The media have already been called out on their ridiculous stacking of the news talk shows regarding the Obama stimulus plan with Republicans. It doesn't seem to be getting much better; the Sunday talk shows were reasonably balanced this week, but most of the panels and "expert appearances" discussing the plan have been laden with rabid right-wing ideologues.
And it hasn't been just on Fox, though the problem is acute there. Yesterday on CNN, for instance, who should John King have on to discuss the stimulus on the "State of the Union" program but our old friend Grover Norquist.
Norquist pontificated at length about how a Republican alternative should look. It was just more of the same crap conservatives have been feeding us the past decade: tax cuts, deregulation, shrink government, blah blah blah.
Now, I can think of a lot of people the public could be getting sound advice about the economy from. Some of them could even fall in the "conservative" category. Grover Norquist is not one of them.
After all, this is the man whose philosophy of government is summed up in one quip:
"I'm not in favor of abolishing the government. I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."
In other words, this was one of the geniuses who not only brought us Katrina and food poisonings but the economic calamity now confronting us.
Thanks, but no thanks. And until John King and his producers can demonstrate they know how to bring on people who can actually provide useful insights and not ideological propaganda, I won't be tuning in.
