When asked tough questions, it’s best to become agitated, refuse to answer in a coherent manner, ask “Is this a joke?†and then impose an absurdly stifling restriction on the outlet responsible for the challenging interview (make that two outlets). Because banning journalists who ask tough questions is exactly what our democracy needs, right? Wrong.
But, I suppose we cannot blame Biden, alone, for his childish reaction. Until now, the press has continuously stated and restated its love and adoration for the most liberal candidate in history to seek the American presidency. So, after months of the media doting all over Barack Obama and company it’s no wonder Joe Biden was surprised when he was confronted with journalistic integrity.
So, for the sake of brevity I must give Barbara West of WFTV the William H. Hallowell III Journalist of the Year award for actually doing her job. Journalists are supposed to challenge candidates, not ignore their inconsistencies and blunders.
Perhaps the most perplexing issue at hand is not Biden’s absurd reaction, rather it is the hypocrisy that stems from the Obama camp concerning transparency and access. After weeks of criticism from the Obama camp over the McCain campaign’s shielding of Gov. Sarah Palin, we’re seeing a side of Obama that is pretty opaque. And it’s utterly ironic.
After all, isn’t this the man who promised to air our national laundry in the most public of all forums (don’t get me wrong; I’m all for transparency, but I am of the opinion that Obama is more about instilling pathos in his followers than he is about actions)?
The rest of the transparency community might be duped, but I’m not. Sure, the McCain camp shielded Palin from the media and that was a catastrophic mistake, but to literally prevent certain outlets from interviewing campaign officials – that, my friends, is communistic at best. This isn’t China. Some one better get Obama and Biden the memo.
For more information on Billy Hallowell, go to www.billyhallowell.com.
Billy is as truth-challenged as Palin. It’s a blatant falsehood to say Biden became agitated and refused to answer in a coherent manner– this is such typical Republican misdirection (to put it politely).
I watched that video (you’d never know that Billy did, given his description of it)– Biden showed admirable restraint when this brazen and impudent woman addressed him thus:
“You may recognize this famous quote: ‘From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.’ That’s from Karl Marx. How is Senator Obama not being a Marxist if he intends to spread the wealth around?”
That question IS absurd, and an appalling show of ignorance, like so much of what Billy himself writes– for example, when he says Obama is more about instilling pathos in his followers than he is about actions.
Pathos is, according to Webster, an emotion of sympathetic pity. Whatever Obama is ‘instilling’ in his followers (Billy’s always got people instilling things, whether the word fits or not), it certainly isn’t pity.
To top off his usual bizarre and misrepresentative remarks, Billy makes a vulgar display of egoism by awarding the errant interrogator, Barbara West, the William H. Hallowell III Journalist of the Year Award, for, of all laughable things, her “journalistic integrity.”
Follow this link, http://www.wftv.com/station/1874549/detail.htm to get an idea of the sort of “integrity” his recipient represents at WFTV and see what these bottom-feeders consider newsworthy, but only if you have the stomach for a sordid line-up of rape and murder, and if you really want to know whether any light beers are worth drinking.
Disgusting, but a fitting end to a tale straight out of The National Enquirer.
If that link doesn’t work, try this backdoor approach from Google: http://tinyurl.com/5gbnly
Also, I should say: “a fitting end to the sort of tale that might come straight out of The National Enquirer.”
VW,the only thing disqusting is the uber left’s willingness to muzzle anyone that doesn’t spew the partyline of the personalities “they” worship. The journalist had a right to ask an inteligent question and recieve a reasoned answer, regardless of your opinion. If Biden didn’t live with both feet in his mouth all the time, maybe he could have answered it.
If the question is as “ignorant” as you have asserted, perhaps you would be so kind as to explain why B.O.’s stated policy isn’t a subscription to Marxist economic doctrine? When B.O. was an Illinois state senator he publicly and in writing opposed Bill Clinton’s introduction of “workfare” as a replacement of welfare.
The only other guy I can think of to dodge “served-up” questions better and say absolutely nothing of any substance about anything, aside from Biden, is B.O.
Billy stated a legitimate observation and it has to do with the “press” having changed from a guard dog of our democracy to the lap dog of the Marxist wing of the democratic party.
If you think you can defend the blatant complicity of the US press to underwrite B.O.’s candidacy, no pun intended, please amuse me.
I believe the truth about B.O. has yet to be revealed. Many of us are very concerned that such a revelation will come at a very high price to the American People, should he be elected President. It ain’t over until….
I see that DM has taken a break from spewing his usual “Islamofascist” blather and discovered how to use a spell-checker.
Barack Obama’s stated policy isn’t a subscription to Marxist economic doctrine. It’s a much needed antidote to the Bush/Cheney redistribution of wealth policies which have dramatically enriched the economically elite top ten percent of our population. They’ve enabled their energy business cronies and their partners in crime of the military/industrial complex to loot the public commons and our national Treasury.
This welfare for the rich program has come at the expense of the middle class whose earning power and adjusted-for-inflation wealth has declined since these criminals stole the 2000 election and set up their corrupt regime.
They’ve also used a propaganda campaign of disinformation and misrepresentation to deceive the more gullible part of the electorate and persuade it to support these policies which harm its own interests. They’ve cynically manipulated the religious right by playing up wedge issues such as abortion rights and gay marriage.
Now that I’ve disabused you of your errors and misconceptions, you may return to your orbit around the Urantia Book.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2004/10/09_402.html
It would have been clearer for me to say, “DM has taken a break from spewing his usual blather about “Islamofascists”.
Billy,
What about requiring individuals to sign loyalty pledges just to attend campaign events as Bush did when he ran for President? That is much worse than candidates deciding which media outlets they want to speak to.
Is this fundamentally different than Palin trying to communicate without the “filter of the mainstream media?” That is just code for the New York Times and NBC.