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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MSI who wrote (6585)	9/2/2003 3:54:23 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793622

"According to the (U.K.) Times: . I am surprised you brought that old lie up, MSI. That BBC story was knocked down quickly at the time. But I guess some people who oppose the war tend to stomp on any action during it that might make American Soldiers look good.

To: MSI who wrote (6585)	9/2/2003 4:18:58 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793622

Frum ponders the demise of Crossfire. I quit watching because of the three to one split toward Liberals before the present bunch even took over. I think CNN is killing itself by trying to be the "News" cable network. Just too boring for people hour after hour. The Junkies want some personalities and fireworks. SEP. 2, 2003: BACK TO - WORK? DAVID FRUM - National Review The manuscript of the book I'm co-authoring with Richard Perle is now at the publisher--the kids are back at school--the vacation (such as it was!) is over. Now back to work. It's been a news-rich summer, and there's a lot to catch up on. Where to start? How about with Tucker Carlson's new book about his adventures in cable news, Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites. A galley showed up in my in-box earlier this summer, as I was racing to finish my book, and in moments of exhaustion or frustration I'd read snatches of it for amusement and relaxation. And is it amusing! Gutsy too. Tucker says exactly what he thinks about every politician and colleague who crosses his path. Some of his judgments leave one wondering. There's no arguing over taste, but really--James Carville "one of my favorite people"? But Tucker is one of those people to whom funny things just seem to happen, and he records them all--the night he did an interview, drunk, from the notorious Dick Morris suite at the Jefferson Hotel, his infatuation with John McCain on the campaign trail, his own unexpected launch into televised celebrity. The book had me laughing through some somber hours. There is one serious question, though, that it might have taken up and did not: the question of why Crossfire has faltered so badly. Crossfire has now been bumped from its familiar supper-hour slot to 4:30--an impossible time for a public-affairs program. Its audience has shriveled. It has about as much buzz in Washington media life as a dead fly on a windowsill. For a program that once defined Washington buzz, this is a strange and sad fate. What went wrong? Is it casting? (Carville may be just as much one of nature's noblemen as Tucker says--that doesn't make his ranting, yelling, and spitting any more agreeable to watch.) Is it ideology? On the biggest issue of our time, the war on terror, one of the show's two "conservative" hosts tilts to the left of most Democrats. Is it over-familiarity? Time was when guests were caught by surprise by the relentless barrage of the Crossfire . Now everyone on the show seems to have been coached to within an inch of their lives, and the "barrage" feels more like a fusillade from one of those guns that shoots Styrofoam-packaging nuts. Or is it something more? Is it possible that the brilliant original formula that made Crossfire a success in the 1990s--all opinion, no information--is out of date in a world in which Americans are threatened by dangers about which they crave information. You can learn things by listening to Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, or by watching the Fox News Channel or CNN's Aaron Brown. But who has learned anything from Crossfire" recently? It may be that the show has failed by doing something that TV executives used to sneeringly insist was impossible: by underestimating its audience. 10:31 AM nationalreview.com