Some of His Best Friends
Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings recently published a guest column in the Charleston Post and Courier in which he complained that the true purpose of President Bush's Iraq policy was to "secure Israel" and "take the Jewish vote from the Democrats." Various people are rather upset with Hollings as a consequence; Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham H. Foxman says the senator's op-ed argument is "reminiscent of age-old, anti-Semitic canards about a Jewish conspiracy to control and manipulate the government." But Sen. Hollings angrily rejects any suggestion that he is anti-Semitic--and, in fact, he himself is now demanding an apology from those who've made that suggestion most forcefully.
You know all this already, of course; it has been widely reported in the media. But THE SCRAPBOOK will say it straight out: The media have not treated Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings of South Carolina fairly, here.
Genuinely fair coverage of the controversy would have gone into much greater detail about exactly how anti-Semitic Sen. Hollings's arguments truly are.
For instance: Consider the extended--and extraordinary--defense of himself Hollings made on the Senate floor last Thursday. In the course of which he (a) groused that "you cannot have an Israel policy other than what AIPAC gives you around here"; (b) insisted on the "legitimacy" of his notorious reference to the late Howard Metzenbaum as the "senator from B'nai B'rith"; and (c) revealed that just "the other day" he'd asked his staffers how they supposed they'd react were the Israeli army to bulldoze their families' homes. "Wouldn't you want to cut their throat?" Hollings said he asked his aides. And "They said: 'In a New York minute.'"
When Sen. Hollings retires home to South Carolina at the end of this year, we hope he takes his staff along.
It's All in the Punctuation
Front page headline, the Washington Post, Tuesday, May 18:
"Gay Couples Marry in Massachusettes"
Front page headline, the Washington Times, same story, same day:
"Homosexuals 'marry' in Massachusettes"
Impeach Michael Moore
Not long ago, "documentary" filmmaker Michael Moore was all over the place complaining about how his new movie Fahrenheit 9/11--which has something to do with a secret, years-long partnership between the Bush and bin Laden families--was being "censored." Megabuck Democratic party donors Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the Miramax Films executives, had produced Moore's movie, see. But Miramax itself is owned by the evil Disney corporation, and evil Disney's evil chairman, Michael Eisner, was supposed to have prohibited the Weinsteins from distributing Fahrenheit 9/11 to retail theaters.
Of course, it soon enough wound up that none of this was actually true. But so what? What is truth when you're Michael Moore and you're trying to drum up publicity with a persecution fantasy? Truth is not important. What's important is that you have a Plan B.
And last week Plan B was revealed: Miramax Films has hired all those people who invented a "vast right-wing conspiracy" against Bill and Hillary Clinton--so that they can invent a similar such conspiracy targeted against Michael Moore. Already on board: former Clinton/Gore spinner robots Howard Wolfson, Joe Lockhart, Mark Fabiani, Carter Eskew, Michael Feldman, and Chris Lehane. The Washington Post reports that Miramax is taking this step in preparation for an expected barrage of "Republican attacks" on Moore's film.
We take this to mean the movie's a loser: Miramax has given up marketing it to a general audience and is hoping only to generate left-leaning "solidarity" box office sales. THE SCRAPBOOK promises not to help. We'll have nothing more to say about it.
Air America Shows Its Thong
Monica showed hers for free, of course, but Air America is fighting bankruptcy, so the new Al Franken-headlined liberal talk-radio network has taken to selling--among a wide variety of similarly ridiculous knick-knacks--a special-edition "classic thong" bikini bottom. Now, for only $15.99, you too can cover your privates with Air America's corporate logo. Va-va-va-vooom!
Okay, maybe that's not your style. But what else can Franken & Co. do to raise money? An ordinary radio start-up would try to sell advertising, but it seems Air America hasn't got much that major corporate sponsors want to buy. New York Daily News columnist Michael Goodwin reports that a day he recently spent listening to Air America was like "ten hours of rancid venom." At one point, for example, Randi Rhodes, who follows Franken in the lineup, compared President Bush to the character "Fredo" in the Godfather: "Somebody ought to take him out fishing and phuw," she said, imitating the sound of gunfire. Goodwin was amazed--all the more so because at another point during his "day of torture," he also heard a commercial spot from General Motors. So he called up GM's marketing communications director, Ryndee Carney, and asked her what was up. The station had simply screwed up, Carney explained. "GM will not advertise on any Air America affiliates" period.
In other news: Remember those laid-off Air America staffers in Chicago and Los Angeles we told you about last week? Turns out they'd all been paying into a health care plan that didn't exist--and that none of them has received his final two-week paycheck.
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