Cable TV Professional

I am in agreement with those who are of the opinion that Congress holding hearings on the fairness of the college football championship system is inane, a waste of time that would be far better spent on matters that actually affect the nation, and reflect poorly on Congress and even more poorly on the Representatives conducting the hearings. The fact that the media is paying attention to these hearings reflects equal discredit on the media, amplified by the fact that they are covering them inaccurately.


Rachel Maddow’s segment Friday night, mercifully brief, is done in her usual giggling and sarcastic manner and, as is usual with her, reflects a shallow and biased interpretation of the event. After saying that “Republican Congressman Joe Barton of Texas found evidence of Communism today in college football’s Bowl Championship Series,” she plays a clip which includes Mr. Barton saying, “It’s like Communism, you can’t fix it.”

In the first place his statement, even as presented in her clip, does not consist of him “finding evidence of” anything. He said that the two things had one trait in common; neither of them could be fixed.

In any case, she had edited the clip. What he actually said was, “It’s like Communism, and I don’t mean this directly, but it's like Comminism, you can’t fix it.”

Ms. Maddow goes into a state of high dudgeon when right-wing politicians or media take segments of a quote out of context, edit film clips so as to change the meaning, or slant the meaning of a quotation in a warped and illogical fashion, but apparently it is quite permissible for her to do any of those things herself. She did all three in this segment.

Just to cap it off, after describing through one of her giggling fits how the witness did not know whether or not he was supposed to respond, she pronounces, “No sir, you are not supposed to respond to that. You leave that to us professionals here on cable tv.”

Us, giggle, giggle, professionals. Right.