Here’s a special hat tip for blog quote of the day to John Little at Blogs of War , who scored the following little snark:
Of course one can expect a few hiccups as France transitions to an Islamic state[.]
Priceless, yet sadly too close to the truth. John carries on his coverage as the riots stretch into yet another night.
No, not alleged lies by the Bush administration, but a look at an actual liar — Joe Wilson, early hero of the anti-war movement and husband to allegedly outted spy Plame … Valerie Plame.
Making the best of a weak hand, Democrats argued that the case was not about petty-ante perjury but, as Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid put it, “about how the Bush White House manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to bolster its case for the war in Iraq and to discredit anyone who dared to challenge the president.” The problem here is that the one undisputed liar in this whole sordid affair doesn’t work for the administration. In his attempts to turn his wife into an antiwar martyr, Joseph C. Wilson IV has retailed more whoppers than Burger King.
Okay, so Wilson is known to be a proven liar, obviously acting with motive. How is the media handling the story? Well, here’s a look at a typical example.
There is, perhaps, no better illustration of how entrenched this misleading storyline has become than this past Sunday’s episode of 60 Minutes. In a segment fronted by correspondent Ed Bradley, a host of Wilsonian memes were broadcast without even the slightest bit of skepticism.
The segment began with a misleading question: “Would someone in the government go that far, leak her [Valerie Plame’s] name to the press, in retaliation for her husband’s public criticism of the war in Iraq?” But, Wilson was not merely “criticizing” the war in Iraq, a democratic right that should be protected, as this opening question implied. His “critique” was pure fantasy, a tale woven around his own classified trip to Africa.
As has been shown countless times, no substantive part of Wilson’s story was true. A bipartisan Senate Intelligence Report made this clear in July 2004 (see, for example, here and here.) To hear 60 Minutes tell it, you would never even know that this report existed. The Senate Intelligence Report was not mentioned and Bradley did not ask Wilson a single question about his bogus charges. Instead, for the umpteenth time, Wilson was allowed an unchallenged opportunity to tell his version of events.
By ignoring the numerous deficiencies in Wilson’s account, Bradley ignored one of the more salient questions in this story: Why was a CIA officer, Wilson’s wife, complicit in his lies? The Senate Intelligence Report makes it clear that Valerie Plame orchestrated Wilson’s trip to Africa and attended at least part of his CIA debriefing. She was, therefore, most certainly in a position to know that her husband’s accusations were false.
Both are good reads, though they may leave one feeling quite disgusted. Meanwhile, Gateway Pundit has compiled a timeline of the controversy, chock full o’ supporting links: What CNN Won’t Tell You About the CIA Leak Case.
For a very good cause.
Army. Navy. Air Force. Marines. What a great place, it’s a great place to give.
Blackfive has the story of a charity drive for Project Valour-IT, a very worth effort by the Soldiers’ Angels organization.
Project Valour-IT, in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss, provides voice-controlled software and laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand and arm injuries or amputations at major military medical centers. Operating laptops by speaking into a microphone, our wounded heroes are able to send and receive messages from friends and loved ones, surf the ‘Net, and communicate with buddies still in the field without having to press a key or move a mouse.
Good enough cause, right? Well, just to add a little competition to the fundraising, this drive is being handled seperately by the different branches, with Blackfive leading the Army team. Check out the cause, then cruise over and help out, if not for the Army team then for any of the other branches. Blackfive has links to the others.
I’m going to give. Will you?
And now it’s just over.
Cable television’s FX channel has decided not to renew the critically praised Iraq war drama “Over There” for a second season due to weak ratings during the show’s initial 13-episode run, the network said on Tuesday.
“Over There,” a first-of-its-kind contemporary war drama about U.S. troops in combat and their families back home, was co-created by Steven Bochco, the veteran TV producer behind such landmark cop shows as “Hill Street Blues” and “NYPD Blue.”
While “Over There” garnered mostly favorable reviews, the gritty, albeit fictionalized, depiction of a real war that has grown increasingly unpopular with the American public ultimately proved a turnoff to TV viewers.
Although the series contained references to real-life events that have stirred debate over the war, including the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal, the producers sought to avoid overt political messages about the conflict.
The show got off to a promising start on July 27 with 4.1 million viewers tuning in, a fairly healthy launch by cable TV standards, but the audience steadily declined from there.
Through the 13th and final episode on October 26, the program averaged a meager 2.1 million viewers overall. Only 1.35 million watched the series finale.
Good. Personally, I had not returned to the show since my generally disfavorable response to the premier episode.