Have you noticed something lately? The MSM and the right side of the blogosphere seem to be in an active war of words now, as opposed to the occasional skirmishes.
First came “RaTHergate” (or Memogate, whichever you choose to call it), where Dan Rather and others at “60 Minutes Wednesday” tried to use fake memos to smear President Bush, to try to influence the outcome of the elections, which was exposed by the right side of the blogosphere (Powerline, Ratherbiased, LGF, and others). Then the MSM, and Kerry, tried to shoot back with the ‘missing explosives’ at a military base in Iraq (which had been removed and accounted for months earlier by US forces in the area), trying to fabricate a scandal just prior to the election, to also attempt to influence the election.
Then, after the election, there were the revelations of conservative pundits being paid by the current administration to promote the Presidents agenda, and you could hear the outrage from the MSM and the left side of the blogosphere, mixed with glee at the ‘outing’ of those conservative pundits. The right side of the blogosphere chimed in with condemnation in the one case, and chided the other individual for not disclosing the fact that she did some ghost writing for the administration, but chalked that up to a learning experience.
Then, the former head of the news division of CNN, Mr. Eason Jordan, stated categorically but without giving specific evidence, that the US military was ‘targeting’ journalists, that they had in fact killed 12 journalists in Iraq, and that this was official policy of the military. Rep. Barney Frank, a liberal Democrat, immediately challenged this statement by Mr. Jordan, asking for proof. Mr. Jordan then tried to back off of his allegation, saying later that he was misunderstood and/or misquoted. CNN then sent out an e-mail statement to media outlets, as well as to bloggers who had picked up on these allegations, to say that Mr. Jordan was misquoted and didn’t mean to imply that the US military was doing this on purpose. However, the genie was already out of the bottle, and a blogswarm resulted, eventually leading to the resignation of Mr. Jordan. If you aren’t familiar with this story (Which planet have you been visiting lately? Just kidding), go to Captain's Quarter’s CNN archive to catch up.
Meanwhile, the MSM was for the most part, silent on the whole episode, especially CNN. Then, Bret Stephens of the WSJ OpinionJournal (free registration required) weighed in on this episode, calling the whole thing a "kerfuffle" (and a minor one at that), and became very condescending towards those who had dared to blog about the statement made by Mr. Jordan, calling the bloggers amateurs among other things, basically implying that they didn’t have the right to say anything about what Mr. Jordan had said.
Just a quick aside – you may be wondering why I haven’t posted on what Captain Ed of CQ refers to as “Eason’s Fables”. Well, for one thing, I really didn’t have the time, and for another, all the ‘Big Blogs’ like CQ, Powerline, Hugh Hewitt, etc. were all over it, and things were happening so fast, I just couldn’t keep up, to be honest.
At any rate, back to my thread. Then the MSM, and the left side of the blogosphere, took great delight in ‘outing’ James Guckert (who used the nom-de-plume Jeff Gannon), who was employed by the small conservative news outlet, Talon News, for having the audacity of asking ‘softball’ questions of President Bush – as if that is a crime. As the MSM and the left side of the blogosphere dug deeper, they found out that Mr. Guckert had a seedy past – he was gay, and had posted some x-rated pictures of himself on a gay escort web site, among other things; being gay apparently is ok if you are a Liberal gay, but not ok if you are a Conservative gay – and after the left side of the blogosphere posted some of Mr. Guckert’s pictures on their blogs, Mr. Guckert resigned from Talon News. The MSM were strangely silent on the allegations made by Mr. Jordan, which if true would have made Abu Ghraib a mere ‘hiccup’, but took great glee in reporting on Mr. Guckert. NBC news used almost five minutes one night this past week on this story (5 minutes on TV is an exceptional amount of time to use in reporting anything).
Now, there are questions about Mr. Bush smoking pot. According to an AP story aired by King 5 which is now posted on their web site (free registration required) - states that the New York Times ran a story of alleged secret tapes made by Doug Wead, a former Assistant to George H. W. Bush, revealed to Times reporters this little tidbit –
Bush also criticize[d] then-Vice President Al Gore for admitting marijuana use and explains why he would not do the same.
"I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions," he said, according to the Times. "You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."
According to the article, Wead played 12 of the tapes to a Times reporter. He said he recorded them because he viewed Bush as a historic figure. He is the author of a new book on presidential childhoods.
The White House did not deny the authenticity of the tapes.
"The governor was having casual conversations with someone he believed was his friend," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said, referring to Bush.
CQ has posted on this here.
Whether or nor Mr. Bush smoked pot is immaterial to his fitness to be the President of the United States, just as was the case for Bill Clinton (“I never inhaled”). This “kerfuffle” is just the latest attempt by the MSM to “shoot back” at both President Bush and the right side of the blogosphere. They don't realize it yet, but they missed – again.
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