People want to see change -- they don't want to hear excuses.
December 5, 2008 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
As Barney Frank said today, Obama needs to get aggressive. Jon Kyl (R-Az) has already come out against the stimulus package, saying we just need more tax cuts, especially for 'capital gains' (as if anyone has made any recently).
The Republicans could care less about job loss, unemployment, health care or poverty, yet with Rahm as Chief of Staff Obama may be willing to break some heads to get Republicans out of the way.
December 5, 2008 9:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
What do you think fuels the euphemism? Why not call it what it is?
-- Cris
My site: Obama Wallpaper Archive
December 5, 2008 12:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh my. Is Todd Gitlin pumping himself up again for another Humanitarian Intervension. I.e. another war that will be fought, not by him, but the poor souls that serve in the US armed forces.
Go away jerk, too many listened to you in the build up to the war against Serbia. Who used your same dog s**t arguments to go to war in Iraq.
December 5, 2008 1:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'll ignore the insults and answer the question. No, I am not pumping myself up for anything. I am interested in calling spades something other than hearts. Period.
December 5, 2008 10:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
The insult was uncalled for. But as horrible as Mugabe is, the US must realize that there is not much we can do to improve that poor country. If his neighbors wish to take action, then we can sit back and watch and hope them well. Your humanitarian rhetoric in the past led to support war that was really not in America's interest.
December 5, 2008 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well said. Network news profit centers are a scandal.
December 5, 2008 3:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Todd, were you channeling Dorothy Parker?
-- ARG
December 5, 2008 7:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
To ARG in Chicago:
Yes, the Romanian throne was already occupied.
December 5, 2008 10:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Another tragic victim of Bipartisan Kool-Aid poisoning.
December 5, 2008 11:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
*giggles*
December 5, 2008 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
The trouble with Zimbabwe is even if Mugabe 'goes' he has huge cadres of police and troops with guns who feel it is their right to kill or abuse anyone ,steal anything in the country they want to and generally behave like criminals. They are not likely going to want to surrender these privileges peacefully.
December 5, 2008 9:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
"And I'm the queen of Bavaria."
Todd, you are suffering from appallingly low-esteem.
You are undeniably effeminate, but referring to yourself as a "queen" is gratuitously self-deprecating.
You really should listen to Tony Robbins's tapes and Awake The Giant Within.
It will definitely be an improvement over the Mental Munchkin Within who currently dominates your persona.
December 5, 2008 9:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, Todd, if you are the Queen of Bavaria, could you arrange for me to get a BMW 123T (wagon) with the turbo diesel engine? Please? (They're not currently exported to the U.S.--but looked really neat at BMW Welt in Munich.)
December 6, 2008 12:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Todd Gitlin is correct as far as he goes. Blame lies at the feet of Mugabe, and entirely. But some small portion of responsibility for the Zimbabwe tragedy must also be assigned to South African leaders who, along with AIDS denial, practice a species of tyrant-denial. A new generation of African leaders will see their way out of this blindness.
December 8, 2008 9:35 AM | Reply | Permalink