A Two-Fer

Here's a rare opportunity to see both courageous integrity and cringing spinelessness on display in a short four minutes. Crooks and Liars has a clip of Russ Feingold, who is exploring a Democratic run for president in 2008, talking with Soledad O'Brien on CNN. Feingold has a long history of trying to check executive abuse, being the only senator to vote against the PATRIOT act, as well as being on the right side of abuse of power cases since then. Feingold tries to explain to the desperately frightened Soledad, who knows her corporate masters are watching her, that the investigation into Bush's lawbreaking has been shut down. Surprisingly (not!), the anchor does not know this. Media journalism at its finest.

Strangely, CNN anchors rarely if ever challenge the assertions of GOP mouthpieces, even when they are blatently false, to the extent that O'Brien does with Feingold here, when he is telling the truth and trying to stop blatent crimes. Hmmmmm. . . .