Richard Wollfe, White House shill for Bush

Brian Lehrer, had on his show (July 7, 2006) on WNYC (NYC) a fool named Richard Wollfe, senior White House correspondent for Newsweek, to discuss President Bush's live Q & A . For some reason Newsweek wants a White House shill to cover the WH for them. This limey insisted that job grow has been “very strong” for the past 12 months! The exact opposite of the truth. It's been anemic. Even establishment economists have called it a “jobless recovery,” with a scratch of the head. (It defies their dogma.) Wolffe calls 200,000 new jobs a month ”strong.” No, that's WEAK. Just to keep up with U.S. population growth requires 300,000 new jobs a month. He also sneered at the characterization of the latest number (only 100,000) as “tepid.”
Lehrer did not contradict any of this propaganda. Perhaps Lehrer is just ignorant. It only takes an occasional glance at the business press to pick up these facts. (That's how I know them.)*
Wollfe was given a more important platform by mega corporation GE on their $ propaganda channel MSNBC, on “Countdown with Keith Olberman, where Wollfe once again “analyzed” Bush’s latest public performance. (Bush vs. the media about War in Iraq - Countdown with Keith ...
MSNBC'S Keith Olbermann takes a look at the recent statements by the president, and talks with Richard Wollfe from Newsweek magazine.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11976184/ -)

Another segment of the Lehrer show dealt with that awful reactionary Joe Lieberman and his attempts to beat back his challenger in the Democratic primary in Conn. Lieberman of course was a rightist from day one- which is why the fascist National Review and Buckley endorsed him when he first ran for the Senate. Lehrer couldn't get anyone to call in to defend the bastard, so he instructed his assistants to reserve a line for Lieberman supporters.
That didn't work. A caller snuck on that line to describe how Lieberman hobnobs with the racist dog Bob Grant. Lieberman even sucked up to Grant by saying how much his (sainted) mother loves him! If it's true, she's a racist cur, and if it's not, Lieberman libels his own mom for perceived political advantage.
The fact is, Grant's racism is extreme and overt, and no respectable politician should be ABLE to be on his show. The fact that Grant is considered legitimate is a sign of the moral decadence of U.S. society.
And media people who treat Grant as a legitimate member of their “journalistic” fraternity guilty of promoting racism.
Some fool reporter on the show rebuked the caller's characterization of Lieberman as a racist (after the caller safely hung up) by saying that Lieberman went to the South to register black voters. Let's see, that would be about 45 years ago. That proves exactly nothing. What he does TODAY matters a lot more than what he did over 40 years ago! People change. (Besides, who knows what Lieberman's motives were back then?)
Lehrer made sure to paint the caller as an unethical sneak. So what? He broke through the blackout.

*Here’s examples of how Wollfe and Lehrer were at odds with the business press.
The business section of The New York Times (July 8th) headlined the news as “Jobs Data Indicates Economy Is Slowing.” The article started: “Employers added only 121,000 jobs in June,…” Note, “only.”
Ah, you say, the Times is just anti-Bush. (At least that’s what you’d say if you’re a stubborn right-wing zealot.) Ok, how about Investor’s Business Daily? It’s a rabidly reactionary extremist rag, as evidenced daily by its editorial section. The July 10th edition headlined the news on page one thusly: “June’s 121,000 Jobs Far Below Targets, But Pay Gains Jump.” (The Times article also noted the “strong” wage gains.) The IBD article noted that there were only 92,000 jobs created in May, revised by the Labor Department, and that “signs of weakness sent the dollar to a one-month low vs. the euro.” But hey, what do markets know? Propagandists know better. (Here’s one example of how right-wing this particular rag is- their July 11th edition blames Clinton and- get this- Carter for high gasoline prices, under the heading “America Undermined- Carter, Clinton and Congress: Why gasoline costs so much.” Inflation-adjusted, and compared to Europe and Japan, it’s not “so much,” but that’s the least of the logical problems with the demented screed.)
Then there’s Barron’s. Barron’s is an elite financial weekly put out by Dow Jones, the publishers of The Wall Street Journal. Here’s what their senior columnist, Alan Abelson, had to say in the front of the paper: quoting his “favorite parsers of the monthly employment reports,” who said, “’This was a weak report, with few signs of strength under the surface.’” Abelson notes that “ the average monthly gain in the second quarter” was “a meager 108,000, sharply below the first quarter’s 176,000 and even more sharply below the long-term average of 236,000.” As for the wage gain, “real wages- that is, adjusted for inflation- aren’t growing at all.”
Then on page M-1, they refer to the “lame job count.” 121,000 new jobs vs. 175,000 forecast by the economic soothsayers. On page M-12 their regular columnist Randall Forsyth writes; “the third straight lame monthly increase in nonfarm payrolls,” and “June’s punk payrolls gain was the third in a row, adding to the accumulating evidence of a slowing economy.” But not to Bush regime shills in the media like Newsweek’s Richard Wollfe, and their enablers like “public” radio’s Brian Lehrer.