I'll admit it. For weeks now, I've had my nose in the air, and the object of my disdain has been.... "Gannongate."
I've gone along posting diaries about energy, the statistics behind the Iraqi election, and comparing the decision making styles of the Bush White House with early days in the Kennedy administration. And while these diaries sank and the recommended list was dominated by one Gannon story after another, I secretly sneered.
What a stupid story. A lying right-wing reporter. What a shocker! I mean, maybe Brit Hume should be covering that on Fox, huh? And he was gay, too. Man, we hate gays. Most of all I've blamed all those Gannon stories for driving my well-researched, meticulously written, and eminently thoughtful diaries off the front page.
Only it turns out that I didn't have my nose in the air so much as my head up my ass.
Over the last couple of days, I've started to really read the Gannon stories. And what I've found is that:
- there's a real story here. Yes, it took me a long, long time to notice what folks on dKos had brought together, but... damn that's a story. It has it's tawdry "blue dress" elements, but those will only help get through the front door. Mr. and Mrs. America will come for the gay prostitute, and stay for the lying, the breach of national security, and the naked attempt to turn news conferences into pep rallies. There is probably more potential to degrade Bush's trust in this story than there is in a dozen Halliburtons, odd as that is to say.
- dKos people have done an amazing job. An AMAZING job. A I-tempted-to-use-bold-and-div-tags-to-shout-even-louder job. From Susan's heavy lifting at the start of this thing, to NYBri's effort to give the press an injection of facts, you really have been head and shoulders better than the people writing front pages. Two heads are better than one, and tens of thousands of dKos investigators, writers, and thinkers are miles better than the 50 reporters sitting around the Washington Post.
This is the story that tips the balance. Not only will this leave a permanent stain on the Bush administration (and I don't want to know the contents of that stain), it's the story that shows once and for all that you're
better than the regular media. That you can get it done faster, more completely, and even
better written than folks with Pulitzer's on their mantles. This story will be remembered for more than the damage it does to Bush.
You people are better than them, and you're better than me.
Salute!
(oh, and the people sending me email about the Bush = Kennedy diary, you can stop now. I get it. I'm a worm. Thank you.)