Oh Those Gadflies
Jerome Corsi, one of the Swift Boat liars, or, as The New York Times calls him a “conservative gadfly,” has a new book out that apparently, among other things, repeats the ludicrous charge that Barack Obama is some kind of secret Muslim. To Mary Matalin this is “a piece of scholarship, and a good one at that.”
Joe Klein is not amused by this stuff:
Back in the day, John McCain was the sort of politician who would stand first in line to call out this sort of swill. (As, I’m sure Barack Obama or John Kerry would do, if some hate-crazed, money-grubbing left-winger published a book claiming that McCain had been successfully brainwashed in Vietnam–as Kerry did indeed do when a group of spurious Bush-backing Vietnam vets tried to claim exactly that about McCain during the 2000 Republican primary in South Carolina.)
But we’re not seeing those sorts of claims being made about McCain this year…because Democrats tend not to do that sort of thing. They are the sorts of claims that Republicans–Bush Republicans–make. They range from the blatantly extra-curricular, like Corsi’s book, to the official McCain-sanctioned introduction made by Joe Lieberman–of all people–yesterday: that Obama doesn’t “put America first.”
What’s more, beyond the specific case Klein rightly recognizes that these right-wing smear artists are taking advantage of structural flaws in the elite media (”I know that people like me are supposed to try to be fair…and balanced . . . In the past, I would achieve a semblance–or an illusion–of balance by criticizing Democrats for not responding effectively when right-wing sludge merchants poisoned our national elections”). So here’s to his new attitude and here’s hoping others in the press catch on.
33 Responses to “Oh Those Gadflies”
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August 14th, 2008 at 7:28 am
You know, I kind of like the new Joe Klein.
August 14th, 2008 at 7:32 am
The last point is the crucial one: In the new, propagandized political environment in this demoralized country, journalists have been astonishingly willing to write as if they had both hands tied behind their back–it’s a wonder they can still type. They have behaved as if the truth were a trophy that the opposing political factions were vying for via methods both clean and–we’re all cynical grownups here, wink, wink–dirty: A trophy that journalists themselves have absolutely no standing to define, or perhaps cannot even claim to apprehend. This must cease if we are going to keep our republic. The Big Lie and the bullying bitch slap have to be called out, condemned, and punished in the court of public opinion. By no reasonable definition of their calling can journalists abdicate the responsibility to tell things as they see them with their own two eyes–as Joe Klein is doing here. “Objectivity” cannot be defined as “summarizing what two parties vying for power are willing to say about each other and leaving it at that.”
August 14th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Interestingly, some media outlets are calling Corsi out straight-off about being a liar. This kind of stuff will hopefully not be allowed to stand uncontested.
August 14th, 2008 at 8:39 am
“Swift Boat liars”
What did they lie about? It’s been four years and all their charges still seem to stick.
August 14th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Over the past few weeks I’ve begun to entertain the possibility that the existence of Joe Klein may, all considered, be not such a bad thing.
August 14th, 2008 at 8:58 am
The Media never presents the other side of the serial child rapist.
Not every point of view need be represented in the media.
August 14th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Larry King was polite to Corsi, but you could tell he wasn’t buying it.
It’s been four years and all their charges still seem to stick.
i suppose i shouldn’t do for you the research you obviously couldn’t be bothered to do for yourself. but, i guess i can spare 10 seconds of Googling
August 14th, 2008 at 9:17 am
The issue isn’t just whether tv talk show hosts take on the falsehood of these kinds of smears, but that they air and repeat them at all. I could write a book making up all kinds of terrible things about John McCain, but that wouldn’t get me an interview on CNN.
False smears, repeated often enough, still have an impact, so the problem isn’t just that journalists and talking heads don’t say the right things about this garbage, it’s that their bosses tell them to talk about it in the first place.
August 14th, 2008 at 9:31 am
False smears, repeated often enough, still have an impact, so the problem isn’t just that journalists and talking heads don’t say the right things about this garbage, it’s that their bosses tell them to talk about it in the first place.
Win.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Jake and rufustfyrfly – disagree somewhat with both of you. If you (and the rest of your bloggy cohort) pick the most egregiously bad and falsifiable of your opponents’apologists, and use him to fan the flames of outrage among your audience, I’m not sure it’s such a clear-cut win for the other side.
Not that I necessarily disaprove of a little judicious flame-fanning, you understand
August 14th, 2008 at 11:15 am
joe klein has a lot of time left on probation in my book, and he does himself no chance of early release when he says demonstrable poppycock like one day john mccain would have denounced a smear campaign.
what day was that?
klein still can’t bring himself to acknowledge that he simply misread john mccain’s character….
August 14th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I agree with howard. The media keep saying that John McCain is better than all of these despicable tactics his campaign is using. They site no evidence for this sort of thing and there is plenty of evidence in McCain’s career that he’s always been a below-the-belt partisan fighter. The only difference is he also like to talk about how honest he is. Time for Joe Klein and the rest of McCain’s media fan club to admit that John McCain is a typical Republican and has always been one.
August 14th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Mary Matalin talking about scholarship? WTF would she know about the truth? or about scholarship?
August 14th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
After the 2004 election, Kerry should have sued the swift boaters for libel. This is caselaw that would have allowed him to file suit in Massachusetts. The discovery process would have been very usefuland he might have hindered similar future efforts.
August 14th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
If her high-profile role in the Fred Thompson Sleepytime Express couldn’t kill Matalin’s credibility, nothing will.
August 14th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
The idea that Klein is “balanced” is ludicrous; he’s an obsequious establishment hack. Not only that, he’s a liar who explicitly supports illegal activity. If you trust anything Klein says, see my first comment (”NoMoreBlatherDotCom”) here.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I’m begging you; please don’t post photos of this hideous woman. It’s bad enough that I receive emails from her ugly husband.
August 14th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Audio of Corsi’s interview on CNN available here.
August 15th, 2008 at 1:43 am
Well, at least he’s voting for the right guy for President (Chuck Baldwin, that is).
August 15th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
What goes around comes around, Matthew. Given that your own commentary on the election consists largely of an endless stream of petty, juvenile, misleading, dishonest, and/or spin-laden attacks on McCain, you’re hardly in a position to complain when Obama is subjected to the same kind of nonsense. Now tell us yet again that McCain “wants” the U.S. to be fighting in Iraq for 100 years.
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