Thursday, June 18, 2009

Krauthammer’s Take   [NRO Staff]

From last night’s “All-Stars.”

 

On Obama’s response to events in Iran:

The president is also speaking in code. The Pope [John Paul II] spoke in a code which was implicit and understood support for the forces of freedom.

 

The code the administration is using is implicit support for this repressive, tyrannical regime.

 

We watched Gibbs say that what's going on is vigorous debate. The shooting of eight demonstrators is not debate. The knocking of heads, bloodying of demonstrators by the Revolutionary Guards is not debate. The arbitrary arrest of journalists, political opposition, and students is not debate.

 

And to call it a debate and to use this neutral and denatured language is disgraceful.

 

Beyond that, the point here is no longer elections. The reason that at least eight have died is not because they wanted a recount of hanging chads in the outer precincts of Esfahan. What they wanted is to no longer live under a tyrannical dictatorship, a misogynistic, repressive, incompetent, and corrupt theocracy.

 

And that's what the demonstration and the moment is all about. It's about the regime. There is an opportunity — revolution is going to happen one way or the other eventually, and this theocracy will fall. It may not happen now, but it ought to be supported, because it might happen now, and it would change the world if it did.

On the media's coverage of the president:

Well, look, the media are so in the tank, really, they ought to get scuba gear...

 

But what's really interesting, the president yesterday has said, he complained about FOX, and he said, I think accurately, that it is the one, only voice of opposition in the media.

 

And it makes us a lot like Caracas where all the media, except one, are state run, with the exception that in Hugo Chavez-land, you go after that one station with machetes. I haven't seen any machetes around here, so I think we are at least safe for now.

 

But the rest of the media are entirely in the tank, and it's embarrassing. You would think it would be embarrassment that would deter them.

 

Obama does u-turns on all kinds of policies—on taking [public] money in campaigns, on rendition, on eavesdropping, on all kinds of issues, and the press does a u-turn, a whiplash u-turn in step.

 

In the end, what you have to—could—conclude is that it is, in part, ideological affinity with Obama, but also in part, he's a rock star, and he sells. So it isn't only ideology. It is greed. If you have him on the cover, he sells.

 

And that is the only defense that the mainstream media have, and it isn't a pretty one — money.

06/18 10:44 AMShare