Paula Jones and Impeaching Bush: Equally Amusing Sideshows to CNN's Tom Foreman

Earlier this week, The Raw Story expressed exasperation at the MSM non-coverage of an impeachment story under the headline, "Mainstream Media Yawns as Kucinich Offers Impeachment." A yawn may look pretty good to Raw Story around now. On CNN's This Week in Politics, Tom Foreman demoted the news to "our weekly political sideshow."

Here's the transcript. There is no need for the corresponding nonverbal cues to grasp the full measure of Foreman's condescension.

TOM FOREMAN, HOST: here's our weekly political side show.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN (voice-over): Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons divorce problems just keep growing. First, his wife would not leave the governor's mansion. Now she has moved to the guest house. She says he is having an affair. He says he is not. The local paper says he wrote 850 text messages to another woman. It's not the public's business, you say? Wrong. The messages were sent from a state issued cell phone with no text plan. At 15 cents per message, that's about 130 bucks. And here you thought getting a divorce in Nevada was cheap and easy.

Former Democratic presidential long shot Dennis Kucinich fought his way back into the spotlight this week. No, not by claiming to see another UFO, but by once again trying to impeach President Bush for his Iraq War policies.

DENNIS KUCINICH: Impeachment against President George W. Bush for high crimes and misdemeanors.

FOREMAN: The House voted to bury the plan in committee, a vote that undoubtedly took less time than the more than four hours Kucinich insisted they take to read the entire 35 count indictment into the record.

Speaking of impeachment, Gennifer Flowers and Paula Jones achieved notoriety for their claims to sexual encounters with former President Bill Clinton. Now they are teaming up to tell you the juicy details.

Ken Starr spent millions to get the real dope on President Clinton. Times sure have changed. Today you can purchase Gennifer and Paula's video clips from their website for $1.99.

I appreciate the different points of view on the wisdom of pursuing impeachment and on the issue of timing (here, here, here, and elsewhere). But a "sideshow," played for the same salacious smirks mustered by naughty text messages and video clips?

Can Tom Foreman be impeached?

Comments

[Cathexis]

I believe that folks in many MSM/government circles hope to "talk the idea of impeachment down," figuring if they can act as if it is a ludicrous triviality, rather than a moral/civic imperitive, people will believe it.

[joecharles]

Foreman is about as light weight as they come---next to the comedianne known as Rush!

[Dandrea]

I looked forward to Fareed Zacharia's new show. My knowledge about FZ was limited to a few forward leaning pieces in Time other Tv shows. I was surprised by the tired old guests. What happened to all the post globalization thinkers I was expecting??? The person who had interesting views on global warming was, however, provocative, challenging, and possibly convincing.

Tom Foreman is snarky and and not as funny as he seems to think he is. He was very negative to the Obama surrogate while attentively unctious to the McCain rep. A silly flack.

[MikeMidCity]

Wow, am I glad I don't have cable.

[Startreklivz]

I've been stunned at how little coverage this story is making, in spite of Bush's lack of popularity.

But as I've commented on this site before, at least if this attempt fails, it will demonstrate that the USA does not have a functioning, independent judiciary, so the International Court or other foreign powers like Germany or France may take up proceedings once Bush leaves office.

[Merlin7]

CNN increasingly is the voice of Washington's hold-out neocons. The latest vehicle is Fareed Zakaria's weekend dog-and-pony show called GPS, which apparently stands for Give Pentagon's Slant. Today Zakaria had two lapdog think-tankers who criticized Obama's plan for a reasonably quick pullout of Iraq, and balanced those opinions with two other talking heads who . . . criticized Obama's plan for a quick pullout. Amazingly, one of the latter was Michael Ware, who until this performance had been a courageous and principled reporter. Clearly someone at CNN had "explained" to Ware the importance of toeing the line on this issue.

The sad -- and frightening -- aspect is that the direction of this new "news and opinion" program was entirely predictable. CNN increasingly is an organ of the miltiary-industrial complex, despite -- or perhaps because of -- the American public's shift to the left on the political spectrum. The other cable news channels tend to be even worse. Americans desperately need a new, independent source of television news, before the fig leaf of objectivity is dropped altogether and the arrogant military-industrial barons simply develop a unifed logo depicting Big Brother.

[Pocho]

I would opt instead of impeachment for turning the entire cabal over to The Hague to face charges for crimes against humanity. No, better yet, dump them in an isolated place in Iraq or Afghanistan without transportation and inform the local resistance, staying just close enough to capture the video of what resolves for utube.

[munkeyfuk]

Unfortunately, none of these pathetic parasites can be impeached, or held to account in any way.
Even if they get canned (Imus, Savage, etc.), in a few months they wind up on a rival network with another free ride, on OUR public airwaves, to the tune of millions!
The entire structure of broadcasting and distribution on the public airwaves needs to be scrapped and treated like... oh, I don't know, maybe... NATIONAL PARKS!!!
If the government tried to lease Yellowstone to an individual, or give a few people who bought ridiculously expensive "licenses" exclusive control over the use and accessability of the park, the rest of us would REVOLT!!! We would never let our local parks, provided for the good of all the community, to be taken over by a private, for-profit company, who could then exploit or limit (or even ban) our oppurtunities to enjoy what is supposed to be a PUBLIC RESOURCE, for the BENEFIT of THE COMMUNITY AS A WHOLE!!! It is ridiculous that we passively do the exact thing with OUR PUBLIC AIRWAVES!!! The airwaves belong to all the citizens, and I don't want Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reiley or the rest (or lefty talkers, for that matter) to get OBSCENELY RICH using a NATURAL RESOURCE that belongs to ALL OF US, not the radio stations (or the personalities they employ) or the FCC!!!