Running on Hearsay--John Kerry looks to the black helicopter crowd for votes.

Wall St Journal ^ | March 23, 2004 | LAWRENCE F. KAPLAN

[SJackson]

In a campaign soon to be measured in weeks, this promises to be a very good week for Democrats. On Sunday, former counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke took to the airwaves to accuse the Bush team of ignoring the issue of terrorism for eight months "when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11" -- leaving unsaid exactly what the Clinton team, of which Mr. Clarke was also a member, was doing for the previous eight years. Today, too, a parade of former Clinton administration officials will appear before Congress, presumably to make the same case. By the end of the week, John Kerry will surely be echoing their claims, with a conspiratorial twist.

[Diogenesis]

NOW:

"Please buy my new book which lists the "soft sites" to be targetted by terrorists
all around America; and leaks and leaks and leaks US secrets mixed with my delusions.
Yes, my book IS owned by CBS. Did not Lesley Stahl tell you?.
I was the greatest in DC because I use remote viewing; and I see that my
book will one of "the" future terrorist handbooks.
And don't forget to vote for John Kerry in at least a few states, OK?"

---

FLASHBACK:

"Mr. Clarke, Mr. Clarke, this urgent. We can take out Osama. Please!!! We have him in our sight."

Clarke: "Nope. Forgetaboutit. No big deal. They will attack our Apple computers first."

---

PARTIAL LIST OF TERRORIST ACTIVITIES IGNORED BY CLARKE
AND CONDUCTED BY TERRORISTS SUPPORTED BY CBS (WHICH OWNS CLARKE'S BOOK AS Ms. STAHL REFUSED TO ADMIT)

1993 Attempted Assassination of Pres. Bush Sr., April 14,1993
1993 First World Trade Center bombing, February 26th, 7 Killed, Hundreds injured, Billions
1995 Attack on US Diplomats in Pakistan, Mar 8,1995
1996 Khobar Towers attack
1998 U.S. Embassy Bombing in Peru, Jan 15, 1998
1998 U.S. Kenya Embassy blown up, 100's murdered
1998 U.S. Tanzania Embassy blown up, 100's murdered
1999 Plot to blow up Space Needle (thwarted)
2000 USS Cole attacked, many U.S. Navy sailors murdered

[rrrod]

hey buchananistas and JBScrewballs are ya listening?

[An.American.Expatriate]

God how I hate those pictures from 9/11 - but it is good to see them again every one in a while - helps maintain perspective...

[Diogenesis]

They remind. So will this.

GOTTA HEAR THIS (911 in sound ~ 3 megabytes)

=====> (click here, or download with right mouse button)

[OESY]

By the end of the week, John Kerry will surely be echoing their claims, with a conspiratorial twist.... Hence, just as John Kerry says he heard from "a friend of mine who was in Paris the other day" that France really does intend to further America's cause in Iraq, and just as he heard that he has a lock on the votes of foreign leaders, the candidate has also "heard" a series of much more bizarre conjectures....

One could argue, as many do, that the Democratic Party's embrace of the paranoid style in American politics amounts to evidence of vigorous populist dissent... But at this particular historical moment, when the U.S. itself has become the object of murderous conspiracy theories, a line of argument that rejects critical thinking, exploits paranoia at the expense of reason and ignores the contingency of events in search of plots the powerful few implement at the expense of the powerless many -- this is not simply the everyday pollution of political discourse. It is the nullification of political discourse. If it is true that the sleep of reason breeds monsters, then we may awaken in November to a nasty surprise indeed.

To quote candidate Kerry is to mislead the American public.

[risk]

Saddam's capture was timed explicitly to give Jim McDermott recurring nightmares.

[Tijeras_Slim]

So what... but if he gets the Chemtrail Vote, it might be different.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Every time Kerry opens his mouth, the GOP has a new TV ad.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

a line of argument that rejects critical thinking, exploits paranoia at the expense of reason and ignores the contingency of events in search of plots the powerful few implement at the expense of the powerless many . . . is not simply the everyday pollution of political discourse.

It is the nullification of political discourse.

I put it to you that political discourse is not nullified but vigorously exerted here on FR and on the typical "right wing" talk radio show, but it is nullified in news reporting. Political discourse can be nullified only to the extent that the mind is diverted from reason, and the format of discourse known as "news" is designed to do that in two ways:

1. by rejecting self-criticism, which is the implication of claiming objectivity and using power (in this case, PR power) to "reject labels." That is what journalists do - and journalists allow Teddy Kennedy to do exactly the same thing.
2. by using the deadline and the arbitrary enforcement of the "rules" which determine what is news and what is not. Journalism's agenda is that journalism be important, the corollary is that what journalism can easily cover is important. Since government happens at a predetermined place and time, journalists know where to be, when, to cover it - in the same way that a sports reporter knows where and when to put his TV camera to capture the drama of a ball game. The principle that the least government is the best government is actual liberalism; the principle that government should be dominant is the ersatz "liberalism" of the socialist.

   Why Broadcast Journalism is
   Unnecessary and Illegitimate

[E.G.C.]

Media bias bump.