TAIBBI ROCKS AGAIN

Molly Ivins has been gone for almost three months now, and one can only speculate - poorly LOST might add - what kind of droll witticisms that she'd have woven about Gonzo, Scooter, and the unraveling of the DOJ and countless other recently revealed Shrub screw-ups. Or what kind of insightful tenderness which she might have used in describing last week's vile happenings in Blacksburg.

Matt Taibbi may never be confused with Molly Ivins, nor his writing confused with the homespun flaying of the power-addicted that typified ol' Molly's work, but he's clearly writing with a sardonic wit that is going to establish him among progressive pundits for years to come. In what many might hope would be the final word on Imus, Matt tears open the curtain and bathes the sanctimony of the mainstream media in the cleansing light of caustic truth:

First of all, let's just get this out of the way: The idea that anyone in the media world gives a shit about the dignity of women, black or white, is a ridiculous joke. America's TV networks have spent the last forty years falling over each other trying to find better and more efficient ways to sell tits to the 18-to-35 demographic. They make hour-long prime-time reality dramas these days about shopping-obsessed sluts hitting each other with pocketbooks, for Christ's sake. Paris Hilton -- dumb, rich -- gets her own prime-time show. MTV, the teenie mags, the pop music industry, they're basically all an endless parade of skinny, half-naked brainless women selling makeup and jeans to neurotic, self-hating, weight-obsessed little girls.

Read the whole article. And the next time you hear some media talking head pontificate about Imus shredding "Decency" - muse about Matt's article, and smile