The right-wing cable commentariat seems remakably star-struck these days. If one wants to find out what a celebrity thinks about a political issue, the best place to find out seems to be one of the plethora of commentary shows on cable news channels. I'm not convinced anyone else really cares much about the politics of their favorite celebrity, but the commentariat sure does.

MSNBC's also-ran right-winger Joe Scarborough, who seems to have been chosen by that insignificant network because he's more pompous than Fox's smirky fellow, now boasts of an "investigation" of Danny Glover. Now there's an important bit of investigative journalism, eh? (Although Scarborough may be guilty of a bit of Jayson-Blair-like exaggeration in this report since he and "his staff" seem to have played a slighter role in the issue than he reports. See below.)

Of course, it's all part of a reinvigorated campaign for political correctness by the commentariat. They search out folks who say the "wrong thing" and then urge their cadres to rise up in anger to stomp out such "extreme" and "devisive" speech. They seem intent on reducing the range of expression. Most of the time, it has little effect. They couldn't even keep country music fans from packing halls for Dixie Chicks concerts. When Bill O'Reilly asked his cadre to boycott Edward Norton films, it sounded to me a bit like asking an AA meeting to boycott French wines. But Scarborough managed to find a soft spot where his minions could have a greater effect. Glover had been a spokesman for the bankrupt Woldcom (now using its once-discarded "MCI" label). That's where Scarborough struck. He claims success.

Glover has wisely chosen to avoid an appearance on the MSNBC rant-fest, but told an AP interviewer, "The whole idea is to crush any kind of dissent," he said. "Something is happening now that is very dark and very sinister in this country, and for us to not admit it is happening is, in some ways, for us to be blind."

I suspect that they'll be investigating more celebrities now. It's probably good for their infintesimal ratings -- especially when the attacked celeb agrees to appear on their air. In the meantime, the commentators will keep their own fans satisfied with boycotts and phone banks. After all, they wouldn't want anyone thinking things that are not approved thoughts.

The next step, perhaps, would be for the commentariat to help their brothers in boardrooms make the right decision about this sensitive issue of spokespersons. Maybe they should consider making some kind of list. They probably won't want to call it a "blacklist", given the historic and other connotations of that name, but I'm sure they'll come up with something.

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Scarborough may be exaggerating just a tad in his May 15 by-lined story about the Glover boycott. The lead touts, "Scarborough Country has spoken, and MCI had listened. It’s time for The Real Deal." And what exactly is "Scarborough Country"? It turns out, in this case, it might be a DC-based activist group called Judicial Watch. Scarborough doesn't mention them anywhere in his story. Odd. Since that group put out a press release on May 8 calling for MCI to fire Glover to punish him for his political statements.