Posted on 07/07/2006 4:23:46 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
by Mark Finkelstein
July 7, 2006
It's one thing for Keith Olbermann to take snide shots at President Bush. He doesn't hold himself out as an objective journalist, after all. But Dana Milbank is, in theory, not a partisan commentator but a national political reporter, repeat, reporter, for the Washington Post.
Yet in his interview on last night's Countdown, it was Milbank [shown in an NB file photo] taking some of the nastier jibes at W on the occasion of the latter's 60th birthday.
Olbermann rather benevolently remarked that Pres. Bush "does not look 60. He does not seem to have aged as much as a lot of other presidents have during their time in office. Do we attribute that to something in particular? His physical fitness regimen, the strength of his convictions? Not having sleepless nights?"
When he asked "why doesn't he look at bad as other presidents who have been through the mill for five years?", Milbank shot back snidely:
"It probably wasn't his clean living in the 1970'S." He added: "Here's a guy who can take off the month of august, he can have work-outs during the midday right outside the office and you can take naps whenever you like and duck out of a meeting at 8:30 in the evening to go to bed." We get it, Dana.
Olbermann: "The first President Bush is known to celebrate milestone birthdays by jumping out of planes, any indication the son will follow in those footsteps?"
Milbank: "Possibly. But the first President Bush was reenacting his wartime experience so if this president reenacts his military experience maybe he won't show up for a dental appointment." A not-so-subtle embrace of the AWOL theory of W's National Guard service.
Not that we had any illusions about Milbank. After all, this is the fellow who, during the Cheney shooting flap, turned up on Olbermann's show in full hunter's-orange gear. Still, Milbank is a guy who, in theory, is an objective reporter. Right.
Countdown/NewsBusters mocking-W-on-his-birthday ping to Today show list.
Milbank also spun W's invitation to members of the press corps who shared the same birthday to join him on the podium as a metaphor for a lonely and isolated Bush looking for friends. Dana, I'm going out on a limb and guessing that W celebrated his birthday in other ways, surrounded by lots of friends. But leave it to the MSM to turn even a good-natured gesture into a negative.
Wrong...objective reporters are few and far between...evidenced by this exchange. Again, you have a strong constitution to watch all these jamokes! Long live Prilosec!
Thanks, ts. 'Jamoke' - beautiful! Sent me scrambling to the online dictionary. I see it's a combo of java and mocha, suggesting someone with the IQ of a cup of coffee.
Olby & Milbank. A couple of losers, forever cast upon the trash heap of wannabe reporters.
When all else fails, bash Bush.
Thanks again, GLGB.
Dana Milquetoast is a pretentious babbling nitwit. No, he is most certainly not an objective journalist in any way, and the fact that WaPo employs him (and other charlatans like Dana Priest) shows what they think about objectivity and honesty.
Say, which Dana is the real woman and which is the transexual? Just wondering.....
BFD.
Said with a smile!
These guys are so lost in their elitist world that they don't understand that the American public holds them in less repute than used car salesmen. Even lawyers gain more approval than journalists. Geez, it would be great to return to the days of H. L. Mencken when journalists were a pack of unpretentious drunken bums. They were much preferible to the pretentious drunken bums we have today.
Milbank has been into sit-down comedy routines for quite a while now. He comes on HARDBALL or Olberman's nightly comedy hour with insult humor material in hand. He's nasty, and frankly, I don't know how he can maintain his journalistic credentials. In drag, he could pass for a younger Helen Thomas.
Milbank has been one of the nastier reporters for a long time when it comes to President Bush. Bill Sammon's book about 9/11 gives examples of his snide attacks on Bush in the early months of Bush's presidency which even the other Washington reporters seemed to find over-the-top.
They simply keep digging their own hole.
Irrelevancy is their fate.
This guy is really nasty. No wonder MSNBC is going down the tubes.
When MSNBC dies, you'll have to do a post-mortem ;-)
I was JUST going to bring up Sammon's book and his description of Milbank's activity. I loathe Milbank, and had hoped he would be one of the Post people offerred a buy-out, but no such luck.
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