There They Go Again

As I finished up this week's episode of Boston Legal on the TiVo at around 8:58, I decided I would catch the last couple minutes of Olbermann on MSNBC. He was talking about the latest nonsense coming out of the Britney Spears camp, which would be mildly amusing if small children weren't involved. Usually, when he throws his paper and talks it being the 1,659th day or whatever since President Bush declared Mission Accomplished in Iraq, that's when I find something else somewhere up the dial. Instead, tonight, I hung on for the first couple minutes of Dan Abrams' show. He was talking about Judith Regan and a lawsuit filed against NewsCorp, accusing Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes, among others, of telling Regan to lie under oath about her illicit relationship with disgraced former New York Police Commish and Homeland Security nominee Bernie Kerik. Kerik and Regan, of course, had an affair after 9/11, and on several occasions may have consummated that relationship in a Lower Manhattan flat dedicated to hosting relief workers working at Ground Zero.

Now, generally this story is one marked for Page 6 in the Post. However, what we have here may actually be quite insidious. Why would Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes go out of their way to defend Bernard Kerik? Might it be, as Abrams alleged, some kind plot to protect Giuliani as he moves towards his date with the cast of the bad reality show we call the GOP Primary process?

We need look no further than what was airing at the same time on Fox News. I thought perhaps they'd be running the latest political intrigue with the Democratic primaries, or some ridiculous story about another lost suburban white girl, or something just as idiotic. Instead, what they were running was not just repulsive, it validated all parts of Dan Abrams' argument. At the EXACT SAME TIME MSNBC was running a story talking about Fox "News" may be covertly - perhaps even overtly - supporting one candidate for the Presidency, Hannity and Colmes (I was going to write a joke here, but I'm pretty sure it writes itself) was broadcasting a program-length commercial for Rudy Giuliani, starring his new best friend, Conservative ninny Pat Robertson.

The tagline running under Robertson's loathsome visage actually talked of him "discussing his endorsement of Giuliani."

Let me try to say this in plain terms: A purported news outlet is currently allowing an avowed misogynistic bigot to discuss his idealistic defense of a three-time philanderer with whom he shares no political views in order to drum up support for his campaign.

We have to be left to wonder, what took us so long for us all to catch on?