Posted on 04/27/2006 9:52:37 AM PDT by Mobile Vulgus
According to an entry in Media Bistro's DC Fishbowl, New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller has sent out an email whining that the Media are so put upon as to imagine they might be forced to martyrdom at the hands of the nefarious Bush administration, cheered on by Bush's henchmen.
I don't know about you, but I hear the strains of the world's tiniest violin wafting through the air. Or, as my sainted Mother always said when we kids were complaining, "Let's throw a pity party" for him. Galileo-like, Keller seems to imagine he is headed for persecution by the mighty and powerful, sure that his actions and the actions of his brethren are blameless and right.
I sense eyes rolling all across the county.
Mr. Keller's email begins:
"I'm not sure journalists fully appreciate the threat confronting us -- The Times in the eavesdropping case, the Post for its CIA prison stories, and everyone else who has tried to look behind the war on terror."You are right, Mr. Keller, neither you nor your fellows "appreciate the threat confronting us". Since you see that threat as the United States, absolving entirely those who would kill each and every one of us and destroy our civilization, you seem to totally miss the threats in the times in which we live.
(Excerpt) Read more at publiusforum.com ...
We know what the mediot meme would be, after all, if republicans were caught using the CIA to wage war on a sitting Democratic president. There would be a straight year of media coverage dedicated to the dangers of the CIA, "shadow government," and the consolidation of political power in Washington.
Now? Well, the PR insects are busy re-framing the issue.
Superb article! Thanks for posting it.
Here's some more excerpts:
"Maybe we're suffering a bit of subpoena fatigue. Maybe some people are a little intimidated by the way the White House plays the soft-on-terror card."
Or maybe, the Bush administration is SOFT on the "soft-on-terror" card, since NONE of you are really under any direct threat of that dreaded subpoena.
"Whatever the reason, I worry that we're not as worried as we should be. No president likes reporters sniffing after his secrets, but most come to realize that accountability is the price of power in our democracy."
In other words, you have intimidated every president since Truman and you feel that is the natural order of things. Bad assumption, mate.
"Some officials in this administration, and their more vociferous cheerleaders, seem to have a special animus towards reporters doing their jobs."
No one would be upset if all you did was your job, Mr. Keller. But, where the glee rests is within your "profession", not those "Vociferous cheerleaders" you so despise. It veritably oozes from your work exposing National Security secrets. It shimmers from your every attempt to undermine the rooting out of terrorists. It calls out in high pitched squeals as you propound a recognition of the "rights" of terrorists as all the while you step on the rights of those terrorism injures.
The legal business must be on the upswing today, considering the amount of rats in the media who may need to seek legal counsel due to links with the shadow government of former Clintonista mafia figures inside the Washington beltway who may be investigated.
Re#4 You're likely more right than you know. Take a looksee at this very encouraging blog's last couple days' entries on the l'affaire McCarthy: http://macsmind.blogspot.com/
This is why I firmly believe the MSM poses the greatest threat to this country. They, along with their Democrat brethren, have been attempting to criminalize politics and policy...especially that embraced by Republicans. The so-called benign "double-standard" that we see daily in the press...and often just dismiss as bias, has become institutionalized as a genuine weapon to use against their opponents; they've literally created an almost two-tier justice system for Democrats and Republicans.
Just like with the revelations and exposition of Deepthroat (Mark Felt), this recent CIA leaker is also being heralded as a heroic Whistleblower...despite the fact that she broke the law. The hypocrisy is astounding...and frankly, dangerous.
Whenever Democrat malfeasance is exposed, the media never concentrates on the substance of the charge. On the contrary, they ignore the substance and attack the leaker and treat him/her as the one who engaged in criminal activity. This was never more evident than the numerous leaks of Democrat strategy memos, where the media ignored the substance of those memos and instead went after those who made them public.
Yet, when the roles are reversed and the possibility exists for Republicans to be harmed, the leaker is automatically assigned Whistleblower status, despite any obvious laws that may have been broke. Unlike the digging the media does in an effort to assign political/personal bias to any attack made against Democrats, they simply accept at face value any charge that is leveled at Republicans. You don't have to look any further than the Plame Game to see this.
Chuck Colson went to jail for possessing and disseminating one FBI file; yet within the Clinton WH were over 700 FBI files that no one was ever held accountable. And if dissemination of one's personal file is a crime, no one in the media seemed to care when one of Linda Tripp's superiors (Ken Bacon) disseminated her personal files to the media.
Just the fact that Linda Tripp was threatened with jail for taping a conversation to protect herself was a joke. The media didn't have any of those same concerns for privacy when a Florida couple taped a conversation between Gingrich and Boehner...that not only ended up in the hands of a partisan Democrat (McDermott), but was also illegaly transcribed by the NY Times.
The MSM has become so much more than just biased. What they and the Democrats haven't been able to gain through the ballot box, is now being stolen by underhanded means. I use to think that judicial activism was just one way that democrats could get legislation enacted without congressional approval; but now it has become a source for punishing their opponents (just look at Delay) and establishing a seperate legal system for everyone else. Democrats and their mediabots aren't just attempting to criminalize policy...they're attempting to criminalize conservatism. This is no longer just a double-standard.
Yep. It really is amazing (no, sick) what they will do to try to regain power...
Of course, they don't mind when Muslims demand that they not run cartoons, but that's not an attack on free speech...
I wholeheartedly agree with you and we are in critical times.
The MSM's has an overblown ego. They think they are the kingmakers. They think they have the power to determine if any action is a crime or not and to determine guilt or innocence.
There is no such thing an an "independent" press when all outlets spread the same talking points, support ONE platform and demonize the other.
Apparently, they're immune from being investigted.
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