Gene McCarthy used to say that the function of liberal Republicans was that, when they saw a drowning man, they would throw him a rope exactly halfway too short to reach him. Under the ironclad economic rule that there are no progressive multimillion dollar corporations, the New York Times is now, and always has been, a liberal Republican paper. In the editorial today, "New and Not Improved," the Times is letting its desire to appear loftily superior outrun the facts. Just as it did when it permitted the discredited Judith Miller to shill for the Iraq war, the Times is now flacking for the Republicans with today's arguments. As usual, it does so just to create the appearance of being evenhanded while proclaiming a nonexistent equivalence of disreputability between the candidates.

For dumb reasons, all of this dumbness enabled by dumb legislators, as well as being fought in a dumb way, resulting in a dumb, stupid civil war which is being further enabled by another bunch of dumb, stupid legislators, creating the biggest and dumbest deficit and indebtedness ever in the whole damned world and history, as well as featuring dumb, stupid and stupidly arrogant torturers, clunks, dumoxes and asses... and it's my birthday and I get to call everyone dumb, every damn, dumb person who ever did anything to create or enable the unending continuation of damn dumb stupidity.

In Act of Penance, NY Times
Reporters Climb Building

(reposted from my blog www.richieville.com)

Richieville News Service, NEW YORK, NY
The New York City Police announced today that contrary to earlier reports, the two men who scaled the outside of the 52-story New York Times skyscraper in Manhattan were not publicity-hungry thrill seekers. Instead they were the first of a group of Times staffers who are climbing the building as an act of penance for their failure to challenge the Bush administration's rationale for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Today, other groups of current and former reporter-penitents were engaged in similar symbolic acts of contrition.

I'm proud to say that one of the most famous and respected war reporters of the past 40 years, Joseph L. Galloway -- co-author of We Were Soldiers Once...and Young -- wrote the foreword for my new book on Iraq and the media.  As tough as the come, Joe was also virtually the first leading reporter/pundit to call for a U.S. pullout from Iraq several years ago.

Here is an excerpt from the foreword for DailyKos readers.  SusanG reviewed the book, So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq, here last Sunday.  

"In war truth is too often the first casualty," Galloway writes, "and it is not just a president or a secretary of defense or assorted official spokesmen who do the killing. Our brothers and sisters in the media also participate in the execution."  

With the release of the new report by the The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) on the 900+ lies used by the Bush junta to foment Iraq war-fever and invasion justifications (link: http://www.nytimes.com/... ), one would think it would be "front-page" news at every MSM outlet in the nation, ....but it's not.

One would also think that there would have been calls this morning by Democratic leaders for hearings, investigations, and impeachment proceedings, ....but there's not.

Why?

Tucked away in Saturday's edition of the Wall Street Journal is a simply stunning through the looking glass book review by Judith Miller. Not surprisingly, the wingnut editors who control certain pages of the WSJ (and will likely grow their power under Murdoch ownership) thought that Miller would be just the right person to review a new book on Curveball, the Iraqi fabricator whose lies the Bush-Cheney Administration broadcast as part of their Iraq War marketing strategy.

Not surprisingly, Miller uses the book review to launch yet another smear campaign against the CIA, saying it was responsible for the bad intelligence. She more or less dismisses any criticism of Bush and Cheney, and seems to think the half ass Congressional investigations on pre-war intelligence back this view. As I said, simply stunning stuff.

Links:

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/...
http://online.wsj.com/...

A newly released Gallup poll reveals a national trust gap with regard to the media. Amongst its findings is that less than half of respondents (48%) report having either a great or a fair amount confidence in the accuracy or fairness of the news media. The only thing surprising about that number is that it isn't much lower.

What is truly surprising is the distribution of views along partisan party lines. Republican's trust threshold bottoms out at 33%. Democrats, however, have a curiously high satisfaction with the media at 66%.

What's up with that?

Brought to you by...
News Corpse
The Internet's Chronicle Of Media Decay.

Today's New York Times editorial calls for the passage of a bipartisan shield law that would protect journalists from having to reveal their sources of information. The current bill that is up for passage is a bill that is being pushed by Charles Schumer and Arlen Specter that would protect journalists from having to disclose their sources of information except in cases of harm to national security or in cases of imminent attacks.

I remember that dreary fall of 2002 when Jim Lehrer would have Chuck Hagel and Richard Lugar and Joe Biden on about once a week to repeat again and again and again how the initial "defeat" of Iraq's "forces" could be and probably would be accomplished quite easily.
The problem, they practically shouted (I recall the very mellow Dick Lugar just bristle with disdain at some assbite from one of the neocon think-tanks) was Securing The Peace after our precision bombs had taken out the "valuable targets" they had.

How utterly shocking that Judith "we were proved fu*king right" Miller has formally joined the right-of-center think tank, Manhattan Institute. How shocking this is....I found that her bio below left out a few things. How convenient.

I don't know about you, but this sure calls into question a lot of the writing she did for NYTimes, wouldn't you say? :)

--

Press Release
September 6, 2007

Manhattan Institute Announces Two New Additions to its Team: Judith Miller and Richard Epstein

New York, NY: The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research is proud to announce the appointment of two new scholars, Judith Miller and Richard Epstein. These appointments strengthen the Manhattan Institute in two key policy areas – policing terrorism in urban areas around the country and reforming the nation’s legal system.

Michael O'Hanlon - Fifth Columnist

[Click here for larger image]

Micheal O'Hanlon and Ken Pollack join Judith Miller in the Fifth Columnist hall of fame.

Glenn Greenwald has been wielding the sword on this issue

"O'Hanlon's answers, along with several other facts now known, demonstrate rather conclusively what a fraud this Op-Ed was, and even more so, the deceitfulness of the intense news coverage it generated. Most of the critical attention in the immediate aftermath of the media blitz focused on the misleading depiction of the pro-war Pollack and O'Hanlon as "critics of the administration."

    (Courtesy of Roving Stone News Desk)

    Today Karl Rove resigned as President Bush's top adviser, giving the reason that he wanted to spend more time with blogger Francis L. Holland. Rove said, "F. Ho hates Kos, and so do I! We're brothers, yo!"
    Rove is said to be asking Holland to form a rap group with him, springing off the success of Rove's rap career. The working name of the group so far is the "Wack-Eyed Peas".

    Rumors are abounding that journalist Judith Miller will be playing the "Fergie" role in the group, and that either Scooter Libby, Joe Lieberman, or both, will fill in the missing slot(s). "Then again," Rove was heard whispering, "I dunno about this rap stuff--but it may be time for a menage-a-twit with Libby, Judy and me out in the lovely aspens!"

    In other news, Valerie Plame has not been successful in her lawsuit against Rove, but is now considering suing him for ear damage if Rove releases any records.

Part 1: Searching for a Future
Part 2: Cooperation
Part 3: Is Positivism the Cure?

Order: The Search for a Nonviolent Future

Thinking about leaves turning in Aspen

Ever since 9/11, much of the media has engaged in a brand of journalism that more closely resembled stenography. It consisted mainly of uncritically regurgitating White House misrepresentations of foreign policy and terrorist threats. This failure on the part of the fourth estate resulted in such travesties as the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, and the buttressing of an ever more imperious executive branch that brazenly ignored the Congress, the people, and the law. While some of the worst offenders later issued mea culpas, they obviously didn't learn very much.

Brought to you by...
News Corpse
The Internet's Chronicle Of Media Decay.

On May 11 Cheney warned Iran from the deck of an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf that the United States will not permit Iran to develope nuclear weapons. "With two carrier strike groups in the Gulf, we're sending clear messages to friends and adversaries alike."  

Cheney-Bush and their friends are orchestrating a continual stream of revelations about Iran's role in arming and training Iraqi militias. Joe Lieberman says the war has already begun. "Iran has initiated a deadly military confrontation with us, from bases in Iran, which we ignore at our peril, and at the peril of our allies throughout the Middle East."

In another parallel to the run-up to invading Iraq, a NYTimes reporter has a "source" for Iran's evil-doing who is weirdly similar to their "source" for the mobile bio-war labs in Iraq.

Judith Miller had "Curveball." Michael Gordon has "Hamid the Mute."

Michael Kinsley's NY Times editorial today conflating President Clinton's lies with Scooter Libby's illustrates a trap much more insidious than a so-called "Perjury Trap" that he feels poor Scooter shouldn't have faced; it is the Punditry Trap, in which a journalist must equate two sets of official misconduct, no matter how unequal their intent or consequence, in order to prove that his or her journalism is "fair and balanced".

by
Larry C Johnson (bio/blog)

Received a copy of David Corn's latest brilliance.  He takes NY Times columnist David Brooks to task and schools him.  

What David Corn did not know is that Mr. Brooks lives about 250 feet from my front door.  So I took the opportunity to pen the following note, welcoming him to the neighborhood, and giving him a copy of Mr. Corn's excellent work.  Here is my letter, which I dropped off yesterday:

3 July 2007
Larry Johnson
Bethesda, MD  20817

David (Brooks),

Read your NY Times piece today and felt compelled to comment a little more in depth.  You are correct in one respect, Plamegate is farce, but not in the way you imagine.  The farce is that folks like you are making farfetched excuses for perjury and obstruction of justice.  You piece today is dishonest on so many levels.  Fortunately, David Corn’s wit and imagination provide the appropriate skewering of your nonsense.  I’ve attached a copy.