{"id":973,"date":"2008-07-12T11:16:48","date_gmt":"2008-07-12T18:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=973"},"modified":"2008-07-12T11:16:48","modified_gmt":"2008-07-12T18:16:48","slug":"on-the-passing-of-tony-snow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=973","title":{"rendered":"On The Passing Of Tony Snow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tony Snow, former Fox News anchor, radio talk show host, and press secretary to George W. Bush, has succumbed to the cancer that he has been battling for many years. He was 53 years old.<\/p>\n

I have written about Snow<\/a> extensively over the years, with little positive to say. But this is not the time to dwell on that. Snow leaves behind a wife and three small children, and this is surely a tremendous loss for them, as it is for his many friends, colleagues, and fellow travelers on the Right.<\/p>\n

But it is also a loss for our nation and for the pursuit of truth. Snow was the consummate insider. He was there as a speech writer for George Bush Sr. He was there at the birth of Fox News. He has had unique exposure to the twin powers of government and media – an interdisciplinary complex that I believe is far more dangerous than the military-industrial one that Eisenhower warned us about.<\/p>\n

When it comes time to wax autobiographical, press secretaries and journalists are often the source of astonishing revelations about the inner workings of their fields. If Scott McClellan’s recent book purports to tell us “What Happened,”<\/em> just imagine what Snow might have revealed if he had the opportunity to express himself without the constraints of his professional service. Whether he ever would have done so completely and candidly, we will never know. But he has been rather blunt on occasion in the past. ThinkProgress had compiled some commentary<\/a> by Snow prior to his appointment at the White House that refers to the president as “an embarrassment,” “impotent,”<\/em> and more.<\/p>\n

In his career, Snow has exhibited a reliably rightist tone to his pronouncements in both the public and private sectors. As press secretary, he stubbornly affirmed the lies and misrepresentations of the White House. But he has also ventured off the plantation to deliver unexpected truths about the people and places he’s observed. We need much more of the latter. That’s the sort of forthright expression that can be truly beneficial politically, historically, and culturally.<\/p>\n

With Snow’s untimely passing we can only wonder what might have happened; what might have been.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tony Snow, former Fox News anchor, radio talk show host, and press secretary to George W. Bush, has succumbed to the cancer that he has been battling for many years. He was 53 years old. I have written about Snow extensively over the years, with little positive to say. But this is not the time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[33,167,18,76],"class_list":["post-973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-fox-news","tag-george-w-bush","tag-scott-mcclellan","tag-tony-snow"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-fH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":873,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=873","url_meta":{"origin":973,"position":0},"title":"Tony Snow Goes Over To The Dark Side – CNN","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/21\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The \"liberal\" media is at it again. CNN has just announced that it has hired former Bush press secretary, and Fox News anchor, Tony Snow, to be a conservative commentator. Snow: \"I'm delighted to be able to join CNN during the most exciting and unpredictable political year in memory. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=137","url_meta":{"origin":973,"position":1},"title":"The Tony Snow Job","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/26\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I suppose it was inevitable. Former Poppa Bush speechwriter, current Fox News commentator and Fox Radio talk show host, Tony Snow, been appointed White House Press Secretary. Since Snow has been shilling for the president for years in his current job, a guest on Keith Olbermann's Countdown recently asked if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":140,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=140","url_meta":{"origin":973,"position":2},"title":"The Stalking Points Memo – Tony Snow","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/5\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The Snow Job Bill goes after the Far-Left Bomb Throwers who don't seem to have anything nice to say about Fox shill, and new White House Press Secretary, Tony Snow. Watch as Bill lays into the disgraceful Howard Dean and His Minions (CD available now). (Click the pic here to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1226,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1226","url_meta":{"origin":973,"position":3},"title":"Brit Hume Confesses To Fox News Right-Wing Bias","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/21\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Media Research Center, an uber-conservative media watch organization headed by professional propagandist Brent Bozell, held its annual gala last week to honor the heroes of rightist disinformation and to mock liberals and truth-tellers. The event featured Republican stalwart, war correspondent, and political strategist, Joe the Plumber, who greeted the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5785,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5785","url_meta":{"origin":973,"position":4},"title":"Rush Limbaugh Attacks Chelsea Clinton – Again","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/14\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Conservative blowhard, Rush Limbaugh, is blowing harder than ever at the prospect of a politically connected offspring getting hired by a news organization. NBC announced today that Chelsea Clinton will become a correspondent for their non-political, human interest series, \"Making a Difference.\" That announcement has Limbaugh's blood boiling this morning\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":206,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=206","url_meta":{"origin":973,"position":5},"title":"Bush Runs From The Media","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/14\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The \"war president\" reveals his cowardly side by taking extraordinary steps to protect himself from the scary reporters. The Washington Post reports that Bush has taken to traveling without the customary press plane in tow. This is unprecedented in presidential media coverage and especially troublesome during a time when the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}