David Sirota - What They Said & When They Said It
"Pundits and news analysts are employed to expose this sort of nonsense so that our democratic discourse -- and the policy choices that come out of it -- are grounded in fact. But that has not happened. Instead, we have seen a furious stampede by the most prominent media figures to cover their own hides with either more lies, or more out-of-the mainstream bluster.
Time Magazine's Joe Klein, for instance, last week claimed he has "been opposed to the Iraq war ever since 2002." Readers were expected to forget about his nationally televised declaration in late February 2003 -- the critical days just before the invasion was ordered.
"War may well be the right decision at this point," Klein told NBC's Tim Russert. "In fact, I think it probably is."
This followed venerated New York Times columnist David Brooks who, rather than admitting the failure of his Iraq war cheerleading, lashed out at anti-war challenges to pro-war incumbents, writing that "primary voters shouldn't be allowed to define the choices in American politics" (apparently, democracy and elections are no longer an acceptable way to run our country). Weeks later, the Washington Post's Richard Cohen justified his support for the war by flippantly writing that he thinks "the prudent use of violence could be therapeutic."
All of this might be fine if those spewing this rhetoric faced some form of public rebuke that made clear such behavior is objectionable. But there has been nothing of the kind."
More here.
Yes, it is just a coincidence that Sirota is writing about this subject just after Howard Fineman wrote this nonsense.
Time Magazine's Joe Klein, for instance, last week claimed he has "been opposed to the Iraq war ever since 2002." Readers were expected to forget about his nationally televised declaration in late February 2003 -- the critical days just before the invasion was ordered.
"War may well be the right decision at this point," Klein told NBC's Tim Russert. "In fact, I think it probably is."
This followed venerated New York Times columnist David Brooks who, rather than admitting the failure of his Iraq war cheerleading, lashed out at anti-war challenges to pro-war incumbents, writing that "primary voters shouldn't be allowed to define the choices in American politics" (apparently, democracy and elections are no longer an acceptable way to run our country). Weeks later, the Washington Post's Richard Cohen justified his support for the war by flippantly writing that he thinks "the prudent use of violence could be therapeutic."
All of this might be fine if those spewing this rhetoric faced some form of public rebuke that made clear such behavior is objectionable. But there has been nothing of the kind."
More here.
Yes, it is just a coincidence that Sirota is writing about this subject just after Howard Fineman wrote this nonsense.
posted by Scott at 11:38 AM
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