In the past week, a comedian and a comic strip have taken on issues that the mainstream media ignores. Saturday’s New York Times carried a lengthy story about Jon Stewart’s ongoing feud with Fox “News.” The article is a bit tardy. Comedy Central’s top personality and the GOP propaganda network have been going back and forth for many months. In addition to exposing easy targets like wing-nuts like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, Stewart’s Daily Show has gone a step beyond by taking numerous shots at Fox distortions in its unfair and unbalanced newscasts. The network has responded by giving a forum to the likes of malcontent Bernard Goldberg—the ex-CBS correspondent and author of books criticizing former colleagues for being jockey shorts staining liberals.

Anyone reading my previous posts can guess that I’m a fan of Jon Stewart and his faithful 10:30 companion, Stephen Colbert. Still, I’m puzzled by the Times article. In my opinion, the piece is a cheesy way of criticizing Fox—something that the newspaper itself should be doing on a frequent basis. Granted, a few op-ed columnists mentioned the network’s distorted reporting style. However, it seems to me that Fox has earned the right to be regularly taken to task for inaccuracies in the Times’ daily coverage of news. I get the feeling that the nation’s “newspaper of record” is fearful of criticism for infringing on Fox’s First Amendment privilege, which is not a real issue. Nobody wants to shut-up the network. But there’s nothing wrong with a story that begins, “Fox News has reported….but the truth is, etc.”

Another that really chaps me about the mainstream media is unqualified references to unqualified people as potential Presidential candidates. I could write a few hundred words about Sarah Palin as an example. Worse though is the speculative stories about Newt Gingrich. 

Since he is a converted Catholic, Gingrich has a better chance of becoming Pope than President. Yet, he is often referred to in the context of presidential politics. Fortunately, the Doonesbury comic strip offers occasional reminders that the former Republican Speaker of the House is the man who led his party down the path of toxic divisiveness that continues to cause congressional gridlock.

The Garry Trudeau cartoon this past Sunday satirically dealt with Gingrich’s infamous 1994 GOPAC memo suggesting that Republican candidates attack opponents by using certain words, nearly all of which applied to his own life. Words like “sick, disgrace, corrupt, cheat, decay, pathetic, radical, traitor, greed, anti-family.” In truth, Gingrich needed only these ten words and a hyphen to write an autobiography.

Lest we forget, he once went to the hospital to inform his cancer-stricken first wife that he was filing for divorce in order to marry a girlfriend he he had been carrying on an affair with. Spouse number two got the same treatment when he dumped her to marry younger woman, was his latest bed companion. What makes the Jimmy Swaggart-like hypocrisy so astonishing is Gingrich’s leadership in the effort  to impeach President Bill Clinton for lying about tom-catting conduct.

Justice was served when Gingrich was also caught lying and departed Congress, paying a $300,000 fine for violating ethics rules by concealing financial dealings. Talk about a fast plunge to the moral cellar. Only four years earlier, Gingrich led the so-called Republican Revolution that gave his party control of Congress. Election campaign success was fueled, in part, by the dirty politics strategy memo he wrote for GOPAC—the political training arm of the party. Despite 1994 successes, it was a lack of moral turpitude led to Gingrich’s sudden downfall. He is now on the comeback trail, hoping, I guess, that past transgressions are forgiven and forgotten.

I witnessed Gingrich’s underhanded politics first hand at CNN when network President Tom Johnson sent me a 212 page document that was forwarded to him by the Speaker. It was filled with unfounded allegations against the head of the International Laborers Union. Not only was the information false, it undercut an ongoing Justice Department investigation. Gingrich targeted the union official because of his support of Bill Clinton. As I write in Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger, I believe Johnson used extremely poor judgment in handling the politically motivated memo that was signed by Gingrich.

It’s good to know that intrepid watchdogs like Garry Trudeau and Jon Stewart are doing the job of mainstream journalists.

My memoir, Odyssey of a Derelict Gunslinger, is available at amazon.com and independent bookstores. It offers much more than $19.99 worth of laughs. It is an account of my illustrious (I choose the adjectives) career.