Thursday, February 08, 2007
Lying GOP Smear Machine Targets Pelosi
If you've been getting your coverage of the Nancy Pelosi airplane story from cable "news," you're being lied to. It's the usual method: The Washington Times, a newspaper owned by a religious cult, the Moonies, notorious for their brainwashing techniques, publishes accusations against Speaker Pelosi that are full of misrepresentations, distortions, and outright lies; then, the So-Called "Liberal Media" (SCLM) obsequiously repeats those misrepresentations, distortions and lies without looking into the actual facts.
Here we go again. We've seen similar dishonest media manipulation countless times over the past two decades: the phony Haircutgate "scandal"; the phony Whitewater "scandal"; the phony Travelgate "scandal"; the phony Filegate "scandal"; the phony campaign finance "scandal"; the phony Lincoln Bedroom "scandal"; the phony White House trashing "scandal"; the phony Air Force 1 trashing "scandal"; the phony Marc Rich pardon "scandal"; the misrepresentation, distortion and, in at least one case, outright lying about things Al Gore said, in order to smear him as a liar; the Kerry "mistress"; the Swift Boat liars; the Kerry botched joke "scandal"; Barack Obama's madrassa "scandal"; etc., etc., etc.
How many times will the GOP Smear Machine play the SCLM for fools before they wake up and expose the Republicans' dishonesty that knows no bounds? The GOP's propagandameisters have no shame; they don't have a shred of decency.
Journalists, your job is to expose these thugs, not enable them.
Now back to the phony Nancy Pelosi airplane "scandal." Let me summarize some of the actual facts, as opposed to the BS spewed on cable "news":
The request was from the House Sergeant at Arms, not Speaker Pelosi. Flying the Speaker back to a home district on military aircraft has been standard operating procedure since 9/11, due to the fact that the Speaker is second in the line of succession to the presidency, immediately after the Vice President. Since the plane that former Speaker Hastert -- who is from Illinois -- used cannot be flown cross-country without refueling, the Sergeant at Arms requested a plane that could fly nonstop to California, due to security concerns.
The SCLM again demonstrates that they are like a whipped dog, always trying to suck up to their abusive Republican masters by loyally regurgitating the latest disinformation from the GOP Smear Machine, only to get another kick in the snout as their owners yell, "BAD LIBERAL MEDIA!!! BAD LIBERAL MEDIA!!!"
If the SCLM had an ounce of courage and journalistic ethics, they'd frame this story as "Dishonest GOP Smear Machine at It Again: Targets Speaker Pelosi with Misrepresentations, Distortions and Lies."
Last night I was reading an article about Vlad Putin's Russia in a recent New Yorker, and it was fascinating to see how the Kremlin manipulates the local media into publishing and airing smears against critics of the Russki prez. I wonder if Vlad picked up that trick during his KGB days or if he's taking lessons from the Republicans.
Or perhaps both.
Here we go again. We've seen similar dishonest media manipulation countless times over the past two decades: the phony Haircutgate "scandal"; the phony Whitewater "scandal"; the phony Travelgate "scandal"; the phony Filegate "scandal"; the phony campaign finance "scandal"; the phony Lincoln Bedroom "scandal"; the phony White House trashing "scandal"; the phony Air Force 1 trashing "scandal"; the phony Marc Rich pardon "scandal"; the misrepresentation, distortion and, in at least one case, outright lying about things Al Gore said, in order to smear him as a liar; the Kerry "mistress"; the Swift Boat liars; the Kerry botched joke "scandal"; Barack Obama's madrassa "scandal"; etc., etc., etc.
How many times will the GOP Smear Machine play the SCLM for fools before they wake up and expose the Republicans' dishonesty that knows no bounds? The GOP's propagandameisters have no shame; they don't have a shred of decency.
Journalists, your job is to expose these thugs, not enable them.
Now back to the phony Nancy Pelosi airplane "scandal." Let me summarize some of the actual facts, as opposed to the BS spewed on cable "news":
The request was from the House Sergeant at Arms, not Speaker Pelosi. Flying the Speaker back to a home district on military aircraft has been standard operating procedure since 9/11, due to the fact that the Speaker is second in the line of succession to the presidency, immediately after the Vice President. Since the plane that former Speaker Hastert -- who is from Illinois -- used cannot be flown cross-country without refueling, the Sergeant at Arms requested a plane that could fly nonstop to California, due to security concerns.
The SCLM again demonstrates that they are like a whipped dog, always trying to suck up to their abusive Republican masters by loyally regurgitating the latest disinformation from the GOP Smear Machine, only to get another kick in the snout as their owners yell, "BAD LIBERAL MEDIA!!! BAD LIBERAL MEDIA!!!"
If the SCLM had an ounce of courage and journalistic ethics, they'd frame this story as "Dishonest GOP Smear Machine at It Again: Targets Speaker Pelosi with Misrepresentations, Distortions and Lies."
Last night I was reading an article about Vlad Putin's Russia in a recent New Yorker, and it was fascinating to see how the Kremlin manipulates the local media into publishing and airing smears against critics of the Russki prez. I wonder if Vlad picked up that trick during his KGB days or if he's taking lessons from the Republicans.
Or perhaps both.
