Thursday, April 07, 2005

The swift-boating of the Schiavo memo

Many people across the liberal side of the blogosphere are waxing exultant over the authentication of the Schiavo memo [Blogoland's earlier, smug thoughts here]. They should celebrate for about 5 seconds. Remember how good you felt when you found out that most of the Swift Boat veterans' claims were false and came from a bunch of self-contradicting, lying kooks? In the end, it didn't matter, the story was already out: KerryTraitorLiar.

In fact, thinking about it more tonight, and after reading a brilliant comment on a blog I now cannot find, there should be little cause for celebration. Let's review what has happened:

1) Two news organizations [WaPo and ABC News] accurately portray the distribution of a GOP-authored memo to GOP senators, deftly illustrating the cravenness of such lawmakers in pursuit of this case.

2) Republican lawmakers vehemently deny even having seen the memo, let knowledge of its author.

3) Right-wing bloggers begin to attack the reporting on the memo, alleging, even stating in no uncertain terms, that the memo is certainly bogus and a Democratic dirty trick.

4) The entirety of the right-wing noise machine jumps in, mouths wide and frothing, to attack the memo, asserting above.

6) The Washington Post's own media reporter, goaded by the machine, writes several articles on the matter, and even schedules one of the chief "bogus memo" peddlers onto his CNN show, but the show is bumped by PopeDead news.

7) The author of the memo, a staffer for a Republican Senator, steps forward to claim authorship

So, do the math: Two weeks of constant Memo-Is-Fake!!! non-news, followed by what will almost certainly be a blip tomorrow in this news-heavy week. Add to that the hilarious non-apologies from the perpetrators of the BogusBogus story that have already begun to trickle in. It doesn't add up. For many minds across this country the memo has always been and will always be, a fake.

Permalink posted by Jonathan : 1:33 AM



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