Hewitt Blog

Ahmadinejad announces that Iran is a nuclear state, and demonstrators begin to take to the streets.  Use #iran on the search.twitter.com feed to follow events.  The president's outreach to the mullahs hasn't turned out very well.



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Yesterday I devoted most of the program to the issues raised by the launch of iBizReporting .com.  That site is discussed in this post, and the audio of the show is posted there as well as it provoked so much response. 

As part of that discussion I invited James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times on to the program as Rainey had written a column critical of iBizReporting.com.  I had prepared a list of questions for Rainey --who did you vote for, do you own a gun, are you pro-life etc-- to center him in the audience's mind.  The list could have taken about a two minutes to complete, except Rainey simply refused for the most part to answer, substituting instead filibuster after filibuster, a practice that continued as we got deeper into the conversation.

The transcript of the conversation is here.

This conversation is another exhibit in the museum of dead or dying newspapers.  Offered a chance to connect with an audience that almost certainly doesn't read his paper much --not even in the Los Angeles market-- Rainey instead telegraphs contempt for the program's listeners while refusing to display any of the sort of transparency and objectivity that might have listeners seek him out via the web.  Mark Steyn, who will lead off today's show, has often remarked that American newspapers are horribly dull, and this sort of refusal to engage in a conversation about bias with anything approaching candor or transparency is just another example of the disease killing off newspapers --the deadly combination of insufferable arrogance and impenetrable dullness, wrapped up in lengthy, impossible-to-follow answers which are themselves long sidesteps of simple questions. 

Or this could just be the spread of Obama disorder: the inability to answer any question in under five minutes and the accompanying delusion that people are interested in the specifics of the evasion.

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See this Sacramento Bee story on how three independent expenditure committees will spend tens of millions to support Jerry Brown in his race against likely nominee Meg Whitman and Barbara Boxer in her attempt to survive the fall race against the GOP nominee.

This is union and special interest money, and it has always been in play, swamping the GOP candidates except for those few who could use their own resources like Whitman.  Citizens United allows candidates who are not themselves wealthy at least a hope of support from corporations and wealthy individuals.

No wonder President Obama and the Congressional Democrats hate the decision so much.  It was much easier when only the special interests they controlled could spend heavily in key races and states.

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A couple of days ago I told you about iBusinessReporting, iBizReporting.com, where investigative journalism of corporate America had gone private and would be built on the profits of short selling publicly traded companies the reporters believed to have gone astray.

iBizReporting is led by my friend Bill Lobdell and his colleague, Barry Minkow --yes, that Barry Minkow.  ZZZ Best Barry.  (I will try and have Lobdell and Minkow on today's show.)

02-10hhs-minkow-lobdell.mp3

Today Los Angeles Times' media columnist James Rainey predictably wrings his hands.  "Oh dear, oh dear, what will the people at the Poynter Institute say?" is the short version.  The ghosts of journalism past are aghast at the idea of funding investigations through short selling.

You can read my interview with James Rainey here.

What matters of course is whether Lobdell and Minkow get their stories right and uncover investor fraud or corporate puffing.  Their story and credibility depends on their performance.

The Times' reaction, channeled through Rainey, is another death rattle from a print media that didn't monitor its slide into hopeless bias and irrelevance as it threw away credibility by staffing newsrooms with 95% liberal-left activists and then wondering why no one cared what they thought.  From environmental activists covering land development, to pro-choicers covering abortion controversies, and hard hard left ideologues covering politics, the Times represented the worst in media bias, and its shell-of-itself that staggers on through bankruptcy is proof not of new media's ravages on the work product of the old, but of the arrogance of unchallenged elites unaware of the world around them.

Now if we can only find some new new journalists to cover presidential candidates so the next John Edwards doesn't elude the MSM for a year.  Oh, that's right, we already have the National Enquirer, running circles around the  and their east coast betters.

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The Torquemada-in-his-own-mind, Henry Waxman, has summoned executives from Anthem Blue Cross ("ABC") to explain themselves before his House committee.

Please, ABC execs, push back.  Hard.  Start by explaining how many people you employ and how many jobs are imperiled by the continued fecklessness of the hard left social engineers running D.C. these days.

Then talk about the bills you receive and have to pay, how many claims you promptly dispatch and how many more are paid after review.

Defend the industry that has helped build the greatest health care delivery system in the world.

Waxman et al have no idea of the seething contempt in which they are held beyond the Beltway.  Their reputation is even lower than that of your industry. You have been their whipping boy for the past year, and your D.C. lobbyists have urged you to cooperate every step of the way towards oblivion. 

Why not defend yourselves, and by doing so, our medical delivery system.  Flawed as it might be and as screwed up as some in your industry are, there is no desire in the land to turn your job over to Henry Waxman and Nancy Pelosi.

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Read the assessment of White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan's statements and posturings from Powerline's Scott Johnson.

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America's best sportswriter, Terry Pluto, assesses the appeal, or not, of the Big Apple to America's best hoops player.

Another reason to stay in Cleveland --a writer/analyst like Pluto is rare.  Enjoy his new book, written with another talented reporter Brian Windhorst, on James

 

Marco Rubio is a guest on hour three tonight.  Duane will post the audio here later.

02-09hhs-rubio.mp3 

I don't know who will seek the GOP nomination to fill Congressman Murtha's seat, or even if PA law provides for nominations by ballot or from the party.  If the latter, I hope the PA GOP avoids the self-destructive impulse that led the New York party bosses to nominate Dede Scozzafava in New York 23rd's special last year. 

Without any names yet put forward or candidacies declared, here's my description of the perfect candidate.

He or she will have been a long time member of the community, though, in this heavily gerrymandered district, if their residence is between one of the screwball boundary lines (see below) as opposed to within them, that isn't a big deal.

He or she will have been a veteran of the military, and familiar with the war in which we find ourselves.

He or she will be a small-to-medium sized business owner or operator, who has actually created jobs, made a payroll, and provided health insurance to their employees.

He or she will attend some congregation, participate in the community's self-organizing charitable work, and generally be recognized as a good man or woman to have on a team tackling some problem.

He or she will be a parent, preferably either in the middle of or not too far removed from the trials and joys of raising children in this era, and concerned about the state of the country's fiscal situation, a legacy of shame that needs to be tackled now.

He or she will be smart, curious, and as well-read as their business allows them to be.  They will be up to speed on the key issues, but not wonkish or an academic removed from the reality of every day life.

They will have attended a Tea Party gathering of some sort.  They will not have run for office before but feel that now is a critical time in our country's history.

He or she will support the rights of the unborn, support free speech and the right to bear arms, and a robust military.

God forbid the cheer for the Steelers, but I suppose that is inevitable given the geography.  If, however, we could find a Cleveland Browns fan among them --and it is not too far from the Lake to hope-- that would be a benefit.

He or she would listen to Rush, Sean, Levin, Ingraham and my colleagues Bennett, Gallagher,  Prager and Medved when they could find the time between their business and their home and community duties.  They would also read the New York Times or the Washington Post online, and glance at Politico.com and Powerline when they had a few spare moments.  In short, they will have had a long time interest in the substance of the debates that absorb the chattering classes without having been captive to them.

They would read books, both fiction and non-fiction, and travel as they could.  They could tell a joke and be the subject of a good natured one.

They will love the idea of harnessing technology for a lightning campaign, won't be afraid to say "I don't know" when necessary in the many interviews they are willing to give, and will have an easy smile and confidence on a platform.

Their spouse will support the idea wholeheartedly and be a good campaigner themselves, and the kids if they are still at home will be game.  They too will almost certainly and sadly be Steeler fans.  We cannot have every thing.

They will have a dog.  And maybe a truck.

And most of all, a vast amount of common sense, for D.C. is in need of great quantities of it.

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There is a good piece on the congressman in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, and the communities he represented will certainly miss the federal dollars he brought them.

Congressman Murtha's controversial legacy will be extended to include what will be a hugely symbolic special election to fill his seat in Pennsylvania's 12th, a heavily gerrymandered-for-Murtha district that nevertheless was carried by McCain in '08.  The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza speculates the election will be held May 18, and all eyes will be on it as another referendum on Obamacare and on the president's the Pelosi-led House's huge lurch to the left.