Monday, November 14, 2011

In Which Scott Pelley Does Us all A Favor....

You've probably seen the video clip from Saturday night's Republican debate by now. CBS "moderator" Scott Pelley attempted to lecture Newt Gingrich on the “rule of law” regarding American citizens who join with enemy forces in order to wage war against the US.  Pelley thought he had embarrassed Gingrich, and elevated himself, when he (Pelley) declared that killing terrorists overseas is not consistent with the aforementioned “rule of law”.

Just look at Scott Pelley's face after launching his verbal attack on Newt Gingrich:



The smug, self-satisfied look of a liberal who feels they have all the answers.  Note the head tilt, slightly askew and towards the audience, as if he expected a thunderous ovation to follow his inane utterances.

Well, he got some scattered applause.  The thunderous ovation was reserved for Newt's smackdown of this little liberal bitch:



And yet it seems that Pelley did us a favor, by revealing to any remaining Americans still unsure on the issue that yes, the media is exceeding liberal,  as well as exceedingly hostile to all viewpoints countering their own.  The Corner's Michael Walsh:

The MSM just did every conservative, including the candidates, a huge favor by letting the mask slip and flashing its true ugly face for the cameras....

But let’s also understand how they look at it. By Pelley’s lights, he was only doing the Lord’s work, holding the Right’s feet to the fire on basic principles in a way that journalists generally would never do for the Left.

That’s because they’ve internalized the Left’s Manichean world view — not simply that Right=wrong, but that there’s no real discussion to have regarding the other side’s basic philosophy, which they regard as outmoded and/or malignant.

What Newt is doing — finally — is showing the Right how to fight back, by turning the Left’s own weapons (in this case, of sneering disdain) back on them.


Peter Wehner is less kind:

Unlike his able and informed co-moderator, National Journal’s Major Garrett, Pelley came across as schoolmarmish, smug, arrogant, unlikeable, clumsy (he tried to cut off Mitt Romney when Romney still had plenty of time left to answer his question) and at times ignorant.

...Pelley doesn’t understand — as, say, Jim Lehrer does — the role of the moderator is to take a back seat in debates, to move the discussion along as seamlessly as possible, to illuminate rather than hector, and not to become a focal point or advocate for a particular point of view.

In addition, and in general, Pelley treated the candidates like they were unruly children. As for the audience, he didn’t instruct it not to applaud; he lectured it.

Scott Pelley, then, came across as unprofessional and biased, tendentious and out of his depth, and he confirmed many of the stereotypes conservatives have of the press.


Disrespectful of the candidates for the highest office in the land, scornful of the audience who had come to view a debate between the candidates, not involving the moderator, and completely out of his intellectual depth. That's Scott Pelley, representing CBS before America.

And do you know what? He did it perfectly.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have noticed a huge problem with our system that no one seems to be trying to fix. There are people and groups that are supposed to be unbiased. This includes judges, the media, and those that moderate political events. Talk shows and political talk hosts are absolutely supposed to be biased for one side or the other. But not our news media, not our court systems, and not moderators. How would a person like it if during a lawsuit mediation, the mediator preferred one side over the other? It would not be fair.

Conservatives are trying so hard to take back the 3 branches of gov't, but seem to be doing very little with what has been deemed the 4th branch...the media. I can't help but feel that this is one reason that conservatives are having such a difficult time and why so many people are becoming liberal minded. It is because they are not being properly exposed to the conservative point of view. When they are, it is in a biased way and the conservative view is put in a dismissive light or ridiculed so that one is led to believe that if you follow conservative values, you will labeled a moron.

I really think our battle should start here. Conservatives need to start taking over the media so that the conservative view is revealed to the public in a positive light. So that news outlets like FOX are not the minority...but have an even footing or maybe even the majority viewpoint. Judges need to be made to be unbiased and if they choose to lean in favor or one way or the other...drummed out of office. Same for smarmy moderators such as this Pelley. I think we can all agree that obama was never examined or questioned even remotely as much as Cain or Palin. That somehow liberals get a pass in the media and conservative are skewered. That way too many liberal judges have made way too many biased decisions that have set a horrible precedence that has to be followed.

With all the newspapers going out of business, surely conservatives can buy out a few of them and hire actual real reporters who report the news unbiased. Conservatives must expand their influence beyong the internet. How about the big three...ABC, NBC, and CBS? Bill Gate bought out NBC and we now have MSNBC, which we all know how they report. Surely, conservative can do the same. If the conservative view is truly what people feel, than these ventures would surely prosper. I believe that since the conservative view has become the minority in media, it leads people to believe that the conservative belief is a minority belief.

Show people, especially the young people that are just now learning to pick up a newspaper or watch the news on TV, that liberal reporting is not the majority view. That conservatism is of equal concern and value and on par, if not a majority, of how news is reported. I am sure it will be difficult at first to find a journalism graduate with a working rational brain...but if there were enough conservative news agencies to hire them...they will be found. If conservatives can break the lock that liberals have on the "4th" branch of gov't, then the rest will follow.

Just my opinion, I could be wrong.