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IMAGINE WATERGATE 2005
by Richard Reeves

It was the persistence and courage of the press that made the difference 30 years ago [during Watergate]. Above and behind the often confused and sometimes inaccurate young men were the publisher of the Post, Katharine Graham, and her editor, Ben Bradlee, who hung tough when it counted. Would that happen today?

I seriously doubt it. Under today’s rules of the game, Nixon would have survived the rape of the Constitution and various counts of burglary and perjury. The American press is being driven into the ground like a stake by courts and government attorneys arguing that there is no such thing as constitutional recognition of any legal protections of news-gathering.

The American press is barely being protected by its own owners, many of them entertainment corporations prone to erase any facts inconvenient to those who write tax laws and approve mergers and acquisitions. The straight American press, and most of it is, is being nibbled to death by a Greek chorus of know-nothing mouthpieces mocking anyone brazen enough to question the orthodoxy of the day or the cut of the emperor’s wardrobe.

Imagine Watergate 2005, with Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly preaching their sermons on the patriotism of a 29-year-old reporter who was close to being fired for forgetting where he abandoned rental cars (private property) and whose parents were both communists — that would be Carl Bernstein. Disney and Viacom and Fox have their virtues, I’m sure, but they are no Graham and Bradlee. Graham bet the company on journalism. I think she would be laughed off the business pages today — and, in fact, over a lifetime she did decide to (or have to) plead for Wall Street’s forgiveness for her own brave brand of Americanism.

Now the laughers are in charge. In the last year, the White House has explicitly stated that it believes it has no obligation to deal with the press as anything but another special interest. In the past week, federal judges have ruled that Time magazine and New York Times reporters should go to jail for what they know, even if it was never published. Another federal court ruled that the governor of Maryland has the right to order state employees never to answer questions posed by The Baltimore Sun.

So it goes in the land of the free.

Crossmap News| ‘Simpsons’ Animates Homosexual Marriage, Stirs Debate

L. Brent Bozell III, president of the Parents Television Council, criticized “The Simpsons” for addressing the issue of gay marriage, though he cautioned that he had not seen the episode. A parental advisory preceded the broadcast.

“At a time when the public mood is overwhelmingly against gay marriage, any show that promotes gay marriage is deliberately bucking the public mood,” he said.

“I’d rather them not do it at all,” he added. “You’ve got a show watched by millions of children. Do children need to have gay marriage thrust in their faces as an issue? Why can’t we just entertain them?”

THE SIMPSONS – Parents Television Council Family TV Guide Show Page

PTC Summary:

This long-running animated production focuses on the daily life of a suburban family living in the fictional town of Springfield. Despite its early timeslot and animated format, The Simpsons is not recommended for younger viewers. The show ridicules entrepreneurs, religion, educators, and law enforcement officials, and has occasionally incorporated foul language into its dialogue. The cartoon sends a mixed message on parenthood: while the father is a bumbling idiot, the mother is a loving and patient wife and role model.

mjh’s Blog: Bless the Simpsons!

Unintelligent Design By JIM HOLT

What can we tell about the designer from the design? While there is much that is marvelous in nature, there is also much that is flawed, sloppy and downright bizarre. Some nonfunctional oddities, like the peacock’s tail or the human male’s nipples, might be attributed to a sense of whimsy on the part of the designer. Others just seem grossly inefficient. …If this is evidence of design, it would seem to be of the unintelligent variety.

Such disregard for economy can be found throughout the natural order. Perhaps 99 percent of the species that have existed have died out. Darwinism has no problem with this, because random variation will inevitably produce both fit and unfit individuals. But what sort of designer would have fashioned creatures so out of sync with their environments that they were doomed to extinction?

The gravest imperfections in nature, though, are moral ones. Consider how humans and other animals are intermittently tortured by pain throughout their lives, especially near the end. Our pain mechanism may have been designed to serve as a warning signal to protect our bodies from damage, but in the majority of diseases — cancer, for instance, or coronary thrombosis — the signal comes too late to do much good, and the horrible suffering that ensues is completely useless.

And why should the human reproductive system be so shoddily designed? Fewer than one-third of conceptions culminate in live births. The rest end prematurely, either in early gestation or by miscarriage. Nature appears to be an avid abortionist, which ought to trouble Christians who believe in both original sin and the doctrine that a human being equipped with a soul comes into existence at conception. Souls bearing the stain of original sin, we are told, do not merit salvation. That is why, according to traditional theology, unbaptized babies have to languish in limbo for all eternity. Owing to faulty reproductive design, it would seem that the population of limbo must be at least twice that of heaven and hell combined.

It is hard to avoid the inference that a designer responsible for such imperfections must have been lacking some divine trait — benevolence or omnipotence or omniscience, or perhaps all three.

I hope you saw last night’s Simpsons, in which Lisa Simpson advocated Springfield allow same-sex marriages. It was in part an economic argument but she added that they could be on the forefront of civil rights. Amen, Lisa!

Reverend Lovejoy barred the door of the church and insisted gay marriage was against the bible (though he was unable to cite a passage). Merri and I laughed when he said it was like serving hamburgers on hot dog buns — we had those just last week (we call them hamdogs). No one else seemed to oppose the notion. It wasn’t nearly as ugly as reality. Hey, it’s a cartoon!

Did you see the parental warning just before? Wouldn’t want your kids to think an entire town could see the decency and economic value in letting adults marry the ones they love. No, that would be wrong, wouldn’t it. I wonder how many complaints the FCC got — I’d gladly give money to pay the fine.

There is NO DOUBT WHATSOEVER that same-sex marriage will be legal in the US eventually. Frankly, I think it will be in less than 10 years as part of the mighty pendulum swing away from the fearful Right. The State has an interest in regulating marriage which in no way extends to gender. Let your Church refuse to conduct the ceremony. Don’t give a wedding gift. Fine.

peace, mjh