Enablers

Megyn Kelly -- who does actually seem intelligent enough to know better -- needs to cut the shit and be honest with herself at least. The reason people are "biased" against John Miller is because he's a liar, a pimp, a con-man, a mentally ill narcissistic man-child, a fucking moron who is completely unqualified for any sort of public office, much less the presidency. The reason people are biased against Fixed Noise is because the "network" itself is biased, a shameless shitshow comprised of failed Republican office-holders and -seekers, and their ass-sniffing dogsbodies. At least CNN and MSNBC make passable attempts at balance, though they mostly fail because they're just shitty journalists, not because of any political bias.

Kelly, whether she knows it or not, had at least some potential goodwill from people normally inclined to ignore her. I can't be the only one to the left of Attila the Hun to wonder, given the awful treatment Kelly received at the hands of Miller and his cult followers and surrogates, if Kelly might be motivated to make her interview with Miller a showcase in insightful, responsive reportage. There's no need to come into it with an agenda; Miller's own words are more than enough to inform such an exercise in (again) JOURNALISM.

But Kelly has made it clear that she cares less about being an honest journalist, than about being the next Baba Wawa, with all that entails. Talk about low aspirations, it doesn't get much worse than wanting to be a shameless starfucker, spending your life lobbing softballs at people you know are fucking dirtbags, strapping on the kneepads and slobbing on the most pathetic, corrupt knobs. There is nothing respectable about what Barbara Walters did to journalism as a profession; she lowered it, commodified it, turned it into an accessory by which people who are already rich and famous can use a Respected Journamalist's reputation to burnish their own.

Let me be more clear:  Barbara Walters would have done puff pieces on Mobutu Sese Seko, Kim Jong Il, fucking Jeffrey Dahmer, if she thought it would have gotten her into one more appletini party with Sally Quinn's DC Kewl Kidz Set. It is a profession separate from actual journalism, one that sucks up to the comfortable instead of afflicting them, one that confers legitimacy on celebrity press releases, one that disguises the fact that real journalism is risky, dangerous, precisely because its nature is to reveal, rather than conceal. A journalist cannot be friends with someone they intend to cover honestly and rigorously, and Megyn Kelly rilly rilly wants to be John Miller's friend.

The only thing revealed by Kelly's "interview" of Donald DrumpfJohn Miller the other night is that, like an abused spouse that hasn't had quite enough abuse to understand that they need to get the fuck away once and for all, Kelly was easily lured back by the shiny bauble of an intrinsically empty legacy. She might as well cut bait and head over to the E! Network, and let us know what Sofia Vergara is up to this weekend.

Here's the thing:  it's a common trope among conservatives (remember them?) to characterize libruls as spineless, feckless, unwilling to fight back when attacked. Sometimes that characterization has been fair, usually not. But we should all bear witness to what's happened over the last week or so -- Kelly took an opportunity to fight back after months of being called a fucking bimbo, and then acted exactly like one, at one point running her fingers through Miller's hair. John McCain, calumniated at the very start of Miller's campaign, vocalized his support of Miller.

Let that last one sink in -- McCain, a man who underwent years of wartime torture, who could have gotten released early and bravely refused, and was taunted by a clown who dodged that same war when it was his turn, now embraces said clown. I had very little respect for McCain anyway, after his ludicrous 2008 campaign, but now I have none.

I get that he's being primaried, clinging to his Senate seat like a fucking barnacle; I also get that he's going to be eighty years old in August, has nothing left to prove, and maybe ought to look at this as a way to retire with his honor intact. Instead he sold everything he stands for down the river, to a piece of shit who mocked him and his fellow servicemen who were captured and tortured.

We all understand that politicians engage in exaggerations and hyperbole. Stretching the truth is as much a part of their blood supply as donor cash. But at some point we have to decide whether or not the words they use should actually mean something. When a candidate for president of this country glibly spouts "[McCain]'s a hero because he was captured. I like guys that weren't captured," it means something, it conveys contempt and disrespect not only for McCain himself but for the service personnel who suffered the same fate throughout history in various wars.

Chances are that Miller was simply being pissy because McCain wasn't being deferential enough to his tremendously yuge greatness, but even that makes something very clear:  that even the most fundamental principles of this or any country, this or any nationalism -- basic respect for the sacrifices made by the military personnel of your country -- mean nothing to him. They are merely modes of convenience; he'll hew to them if need be, chuck them aside at the slightest provocation.

At this point, it's difficult to say what is more worthy of contempt, the way Miller and his flying monkeys treat the people who cross them, or the complete lack of self-respect with which those people (such as Kelly and McCain) comport themselves in response. Perhaps worst of all, their cringing, mewling placations will not help them with the cult. They will always be considered heretics.

The best answer is usually fuck them all. But not in the sense of ignoring them and hoping they'll go away, but rather in the sense of bringing their perfidy to light as much as possible, and helping them out the door. Because people like that are part of the problem, part of the reason why things have gotten to the point they have.

Remember, most of the time assholes are the way they are because no one ever stepped up and made them stop being assholes. Most people just walk on by and hope the asshole will find another victim. Maybe it's time to make them stop, just by pointing out how embarrassing they are, to themselves, to their families, to their professions. On the one hand, people like Kelly and McCain have to live with being themselves; on the other hand, the rest of us have to live with them being who they are as well.