1) The People vs. Jeremiah Wright The media’s general condemnation of Jeremiah Wright wasn’t just about race or politics or the intersection between the two. It was also about dissent. The treatment of Wright, I thought, highlighted just how uncomfortable—distressingly uncomfortable—we’ve become with ideas that challenge the mainstream.
2) Notes on a Scandal Remember twelve or so Big Political Scandals ago, when Eliot Spitzer was the shamed governor du jour? During SpitzerGate, I was fascinated by the way the media covered Silda Wall Spitzer…and struck by how many of them attacked the governor’s wife for literally and figuratively “standing by her man” during the scandal.
3) Of Love and Other Demons The media’s affinity for Obama has been part of the president-elect’s mythology since long before “in the tank” became a nearly permanent preface to his name—and since long before the Illinois senator declared his presidential candidacy. This piece considered the wider implications of the press’s (in)famous enthusiasm for Obama. (It also gave me an excuse to describe the future president as “a Men’s Vogue-certified hottie.” So.)
4) Barack Obama, “Stevie Wonder Geek” After a Rolling Stone interview revealed then-candidate Obama’s musical preferences (Miles Davis! Yo-Yo Ma! Springsteen!), I wondered why, exactly, we care so much about what’s on our politicians’ iPods.
5) Moonlight and Valentino In which I defended Sarah Palin’s freedom to shop.
6) The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pantyhose This summer, Michelle Obama embarked on a series of appearances—on The View, in the pages of US Weekly, and elsewhere—that came to be known as her “Reintroduction Tour.” The appearances, apparently designed to “soften” her in the view of the voting public, emphasized Michelle’s femininity—her clothes, her kids, her shopping and cooking habits—and, in that, they reemphasized the complications of the relationship between strong women and the media.
7) Shrill-ary Assorted thoughts about Hillary Clinton’s voice.
8) Harry Situation In February, news broke that Britain’s third-in-line-to-the-throne, Prince Harry, had been serving in active duty in Afghanistan since December—and that the British army had brokered a deal with British and other media not to report about Harry’s deployment until he returned home in April. A look at the ethics of the agreement.
9) Notes from the Pig Sty LipstickOnAPigGate was quite possibly the lowest point of the media coverage of the 2008 campaign. In this, I gave it the old wag-of-the-finger.
10) Breaking! CJR Has the Next Issue of the Montgomery County Bulletin Aaaaand…fun with plagiarism.
What will be the biggest story of January 2009? Will it be Bush pardons Bush? But first, I can now reveal that the best blog of 2008 has been "No Comment" by Scott Horton at Harper's. We may as well include Charles Kaiser's blog/column "Full Court Press" as being among the best, along with Kelly McParland's entries in "Full Comment" at the National Post, Sir Peter Stothard's blog at the TLS, and, in a special category, "Crooks and Liars," by Murray Waas.
The possible Cheney pardon as outlined by Scott Horton presents a question: Can Bush pardon Cheney if it would be tantamount to issuing a pardon for himself? Could Bush "pardon" Bush? Perhaps CJR could interview US legal experts on presidential pardons. The Waas material that Horton cites on Cheney is foundational. Is Bush so implicated with Libby and Cheney that he should never have commuted Libby's sentence and should be cautious about pardoning Cheney?
Let's lead with what Waas notes as background: "Despite numerous warnings from the CIA and elsewhere in government that the Niger allegations were most likely false or even contrived, President Bush cited them in his 2003 State of the Union address as a rationale to go to war with Iraq."
"On July 6, 2003, [Joseph] Wilson published an op-ed in The New York Times charging that the Bush administration had 'twisted' intelligence when it cited the alleged Niger-Iraq connection in the president's State of Union earlier that year.... Wilson's allegations were among the first from an authoritative source that the administration might have misled the nation to go to war."
The Bush administration disavowed initial knowledge of Wilson's trip: "Cheney, Libby, then-White House political adviser Karl Rove, and other White House officials told reporters that Wilson's wife, who worked at the CIA, had been primarily responsible for selecting him to go to Niger."
Bush fingerprints are all over an important NIE in the case: "President Bush had personally and secretly declassified portions of the NIE for the specific purpose of leaking them to [Judith] Miller. In disclosing selective portions of the NIE to Miller, only the President, the Vice President, and Libby knew about the secret declassification."
Later, Bush tested the waters to see if "pardoning himself" might be an option that few would notice: "On July 2, 2007, President Bush commuted Libby's thirty month prison sentence, saying he was doing so out of compassion for Libby's family and because he believed that the sentence was excessive. The White House declined to say whether Bush might consider a full pardon for Libby [or himself]."
Even if, as Waas notes: "In the next few days, it will become known whether Libby will in fact be pardoned by President Bush in his final days in office."
Meanwhile, more Bush data remains secreted away: "In the meantime, what the Vice President and the President told the FBI during their own FBI interviews during the Plame investigation will not be officially disclosed by the White House. Despite the fact that prosecutor Fitzgerald has told Congress that he has no objections to the provision of the reports to Congress, the Bush administration has refused to follow through."
President Obama should warn Bush about the implications of more Bush pardons that would bring the administration of justice into disrepute. If previous Presidents have engaged in what should be seen as "pardoning themselves," what are the examples?
If Nixon had caught on to this possibility, he would have snapped it up. I am sure that Bush thinks it will be easy to sneak it through. It is enough to make you shake your head, the people who serve as federal politicians in Canada. But having met some from the US, I would have to say they are worse.
If CJR starts to cast around for political manipulations to match those of a certain man who tried to sell a certain seat, it could try examining CTVglobemedia. One man is in: Mike Duffy of CTV having been appointed to the Senate for trying to screw Dion. Can Ed Greenspon, editor-in-chief of The Globe and Mail, be far behind in getting his reward?
Posted by Clayton Burns on Tue 30 Dec 2008 at 08:12 PM