by Larry Johnson (bio below)
From: I was contacted by an MSNBC booker late today (Monday, 28 November) who asked if I would appear tonight on the Joe Scarborough Show to discuss whether or not the media are hypocrites when it comes to covering the leak to the Washington Post about the CIA secret prisons. The booker told me that Brent Bozell, head of the Media Research Center, was accusing the media of focusing too much on the leak of Valerie Plame and not enough on the leak about the prisons.
I agreed to come on air to debate Mr. Bozell. My point was simple–the leak to Dana Priest came in part from CIA officers who were concerned that the effort by the Vice President and Director Goss to allow a torture loophole would discredit and destroy the CIA’s future effectiveness.
This is a far cry from the President and Vice President authorizing the leak of CIA clandestine operative’s identity because her husband had the temerity to blow the whistle on the White House trying to bamboozle the people of the United States. I was looking forward to discussing the issue with Mr. Bozell.
Apparently, Mr. Bozell is a coward. He told MSNBC he would not appear if I was on the show, even if they scheduled me before or after him. He couldn’t handle a man-to-man debate. Typical conservative coward. I think the term is “Girly Man”. Tough talker when he is alone but unable to handle an informed debate. What is really sad is the MSNBC is caving into Bozell, rather than insisting that its audience hear both sides of an issue.
Shocked, anyone?
……………………………………………………..
Larry C. Johnson is CEO and co-founder of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm that helps corporations and governments manage threats posed by terrorism and money laundering. Mr. Johnson, who worked previously with the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism (as a Deputy Director), is a recognized expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, crisis and risk management. Mr. Johnson has analyzed terrorist incidents for a variety of media including the Jim Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio, ABC’s Nightline, NBC’s Today Show, the New York Times, CNN, Fox News, and the BBC. Mr. Johnson has authored several articles for publications, including Security Management Magazine, the New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. He has lectured on terrorism and aviation security around the world. Further bio details.
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that doesn’t make it right, just effective
why can’t we refuse to go on if any other their talking heads talk? if we could, we could shut them up.
Total Chicken. Does that mean you are going on alone? or he is going on alone? I am hoping it is the Former. If so..kick some ass. You are the best. Keep fighting for the truth. We need more people like you.
Not going on. MSNBC “disinvited me”.
Thanks for the positive thought.
LJ
“Disinvite” can tell one something.
Bastards…I guess they have to keep pimping the Bush talking points and non agenda. Never liked Scarbough anyway. Disgusting human. You are a hero. Thanks for the reply.
Ouch,….you were replaced with Tucker. That’s worthy of some serious retribution. He hardly qualifies as an intelligent balance to Bozo-ell.
I was looking forward to seeing you bring some sense to that show. Bozell is hopeless.
i watched the segment. It was boring and uninformative…. lots of head nodding.
and that Bozell … oh, the words I could use to describe his pontificating phoninenss. ICK!
What we need to do is turn the tables on him and others that are like him. He was whining that no Democrats stepped up to denounce the outing of an agency operation abroad… as though being illegal didn’t matter. This is exactly why we need those services to be accountable to International law and to the American people.
People like Bozell are promoting illegal activities and need to be stopped. Hell, he’s needed stopped for a while now.
God forgive me, but sometimes I get a kick out of Tucker’s show … that reddish-haired guy at the end is really funny. (Forget his name.)
But Tucker is not a substitute for Larry! There was no presentation of another perspective. Just a bunch of whining.
Is this what’s meant by a guilty pleasure?
Tucker could be more credible if he wouldn’t take an argument to an extreme in disbelief. He and Jon Stewart should co-host a special or smething.
It’s MSNBC. I can’t remember, but didn’t you or Patrick have some sort of issue with them a month or so ago? Leopards don’t change their spots…
BB is a nut. Here’s an anecdote I picked up some time ago:
WALDMAN: What part of it?
BOZELL: You’re a liar!
WALDMAN: What are you talking about?
BOZELL: That stuff about Kerry!
WALDMAN: What, about atrocities?
BOZELL: He called them war criminals!
WALDMAN: He didn’t accuse any individuals of anything.
BOZELL: You’re a liar!
WALDMAN: He never accused those guys of anything.
BOZELL: John Kerry is a liar, and you’re a liar!
WALDMAN: What are you talking about?
BOZELL: Fuck you!
http://gadflyer.com/articles/?ArticleID=189
Don’t they have a roster of “expert Goopers” that regularly spew the wingers talking points they could call to come on and debate you? Why don’t they want to just hear your take about the issue? Are they afraid of the truth? The retribution from Rove? Don’t they have winger parrots on alone all the time? phiffff
far more meaning than what is said. If only we knew how many other appearances were cancelled due to who “they” were going to have to debate. Now the debate remains unheard until the appropriate flunky is brought on who they will debate! Just sickening!
How should a cable news booking agent handle it when a proposed guest refuses to appear with another proposed guest?
Most of the time, they should try to find someone else who is willing to make the same side of the argument as the guest that refused to debate. The only exception to this might be if the squeamish guest is a really big name.
Land an appearance by Michael Jackson and he won’t appear beside an opponent of pedophilia? Okay. Jettison the concerned citizen and keep the freak. That’s business.
But torture camps and the Plame case are serious issues and demand a fair debate. They should have told Bozell that he didn’t show up Larry would get a double segment to air his now unopposed views.
Instead they caved to the wingnut. This is not a liberal media.
You got that right! Having to go on the net and check out foreign sites to find out wtf is going on!!! Sheesh!
Excellent question. Why does he get veto power over other guests? Well, as you suggest, we all know the answer. Still, a few emails complaining to MSNBC about the real bias in cable news can’t hurt, even if said emails simply disappear into the ether.
Does MediaMatters or any other media watchdog organization compile how many times conservatives appear without liberals to debate them? (This would be in conjunction with those figures, that I have occasionally seen, that tabulate the political affiliations of those that appear on the various pundit panels.)
— Stu
It’s amazing these wingnuts have the temerity to continue propagating the absurdity of the “Liberal Media”.
Scarborough is a duplicious hack in his own right, seeming sometimes to appear almost rational, but, at his core, a raving wingnut through and through. He and Bozell make a fine pair, supporting each other’s ignorance in a macabre symbiotic, rhetorical mudslinging spectacle.
Send them an e-mail: joe@msnbc.com
I sent him links to both of our threads.
And to think I was saying nice things about him earlier .. what a fool I am.
Nope, you’re hardly a fool. It’s the compassionate heart that wanted to give a hack a hundredth second chance. No fault there.
😉
I am so glad that you throw that taunt back in the face of the right-wingers. Remember Ahnold Schwarzenegger throwing that term out at the last Republican convention, like throwing a chunk of meat to the jackals? What woman sees Schwarzenegger as the epitome of masculinity? Ick! The Republican version of masculinity is a sham: pose and strut, and when the going gets tough run and hide.
I believe the term is, “punk.”
But I guess that’s too impolite a term for a such an august network.
“Prince of Prigs and Prudery.” (Not by Jane Austen.)
I’m not so sure what’s insulting about girly-man, myself. Should men who act feminine feel bad? Should cross dressers? Homosexuals? It’s cute to use Arnold’s language back against him but maybe a little reflection over what words mean may be in order.
I’m really not trying to be overly critical here, although, I feel that’s what is going to come across. Iknow that many people use words without truly thinking about them, since they are such a part of the vernacular. But, hey, gender and language is my thang :p
I will state that you should GET’m Larry! Keep up the good work 🙂
I’ve sent “Scarborough Country” a missive:
I’m despairing about the state of journalism this morning. Last night on the “Daily Show,” one of the last bastions of actual news, I learned that NBC tanked the footage of the M&M balloons dry humping each other into people’s heads, during the Macy’s Parade, and ran last year’s footage of the balloons so they could read M&M Mars ad copy. It’s not like a giant balloon injuring people on Thanksgiving morning is news or anything.