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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Saturday, January 14, 2006

More on the Swiftboating of Murtha

Look, media assholes, the "swiftboating" of John Murtha only exists if you are complicit. CNS can put whatever lies they want on their website and only the few regular people who go to that site will ever be aware of the false claims.

But when you take the bait, when you act as an amplifier for people who are attacking honorable veterans, you give their claims credence and breadth that they could only dream of.

Do you think the "swiftboating" of John Kerry could have taken place had you not featured its proponents "claims" and spokespeople on your news shows? You treated it as a controversy, a he said/she said story without even checking out the facts. Those guys started out with only enough money to run a couple of ads in a couple of local markets. A tiny little blip. That's all.

Then for two weeks, you had these guys, and their unfounded claims, on my every TV news show in the country for hours and hours and hours, repeatedly replaying their ads to a national audience for free. You gave their claims credibility. You gave them media access. All without even checking out their story.

The rightwing didn't conduct the "Swiftboating," Wolf Blitzer did. And Chris Matthews, and Tim Russert.

So, maybe, before you give free airtime to destroy another veteran who VOLUNTEERED for Vietnam and served there honorably, you could maybe check out the facts.

I guess I'm expecting too much(WAPO Page A05).

Oh, and by the way, do you not see the bullshit that this hits the press a day or two before Murtha's 60 Minutes interview where Murtha claims that the Bush administration will pull back almost all the troops from Iraq for purely domestic political reasons prior to the 2006 midterm elections?

(Sorry for all the cursing, but this media behavior is just so irresponsible. It makes me crazy.)

5 Comments:

  • Good post. Our media is a joke. They're more concerned with getting sound bites that hook people in than getting to the truth.

    Putting the media aside, what happened to respect in this country, and how can so many people allow themselves to get sucked into this garbage? When will the public wake up and realize that nothing you do or say - past or present - is ever good enough for the GOP unless it falls in line with their ideology. They are right all the time and everyone else is wrong all the time.

    By Blogger Kathy, at 12:24 PM  

  • That withdrawal from Iraq dovetails nicely with Atrios' "how it goes" post.

    By Blogger the spook, at 12:57 PM  

  • It's such a display of delicacy that the media and the Rethugs are castigating the Dems for questioning Samuel Alito's actions 20 years ago (his CAP membership), but find it eminently reasonable to review the decades-old war wound record of a 40-year military veteran like John Murtha.

    By Blogger Motherlode, at 12:59 PM  

  • That's a great point motherlode, I hadn't made that connection.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:06 PM  

  • Who says Wolf Blitzer did. And Chris Matthews, and Tim Russert aren't part of the rightwing.

    This has been a hugely successful strategy by them: Say it till it's true.

    By Blogger Justin, at 1:11 PM  

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