Common-ground alert: Salon's Alex Pareene doesn't think much of the New York Times's opinion columnists as a group, and neither, presumably, do NewsBusters readers. As for the reasons why, well, let's just say most of Pareene's almost certainly aren't the same as yours.
Pareene blasts Maureen Dowd for "sloppiness, not to mention rote repetition of themes and jokes and incredibly lazy thinking" and skewers Nick Kristof for his alleged "do-gooder liberalism [which] involves the bizarre American conviction that bombing places is a great way to help them." He likes Thomas Friedman even less, writing that Friedman "is an embarrassment" who "writes stupid things, for stupid people, about complicated topics" and "dutifully pushes a stultifyingly predictable center-right agenda."
Alex Pareene
Just a little over a week ago -- in a new low even for him -- HBO's Bill Maher publicly advocated giving a teenage boy a "wedgie." Now, Maher will likely join other liberals in embracing Jonathan Krohn because of Krohn's just-announced change in political philosophy.
Krohn, who gave a rousing speech at the 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and followed with the book Defining Conservatism, told Politico in a story that ran Monday that he had moved to the Left. Krohn, now 17, called his CPAC speech "naive" and "something that a 13-year-old does." Krohn now calls ObamaCare a "good idea" and says he would "probably" vote for Barack Obama in November if he were allowed to vote.
If you noticed something different on Wednesday's "Morning Joe," it was shamed MSNBC contributor Mark Halperin back from roughly a one month suspension after he called the President a D-word back on June 30.
Not everyone was happy about this judging from Alex Pareene's piece at the Obama-loving Salon:
Ever creative in finding things for which to blame the "right wing," Salon magazine is criticizing conservatives in a headline ("Planned Parenthood Firebombed, Right Wing Silent") about an apparent incident in McKinney, Texas last Tuesday in which an unknown person allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at a Planned Parenthood establishment.
No one with even superficial understanding of conservatives and a sound mind could conclude the conservative movement supports throwing Molotov cocktails at business establishments, even left-wing ones. That we did not comment on an incident that received almost no press attention and at which no one was injured is more logically attributed to the fact that we, like almost everyone else on the planet, had no idea it took place.
The U.S. Constitution "is archaic and boring and lots of it no longer applies anymore."
The grumbling of a snotty 9th grade student in civics class? Nope, it's the pronouncement of Salon political reporter Alex Pareene.
"Evangelical Liberty University received half a billion dollars in federal aid money: One conservative college got more government cash than NPR last year."
That's the misleading headline for Alex Pareene's April 5 War Room blog post at Salon.com.
Adding insult to inaccuracy, Pareene slandered the late Jerry Falwell -- without a link to corroborating evidence -- as an apartheid supporter and bigot (h/t Matt Cover):
Would you buy someone's memoir all because you hated the person?
That's the reason a Salon political writer gave MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell Friday for why George W. Bush's book is selling better than Bill Clinton's (video follows with transcript and commentary):
Usually it is easy ignore the commentary from that great bastion of cultural insight, known as the gossip Web site Gawker. But every now and then, even Gawker steps over the line.
In a Sept. 11 post by Alex Pareene that was allegedly meant to reflect on the passing of eighth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Pareene launched into a hate-and-expletive-filled anti-President George W. Bush, anti-conservative and anti-Glenn Beck attack in his post. His first assault was on the prior administration.
"Shortly after (or maybe during) that day, our president at the time, a little [expletive] no one liked, handed over the reins to the most psychotic elements of his administration," Pareene said. "In the vast national wave of jingoism, paranoia, dread, and fear that followed, he and his friends led us into an unrelated war they'd been planning beforehand, allowed the CIA to wiretap and torture anyone they liked (and encouraged the CIA to wiretap and torture even more than they were comfortable with!), and regularly insisted that our memory of that day should not be sullied with critical thinking or expressions of anything other than still-palpable fear."