Did anyone notice that NOW didn't air on Friday night on KQED San Francisco?
Alerted to the DeLay piece in advance by a dkos posting, I tuned in, only to find KQED airing a decade-old interview with Joseph Campbell. The "power of myth" indeed -- after a week of Reagan myth-making it wasn't what I wanted.
I'm trying to get KQED to explain why the segment wasn't aired in prime time. They did run it Saturday morning at 8:00AM (my VCR watched it then, and I did later), and it will air again Monday at 4 AM (close enough to prime time for liberal stuff!).
So they obviously had it to run. But of course the piece was effectively invisible in the San Francisco market.
Can you say BIG REPUBLICAN DONERS? DeLay's arm is long indeed. I wish I could get proof the piece was deliberately killed.
By the way, the whole segment is excellent. The DeLay piece is damning, and so straightforward anyone of whatever persuasion would see instantly, this is just wrong, it's a guy who's made a career out of selling government to the highest corporate bidder.
There was also a piece on The Center for Constititional Rights which is bringing civil suit against private contractors in Iraq on behalf of victims of torture -- a smart more, for the discovery potential alone, since it bypasses the government-investigating-itself run-around.
Finally, they showed Ashcroft's contempt of Congress evasions last week, with some of Leahy's and Biden's sharp questioning -- and Biden's memorable anger as he described (to the AG) why we ratified those treaties against torture, "so my son in the military won't be tortured if he's captured -- that's why!"
More and more, I think the great old liberals are overmatched these days. To get on the air and stay there, you need to have the political and business saavy of a Michael Moore -- you need to be a politician and showbiz personality and media genius as well as an investigative reporter to be an effective TV muckraker. It isn't enough to be Edward R. Murrow any more. And in politics we see thre same thing -- Arnold (and dead Reagan) gets all the attention, while Bobby Byrd and Ted Kennedy and Pat Leahy's remarks never get on the air.