The Daily Kos, Now Dumber AND More Humorless

Now, Kos is having a fit that Roger Ailes tells topical jokes during an award acceptance speech:

This is the tone for future coverage that the top guy at Fox News, Roger Ailes, is setting:

It is true that just in the last two weeks Hillary Clinton has had over 200 phone calls telling her in order to win the presidency she must stay on the road for the next two years. It is not true they were all from Bill.

[Laughter]

And it is true that Barack Obama is on the move. I don't know if it's true that President Bush called Musharraf and said, 'Why can't we catch this guy?'

It should be a no-brainer for Obama and Clinton to skip this debate, given it's sponsored by the premier propaganda outlet of the conservative movement. It's the place Ann Coulter runs to for sanctuary, where racist blowhards trash Obama's church for not being Christian enough since it's -- gasp! -- a black church in a black neighborhood.

And what's more, Ailes threatened Edwards:

Any candidate for high office of either party who believes he can blacklist any news organization is making a terrible mistake about journalists. And any candidate of either party who cannot answer direct, simple, even tough questions from any journalist runs a real risk of losing the voters.

Anybody who care about Kos should probably get rolling on that long overdue intervention.

Which raises the question: How is this drivel the standard bearer from the liberal blogosphere?

Why don't we look at Ailes speech in context. (The whole thing is here.)

First of all, I was told I should do some headlines, so I'm only anchoring this, re-reporting. I think we all need to go very slow on this global warming thing. I realize saving energy is good, but I think it may be a trick to get our anchors to stop using blow dryers.

[Laughter]

A man in France was arrested today for using his car to run down a pedestrian. He said he thought it was Osama bin Laden. Ok, it was a mistake, but it still ranks as France's biggest military victory ever.

[Laughter]

John Seigenthaler and I are the same age. Look at how he let himself go.

[Laughter]

It is true that I said Britney Spears looked great at the Academy Awards. and I later found out it was Jack Nicholson.

[Laughter/ooohs]

It is true that just in the last two weeks Hillary Clinton has had over 200 phone calls telling her in order to win the presidency she must stay on the road for the next two years. It is not true they were all from Bill.

[Laughter]

And it is true that Barack Obama is on the move. I don't know if it's true that President Bush called Musharraf and said, 'Why can't we catch this guy?'

Pretty standard stuff as far as I can see. Maybe Kos will be demanding every Democratic candidate to cancel appearances on Leno and Letterman next.

And on the upcoming campaign season Ailes said the following:

I feel compelled, however -- on a serious note -- to say a few words. We're headed into covering a tough political season and all of us will be called upon to do our best and be fair. Recently pressure groups are forcing candidates to conclude that the best strategy for journalists is divide and conquer, to only appear on those networks and venues that give them favorable coverage.

There's a long tradition of news organizations, national and local, sometimes together, sponsoring presidential and other candidate debates. The organizations and the panelists have been the objects of a lot of advice and even pressure as to how these debates should be conducted and what questions should be asked. This pressure has been successfully resisted, but it's being tried again this year with the added wrinkle that candidates are being asked to boycott debates because certain groups wants to approve the sponsoring organizations. This pressure must be resisted as it has been in the past. Any candidate for high office of either party who believes he can blacklist any news organization is making a terrible mistake about journalists. And any candidate of either party who cannot answer direct, simple, even tough questions from any journalist runs a real risk of losing the voters.

The public knows if a journalist's question is unfair. They also know if a candidate is impeding freedom of speech and free press. If you are afraid of journalists, how will you face the real dangers in the world?

The first amendment allows us the right to assemble. So we're constitutionally legal, although the constitution actually says peaceably assemble and the night's not over, so we'll see how it goes.

But it also allows us freedom of the press, which gives everyone in this room a lot of power and a lot of responsibility. It is important to remember that while the constitution guarantees freedom of the press, freedom depends on fairness in the press.

Only people who understand different points of view can exercise an informed decision in the voting booth. Freedom of the press did not invent democracy. Democracy invented freedom of the press. For saying that, I sometimes get accused of being too pro-American or too pro-Israeli. I just happen to like democracies. But it don't mean we can't cover the news fairly. Bias is not necessarily what you believe in, but it can be reporting a story and leaving out other people's valid beliefs. The first amendment also guarantees freedom of speech, which is linked to another favorite word in today's world, 'diversity.' But diversity is not just skin color, economic status, geography and religion. It is also diversity of thought.

The bastard!! The vicious heartless BASTARD!!

It should be noted that Ailes was accepting the First Amendment Leadership Award from the Radio and TV News Directors Foundation...but of course they don't know a damn thing. Kos is the real expert.