• by John Gaffney , October 9, 2002

Other People's Riffs:

Walter Isaacson Tells It Like It Is: The CNN Chief told The New York Observer, “We do very fine in the overnights. We have really good audiences. But sometimes I think in the world of TV critics, it doesn’t matter. If I put on Fear Factor instead of Aaron Brown and I got a 10 per cent higher audience, they would think I’m smarter and better than I am now."

Watch It With The ‘Mediator Of Democracy Stuff,’ Dick: According to the Fort Worth Star Telegram, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, said he will attempt to force the Dallas media giant Belo, to divest itself of its Denton newspaper. Armey said he was not able to attach the controversial amendment to the military construction appropriation bill in conference committee, which was scheduled to meet Tuesday but is now meeting today. Instead, he said he will look for another vehicle to address what he said is the problem of media concentration. "I'm not finished with this issue," Armey said. "It is an important issue. It goes to the strength of our democracy. It is critical for a democracy to function in such a way to have competitive points of view in the press, which is the mediator of democracy."

Hey, Dick. This Michael Powell Guy Ain’t Exactly A Control Freak: Armey said he had spoken to the Federal Communications Commission chairman about the "grandfather" provision that enables Belo to operate newspaper and TV outlets in the same market. The FCC last week began looking at the rules of so-called cross-ownership.

Reader Riff Of The Week: I hope the personal nature of this riff from a former reader named Mark Barecca doesn’t encourage anyone…but this is exemplary of the flaming I took this week after opining that the President’s speech on Iraq this week was properly left to cable news channels:

“Gaffney's agreement with the major networks, that Bush's speech was not newsworthy is ludicrous. Since only a fraction of US Households receive cable, the networks did a disservice to the American public by not carrying his speech. Like it or not, agree with it or not, we could be going to war and the president wanted an opportunity to speak to US Citizens. To imply that Bush's explanation of his reasons for his stance on Iraq and his compelling new evidence is not newsworthy is very disturbing! It is my understanding that President Clinton was never denied a request to be aired by the networks, even when he was spinning his denial of Monicagate. I suppose you think that was newsworthy?

Bush has been denied several times already by the networks for airtime. Personally, I would rather hear it from his mouth then to let Dan Rather or the NY Times interpret what he said for me the next day. They are not any better at reporting the real news then the cable networks.

Gaffney states earlier in his blabbering message that anything can happen anytime in this world. No kidding! He also states that a burning French tanker was probably an act of terrorism! Duh. Yet he refers to our president as hawking war with a country who gases his own citizens and has built up a supply of weapons that could kill millions of people. Does this ying yang know how many American civilians are working in the Middle East right now? Unfortunately, far more people than are "trading their time" reading his dopey column. This will be my last one reading. Please remove my name from this idiotic newsletter! Forever!