December 01, 2007
Rumors Flying
Even though it took us eight years to awaken, the media tactics of the right are becoming clear to all of us here at Dakota, so we thought we'd pass them along, since this week's news has been bursting with good examples.
In his infamous address to the Washington Press Club, Steven Colbert (oh, we miss you so) clarified:
But, listen, let's review the rules. Here's how it works: the president makes decisions. He's the Decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know - fiction!
Once the lie is published, it can be blithely quoted as the truth, or the "balancing opinion", which feeds the process of "swiftboating" -- though everyone does not see swiftboating as a despicable activity.
This week Glenn Greenwald and friends held columnist Joe Klein's feet to the fire for his "wildly inaccurate" reporting of the new FISA legislation in Time. You can read all of Greenwald's excellent entries on the subject, or, if your attention span is limited, Dan Gillmor's fine summary of the events in which Time's editors refused to correct their errors, even when contradicted by the author of the legislation.
And again this week the Washington Post recirculated the rumor that Obama is a Muslim. Cartoonist Tom Toles took on his own paper for this travesty
As if that wasn't bad enough, the Washington Post printed the whopper that Karl Rove told on national TV blaming Congress for the war in Iraq. Our question is why the hell are discredited people like Rove given airtime on national TV anyway, or Ann Coulter or John Bolton?
In a short but pithy parody entitled "Modern Journalism" Atrios writes:
In the original version of this story, Joe Klein wrote that the House Democratic version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) would allow a court review of individual foreign surveillance targets. Republicans believe the bill can be interpreted that way, but Democrats don't.Democrats believe that Rick Stengel (richard_stengel@timemagazine.com) and Mickey Kaus have regular threesomes with a goat, while Republicans believe Mickey has a strictly monogamous relationship with his goat.
For a very short time, Rick Stengel's Wikipedia entry contained the fact that he had 32 convictions for child molestation, but the Wikipedia editors took care of that swiftly, unlike some paid editors we know.
Have heart, the New York Times came through and finally did some good fact checking on Guiliani's misrepresentations. Let's hope this is a trend.
Photo note: Scattered to the wind -- a metaphorophoto since the leaves are being blown by a reverse vacuum in the hands of an unseen agent. The shadow of the battle hatchet in the left corner is really just the single leaf left on my poor basil plant on the kitchen windowsill, but it serves nicely.
