This is incredible. Greenwald catalogues the ways Democrats tried to push back against Joe Klein's FISA lies (the ones he now doesn't have the time or background to understand), and how Time rebuffed them every time.
First, Sen. Russ Feingold submitted a letter to Time protesting the false statements in Klein's article. But Time refused to publish it. Sen. Feingold's spokesman said that the letter "was submitted to TIME very shortly after Klein's column ran but the letters department was about as responsive as the column was accurate."
The Chicago Tribune, which ran Klein's bullshit, was more than happy to let Feingold set the record straight in its pages.
Second, Rep. Rush Holt -- before he published his response in The Huffington Post detailing Klein's false claims -- asked that he be given the opportunity to respond to Klein's false column directly on Time's Swampland, where Klein was in the process of making all sorts of statements compounding his errors. But Time also denied Rep. Holt the opportunity to bring his response to the attention of Time's readers.
According to Zach Goldberg, Rep. Holt's spokesman: "Rep. Holt had an email exchange with Mr. Klein about FISA and his column. During the exchange, Rep. Holt made a request to respond with a Swampland post to clarify what is really in the RESTORE Act. Mr. Klein noted he already issued a public apology and did not accept the request."
So already, Time has refused the requests of two members of Congress, a senator and a congressman who BOTH sit on their respective intelligence committees and have had a role in drafting the FISA legislation in question. So Time allows these Democrats to be smeared, but then refuses them the opportunity to rebut Klein's lies.
And it gets worse:
Third, at least 100 individuals wrote letters to Time's editors protesting Klein's article and responding to its claims. I know this because that's how many people (at least) cc'd me on their letters, forwarded them to me, and/or copied their Letters to the Editor in the Comment section here. Managing Editor Rick Stengel's voice mail and email box overflowed with responses.
Nonetheless, Time -- while publishing 15 separate letters on a whole array of topics in its print edition this week -- did not see fit to publish a single letter about the Klein falsehoods. At every step, they sought to hide from their readers -- and continue to hide from their readers -- just how outrageous and severe were Klein's false statements by suppressing all responses.
And there's even MORE!
Finally, Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post and CNN -- who dives head-first into every right-wing blog controversy -- has been completely mute about the Klein/Time scandal, even though it was one of the central focuses of blogs for more than a full week and relates directly to the media criticism issues he is ostensibly assigned to cover. Worse, Kurtz has now been asked about this matter by multiple readers in two consecutive weekly Monday chats he hosts at the Post, but has refused to take a single question about it.
He's probably buddies with Klein, and the pundits protect each other.
And even though Greenwald wrote "finally" in that paragraph above, in and update we find that there's yet MORE:
I just learned that in addition to all of the above, a letter was also sent to Time jointly from House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes. Although they communicated with Time in advance and advised them that the letter was coming, Time has not published this letter either.
So we have responses from Sen. Feingold and Rep. Holt, who sit on their respective chambers' intelligence committees. We have letters from the CHAIRMEN of the House judiciary and intelligence committees. We have letters from at least 100 Time readers. And NONE of it gets on the pages or website of Time as they seek to protect Joe Klein's fragile ego.
We can't have anyone think Klein is fallible!
Update: From the comments:
I'm glad to know that our representatives weren't being silent, they were silenced.
Comments are closed on this story.