Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

To reveal Salladay's heavily laden propaganda, he begins his column with the headline "It's All Karl Rove's Fault."  What probably irked Salladay was the title of my article that never mentioned Rove:

MEDIA SNAKE OIL:  MAINSTREAM MEDIA CODDLES CORPORATE LACKEY ARNOLD

Yes, the title was rough, but it came as Schwarzenegger was in the process of waltzing to a four-year term by turning his back on George W. Bush and running as a virtual independent or perhaps even a quasi-Democrat.  

This came not long after a laundry list of hard-nosed right wing ballot measures had been rejected by California's voters and two years after the former Hollywood leading man and bodybuilding champion had appeared at the Republican National Convention and urged voters to re-elect Bush and Cheney and not be "economic girlie men."

He used the "girlie man" label later on California state legislators who dared to take differing positions from Schwarzenegger on budget issues.  

While I concede in retrospect that the headline was tough, referring to California's governor as a corporate lackey, especially during a period when other such examples remain extant throughout the political sphere, a re-reading of my column provided proper recall on why I took this position.

The use of childish labeling such as "girlie man" prompted a desire to provide a label for someone who earned the designation I applied.  Arnold was condemning those who dared to turn away from Bush and Cheney after a war was launched on their watch based on lies and the country was galloping to unprecedented heights of indebtedness, not to mention destroying basic constitutional freedoms under the guise of "preserving freedom."  

Schwarzenegger's name calling generated a long look after he, following his vigorous support of Bush in 2004, promptly ran away from him as he sought re-election two years later.  

The snubbing became so obvious that even when Bush had scheduled an appearance at the Ronald Reagan Library, the same governor who had earlier embraced him so emphatically and considered Reagan one of his heroes was a no show on the pretext of a "scheduling conflict."

While Salladay proclaimed that I had made a mistake on claiming that Karl Rove was in any way connected with the former Terminator launching his candidacy in the special election that resulted in Governor Gray Davis's recall, referring to fellow Times Joe Matthews's book claiming that Rove did not know what to make of the recall effort until it was underway, such a statement is as plausible as writing:

"The Roman Catholic Church today decided to change the official day of worship for its members from Sunday to Saturday.  The Pope, who took no part in this decision, was asked for a comment and stated that `he had heard nothing' about the change."

Come on, Mr. Salladay!  Get real!  Remember Congressman Darrell Issa?  He had all those consultations with the Republican high command and launched the initial trial balloon in using some of his fat bankroll to test chinks in Governor Davis's electoral armor.  

Once that it appeared that Davis was sufficiently unpopular to make a recall effort  viable, a heartbroken Issa was yanked from the mound and a fresh pitcher named Schwarzenegger was summoned  from the bullpen.

Veteran Texas reporters James Moore and Wayne Slater, who have done two books on Rove and have written longer about him and know him better than anyone else in the press corps, have long insisted that no substantive political issues made within Republican ranks elude him.

So was this a substantive issue?  All it involved was the largest state in the union, where 12% of Americans reside.  It also involved the future of the number one corporate benefactor and friend of George W. Bush, Kenneth Lay and Enron.  

While Salladay graciously provided click-on capability for my column, which gave readers an opportunity to evaluate all that I wrote, he
ducked the major issue I raised about how the Bush White House was determined to thwart a lawsuit by Davis and Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante on behalf of the state against Enron for bilking money from the taxpayers in an energy gouging scheme.

As a corporate media propagandist Salladay could not resist using a supercharged term, claiming that the California recall effort had even taken the "Eastern elite" by surprise.  As is generally the case, there is no attempt to define just who and what represents such an elite.  

In this case the two "elitists" who attempted to generate attention on what was happening in California regarding the real reason behind the recall were Greg Palast and yours truly.  Oddly enough, we both grew up in the "Eastern elitist" Los Angeles suburb of Van Nuys in the San Fernando Valley.

Another point should be made regarding Salladay and Palast.  When Salladay covered the Florida presidential recount period following the tumultuous 2000 election for the L.A. Times, he never reported the Jeb Bush-Katherine Harris vote suppression of African Americans.  

Neither did any Eastern elitist publications.    Greg Palast did, but after being unable to interest any U.S. based media outlets he was compelled to go outside his own country to the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Then again, Mr. Salladay and his colleagues gave candidate Schwarzenegger during the recall campaign treatment that made the days of Teflon candidate Reagan look almost exacting.  

We read or heard no grumblings from Salladay or his colleagues about Arnold's kid glove treatment by the media after he got the chance to announce his candidacy on Jay Leno's Tonight Show, the Terminator's wife's former NBC network, along with getting a free ride on the highly rated Oprah Winfrey Show based on a personal friendship between wife Maria Shriver and the popular female talk show entertainer.

I never heard Salladay or any other mainstream media personality tackle the issue of Arnold agreeing to only one debate, and only then after all questions had been supplied in advance, or how Bustamante, after taking the initial lead in the recall race, was subjected to a scandalous virtual blackout while the Terminator received humongous coverage.  

Check out the meticulous investigation done on the subject by Jeff Cohen and his group at FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting).

Salladay did more than tip his hat as to his own specific viewpoint in his final Political Muscle column.  The words appear so self-serving toward proving my point that I would not blame anyone for thinking that I made up these pontifical phrases myself.  The words appear in Salladay's May 31, 2007 column, which was written after a Schwarzenegger visit to Canada:

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger brought to Canada his vision of an independent new world, desired by all people, that will appear as brilliant features of Schwarzenegger's century and remain forever under the rays of the great sun.  The august name of Schwarzenegger represents glory and happiness of humankind and hope and future of the world and it would shine forever."

Mr. Salladay, is this the same guy who groped women, took steroids and answered the battle call for Enron?