BuzzFlash Honors

John McCain

Welcome back to the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

We know what you're thinking. McCain again? We wanted to give the guy a break, since he won our GOP Hypocrite Award an impressive eight times in 2008 alone. But here at BuzzFlash, we call 'em like we see 'em, and we can't close our eyes to Sen. John McCain's hypocrisy.

McCain has been wasting all his available breath lately arguing that the U.S. needs to be on the "right side of history" on Iran, without taking note of what side he's been on in the long history of U.S.-Iranian relations. After it became clear that the recent presidential elections in Iran were fraudulent, McCain suggested that President Obama be more forceful in his condemnation of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and align the U.S. with the protesters in Tehran.

But anyone with a mere cursory understanding of U.S.-Iranian relations could tell you that is selfish posturing. Ahmadinejad wouldn't waste a minute in using Obama's words against the protesters, labeling the movement as a foreign incursion from the devilish America. As BuzzFlash editor Mark Karlin wrote, Obama is between the Shah and a hard place.

After insisting that "we must be a symbol of hope for the Iranian people" and getting all weepy on the Senate floor about the murdered Iranian protester called Neda, it's understandable that one might forget about McCain's more distant comments about the people of Iran.

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BUZZFLASH MEDIA PUTZ OF THE WEEK

Charles Gibson

For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens of America.

For all the grief that FOX "News" gave ABC -- in advance, mind you -- over the one-day infiltration of the White House over the health care debate, after watching the actual broadcast, the FOX people must have been doing cartwheels.

For those who wanted a national TV broadcast of genuine dialogue on the health care woes, the sad excuse for news offered by ABC was a huge wasted opportunity. Though many at ABC News can take full responsibility, on camera, the clear culprit was World News Tonight anchor Charles Gibson.

Diane Sawyer was there, mostly acting as a microphone holder for those with questions. And ABC News selected who would be in the audience, and which questions those pre-selected audience members would ask.

The right-wing critics, especially the folks at FOX, who thought Gibson and ABC were in the tank for Obama should note the tone of Gibson's questioning and his amazing gift of being cluelessly elitist emanating throughout the evening.

After listening to Gibson throughout the coverage, you learned that "a lot of people" meant a minority of Americans, and most likely, himself. Gibson has learned much from his fellow nightly news anchor, Katie Couric, in that he makes his journalistic questions about himself. To be fair to Gibson, he does a much better job of hiding his contempt for the rest of humanity's problems to focus on his own.

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WINGS OF JUSTICE

Christine Bowman

We give the Wings of Justice award each week to someone who rises above and beyond what they are supposed to do. This week, we honor one of our own.

Christine Bowman has been at BuzzFlash for the last five years, and she is one of the most remarkable and talented editors we've ever had the privilege to work with. Beyond her skills, intellect, passion and thoughtfulness, Christy is a writer and editor that brings out the very best in her colleagues. She edited the BuzzFlash mailbag, oversaw our in-depth interviews with leading progressive writers and thinkers, and corrected "most" of our numerous grammatical and spelling mistakes.

But what has made Christy such an asset is how she championed those whose voices don't often get heard. When we sit around in pitch meetings and discuss the pros and cons of writing on any multitude of topics in the political world countless times Christy stood up for those who don't get a fair shake in our society.

In a sea of cynicism natural to the journalism realm, she is an endless optimist. Christy pushed us to remember the moments when ordinary people do extraordinary things for the good of our communities and country. Despite despair, there are fleeting moments of justice, compassion, and good will amidst a cynical and pessimistic politics and media that prides itself on greed, apathy, sensationalism and the status quo. Christy was a storyteller, and an excellent one at that.

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Mark Sanford

Welcome back to the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

When South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford disappeared into what we were told were the Appalachian Mountains last week, we assumed the "embarrassing story" that might come of it was perhaps an ill-advised Father's Day participation in Naked Hiking Day, or a harmless week-long bender after a tough legislative session.

Boy, were we wrong.

Instead, we were shocked to watch Sanford apologizing profusely for an as-yet unknown transgression after he returned Wednesday.

"What I have found in this job is that one desperately needs a break from the bubble -- wherein every word, every moment is recorded -- just to completely break and I've found that to be true in trips to the farm or trips other places further afield," Sanford said.

And when he said "further afield," he meant South America.

Sanford's bizarre press conference was held to allow the governor to publicly admit that he had a year-long affair with a "dear, dear friend" in Argentina. His statement was sprinkled with mentions of religious terminology. Sanford spoke of morals, sins, faith and his own violation of "God's law" repeatedly. It was unclear whether or not he realized this, but it so happens that some of God's laws are also the law of the land in South Carolina, where adultery is punishable by a fine and possible imprisonment.

He specifically apologized to "people of faith," still maintaining his holier-than-thou position (agnostics and atheists apparently don't believe in having committed, monogamous relationships) and continuing the popular Republican narrative of religious redemption.

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BUZZFLASH MEDIA PUTZ OF THE WEEK

The Washington Post

For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens of America.

Jack Nicholson played a character who told us "You can't handle the truth." The Washington Post decided that we couldn't handle the truth and fired Dan Froomkin.

Unless you are being laid off, and many good journalists are losing their jobs these days through no fault of their own, journalists don't usually get fired unless they have done something significantly wrong. Hell, even Judith Miller of The New York Times wasn't fired.

Did Dan Froomkin do something significantly wrong? His work was brilliant and fair against both major parties.

Sometimes, journalists are let go if they aren't popular enough. But by all accounts, Froomkin was one of the most well-read members of the washingtonpost.com staff.

There are many who argue that the neo-con dominance of The Washington Post editorial page was one of the factors behind Froomkin's departure. As deplorable as that is -- on an ongoing basis -- Froomkin worked for the Web site, not the paper. But when you load up your paper with neo-con voices (Paul Wolfowitz should have better odds of being in jail than being on The Washington Post editorial page) and dump one of your few semi-liberal voices, people will come to some logical conclusions.

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WINGS OF JUSTICE

Dan Froomkin

There is this fear that in certain circumstances, someone will speak the truth and get fired for it.

Though we may never know or understand the real reason why The Washington Post fired Dan Froomkin late last week, we do feel deep down that he was fired for speaking the truth.

There was the recent exchange between Froomkin and columnist Charles Krauthammer over the use of torture. Froomkin criticized Krauthammer for his outright endorsement of torture; Krauthammer used the word "stupid" in responding to Froomkin's criticisms.

In a recent chat as part of his regular White House Watch duties, Froomkin was asked about Post reporters dancing around the word "torture." Froomkin pointed out that he has always called it torture. (Here is the original link.)

The truth that Froomkin spoke of for a long time was his diligence in chasing down the horrors of the Bush Administration. Where the Beltway is known for inside-baseball, incestuous relations between the Washington press core and politicians, Froomkin was one of the few journalists in that realm who bypassed the cocktail party circuit, and opportunities to dance and rap with Karl Rove, to focus on the intracities of what those in power were doing.

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John Ensign

Welcome back to the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

It's almost a given that a guy who wastes time on the Senate floor blustering about the sanctity of marriage would have an affair with a married woman. So when news broke earlier this week that Sen. John Ensign would be coming clean about his infidelity, we weren't all that surprised.

We did figure he'd step down though, if only because he loves the word "resign." He called on Sen. Larry Craig to resign after his wide-stance problem was revealed. He also called on Bill Clinton to resign when the president's cigar issue became known. Ensign even said that if he was in the same -- ahem -- "position" as Craig, that he would resign. Ensign has also said that he thinks that "we need people who are in office who will hold themselves to a little higher standard."

Well, apparently he wasn't talking about his own higher standards. Ensign merely gave up his leadership position in the Senate, which makes some sense. After all, how can you have seniority when you're such a big baby? Anyway, it would be kind of bizarre if Ensign got all upset and called on himself to resign.

Ensign is also a member of the Christian group the Promise Keepers, begging the question of what promises he's kept.

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BUZZFLASH MEDIA PUTZ OF THE WEEK

John Ziegler

For reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens of America.

The one name that kept creeping up -- and we do mean creeping -- during the whole Sarah Palin and David Letterman spat was John Ziegler.

Sarah Palin mentioned him as being the source of how she found out about what Letterman had said, and she made sure to say his name on the "Today" show when Matt Lauer interviewed her. Ziegler was also behind the FireDavidLetterman Web site.

Ziegler also got himself on MSNBC in an interview with Contessa Brewer that was more about him shouting out wild accusations, gratuitous insults, and not responding to direct questions.

You could say the big "winner" in the Palin-Letterman matchup was Ziegler since he received unbelievable levels of undeserved publicity. Once again, the "losers" were journalism and the American people.

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WINGS OF JUSTICE

Green Revolution

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It's easy to shout about democracy and freedom when you live in a country where you have opportunities to practice those credos. But the true test of democracy and freedom comes when practicing them in a repressive regime.

For the Green Revolution, the collection of protesters in Iran, those who have taken to the streets to protest the seemingly unlikely landslide win of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, they are exhibiting democracy and freedom in a very dangerous situation.

We have seen deaths so far. We unfortunately expect more deaths. And lots of injuries, many of which we'll never get the true perspective of the impact. But to these brave people, they fight on because democracy is important to them.

It does make you wonder why we didn't respond in much the same way in 2000 or 2004, why we didn't take to the streets to stand up for a stacked election result. Maybe we can learn something from the way these Iranians exhibit democracy and freedom.

They are risking their health. They are risking their lives. They feel that making sure the true results of a democratic election process are fulfilled are worth fighting for.

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Liz Cheney

Welcome back to the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

As if we weren't tired enough of the ex-veep creep himself, now we have more of his daughter than we could ever possibly digest. With her massive media blitz, it's hard to keep track of all of Liz Cheney's many lies. Thankfully, she packaged one huge contradiction together quite tidily in a recent interview.

Now this one is tough to get one's brain around, what with all the logical twists and turns Cheney has to make in order to get her argument to sound like it works in the real world. To sum up, Cheney says there is a liberal conspiracy to insist that her father tried to make a connection between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda and 9/11 (which, incidentally, he did). But, on the other hand, there actually was a connection between the two (which, incidentally, there wasn't).

We've got news for you, Liz: Two conflicting lies don't make a right. In fact, they make hypocrisy.

As Jason Linkins adeptly points out at the Huffington Post:

In an interview with NBC News' Andrea Mitchell, Cheney insisted that her father had always disavowed the notion that there was a link between Iraq and al Qaeda and September 11th, while simultaneously suggesting that such a link was true. Then she sort of got snippy with Mitchell for the way she kept intimating that maybe this was all a little nonsensical.

Here's the video:

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