Holding the media accountable

During the 2004 campaign, a number of people set up "watch" blogs to monitor so-called "journalists" like Jodi Wilgoren, who took every chance she could to trash first Howard Dean, then John Kerry.

In that tradition of holding them accountable, we now have a crop of "open letter" blogs cropping up. These blogs are designed to flag the most egregious Bush-fellaters and hold them to account via letters to them and their bosses, and also to their medium's advertisers.

Right now there are three, all of which arose from the insistence that Jack Abramoff gave money to both parties, which is demonstrably false. Abramoff himself gave illegal contributions to only Republicans. Democrats accepted money from tribes Abramoff represented -- legal contributions which actually DECREASED after Abramoff started representing said tribes.

• Open Letter to theWashington Post arose from ombudsperson Deborah Howell's drawing equivalences between these legal contributions from the tribes which Abramoff, it turns out, BILKED OUT OF MONEY, and illegal direct contributions from Republicans by Abramoff himself.


• Open Letter to Chris Matthews is a response to Chris Matthews, who is getting nuttier by the day, claiming that Americans who are concerned about the Iraq War sound like Osama Bin Laden. Matthews has been a treasure trove of Bush Blowjobbery over the last few weeks, which makes me wonder if perhaps someone has photos of Mr. Matthews doing unspeakable things with either an underage girl, and underage boy, a mule, or JimmyJeffGannonGuckert. First we had the "Democrats = Osama" meme. Then he appeared on Don Imus show making sniggering jokes about Brokeback Mountain. Then he jumped on the "Abramoff gave to Democrats too" bandwagon. And now he's claiming that Latinos ought to be natural Republicans since they're so hard-working. Matthews is the gift that keeps on giving, and you can do your part to get him to get honest or get off the air here.


• Last, but by no means least, we have Open Letter to Tim Russert. L'il Tim is an even bigger tool than Matthews. Up to his eyeballs in the Plame outing case, he nevertheless continued to ask guests on Press the Meat leading questions designed to minimize the importance of that particular scandal. Russert finally became a target when he decided that All Black People Are Alike by asking Barack Obama to comment on the remarks of Harry Belafonte, a private citizen, that George Bush is the world's worst terrorist. Russert is going to be an awfully big whale to bring down, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

There no "Open Letter to Katie Couric" site for HER insistence that Jack Abramoff gave to both parties, but I expect one any day now. In fact, I might set one up myself. No one can say I'm bullying a poor defenseless woman if I do. After all, it's OK to knock your own team.