Credit

Nettertainment is nothing if not fair, and while we are forced to criticize those in the media far more than we'd like, we are equally obliged to confer praise when praise is due.

Last week, CNN anchor Chuck Roberts smeared Ned Lamont as "Al Queda's candidate" (you know, "Some say" straw man shit just like El Presidente himself); this week he opened an interview with Lamont by personally apologizing about the rhetorical phrasing of his question:

...but I posed it badly, stupidly ad-libbing about "some saying Lamont is the Al-Qaeda candidate." No one, in fact, used that construction. Anyway, I wanted to correct the record, and I'm glad we had this chance to do it.

So the initial damage was done, but that's the hit you have to take as a fresh challenger, and we want to see Ned rebut and come through like a star. Chuck apologized like a mensch and maybe this swings good for Lamont in the long run.

Right after I watched Chuck's original gaffe I called CNN and registered my complaint. Thanks to a number of blogsites, the rapid response made a difference. Today I quickly emailed in praise to Chuck for apologizing on the CNN site form. Your actions do matter; maybe things are changing thanks to net neutrality.

Next on the list is MSNBC's Chris Matthews. He's clearly over the War in Iraq now. Here's what he says after showing de facto GOP candidate Joe Lieberman's first commercial as an "independent":

I see dead people -- —that's Joe Lieberman pretending he's still running for the Senate. He already lost.

Despite having been a Democratic staffer for House Speaker Tip O'Neill early in his career, Chris had spent most of the past six years shading to the GOP side. We'll see how he plays out through the fall.

But I'll be goddamned if Joe Scarborough doesn't make the most eye-opening addition to the reality-based community. Called a douchebag more than once by Jon Stewart, Scarborough is an ex-GOP Congressman who founded a paper in Florida and appears to be, after too many years of Bush-leaning or direct support, maybe a more traditional GOP Conservative. He dares to ask the one question that has never been broached on news television:

Joe Scarborough started his program tonight asking the question "is Bush an idiot?" (Is that really debatable?). Not only did he do a great run down of clips involving some of the most famous "Bushisms", but he did have an interesting conversation about this question with Lawrence O'Donnell and John Fund...

...This segment is a definite keeper. That way when we see "how history judges" Bush, we have video evidence for the jury.

Someone tell me how Joe Scarborough because the first cable news anchor to name a segment the one thing almost everyone in the country has been wondering from the get-go:

"Is Bush an Idiot?"

Uh, finally. And...bravo.