Another vapid column from David Broder that does do one service, it highlights why he is essentially a man with empty thoughts:

The authors write . . . "why worry? Because a healthy civic culture ought to do more than bestir voters; it should build their trust in the nation's political institutions. It is in this respect that, alas, querulous partisanship can become corrosive." As we come to the end of another down-and-dirty campaign, that is the damage we must contemplate. It matters little which party controls Congress if the people think Congress is made up of knaves and rascals, or even of well-intentioned men and women corrupted by special interests and the constant pursuit of campaign cash.

It matter little which party controls Congress writes Broder. Because the problem is NOT Iraq, Katrina, and any Bush disaster you care to name, it is the lack of civility. Heck, his next column should cite Rodney King.

Form over substance is the very essence of Broderism. I am glad he admits it.

I have no interest in watching pundits rail ad nauseum tonight about John Kerry. I've already written two posts today about his statement which is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

Searching for alternative viewing, I found my pick. At 7:45 ET, the Sundance Channel airs the 1972 Tuesday Weld - Anthony Perkins movie, Play it As It Lays.

Based on the Joan Didion novel of the same name, which was my favorite book in law school (my copy is dog-eared and highlighted to death), the movie is rarely shown on tv and not available on DVD or VHS as far as I know. I have a copy that I've seen a dozen times over the years. Why? I'm not quite sure, but it's just like a train wreck, I can't not watch it.

So I'll be skipping the Kerry non-news and watching the film. Especially if you enjoyed Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins in Pretty Poison, you might want to do the same.

Media Matters reports that a group of almost 100 advertisers on ABC radio networks have demanded their ads not air on Air America Radio.

Among the advertisers listed are Bank of America, Exxon Mobil, Federal Express, General Electric, McDonald's, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and the U.S. Navy.

The actual memo is here.

Mark Halperin again, with Hugh Hewitt, via atrios and Tristam:

MH: . . . I will say this, Hugh. I will say that many people I work with in ABC, and other old media organizations, are liberal on a range of issues. And I think the ability of that, the reality of how that affects media coverage, is outrageous, and that conservatives in this country for forty years have felt that, and that it’s something that must change.

. . . HH: And so, given that we know that proportion is there, I don’t know the relevance that the fever swamp generates some antagonism towards you, that Daily Kos yells at you, doesn’t in any way, I think, not you personally, but media, doesn’t in any way change the basic underlying problem, which is that you’ve set up sort of castles full of liberal and hard left reporters, and that they’re criticized from the left doesn’t in any way diminish their left wing bias, does it?

MH: Not at all. It only adds to the current problems, or the previous problems of the left wing bias on a lot of issues. What it adds is, people feeling cowed from the other direction, and it adds to the general lack of respect, which we have brought on ourselves, because look, we are too weak, and we are too superficial, and we have failed to stand up to power, as we should, if we’re going to play a proper role in a democracy. So the left criticisms, I think, don’t diminish the liberal bias, but they do make weak organizations, already under siege, more under siege, taking fire from a different direction.

Failing to stand up to power is what Mark Halperin is arguing. But somehow that is liberal bias. Because liberals have ALL the power in this country right? Sheesh. Not only is Halperin a disgrace, he is apparently an idiot as well.

At daily kos yesterday, I wrote a diary highlighting ABC's political director Mark Halperin's promise that ABC will favor the GOP in the two weeks running up to this year's election. To date, no Democrat has denounced ABC or Halperin. And Halperin is not stopping:

HANNITY: So the liberal media does exist? The old media is liberal?

HALPERIN: We say it in the book, and we give examples. . . . I'm proud of where I work, where we understand that we've got to not be liberal, we've got to not be perceived as liberal. But the overall old liberal media covered that story in such an unfair way, and I think anybody who denies that just isn't paying attention.

Is there a Democrat in this country who can denounce this? Hello? Any Democratic LEADERS here? Obama? Reid? Pelosi? Hellooooo?

Bink tells us that 5 days before the election, CNN plans to run a special titled Democratic incompetence:

Candy Crowley is on CNN right now previewing her new news special on Democratic Party incompetence. Apparently, it's called "Two Left Feet." . . . CNN will come to the conclusion that Democrats are just plain incompetent. How do we know this? "Candy" seems to says that it's because the party doesn't know how to balance the political goals of what she calls the "Democratic base" -- with the goals of "real Americans" -- you know, real Americans in the Heartland.

Candy Crowley seems like a nice person, and here is how she describes her show, but the next interesting, insightful, actual news she reports will be the first. CNN's political reporting is incompetent.

But this reveals, yet again, the bias in the Media, the incompetence bias.

People from the Old Media, like me, instinctively prefer a centrist style of civilized debate. Of course we do, say Halperin and Harris. We are the gatekeepers of the old order. The shrill voices of the New Media -- the bloggers and talk-radio hosts and other partisan megaphones that Halperin and Harris describe as the "Freak Show" -- don't just threaten our beloved center. They might eventually put us out of business.

The gatekeepers have been AWOL. There is no rational debate because lies are accorded equal treatment as truth. Issues are nothing in campaigns for the Gatekeepers, personality and image everything. David Ignatius and the Old Media failed us and Left bloggers were forced to deal with it. and we have. But if Ignatius wonders what killed rational discourse in this country he need look no further than his mirror. He and the Media failed and accepted the Republican ground rules of falsehoods and trivialities. Ignatius, you killed rational discourse.

Air America Radio may or may not survive its financial troubles, but say hello to the new kid on the block -- Nova M Radio, formed by two of the original founders of AAM, consultant Joe Trippi and pollster John Zogby.

Nova M Radio, Inc. based in Phoenix, Arizona officially announced the formation of its new progressive talk radio network. Debuting on the network will be the long awaited return to the airwaves of America’s original “truth-seeker” Mike Malloy. The Mike Malloy Show will initially broadcast live, from 9PM -12 Midnight (EST) beginning October 30,2006 on Nova M Radio affiliate 1480-AM KPHX Phoenix. The Mike Malloy Show will be made available to affiliates across the nation and will also stream live on www.novamradio.com.

Here's the backstory:

Ezra Klein and Marc Cooper discuss Air America Radio's filing for bankruptcy this week.

Marc thinks AAR will stay on the air until just after the elections. Ezra thinks it failed because it tried to copy the conservative framework.

I don't know anything about radio, and just a little about corporations that do debt restructuring in bankruptcy to stay alive. Think of all the airlines that have done so. I always thought a company that filed under Chapter 11 restructuring provisions did so because it planned to stay in business and was trying to repay its debts at its own pace as it reduced its costs rather than buckling under to a creditor who wanted money right now. Indeed, the Washington Post says,

(From Big Tent Democrat)

It is said that politics is show business for ugly people. Th Washington Post begs to differ:

The research is unambiguous . . . Attractive politicians have an edge over not-so-attractive ones. The phenomenon is resonating especially this year. By a combination of luck and design, Democrats seem to be fielding an uncommonly high number of uncommonly good-looking candidates.

The beauty gap between the parties, some on Capitol Hill muse, could even be a factor in who controls Congress after Election Day. Democratic operatives do not publicly say that they went out of their way this year to recruit candidates with a high hotness quotient. Privately, however, they acknowledge that, as they focused on finding the most dynamic politicians to challenge vulnerable Republicans, it did not escape their notice that some of the most attractive prospects were indeed often quite attractive.

My thought -- the Washington Post used page one space for this? The Beltway Media is just awful.

One of my favorite movies of the 80's's, Reds, starring Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson, which was nominated for 12 Academy Awards, is set for release October 17th on DVD. It is a 25th anniversary edition, and you can get it here.

It's hard to believe it's been 25 years since this movie was released. I've probably seen it 5 times (I have a VCR copy.)

It tells the fact-based story of two activist journalists, John Reed and Louise Bryant, who fall in love around 1915 to 1920, with WWI and the outbreak of the Bolshevik Revolution as a backdrop. Jack Nicholson plays playwright Eugene O'Neil who also is enamored with Diane Keaton. It's visually stunning and emotion-packed.

As a personal aside, shortly after the movie was released, I was at the Hotel Jerome bar in Aspen one afternoon with my then-spouse. Jack Nicholson and another man were seated at the next table. I walked up to Nicholson and told him that his 22 minutes on celluloid in Reds were my favorite of the film. He pulled out a chair and invited me to sit down.

From Big Tent Democrat

Gail Collins steps down as Editorial Page Editor of the New York Times. From my perspective, Collins was the best Editorial Page Editor the Times ever had. She fully grasped the extremism, incompetence and danger the Bush Administration has presented and spoke to the issues in terms appropriate to the times (no pun intended.)

I have enjoyed Collins' work since she was a columnist at the New York Daily News. Always a gifted witty writer, Collins stepped up to the role she undertook, and with little fanfare, proved that the first woman Editorial Page Editor of the New York Times was not only up to the role, but was up to the unique challenge of being perhaps the foremost liberal voice in the Media in a time where liberalism and the country were challenged by the worst administration in memory.

[more on the flip]