The TODAY Show's new Middle East/ Education analyst: Is Right Wing influence taking over the show?
By John Amato Tuesday Sep 25, 2007 4:05pm
Bill Donohue is now NBC's resident expert on the Middle East and higher learning issues in college campuses.<snark> How do I know? He was on with Matt Lauer Monday and told me so. Bill does seem to know a lot about propaganda though...And I thought he was just trying to save Christmas. Check out his violent rhetoric here---here---here---and don't forget that he blamed the kids for allowing Mark Foley to molest them. Some expert.
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Since Noah Oppenheim has become a producer for TODAY, it has become littered with extreme right wing pundits. I watch it almost everyday because they feature hard news in the first hour. Read this detailed piece about Noah in the TV Newser. There seems to be a little tension there.
A 'Today' staffer says the assertion that his program is full of liberals is nonsense. He believes the editorial staff is 50/50, left and right. The show is fair and middle-of-the-road, and that's why Oppenheim's appointment is nerve-wracking: He seems unable to shed his political leanings and remain unbiased.
We all don't care what his politics are as long as he keeps them out of his segments. And now you'll understand why the Donohue's are on so much.
Please email Phil.Griffin@nbcuni.com and ask him why he's giving so much power to (read this Weekly Standard article) Noah Oppenheim, who used to be the EP for Scarborough. (Please be polite!) They are making a mockery out of the Today show. And this morning---guess who they had on as a very serious political analyst to tell us how the campaign trail for President is going? Bill Kristol.
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This just in:
Main stream feeding the "Mainstream media" has been found to have headwaters in Chernobyl.
KO
Oppenheim was a producer for Scarborough Country.....enough said.
People who watch the Today show probably flip around the channel or go to the bathroom when actual news comes on.
John, you watch Today almost everyday?...you don't like yourself very much do you? Hell, what am I talking about, I have CNN droning on in the background damn near all day long.
STOP THE WORLD, I WANT TO GET OFF!
"Even the free speech argument is flatulent." Not quite sure what to make out of that Freudian slip.
If they never have conservatives on, conservatives will never tune into the news. Do we want them to engage with the media which might get them listening long enough to think about issues for a minute or should we just let them keep floating in their delusional bubble forever unholy supporting our psychotic leaders and keeping us a divided nation.
Think about it?
Donahue is a putz btw. He and the likes of Ann Coulter should never be on. But conservatives who are legally sane should be and it's sad to see their voices get drowned out by extremist assholes like him and Coulter.
Dr. PepperDDS @ 7:
Yes, what a person to talk about flatus, but maybe it was a Freudian slip and he meant fraudulent. So same diff anyway. I've never watched Matt Lauer but know he is often panned as a light weight. He handled
Donohue pretty well there.
"They are making a mockery out of the Today show. "
It's the fucking Today show. A morning gabfest devoid of journalists and we're supposed to care? Let them mock on it's the fucking Today show.
I like it when the representative for the worlds largest organization of pedophiles is asked to pontificate on policy in a region on this planet that has a miniscule population of members of his own religion. It is enlightening when it agrees with the Iranian leader there are no homosexuals to worry about. Even better that members of this same religion have come on numerous occasions for the purpose of looting and genocide. Better still when that religion has been an equal opportunity torturer, converter and killer! They hate jews as much as they hate muslims, so they are certainly fair if anything.
Hope you find a way to enjoy the wars of religion that are coming. Swords were common to the "holy" land. The nuclear weapons the crusaders will bring this time will be common only to a dead planet.
end religion, give this planet real hope
Donohue's a loony from way back, but there's a silver lining to his being on Today: relatively smart and normal people get to see just how bent and egomaniacal Donohue is, and maybe they ask themselves how someone so nuts, yet so lacking in knowledge about the subjects about which he's supposed to be expert, came to be on a "mainstream" news network.
Conservatives want to think for us. Then ultimately, decide for us. "I am the decider."
They are so afraid we will hear other opinions, views or just plain facts.
That they fear that the most, because they have to operate in a cloud of ignorance or their ideas just don't stand up to any scrutiny. How many times has Rush/O'reilly/etc. said, 'you will hear the truth here (on my show)' after a tirade or two against the so called liberal press/media.
"extreme right wing pundits"
He isn't right wing enough for me
Someone else finally noticed. For a long time, the Toady Show has been defending every vile, illegal Republican word and action. This morning, GE employee Matt Lauer defended O'Reilly who "was really complimenting black people," spoken with exasperation at the gaul of the critics. Lauer tops my list of most despicable person in the media. More than O'Reilly. More than Coulter. Because Lauer still has the fake aura of legitimacy.
Didn't they also give some defense to what BillO said about his trip to the Harlem restaurant?
I begin my day by switching from Morning joe to Washington Journal when it comes on. If you begin your day by beating yourself over the head, the rest of the day seems a little less painful.
I used to watch the Today show every morning while I got ready for work. But more and more it became about celebrities and the scandal/tragedy of the day. So I started turning it off when they asked someone "how if felt to" whatever. After several months I noted that I was turning if off after 5 or 10 mins. That's when I stopped watching it altogether. Now, I watch CNN and MSNBC by jumping between them during commercial breaks. I miss the Today show but it is clearly no longer a news show.
Welcome To Broken Recordville (take 999): It's not the Today show or NBC calling the shots. It's General Electric. And Disney. And Viacom. It's simple simon stuff, after all.
It insults a person's intelligence to suggest otherwise.
"Even the free speech argument is flatulent"
As repugnant as it is, sorry everybody has the right to speak even if it doesn't smell good. :P
What the hell is NBC thinking? The man is a fundamentalist quack, who has all the tact of "bring it on" presidents and "go fuck yourself" vice-presidents. I find it incredible that even one network, Fox, is so far up bush's asshole that it knows instantly what he is having for breakfast. Now it looks like NBC is going to be sitting at the trough as well.
Putting donohue in this position is like having georgie bush in charge of governing the USA. Oh......
enor @ 13:
I got to know some pretty far out there professors at my school who couldn't resist shoving their leftist beliefs down my throat. Just picture Limbaugh in a classroom, and alter his venomous spewing hate about feminists and the gay agenda into hate against Israel and capitalists. Same garbage in that they didn't want us to hear all the viewpoints in depth and learn to think ourselves but to make us obey and accept.
Just so you know all sides of the debate have thier preachers and do_sayers. ;)
"I watch it almost everyday because they feature hard news in the first hour."
That's being far too generous, John. The first half-hour is closer to it, and it's not uncommon for them to hit the soft news/entertainment fluff wall long before the first break for local news at around 7:25.
And any show that invites the likes of Bill (the evil) Donohue and the despicable Coulter on as "serious commentators" deserves to have mass amounts of derision thrown at them. Donohue especially since his only real expertise seems to be how to get ungodly amounts of airtime to spew his vile opinions.
If you think that Donohue is bad you should have seen Lauer DEFEND Bill O'Lielly this morning. Lauer accused Media Matters of "gotcha" reporting. I wanted to throw a shoe at the TV
Why doesn't everyone just boycott MSM and the networks. No viewers = no ratings
no rating = no advertising dollars , no advertising dollars = no program (cancelled or people replaced) it's that simple. Contact the manufacturers that advertise for those programs and tell them you boycott their products until programs become "fair and balanced".
I personally stopped watching all TV after 9/11 except for very selective documentaries, PBS (Bill Moyers), Keith Olberman, John Stewart, and Steven Colbert.
Why should we give Christian Ayatollah Donohue a platform then?
Good thing for us that Stalin and Hitler are dead. If they were alive, The Today Show would have them on as experts on Asian and European diplomacy.
Thank God no one watches the Today Show anymore!!
NBC and MSNBC are both starting to suck on a regular basis. Tonight Chris Matthews is making a whole fu*king show out of pissing on Hillary. Jesus, has he nothing else to talk about? Were it not for Keith I would block MSNBC from my tv. Isn't it enough that they have Morning Joe? Plus now we are once again subjected to the loud laugh and stupid bs from Norah O'Donald (sp?)
I thought Donohue was a representative for the catholic church. Since when does he know about anything else? He is known for being a big loud mouth. Do they need that on the Today show for ratings? If they do, that's pitiful.
HumboldtBlue @ 10:
My God, if the wing-nuts take control of Good Morning America, America's Funniest Home Videos and Entertainment Tonight we are totally screwed. First they took talk radio, and you did nothing. Then they took the Sunday morning pundit shows and you did nothing. Now they're taking over the morning fluffy-bunny brain-anesthesia TV and you . . .
I've been switching from The Toady Show to the Early Show on CBS, but now they've started with the "you won't BELIEVE! this next story" breathless local-news-style hack bullshit. So now I listen to The Young Turks on Air America instead. They're fabulous. Entertaining and informative with no aggravation.
Dear Today Show,
Quit pandering to the Flintstones. Your attempts to get street cred from the O'Reilly/ Ingraham axis of gravity deniers is pathetic
Does NBC have FOX envy?
Just how many religious, right-wing "family values" organizations are out there? You can't turn around without bumping into the president, chairman, or czar of one of these groups.
I guess I'll start my own. I'm now the leader of "America used to be a great country, but has become a global laughingstock and been overtaken by redneck, morbidly obese ultra conservatives."
Think that will fit on a business card?
I haven't watched the Today show for years because it sucks. D'hue seems more like some guy on a barstool, after a few pints, than someone that ought to be on TV. What did he say "Amijad"? It doesn't get much more intellectually lazy than that. (oh, wait a minute... )
In other countries, these guys (Donahue) are a freak show, not mainstream news.
The Truth Hurts @ 33:
Can I join?
I've just read both of Oppenheim's essays. The one from Harvard, despite the pretentious prose, is class-warfare bomb-throwing after my own heart. He goes after Harvard's culture of privilege with a hammer and tongs. Might be sour grapes, and he's probably conflating the rich with the left, but it's probably accurate, and hey, it came from a wingnut. They don't often bite the hand. The Standard essay, despite the pretentious prose (what is it with wingnuts and their arch, purple literary style? Pure insecurity?) also seems reasonable and probably accurate: journalists are a bit lazy, fearful, and don't like to counter the prevailing narrative. Many are lefties. Many are probably not so comfortable with red-state Americans in Iraq. And there are probably a lot of good works being done in Iraq by Americans that get overlooked by the press. Oppenheim's points don't change that Iraq is an ongoing trainwreck. But they also don't change that the U.S. is providing the bulk of security for many Iraqi civilians who will likely get caught up in ethnic cleansing if (or when) our military leaves, which is also when our people will stop dying in large numbers, at least in Iraq. Basically, Oppenheim seems to be surprisingly rational for a neo-con, though likely with a few of those enormous blind spots they tend to have. Bill Donohue, on the other hand: not so much.
Dr. PepperDDS @ 29:
What you say is probably true, however many Americans get their news from the morning shows...and it is these shows that are helping to form a lot of opinions.
Did he say the free speech argument is "flatulent"? LOL! I think this "learned" guy just made a little spoonerism.
What is it with raving maniacs that makes them sound like BillO'? This guy needs his vocal cords back, he's been shouting for too long.
George Bush and Dick Cheney's WMD claims were "demonstratively false" i don't see Donohue clutching his pearls over that. I guess if the lie comes from fellow wingnuts, destabilizes the middle east, bust our budget, runs our military into the ground, kills hundreds of thousands of innocents, marginalizes America in the eyes of the world and gets over 3,000 US soldiers killed.....that "demonstratively false" statement is just fine by this red faces ChristianOfascist hack. How many people did the demonstratvely false "Holocaust never happened" statement kill?
This morning's Today Show featured Bill Kristol on the presidential race followed by a segment titled, "Is Bill O'Reilly Being Smeared?" Talk about a double-whammy of right wing crapola! I had to check the channel because I thought I was watching Fox. If I hadn't seen Matt Lauer, I wouldn't have known the difference.
The Truth Hurts @ 33:
Turn the card over and maybe you can also fit "who stupidly swallow any piece of right wing propaganda shit spoon fed them by corporate media shills"
Donohue is a bottom-feeding prick.
He sure is selective in directing his "outrage." He got all bent out of shape about a chocolate statue of Jesus a few months back, yet he laughed off a razor-star throwing, murdering, re-crucified and re-risen mirrored-shade wearing Jesus on "South Park" to show us all that, yes, he does have a sense of humor.
What a dick.
"President of The Catholic League" under his name, like that's a bona fide organization???
W.T.F.?
Am I missing something but what is the connection between the Catholic league and who speaks at Columbia University?
Donahue is the kind of bigoted, uber Catholic that makes life miserable for everyone. There is no point in arguing with him, he is always right, he is always holier and threfore has the absolute right to push everyone else around. I work at a Catholic school and there are always a few on these guys (usually guys, occasionally a woman) who sniff around trying to find something they can be outraged about. And they will go to absurd lengths to get there. Most Catholics know to avoid them - like the crazy uncle you hide from at the reunion. The Today Show should do the same.
Wasn't it just a few years back when Donahue was mad at the Today Show for some imagined insult from Jane Pauley?
aagit8t @ 24:
Same here, Olbermann & Stewart, but Colbert drives me nuts. I know it's satire, but he sounds like "them" and I'm sick of "them".
We've got a GREAT DVD library though...
Donahue has some credibility when he speaks of "flatulent" and "circus." That asshole is a clown.
donahue would be my first choice for an un-biased view on any subject.;-)
I stopped watching that morning flatulance years ago after discovering other sources of news in the a.m..
" a little priest on alter boy action never hurt my development" B. Donahue
Just DON'T watch this stupid show. The fact that is now on for a zillion hours every morning shows you it is pure oatmeal.
I just realized... Donahue is Archie Bunker.
Let me guess, Noah Oppenheim is another neocon member of the chosen people. These f*ckheads are giving all of us a bad name.
Windbag. racist with something to hide. My gut isn't lying to me when I say this man is dangerous.
it's simple: stop watching "the today show".
Well, we all know the Corporate Media has a conservative bias.
This is just proving it.
Viva le blogosphere!
Well, Matt Lauer hates him. He says "Donohue smells really bad, like armpit, cigarettes, and bourbon."
Man, Donohue is the notorious bad penny. That asshole has been in the spotlight so much lately it's sickening. He's homogeneously wrong on everything. Between this, the Kathy Griffin nonsense, his "debate" with Christopher Hitchens (and the aftermath of that). Enough already!
The Eccentric @ 22:
yes, I meant to say the first half hour, but lately thye do focus on the hard news past the first thirty minutes.
"Is Right Wing influence taking over the show?"
Dunno. Define "taking over". I quit watching all network domestic "news" shortly after 9/11 when _I_ thought right wing influence saturated everything. That's why I'm here.
What purpose, besides comic relief and the sudden nostalgic need to want to watch an "All in The Family" episode, does having Bill Donohue have on any show? Why do networks put these professional angry grumps on TV shows?
What does Iran have to do with the Catholic League? What does Columbia University have to do with the Catholic League (especially since the school was founded by Protestants)?
What's next? The Today Show brings in the head of the NRA for their views on GM vs. the UAW? - I mean really.
Stop watching the Today show....and start watching Headline in the morning with Robin.....
Who the Hell on Earth would watch, The Today Show of Complete Bullshit?
To: Phil.Griffin@nbcuni.com
Hi Phil:
I saw you had Bill Donohue on the Today Show as a guest pundit. Frankly I'm surprised and disappointed. I thought you had higher standards. I am not impressed with Mr. Donohue. He has been short tempered on TV and has insulted and threatened others with violence. He threatened to take Chris Hitchens outside and punch him. He threatened Cosmo Cavallaro on national TV that he should "lose more than his head" that Cosmo is a "loser" and told him his art should be in the dump.
He is a bully and is insulting.
Who will be on next ? Jimmy the Greek and Andrew Dice Clay ?
I suggest you consider not having him on the Today Show, or I will be considering watching a different morning show.
There is something "Persian" about Bill Donohue, almost Ahmadinejadic in essence...
Heliogabalus @ 66:
That's because Donohue and Ahmadinejadic were separated at birth.
tunnelbrat @ 52:
Hey, don't slander Archie.
Watch the Today Show every day? Sir, you have intestinal fortitude.
raker @ 15:
Matt Lauer is just a shill for rabid republicans.
It's self-evident he'd be "right" at home over at Faux News.
Who is it that this man speaks to? certainly not most of us, who does the mainstream news speak to?
As the man said "we have a failure to communicate", because they sure aren't speaking to anyone but a disgusting group of people who have no more sense than a bag of hammers despite their blue ribbon educations, some of whom sign the checks for their time wasting words of no meaning but hate and divisiveness
I stopped watching "TODAY" when Jane Pauly left.
Gimme Jane Pauly!
We don't bother to watch any of it - there's no point.
*
I got two words for Mr. Donahue, Mel Gibson. I guess it was ok when Mel the Jew hater blamed Jews for all the Wars because he made such a beautiful movie (snuf film) The Passion of the Christ. Mr. Donahue had nothing but praise for him.
joe @ 21:
But which side tries to keep you uninformed?
In my opinion, it is the conservatives who try to stifle free speech.
I don't hear my team screaming about the 'filth' in our textbooks, nude art (remember who covered up the naked statues in the rotunda), documentaries that hold up a different point of view, this overblown reaction to the Petraus ad, fear of other religions and their ideas (did you hear the fundamentalists (aka the ignorant Repugs) heckle the Hindi priest when he opened the house last week), I could go on for several pages... the conservatives are afraid of so many things... but I type way too slow.
If you have a liberal shoving ideas in your head (a single point of view) that is not as bad as living with no new ideas. Liberals deal with ideas, even the unpleasant ones.
All liberals I know love free speech. We don't need it 'laundered' by our conservative administration that likes to decide the important issues for us under the guise of 'protecting us'.
PS I am probably further left than your scary professors and I don't hate the Israelis or the Capitalists. I don't get the connection?
raker @ 15:
Amen-they have also had on Bill O'Reilly, Coulter, Ingraham, Bill Bennett (when they can pull him away from the slots) and any other revolting repug on to spew their bile. Meredith Viera, at least, is a little more likely than Lauer (or Katie Couric, another sorry excuse for a journalist) to try to challenge some of this BS. But I have never seen anyone progressive on that show....
raker @ 15:
The priest who tried to molest me (a week after my Dad died) is dead.If I ever meet Bill Donohue I`ll give him a lesson in shame and blame.
As for Matt Lauer he`s a pompous jerk--the poor man`s John Stossel. And nbc,they let a hell of an actor go from Law and Order.Big,tough,dumb,lazy,stupid Fred Thompson.He`d make a good president.
I finally had enough of the show's undeniable right-wing slant, sensationalism, and self-promotion about a year ago, and swore I'd stop tuning in. I had been watching the TODAY show almost every day for many years and thought it would be a hard habit to break. It wasn't! I haven't watched one show since!
Instead, I watch the local news show or listen to a recent recording of Democracy Now! or Thom, Randi or Rachel on AAR.
Donohue is an odious wanker.
Just wait a cotton tail wagging minute,
I'm the decider - of free speech......And I say Ah-mad-in-the-head at Columbia U was fine and the university spoke quite well...............
What Donahue and the other right wingers squawk about is what George Bush (their adoring President) had to approve the Irani Leader's permission to attend the Columbia U invitation as Bush agreed to allow him to the U.N but not Ground Zero.
As far as I can tell The Today Show has been a rightwing toady for as long as I can remember. Which is why I rarely if ever watch more than a few minutes. They're just another corporate info-tainment show.
“They are making a mockery out of the Today show. ”
Sorry my friend The Today Show was/is already a mockery.
aagit8t Says:
I personally stopped watching all TV after 9/11 except for very selective documentaries, PBS (Bill Moyers), Keith Olberman, John Stewart, and Steven Colbert.
Bingo. Although I'd pretty much stopped watching the corporate "news" towards the end of the Clinton years and the run-up to the Bush coronation.
The Today Show was already a clownact/mockery before this latest round of swinging dicks made their appearance. The Today Show's only purpose is to be MSM's first daily shot at hypnotizing a shitload of Americans, right as they would otherwise be waking up and starting their days: "You're getting sleepy... your eyelids are getting heavy.... sleepy... you are asleep(!).... your are now an eggplant(!)......you will always do what you are told.....you must increase consumption..... we own you.....we own you"
This piece of shit program has never been about anything other than propaganda and control. How is the current example any different? America should do itself a favor and throw their Tee Vees in the trash.
pissed off patricia Says:
NBC and MSNBC are both starting to suck on a regular basis.
Starting to suck? Come on, they've sucked for a decade at least!
[...] wrote an interesting post today on The TODAY Showâ
Who would get serious news from The Today Show? If you imagine all the people on the show as sock puppets it makes more sense, and it's a lot more entertaining.
Once again tv "news" gives credibility to a right wing wacko? Is that the only way Matt can get it up?
They make a spokesman out of a guy who believes God is a cosmic realtor agent in the Middle-East?
raker @ 15:
"La police, ne t'a pas encore trouvé?"
In response to your headline ... Yes! Today is a joke. And I can't believe they expanded the program to four hours! Yikes! Don't we get enough cooking and fashion tips from 7-10 am??? Geezzzzzzz
BAC
You wrote: "I watch it almost everyday because they feature hard news in the first hour."
I have to disagree here, John. I was just complaining to my boss the other day that the third story at the beginning of the program (during what should be the prime hard news section from 7-7:30am) was about the parenting skills of Britney and Kevin!! (The second lead story was about whether or not the MoveOn.com ad would hurt the Democrats in 2008.)
I began my career working for an NBC affiliate, and have been a loyal NBC viewer for years ... but what they are putting out these days is just crap.
BAC
Bill Donohue is a hateful and spiteful guy.
I've seen more than enough of him on various opinion shows.
He makes Christopher Hitchens seem like Mister Rogers.
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