Raining Cheney -- and The Weathered Channel

The search for a fresh episode of Nurse Jackie left me looking down at my remote for a split second. It took no longer than that to get an injection of America's daily dose of Dick Cheney's patented fear mongering via talking knucklehead, ABC anchor, Charlie Gibson.

In television news everyone knows that the first words out of any anchor's pie-hole are the most crucial, most pertinent words of the newscast. Those verbs and nouns reflect what the editorial management considers to be the most important point to be made that day. ABC revealed much about itself last night.

As a clumsy finger accidentally punched up ABC World News Tonight, my painful, ongoing education in the recklessness of television news broadcasting graduated to a new low.

The long overdue release of CIA torture documents was the lead...well, sort of. In advance of the breaking the news, Mr. Gibson offered a pre-lead caveat. It was a quote from the nation's ubiquitous former Vice President and foremost king of national hysteria -- Dick Cheney.

This story, about newly released CIA documents, is crucial to maintaining a democratic, transparent, open, accountable government ... one in which the press is truly free to tell its citizens what the government's doing in their name. It cannot be interpreted by logical minds as anything but an attempt to become wiser, more knowledgeable and, therefore, more free.

But, as usual, up was down and down was up and in walked the unrelenting, omnipresent, Mr. Cheney. He was allowed to speak on the merits of the CIA story before it ran. His words were the first to set the context of the subject and, therefore, the most memorable and powerful.

As always, Mr. Cheney told Americans they were "less safe" now that the torture documents were released. It was no surprise that our national fear monger and professional pot-stirrer told Americans what he always has...that we should be shaking in our boots, paralyzed and afraid.

I'd like to refer Mr. Cheney to a quote from one of my favorite Civil War movies, and dedicate these words to his ongoing performance.

"They call this war a cloud over the land. But, they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say 'Shit, it's raining."'

It's raining alright. And Mr. Cheney seeded the clouds and helped deliver the downpour. Now he baits us still...with fear of biological and nuclear war.

What Mr. Cheney is really afraid of is prison. If we count the lies he's told, it's nothing less than reckless professionalism to let this man deliver a pre-emptive lecture on any network at any time.

Let's count the duplicity, shall we? Although it may be redundant to point out, we cannot allow these facts to swirl down some memory hole. This is particularly true when the masters of news seem to be caught in the hole's gravity.

Mr. Cheney lied to Congress and got Americans into an illegal, self- serving war. He's dodging his own prison cell by screaming "fire" in our crowded, national movie theater.

As he tells this nation's citizens over and over that they are on the verge of being attacked by Weapons of Mass Destruction, we should ask him if those frightening, silence-inducing WMDs are the real kind or the imagined ones he told us we'd find in Iraq.

And while I am at it, this is a man who committed grievous offenses against his own nation by promoting the outing of a CIA operative whose job was, ironically, but not coincidentally, to look for WMDs!

As we finally see a modicum of effort by the mainstream media to focus on stories that shed light on the past nine years of dark secrets...why in the world would the one who gets to speak first be the person who made the rain in the first place?!

Charlie Gibson, it seems, should be demoted to weatherman. He certainly knows how to show us...even if by accident... which way his network sees the wind blowing.

Comments

[AlexHidell]

This is why Cheney feels free to snipe at Obama on torture or anything else for that matter

The Obama Adminstration is Helping to Upgrade Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons
How the U.S. Has Secretly Backed Pakistan's Nuclear Program From Day One

http://www.counterpunch.org/andrew06242009.html

Valerie Plame's company Brewster Jennings was outed 3 years prior to Valerie's outing. Why ?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6259143

[larry278]

Remember what Newton Minnow said of children's TV. It is true of all of TV in 2009.

[greysells2]

Good job, Leslie.You­r story is about how easy it is to mislead the press, a practice that Mr. Cheney has perfected. Our problem is that a lot of the press are quite lazy and the amount of work that Charlie Gibson put into this story probably caused him a painful hernia. How hard is it to take the talking points handed to you and to mouth them back on mike? How tough is it to softball an interview? And, furthermore, the press cannot cope with their corporate masters who routinely pee in the press pool [pun intended] while complaining that no one wants to pay for their crappy product anymore. This puts the press up there on the list of the least trustworthy professions - along with politicians, lawyers, used car salesmen and confidence men. And puts them in line for a government bailout sometime soon along with the other untrustworthies. The 5th Estate?

[Estreet1964]

Thanks for passing that along. I gave up on the nightly network newscasts long ago. I can see not much has changed. Too much influence of the corporate parent company on the news divisions. Butcher the crap out of the news bureaus and make sure that the remaining staff is scared enough to tow the corporate friendly line.

What was the second story of the day, an exclusive interview with Mickey Mouse perhaps?

[RTIII]

Thank you, Leslie.

I recall meeting you, gosh, some twenty plus years ago - I think it was at a wine-and-cheese type reception somewhere, and I recall admitting to you I was struck by your presence on camera. I especially liked how your seriousness came across "through the television" when discussing a serious subject. And, it didn't hurt that you worked with one of the best teams in the news business. This particular article brings back images of _you_ giving the lead off of the evening on some serious news - didn't you carry the lead on the Oakland Hills Fire and didn't you share the lead with Dennis R. on the Loma Prieta in 1989? Or, perhaps I have some of that history confused - I know Elane carried the lead often enough, too, and among the three of you - all awesome - you took the lead least often.

Nomatter.

What is vital is to keep Cheney on track to serving some jail time; only after we have prosecuted - and hopefully convicted - those at the top for their high-crimes in office will this nation be able to heal, regain some of its standing in the world, and have the words "rule of law" mean anything. Thank you for helping keep this in the public eye.

Richard
.

[Doug Watt]

I'm very impressed. This article is spot on, clear and concise. You continue to grow and strengthen your public voice.

[SewaneeLeftist]

Good article. It IS important to call out the manipulation and the manipulators. And Gibson has been the mouthpiece of the right since even before he swiftboated Kerry to Kerry's face on national tv. What a sad combination -- traitor and war criminal and republican apologist.

[Dosadi]

Good question. Why are we listening to this man. He has lied about everything he could think of in an attempt to scare us. Why are the news outlets giving him any respect? He deserves jail time not respect.