A Plague of Toadies (Maureen Down extremely bitter)

The New York Times ^ | Maureen Dowd

[nathanbedford]

Thank you for your valuable contribution.

Ms Dowd prefaced the quote, "support the administration and its policies in our work.'' with, "In an ominous echo of the old loyalty oaths, Mr. Goss has warned employees at the agency that their job is to..."

So the distortion actually comes in with the selective omission, "We provide the intelligence as we see it—and let the facts alone speak to the policymaker." artfully jusxtaposed against the unjustified presumptive conclusion made clearly inapposite by the omission. The fraudulent preamble reads,"In an ominous echo of the old loyalty oaths, Mr. Goss has warned employees at the agency..." and it simply cannot be persuasively coupled with an exhortation to call 'em as ye sees 'em.

Not a misquote but a selective quote coupled with unjustified conclusionary language which renders the whole a distortion. In some ways, an artful distortion is more malevolent than a bald faced misquote.

Shame on Ms. Dowd.

[AmishDude]

Par for the course for Dowd, but what's worse -- from her point of view -- is not that she's dishonest, but that she's unoriginal. It's nothing but conventional wisdom reheated.