Molly Ivins Says She`s Sorry

Ask the Monitor to describe the columnist Molly Ivins while standing on one foot and there would be no fumbling for words. Molly Ivins is a nasty piece of work. The rest is commentary.

Ivins, a Texan who`s described herself as "a left-wing, aging Bohemian journalist," delivers her hard left views in prose distinguished by mean-spirited potshots marinated in a somewhat labored cornpone populism.

According to the iconoclastic author Florence King, Ivins is a "professional Good Ole Girl....Watching her go through her paces is like watching Ona Munson, who played Belle Watling in ‘Gone With the Wind,` doing an imitation of Spencer Tracy playing Clarence Darrow in ‘Inherit the Wind.` That`s a lot of wind."

King is more than a disinterested observer — she wrote those words in a 1995 column for The American Enterprise titled "Molly Ivins, Plagiarist." Ivins, you see, had paid King the ultimate writer`s tribute by appropriating several passages of King`s work — though in some cases without proper attribution. King acknowledged that Ivins had on certain occasions cited her as a source, "but never where it counts. She credits me on minor observations, but when the subject is politics — her turf — she plagiarizes me."

Ivins apologized to King, saying she was "deeply ashamed," but characterized her literary transgression as one of sloppiness rather than premeditated theft. "I have no idea how the indirect quotations got scrambled up," she told the Washington Post at the time of the controversy. "I thought I had credited her every time I used her."

(Accusations of plagiarism were directed at Ivins again a few years later when a Texas publication, the Fort Worth Weekly, said she`d taken a story from its pages and misrepresented it as her own.)

The latest contretemps involving our Good Ole Girl were sparked by a column of hers at the end of June in which she insisted her opposition to the invasion of Iraq was based on her unimpeachable patriotism — and then proceeded to deliver herself of the following remarkable statement: "I think we have alienated our allies and have killed more Iraqis than Saddam Hussein ever did." (Emphasis added)

Conservative bloggers had a field day with Ivins`s lunacy, and in a matter of days Ivins issued an apology that only served to raise new questions about her honesty and integrity:

"In a column written June 28, I asserted that more Iraqis (civilians) had now been killed in this war than had been killed by Saddam Hussein over his 24-year rule. WRONG. Really, really wrong.

"The only problem is figuring out by how large a factor I was wrong. I had been keeping an eye on civilian deaths in Iraq for a couple of months, waiting for the most conservative estimates to creep over 20,000, which I had fixed in my mind as the number of Iraqi civilians Saddam had killed....

"Ha! I could hardly have been more wrong, no matter how you count Saddam`s killing of civilians. According to Human Rights Watch, Hussein killed several hundred thousand of his fellow citizens.... Saddam`s regime left 271 mass graves, with more still being discovered....There have been estimates as high as 1 million civilians killed by Saddam, though most agree on the 300,000 to 400,000 range, making my comparison to 20,000 civilian dead in this war pathetically wrong....

"My sincere apologies. It is unforgivable of me not to have checked. I am so sorry."

Did you catch Ivins`s confession that she "had been keeping an eye on civilian deaths in Iraq...waiting for the most conservative estimates to creep over 20,000"? So fixated was Ivins on bad-mouthing the U.S. that she was itching for the chance to portray the American military as a greater killer of Iraqis than the murdering despot the Americans had forcibly removed.

And when Ivins thought she finally had her opening, she recklessly rushed into print with something so outrageously untrue that she had no choice but to grovel once the gravity of her error became clear. Agree or disagree with her politics, can any serious person take her seriously?

The Stone Age Press has become nothing more than a giant Echo Chamber where all the reporters write to each other. The groupthink has become so predictable that if you read or hear one reporter you’ve heard them all. Where has all the original though or creativity gone in an industry that is based on painting history with words? There are two main forces blowing through PravdABDNC that are stifling all diversity of thought. The first is the absolute bias towards the DNC and the other is the fear of going against their Establishment.

Is there any wonder that the Conservative writers continually have best sellers while liberals only have cellars. America is starved for writers they agree with, yet they are continually insulted by reporters who show nothing but contempt for them and their way of life. This is no way to expand your business or even keep the customers you already have. This Country is divided 52-48% Republican, yet the scribes of history are 90% Democrat. How can they report about a Conservative Country when they have no desire to understand?

How has this Industry become so disenfranchised from it’s customer base? Simple really, the reporters write for each other and know that if they all agree then virtually nobody can be wrong. Take for example of the election. Even though GW had always polled the lead, the press hoped that Kerry would close at the end and take Florida. To predict otherwise would put you in the minority and if you were wrong you would have to explain why you went against the common group thought. If you were right then the group will just say that it was an upset and cover their error. Since everyone is in agreement there is no threat to lose face and maintain your expert status since you were all wrong together. If you are wrong by yourself you have more explaining to do.

This is how the Stoned Agers have maintained such catch phrases as Bush Lied, WMD, pre-emptive 18 month rushed into, go it alone coalition. It allows lies to be maintained with none of the established reporters willing to buck the tide even had they wanted. All of the awards and front page stories are given to the scribes who are the most accepted and those are the ones who do not take risks. Now all of the front page reporters are complete DNC spokesmen which leaves a vacuum of divergent thought. Everybody wants their little awards and will do what it takes to receive those awards. You sure won’t soon see Ann Coulter’s name on those little dust catchers.

The major drum & bugle we are going hear over the next couple years will be that Harpy clinton is an automatic for President. None of these ancients will go against the group-think since it will put them out on a limb along with the caster nation of their peers. Nobody will give an honest evaluation of her lack of warmth/humility or shrieking skills. Imagine her telling self deprivating humor? So we will hear nothing except what a great candidate/screecher she is. The fact is that she is a lousy candidate, a poor debater and sagging in the polls. She very may well lose her Senate seat in a “huge” upset. You read it here first and the Old York Times, have they endorsed yet; will make excuses.

The lack of diversity and creativity will be the death of these Dinosores. With a sophisticated audience and a shortened attention span these old formulas no longer work. When most information was stored and researched in books, attention spans could tolerate boring one sided stories. With the advent of 24 hour news and the internet we no longer have the time or patience to tolerate their droll.

What was once an industry supposedly filled with truth seekers is now a megaphone of the DNC. That and the lack of an original thought over the past 20 or so years and you have the Stone Age Press up to it’s nostrils in the tarpits of histoir. The literal bankruptcy of that industry would bring about a Free Press that not only has the political freedom but an intellectual freedom that has long since left. It is not pretty to see these status quo reporters in their death rattles as they invent scandal after scandal in a transparent attempt to return to their glory. You can bet that the Buggy manufacturers had the same desperate smirks on their faces as the Model T splashed mud on their freshly shined shoes.
Enough braying.

Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters

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