monchieland: a reality-based community

One of the most annoying and dishonest tactics the so-called "liberal media" (SCLM) uses is to hire pundits who aren't liberal to represent the liberal point of view. They've been pulling this con job for decades now, and actual living and breathing liberal pundits have long been an endangered species in the SCLM. I remember watching CNN's "Crossfire" in the early to mid Eighties when the pundit "from the left" was an ex-CIA guy named Tom Braden who at best was slightly to the left of Bob Dole.

Which brings us to Time Magazine's phony liberal pundit, Joe Klein, who I have loathed since he was a phony local liberal pundit on NYC's WCBS-TV. Klein recently began blogging and -- no surprise -- used his very first post to smear actual liberals such as New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. Also not surprisingly, Klein demonstrated his trademark dishonesty when he claimed to have been an opponent of the Iraq War since 2002 when transcripts say otherwise. Hint: When you say that it was the right war but the wrong time, that doesn't make you an "opponent."

Bona fide liberals such as Atrios (and here and here), Boo Man, Greg Sargent, and Ezra Klein are busy bees today, exposing Joe's misrepresentations and distortions.