Sarah, Sarah . . . This Time Is a Good Time For Goodbyes!

Back in 2016, a lot of progressives wished to see Sanders in the White House.

But this wasn't what they had in mind.

Now, however, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is leaving her job at the end of the month, and I gather that the position will be eliminated because there are no press briefings from this administration any more.

Sarah has been hailed by her boss as a woman of honesty and transparency, and I wish I had a two-dollar bill for every time she lived up to those ideals.  Oh, wait - I do!  And I am not going to spend it!

Hey, I have a plastic dime slug that's worth more than Sarah's integrity.

Sarah, you will not be missed.  Tell your ma, tell your pa - gonna send you back to Arkansas!

And Bernie bros, next time you wish for something, don't just be careful what you wish for . . . be specific!  I wished for a hundred bucks once, now I have all of these deer eating my flowers!  

A Treated Symptom

The flip side to reporter Michael Aron and news anchor Jim Hooker losing their jobs at NJN in a real-life imitation of the last episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" is the fact that Glenn Beck signed off at Fox News for the long-awaited last time on the same day, June 30. (Like Aron and Hooker, Beck didn't get to finish the week. But no one could take one more day of Beck. I couldn't even take one more minute.)

Beck's departure was due to the fact that liberal activist groups banded together against his racist, McCarthyistic, ultra-paranoid banter and got over three hundred advertisers to drop him. He proved to be too much of a financial liability to Fox News to stay on the air.

Beck was a symptom, though. The disease goes merrily on. Sean Hannity, the noted Long Island Irish Nazi, will continue to denigrate liberals and question their patriotism, while rhymes-with-glass-poles like Eric Bolling go on dismissing President Obama in racial terms. Though, to be fair, I haven't heard anyone on Fox call Obama a dick yet, as happened on MSNBC when Mark Halperin assessed the President's performance in his most recent news conference (more on that later).

No matter. Because as long as Fox News is on the air, it will remain a broadcaster of hate and divisiveness, and a voice for the rich and powerful.

We have to keep calling them out. Jon Stewart is only one man. He can't do it alone.

Beck-Ola

Fox News made a lot of liberals happy for a change this week. The so-called "fair and balanced news" channel announced that Glenn Beck's show, on at 5 PM Eastern, will end later this year.

I'm not happy. I'm very upset . . . about having to wait so long before it ends!

The Beckster, as Ed Schultz likes to call him, has the third highest-rated show on cable news, but Beck's ratings have been plummeting recently as Beck himself has gotten weirder. He's suggested, among other things, that both George Walker Bush and Barack Obama have been helping to bring about a new pan-Islamic caliphate in the Middle East by refusing to bomb the ruins of ancient Babylon during the Iraq War. Seems Beck thinks the caliphate's capital is to be established there.

Some of Beck's recent theories of world domination by enemies of America sound like they came right out of James Bond movies or Saturday morning television cartoons, but Beck has been under protest from liberal activists virtually since his Fox show began in January 2009. Remember that Beck - on another Fox show - declared in July of that year that President Obama had a "deep-seated hatred for white people," and in August 2010 Beck famously told people who were dropped from unemployment benefits after 99 weeks to work at McDonald's if they had to, even though the fast-food chain had more job applicants than jobs. His Austin Powers-redolent world government theories were only part of his problem.

Anyway, enough advertisers pulled their TV commercials from the Beckster's show to encourage Fox to drop him, although Beck and the network will (reportedly) continue to work together to develop new programming. Beck is going behind the scenes, where he likely won't be heard from again, and he's treating this career change like a promotion.

It's a Pyrrhic victory in one respect. Beck goes against noted MSNBC wild man Chris Matthews, who answers Beck's wild theories on a regular basis, in the same 5 PM Eastern time slot, and even today he trounces Matthews's "Hardball" show in the ratings. So even as Matthews rants against Beck, Beck still gets more viewers. I suppose more people found out the truth about Beck by seeing the rerun of "Hardball" at 7 PM Eastern, or maybe people suddenly started to find Beck moronic on their own and stopped watching. But mostly, it was likely the petitioning against Beck's advertisers that did him in. That's the same reason Beck's radio show has been dropped from so many stations.

Beck's impending departure from Fox and his diminished presence on radio comprise a blow against the right's toxic gibberish, and Dana Milbank of the Washington Post suggests that Beck's raging paranoia against the system is less of a factor in the body politic now that the economy is slowly recovering. However, the campaign against Beck only treated a symptom. The disease, in the form of Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, and that Long Island Irish Nazi Sean Hannity - all of whom can be as loony as Beck and also are just as mean-spirited - goes merrily on. Right-wing talk shows will never die. Remember, this is America.

Lean Backward

Keith Olbermann unexpectedly ended his association with MSNBC last night, ending his commentary show "Countdown" after a run of nearly eight years. No one, least of all Olbermann himself, is saying why his contract with MSNBC was terminated, and Comcast, which just acquired NBC/Universal and its cable networks, is denying its takeover had anything to do with it.

"Countdown" was MSNBC's most popular evening show, and cancelling it makes about as much sense as Volkswagen discontinuing the Jetta in the United States to improve U.S. sales. But then, maybe Olbermann, who had crossed the fine line between impudence and insubordination repeatedly in the past, decided he had to finish the show before it finished him. Not only does it leave his Fox News arch-nemesis Billo the Clown (also known as Bill O'Reilly) still standing despite Olbermann's jabs at him (they were on opposite each other), but it denies MSNBC a clown of its own. Olbermann was the only deliberately hilarious pundit MSNBC had. Rachel Maddow goes more for wit than for outright hilarity, and Chris Matthews is only unintentionally funny. (Hah!) And I don't expect O'Reilly will be losing sleep over the fact that his fellow Irishman Lawrence O'Donnell, whose journalistic style is more suitable for an article in The New Republic than for cable television, will be taking over the 8 PM Eastern Time slot with "The Last Word."

Seems we forced MSNBC to put him back on the air during his last suspension for nothing, eh?

Olbermann's departure shows just how difficult it is to get a consistent progressive voice on American broadcasting in an age when commercial television and radio is under the ownership of non-progressive business conglomerates and public television and radio is "made possible by" the same. Rush Limbaugh debuted on nationally syndicated radio in 1988; the liberal network Air America has come and gone in that time. Limbaugh's only been joined by Hannity, Beck, and other successful reactionary talk radio hosts since he went national (and the nation went gaga). Billo the Clown will likely remain on Fox - with a growing audience - long after a new show to replace Olbermann's (if such a show is ever created) is itself canceled.

Liberal media activist groups advocate working for media reform. I advocate getting a life. Because if you work for media reform, you're as likely to enjoy success against the right as Lawrence O'Donnell is against Bill O'Reilly.

MSNBC, which only recently appeared to achieve some sense of stability and consistency, is in free fall once again. No wonder that cable news channel mostly shows sensationalist documentaries on the weekends. At least we can count on them being there.

Simon Says?

I just read a report on Comcast's news service that Simon Cowell is thinking of leaving "American Idol" and that the show could be kaput if he does.

Cowell, the talent scout everyone loves to hate, is planning an American version of his music series "The X Factor," a hit in the United Kingdom, which will debut on Fox in the U.S. in 2011. American Idol is committed to run on Fox through this coming year.

Conceived as a talent contest intended to give a chance at a music career to performers who otherwise have little hope of getting a studio test, never mind a recording contract, "American Idol" has long since become a shallow, mean-spirited show where people who are written off for their lack of stage presence or their questionable singing ability are mocked and ridiculed. While the show has been beneficial in uncovering real singing talent - Carrie Underwood is the most obvious example, and some would add Kelly Clarkson - it's mostly just an excuse for making fun of people. No one has perfected the art of the acid-tongued critique more than Cowell, though he seems to revel in being hated for being mean when the viewers refuse to take the bait and mock a contestant.

I know nothing about "The X-Factor" - the U.S. version may or may not become "American Idol" Mark Two - so I'll refrain from commenting on that. I will say, though, that American Idol" has done more harm than good for the music business, and while a new show executive produced by Cowell may not be much better, I'm sure many people will be glad it's different. It's expected to be a hit when it gets here, and Cowell seems comfortable enough with it to being it to America and move on from the series that made him famous - some say infamous - among us Yanks.

Meanwhile, the judges on "American Idol" seem to be taking more of the attention these days. Paula Abdul left the show after the most recent season after a nasty salary dispute that she says left her insulted. Comedienne and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who's replaced Rosie O'Donnell as the Queen of Nice in daytime talk, will replace her this coming season - which commences next month - and she may provide a more positive aura for the show. She may even have an ear for musical talent. She certainly has an eye for acting talent - Jeremy Piven owes her his career for being on her ABC sitcom. :-) But it's still Simon Cowell's show, with his ethos all over it. And if he does leave, that may help with civility on "American Idol," but not its ratings.

Because as abhorrent as "American Idol" is for allowing its less successful contestants to be mocked, its fans by and large tune in to enjoy despising the man leading the mockery.