I Can't Take It Anymore (Dowd alert!)

The New York Times ^ | 09/09/2001 | Maureen Dowd

[Pokey78]

WASHINGTON

If you thought it would be hard for TV to top the Summer of the Insatiable Sharks, Ravenous Bears, Killer Bees and Stampeding Lizzie Grubman, you were wrong.

Two networks are racing to air prime-time specials this fall featuring mediums interviewing dead celebrities.

As Lisa de Moraes reported in The Washington Post, NBC and ABC are both doing such shows for fall sweeps. "The November of the Chatting Dead," she dryly calls it.

In a culture so besotted with celebrity, we were bound to run out of upright luminaries to interview. I may tune in if the mediums manage to conjure up the vengeful spirits of Natalie Wood or Nicole Simpson. But the celebrity specter I'd really like to hear from is Paddy Chayefsky, the dazzling satirist who wrote the eerily prescient 1976 movie "Network."

Mr. Chayefsky's ominous predictions from the Ford era about the damage to American democracy from the Pac-Man game of networks gobbled by companies gobbled by other companies gobbled by consortiums gobbled by foreign investors have come true.

W. continued to give away the store to Big Business last week, legally unleashing Microsoft and signaling media conglomerates that they can conglomerate away — accelerating the centralization of American power into the hands of a very few very rich people.

W. never met a merger he didn't like, except stems and cells. His White House has become a holding company for Big Money and the Media Oligarchy — Murdoch, Gates, Case, Eisner, Redstone.

Mr. Gates is getting back his monopoly over the desktop computer and his reign as the Czar of Broadband. And soon we'll have thousands of channels but they'll all be controlled by the same few moguls.

At least before we had a diversity of trash in our media. Now we're zooming toward a collective mentality, severely limiting the voices that may be heard and muting opposing views. A quarter of American culture will be filtered through Murdoch's sensibility, a quarter through AOL Time Warner, a quarter through Mickey Mouse, a quarter through Viacom.

W., afraid he will be blamed, as Dad was, for the cratering economy, has been going out the past few days echoing Poppy's "Message: I Care."

After the unemployment numbers rose sharply to 4.9 percent on Friday, the president rushed out of the Oval Office to commiserate: "Any American out of work is too many Americans out of work."

But the fanfare for the common man rings hollow, given that Bush Inc. is refusing to turn over documents to Congress about the secret deliberations of Dick Cheney and energy lobbyists cooking up their drill & spill energy plan and is knocking down regulatory hurdles, further pleasing Big Energy, Big Media, Big Oil, Big Tobacco, Big Telecom and Big Weapons Manufacturers.

A majority of Americans did not elect W. A majority of voters didn't even elect him. A new book about Florida and the Supreme Court decision, featured on this week's Newsweek cover, is titled "The Accidental President." His real constituents are the corporations that gave him $100 million, the biggest political haul in history.

In "Network," the crazed anchor Howard Beale reveals on the news one night that his network has been bought by a corporation and that corporation is being bought by a consortium of banks and insurance companies controlled by the Arabs.

Think of how mad Howard Beale would be today. There are so many examples to choose from: MapQuest, a Web site that provides directions, was swallowed by America Online, which swallowed Time Warner, which owns CNN. General Electric, the company that makes light bulbs and engines on fighter jets, owns NBC. Disney, which owns studios, theme parks and sports teams, owns ABC.

In the movie, the C.E.O. who owns the network explains to Beale that the world is "one vast and ecumenical holding company."

"There is no America," he says. "There is no democracy. There is only I.B.M. and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. The world is a business, Mr. Beale!"

And just as Beale railed: "There is not a single law on the books to stop them!"

How totally sane the mad prophet turned out to be.

[MistrX]

"Hi. I'm Maureen Dowd and I hate George Bush and all of his Republican friends."

[IncPen]

Let me get this straight.

She's down on I.B.M. and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide and Exxon.

And she works for the biggest criminal enterprise of the all... the NYT.

Unreal.

[section9]

I loathe Maureen Dowd's columns. She was particularly nasty during the impeachment hearings. She crawled so far up Clinton's. . .Anyway, I've noticed several times a year, she says something interesting. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

And it isn't good for freedom or democracy that most of the mass media is controlled by a few powerful men.

For a time Dowd was actually critical of the Sink Emperor. Then she realized that the Left was under threat, so she kissed Clinton's ass like all the other situational ethicists in the Democratic Party.

She cited Murdoch, Gates, Case, Eisner, and Redstone as captains of media holding a leash on their compliant puppy, Bush. Thing is, all of these guys, save Redstone, were Gore supporters.

BTW, I notice that she hasn't read Judge Posner's defense of the Bush vs. Gore case. A bitter little tramp like Dowd holds on so well to her old and bitter hatreds. So she has nothing to do except rant.

Meanwhile, someone post the mandatory Zeta-Jones pic, just to entertain the old bat in case she lurks here.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[Fury]

The next time you make a total ass out of yourself -- like, say, having 22 drinks at a friends wedding and throwing up on the dance floor When did she do this? Details!

[Always Right]

A majority of Americans did not elect W. A majority of voters didn't even elect him.

Dowd, that never bothered you about your kneepad president. What is your point?

[backhoe]

I make a point of not contaminating my mind with bilge from Dowd, Clift, et al...

GIGO!

[William Terrell]

Maureen Dowd

You should probably check out the painting in her attic, though. . .

[Fintan]

I thought I had heard it all. It looks like there's more to hear.

I wouldn't get too excited. Bear in mind, Dowd's insane...

[ChadGore]

Every time I hear a bed wetting liberal like Whineing Dowde go off like this:
"...Big Energy, Big Media, Big Oil, Big Tobacco, Big Telecom and Big Weapons Manufacturers..."

It reminds me that Democrats are for:
No electricity, No petrolium, No tobacco, No telephones, and No national defense.

While that's an interesting platform, it's hardly a vote getter.

[ChadGore]

Re: "...Big Energy, Big Media, Big Oil, Big Tobacco, Big Telecom and Big Weapons Manufacturers..."

oops, I forgot one:

Democrats are for:
No electricity, No Television, No petrolium, No tobacco, No telephones, and No national defense.

While that's an interesting platform, it's hardly a vote getter.

[JulieRNR21]

i Can't Take DOWD Anymore!

[Lazamataz]

Hi, Pokey78!

[Lazamataz]

(on September 9, 2001) i Can't Take DOWD Anymore!

Julie, in 2 days, the worst terrorist act will happen on American soil. It will consist of several hijackings, by muslims who will use boxcutters, of airliners that will be crashed into the World Trade Center buildings, and even the Pentagon. It will be responded to in a manner that will eventually turn America into a police state. In 2008 we will elect an openly-socialist, probable Islamic black president. He will deal a near death blow to America. America will be left at about 50% of it's wealth and about 10% of it's prestige.

I tell you all this, from 2012, and am communicating with you on September 9, 2001, so that you can try to do something about it.

[JulieRNR21]

Have you invented a time travel machine....LOL

The world has certainly changed since this tread was posted.

[Lazamataz]

Have you invented a time travel machine....LOL

Aw heck. It didn't work. You should have gotten the message back then, and done something to change all of this. Unfortunately, I just checked the timeline, and nothing has changed. The experiment did not work. Let's try again.

[Lazamataz]

Julie. Laz again, only this is from 2018. Obama was reelected. He immediately went on national television, and announced he is a full-on Muslim, homosexual, and communist. He then announced a national emergency, allowing him extraordinary powers suspending the Constitution. Elections were suspended, indefinitely. Over the next four years, many people were rounded up, so I don’t know if you will get this. They all disappeared. No one knows what happened to them. No one knows how many. On July 6, 2017, Obama launched nuclear missiles on Israel. A full worldwide nuclear war followed. Over 90% of humanity has been killed. There is no gasoline, food is scarce, and most of us have resorted to cannibalism. Obama lives underground in a well-equipped shelter, continuing to dictate his orders. We are living in a daily hellish nightmare. I post this to you on August, 2012, so that you can do something to change the timeline. I hope and pray this time-travel message gets to you.

[Lazamataz]

LAZ, NOW TRANSMITTING FROM 2022! PLEASE ADVISE YOU ARE GETTING THESE AND DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Most of the human race is dead. There are only small pockets of survivors left. I am severely stricken with several forms of cancer due to the radiation, I have only weeks or days left. The entire biosphere has been greatly dimished. Only insects and vermin seem to be adapting. Obama is now proclaiming the current situation and the entire world to be Dar al-Islam, the House of Islam, or land of peace. Lotta good that will do him, the world will be entirely devoid of human life in years. PLEASE TRY TO CHANGE THIS TIMELINE!!!!

[Ditter]

Is this woman really this blind? Apparently she is.

[Lazamataz]

I love resurrecting 11 year old threads!

[JRios1968]

In the 11 years since this thread, did Laz hit it?