Categorical Aperitif

I couldn't resist pointing out a couple of things I found while catching up with FAIR's Media Views recently. First, Glenn Beck brings the shill:

NEW YORK -- In the first ever on-air pitch for one of its advertisers, CNN Headline News talk show host Glenn Beck recently plugged one of his radio show sponsors -- Select Comfort mattresses.

Despite the long-standing journalistic practice of keeping news free of commercial messages to preserve editorial integrity, a Headline News spokesman noted that Beck's show is a "point-of-view" program and not a traditional newscast.

"Select Comfort is Glenn Beck's/Headline News' first and only advertiser to have an on-air entitlement, and it's specifically targeted for his show," the spokesman said. "The advertiser has a relationship with Glenn Beck that extends beyond his Headline News program."

The spokesman, however, said that Headline News will continue to "evaluate advertiser interest" in similar types of arrangements for Beck as well as other select Headline News shows such as "Nancy Grace" and "Showbiz Tonight." CNN has never had any on-air pitches during any of its shows, the spokesman said.

Hey: didn't the shameless, amoral, power-hungry crypto-fascist huckster Lonesome Rhodes in A Face in the Crowd also shill mattresses on TV at one point? Why, I believe he did. Thank you, gods of irony.

Second, Dean Baker replies to some typical "free trade" ho'in with some sweet analogyjitsu:

NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof apparently believes that he would benefit if the United States had access to a huge supply of foreign columnists who could write as good or better than him and who would be willing to work at a fraction of his salary. That is effectively what he is arguing in his column today when he says that low-income families benefit from being able to obtain cheap imports from China.

Of course low-income families benefit from being able to buy cheaper imported goods, just as Mr. Kristof would be able to pay less for his newspaper and for the products that are advertised there, if NYT columnists would work for $15,000 a year. But, he would lose far more from having to accept a lower salary as a result of foreign competition, just as less educated workers are likely to lose out as a result of being placed in direct competition with low-paid workers in the developing world.

The column also includes gratuitous name-calling (the term "protectionist" is used repeatedly) and the use of the term "free trade" when "trade" would be more appropriate. Where are those Chinese columnists when you need them?

Nah, we don't need to outsource punditry. I'd bet that in few short years, we'll have an AI program capable of producing Maureen Dowd columns that are completely indistinguishable from the "real thing." Friedman, Medved, Cal Thomas, etc. won't be far behind.