Tag Archives: nixon

Fox News transcript: Bernard Goldberg accuses NYTimes journalist of ‘metrosexual’ question

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Spotted on a few blogs via Technorati, this clip from Fox News. Here at Breitbart.tv, and the PajamaPundit, for example. See also the Columbia Journalism Review’s round-up, at this link.

Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly asks Bernard Goldberg, author of ‘A Slobbering Love Affair’ what he makes of a New York Times’ reporter’s question to Obama at the 100 day press briefing. Goldberg says it is a ‘soft’ question that ‘fits our metrosexual times’. “Today’s men, a lot of men today, even men in powerful positions, especially men in journalism, they’re softer, they’re what a friend of mine calls NPR men,” adds Bernard Goldberg.

The transcript from the O’Reilly Factor:

Bill O’Reilly: “The worst question was one that I cited in my Talking Points memo… Roll tape.”

[shows clip]

Jeff Zeleny, the New York Times: “During these first 100 days what has surprised you most about this office? Enchanted you the most about serving this office; humbled you the most; and troubled you the most?”

Obama: “Now, let me write this down…”

[ends clip]

O’Reilly: “Did he actually say enchanted you the most? Did he actually say that word enchanted?”

Bernard Goldberg: “Yeah, well we’re saying this is the worst question but it’s really a fascinating question. Now let me tell you why. I cannot picture any journalist asking Franklin Roosevelt if he was enchanted. Or Harry Truman. I mean, he had a foul mouth if he was enchanted. Or Dwight Eisenhower. Or even Kennedy or Nixon. Because they were men of a different era, they were men of a John Wayne era. Today’s men, a lot of men today, even men in powerful positions, especially men in journalism, they’re softer – they’re what a friend of mine calls NPR men. They want to know about your feelings. Whether you’re enchanted. If I did a piece about you Bill, for my website or for a magazine, and I said ‘Bill what is it that enchants you?’ You’d punch me in the head.”

O’Reilly: “I don’t know what that means… I know what the enchanted forest is…”

Goldberg: “It’s the kind of question that fits our metrosexual times, if you know what I mean.”

O’Reilly: “I agree, it was a softball question.”

Deep Throat round-up in video and audio (via HuffingtonPost.com)

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Mark Felt, the former FBI official who revealed himself to be Deep Throat, the source that exposed the Nixon-era Watergate scandal, has died aged 95.

Over at Huffington Post you can look at a slide show and a video from 2005, with Mark Felt’s daughter Joan and grandson Will, discussing his life.

Here is the audio of the meeting on October 19 1972, when President Nixon discovers John Mitchell knows the name of the FBI leak who has been giving information to the press about the Watergate break-ins: Mark Felt.

What-gate? Can the media just make up their minds on what to call the Brand/Ross/Sachs fiasco?

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Little did the architects behind the office/hotel complex at the heart of the Nixon affair (doesn’t sound right does it?) know what an impact the building’s name would have on the British media.

It’s a legacy which has given British newspaper journalists an easy way to coin a name for the latest ‘scandal’ (scandal defined in its broadest sense: we have Flakegate, after all).

But when it comes to last week’s BBC outrage no-one seems to know which gate to stick with:

Media Guardian alone refers to Sachsgate, Granddaughtergate and Manuelgate.

We’ve seen Rossgate from the Telegraph, Brandgate from the Independent. For readers’ sake, since the coverage really doesn’t seem to be letting up, let’s have an agreed gate.

And some consistency please: should the named gate namesake be the perpetrators, or the victims of the ‘scandal’? That particular detail often bothers me: we’ve had Queengate, but also Cherie and Camillagate (Nipplegate of Justin Timberlake fame is a particular favourite).

Reuters and most of the papers/blogs are going with Manuelgate but my vote’s with ‘whatnewanglecanwepossiblytakenowgate’ (she says, fully aware of the irony as she pens her own tenuous angle for this blog post).

Mainly because Rossgate could lead to confusion for the poor pupils at this school in Hemel Hempstead.

Any gates on this particular story I’ve missed? For those that care and are thinking of writing their Masters thesis on the subject, there’s actually a Wikipedia page dedicated to ‘scandal-gates’ (which actually already lists Manuelgate, fyi).