A Walk On The Wild Side of Rightwingville

THIS ONE IS DEFINITELY IN THE RUNNING FOR THE true "war on Xmas" awards. At first I thought it was another concrete jungle grotesque Gotham story of man's inhumanity to man, hot on the heels of that heartwarming story of a NYC cop (those guys are the best) buying a barefoot homeless man a $75 pair of boots. (P.S. The homeless man was later seen barefoot AGAIN, explaining rather sheepishly that he might get killed if caught wearing his fancy shoes. So much for the spirit of Christmas, but nice try, Martin.)

Anyway, this yin-yang tale of horror involved the murder of a man pushed into the path of an oncoming subway train by a homicidal maniac. It happened to have been caught on camera, and TWICE published in the NY Post's front page. But what really drew my attention was that (a) the photographer was a freelancer for the Post, and (b) the corpse wasn't even cold before this bastard was on the Today Show justifying himself for doing nothing to save the man with the outrageous excuse that the "flash" from his camera would somehow alert the victim something was wrong.

First of all, while there are grey areas regarding photojournalists who become "part of the story," there is very little debate concerning the saving of a life from imminent death. Real photojournalists understand the boundaries of their moral and ethical responsibilities in this regard, and have time and again proven their mettle and their courage by saving "civilians" in imminent danger. But we refer to the brave and noble photojournalists who place themselves in the line of fire every single day to get the story out of a war zone. The scum who shoot seamy photos for the front page of Rupert Murdoch's NY Post do not belong to this club, and never will.

Speaking of Murdoch, he has ordered his lieutenant Roger Ailes to smack more lipstick on that pig known as FOX "News." After his so-called "political analysts" Dick Morris and Karl Rove were mercilessly mocked in the progressive blogosphere, including yours truly, for their absurd electoral predictions, prompting ferret-face David Gregory to immolate himself before the wingnut certitude emanating from Moron Joe & Co. to predict on election day an "enthusiasm gap" among Democrats, effectively calling the race for Romney, Murdoch-Ailes yanked Morris and Rove off the air.

Gregory, of course, is still riding high on his magic disinformation carpet ride as the High Priest of the Idiot Punditocracy, which can only mean one thing: It won't be long before Morris and Rove join perennial Gregory favorite Newt Gingrich in those barf-inducing MTP panels. Too bad for Murdoch that Rove left after the burning barn door of the Media arm of the Republican Party was left wide open. Once major Murdoch competitor, the New York Times, took notice of Rove's cell phone comunications with the Romney campaign trying to pressure FOX "News" itself to change its call for Obama, it was game over.

And how endearing is Roger Ailes' bromance with David Petraeus? He tried to convince the general to run for president, even promising to "bankroll" his campaign. (Just imagine the faux outrage in Righwingville had the heads of WAPO, the Times or MSNBC offered to "bankroll" President Obama's campaign. Quite unrealistic, since only Rupie and his pals on the right have that kind of money.) Judging by FOX's declining ratings, it's "we've been reported (trans: busted) you decide." The last part's true. They're down to their core true believers. One thing about patriotic FOX viewers: They HATE a LOSER. Right now they're so, so lost, and there's nothing bimbo blonde legs, and Megyn too, can do about it.