Film critic Christian Toto asked if he could contribute from time to time while I’m blogging at Instapundit; here’s his first post here — Ed:
Those unfair and unbalanced “reporters” over at Fox News could sure learn a thing or two about journalism from the 60 Minutes crowd.
Take Steve Kroft’s blistering line of questions for President Barack Obama on the CBS show’s Sunday installment. Newsbusters details the textbook case of Journalism 101, from Kroft’s opening salvo (“Mr. President, was this the most satisfying week of your presidency?” to gems like, “Was it hard keeping your focus?” aimed at the President’s Herculean task of juggling things like the White House Correspondents Dinner and surveying the tornado damage in Alabama.
Kroft neglected to ask Obama about how the president railed for years against the very policies that led to Osama bin Laden’s capture. But that’s a minor point.
The public, quite frankly, is better informed today than it was the day before Kroft’s interview. Bravo!
Meanwhile, over at Fox News, anchor Chris Wallace was stumbling and bumbling his way through an interview with Obama national security adviser Tom Donilon. The overmatched Wallace asked Donilon irrelevant questions like, “why is shooting an unarmed man in the face legal and proper while enhanced interrogation, including waterboarding of a detainee under very strict controls and limits, why is that over the line?
Donilon gently stayed in his seat and listened to the rest of Wallace’s questions. Good for him.
Thank goodness veteran shows like 60 Minutes are still around to show the punks over at Fox how it’s done.
Christian Toto is a freelance writer for The Washington Times. His work has appeared in People magazine, MovieMaker Magazine, The Denver Post, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and boxofficemagazine.com. He also contributes movie radio commentary to three stations as well as the nationally syndicated Dennis Miller Show and runs the blog What Would Toto Watch?
Kroft only enhanced *cough* his reputation by appearing on Joy Behar’s show the other night. Funny, he did not look exhausted from throwing lollipops at Mr Obama.
Wow… who knew being President could be such a tough job! I mean, having to survey tornado damage, giving a commencement speech, and visiting Florida with the family, all while juggling other stuff like the economy and the war on terror. It’s like it’s a real job or something!
I’m so very glad we have true professionals like Steve Kroft to help with keeping down the “distracting” facts for us poor pea-brains out in flyover country.
Is this the same Tom Donilon, (performing a wonderful imitation of a cadaver with rictus, I might add), who was in charge of lobbying before Congress for Fannie Mae in the eight years preceding it’s spectacular meltdown??? To be sure, selling the biggest Ponzie scheme in history to the American people was some accomplishment, but rewarding him with “national security advisor” to Obama?
… he said, with tongue planted firmly in cheek…
Donilon gently stayed in his seat and listened to the rest of Wallace’s questions…blinking like a flummoxed rabbit.
Donilon experienced an onset of Sudden Pelosi Syndrome resulting in the rapid eye blinking, strange hand gestures and blatant falsehoods issuing from his mouth. Recovery is unlikely.
Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac were wonderful cash cows for Democrat hacks. Rahm Emmanuel at Freddy and Jamey Gorelick at Fanny were paid millions for their mortgage “expertise.” Now Fanny needs a bunch more of the taxpayers’ dough: http://biggovernment.com/publius/2011/05/06/fannie-mae-seeks-8-5b-more-in-federal-aid-wants-8-5b-more-from-taxpayers/ This would put the tab for the failed Fanny at close to $100 billion. Good thing the taxpayers are such good patsies for these guys.
I was upset that Kroft did not ask the tree question.
I keep thinking that the legacy media will get tired of carrying Obama (his empty suit has got to be getting heavy by now) but they seem to sincerely relish their roles.
One is left to wonder if they aware that they are both headed for oblivion?
With both Obama and his media lapdogs unwilling to appear on Chris Wallace’s show, the world may never hear that question, or the answer.
Regarding the guest post at Instapundit that mentions Dave Grossman. Don’t be fooled by the claims of the one reader who wrote in. Grossman is utterly, completely insane. This is made especially clear by his bizarre antipathy to video games. The SF novel he has recently co-authored is a study in projection that romanticizes teenagers doing gore-soaked close quarters combat with swords and primitive pistols (the rationale for reviving 18th Century Naval battle condition in interstellar space is painful at best) but tries to blame the near collapse of civilization centuries earlier on teenagers playing Doom.