We have known intuitively for years that the media was cowed by the right wing noise machine. Any time a fact that was uncomfortable about Republicans is published, the Right WIng Noise Machine (RWNM) screams at the media about "liberal bias" in their reporting. So called liberal pundits like Joe Klein have been guiltier than most for regurgitating right wing talking points, doing wanton character attacks on Clinton, Gore, Dean, Kerry or whomever the Democrats offer as a choice due to their "kookiness" or lack of mainstream values.
Well, Time Magazine has decided to start a new blog called Swampland a few weeks ago. There, Joe Klein, Ana Marie Cox, Jay Carney, and Karen Tumulty give little snippets of conventional wisdom and typical anti democrat boiler plate.
(more on the flip)
They have been hammered. Relentlessly, unmercilessly. Several times already they have had to write "corrections" when an army of angry readers have called bullshit on their spew. Last week, Joe Klein went so far as to agreeing with the "Nicaragua" option, using death squads to go after militias, and had to update with a correctionthat he didn't want Catholic Nuns to be murdered.
Jay Carney wrote an inane post about how the Attorney firings weren't that big of a deal, because now there were checks and balances on that stuff. After a thorough roasting, he issues a clarification on that one as well.
Karen Tumulty wrote about a Republican Aide who swore to her that the Republicans would compromise and work on campaign finance reform before the Republicans poison pilled it, and was ripped a new one, until she issued a weak "clarification" of what she had posted. Ana Marie Cox has also been on the bash Hillary for bullshit reasons angle, accusing her of getting a Republican congressman to pretend he was sick for a day to avoid sharing the spotlight with Obama. She also passed on the stupid rumor that Hillary Clinton faked talking to somebody on the cell phone Friday to avoid answering questions from reporters.
I bring this all up to set up the scene. For a few weeks now, Time's "bloggers" have been peddling the most inane Gang of 500 Heatheresque bullshit. They have been called on it, repeatedly, continually. They are used to this treatment from conservatives, but not from the left. So I click over there this morning and see the following from Joe Klein.
The effort to slime Barack Obama has begun in the slimiest possible way. I received the following from an outraged reader, who had received it from a friend:
Probable U. S. presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black Muslim from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white atheist from Wichita, Kansas. Obama's parents met at the University of Hawaii. > > > > When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father returned to Kenya. His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a radical Muslim from Indonesia. When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to Indonesia. Obama attended a Muslim school in Jakarta. He also spent two years in a Catholic school. > > > > Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. (snip)
Now, this is nonsense of course. Obama's stepfather was not a Muslim extremist (among other things, he worked for Shell Oil). Obama attended public school for two years in Indonesia, in addition to the two years he spent in catholic schools--although, as Obama's staff points out, Indonesia is a Muslim country, so the public schools undoubtedly reflect the dominant relgious culture. The notion that the Obama's school was a Wahabi madrasa is laughable, given the moderate form of Islam practiced in Indonesia, especially in those days. I should add: that Obama actually spent four years attending local public and Catholic schools in a third world country--as opposed to the U.S. embassy school--should be considered a major advantage for a prospective American President.
Huh? Is that Joe Klein reporting here? A smear is way off base, and he did actual investigation to learn the truth about a candidate? Catch me folks, I think I am getting the vapors.
Later, Ana Marie Cox, chimed in.
The humorless but dedicated folks at Media Matters have been on this scurrilous Obama-the-Bomber story for days, but I'm sad to say that this is one instance in which they seem quite right about the truth still getting its boots on while the lie does the herky-jerky during the credits of "24."
What's especially brilliant about this smear is that it's a two-fer: Insight
originally claimed that the "intel" on Obama's secret jihadi past came from Hillary. So for every true neanderthal who believes the madrassa slam, there will be a slightly more evolved humanoid who gets that it's a smear but who has a bad taste in his mouth over the underhanded tactics Hillary supposedly used.
Forgetting the Media Matters snark, just a few days earlier Cox had been repeating bullshit Hillary rumors as if they were fact. She wakes up this morning though, and decides that she will attack the rumor for a change and not Hillary Clinton for something she was not involved with here.
The point is that pressure works. The change in attitude the start of this week at the Swampland is proof of it. They decided to create a Conventional Wisdom, Right Wing Talking Points oasis, and a lot of people out there, thanks to the handy comments function said bullshit. I would encourage everybody to use this as a motivational tool when dealing with the MSM. They can be badgered, cajoled, and shamed into doing the right thing, just as easily as the wingnuts scared them into printing crap.