Is it true that before he moved to Washington, Matthew Yglesias was a calm and patient moderate--devoting most of his time to patiently explaining the errors of the left? Here Matthew laments both the mendacity of our rulers and the incompetence of our press corps:
TAPPED: September 2004 Archives: ELSEWHERE IN CHENEYVILLE. The Vice President also found time yesterday to lie a bit about national security, saying that Saddam Hussein "provided safe harbor and sanctuary as well for Al Qaeda" which is not only untrue, but so patently untrue that you won't even find it claimed in The Connection. The most Stephen Hayes could come up with is that George Tenet once told the Senate that there was "credible" information that indicated that Saddam had discussed giving safe haven to al-Qaeda.
The LA Times, in typical press misbehavior, prints Cheney's charge in the first paragraph, while the contrary evidence doesn't appear until the fourteenth; and, of course, the paper can't bring itself to simply say that Cheney was lying. Instead, they have him "ignoring the findings of the bipartisan commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks" (and the findings of the CIA, and the findings of the Senate Select Commitee on Intelligence Report, etc., etc., etc.).Posted by DeLong at September 10, 2004 11:32 AM | TrackBack
If the press, in this case the LA Times came out and called the VP a liar, would they be able to get inside access? WOuld their reporters be called up for questions during press conferences? Woudl they get their hair pulled by some over zealous nutcase?
Posted by: Karl at September 10, 2004 11:48 AMSo is it the reporter who exercises the bare minimum of his reporting skills to distinguish himself from the WH press releases (with the inclusion of a different view in the 14th paragraph) or is it his senior editor that vets his piece?
Is there a chance to give the reporter or the paper feed back? Does it help?
Karl, those are good questions. But the English have a great saying that could be used to spread the meme that Cheney's lying: Mr. Cheney was being economical with the truth.
I'm having dinner tonight with a friend who's an editor on the foreign desk for the Los Angeles Times and this article will certainly be a topic I bring up.
Posted by: Jim at September 10, 2004 05:11 PM"Is it true that before he moved to Washington, Matthew Yglesias was a calm and patient moderate--devoting most of his time to patiently explaining the errors of the left?..."
Not exactly. What is true is that Matt was very bright, very young and very naive. He is still very bright. He is now significantly less naive. He still has a long way to go. We may be highly confident that he will go there. We might (at our most churlish) wish that that process were conducted in a less public manner.
Posted by: Frank Wilhoit at September 10, 2004 06:00 PMFrank, you might add to that, very self-assured.
This often goes with naiveté, but is not a necessary consequence of it. Many people who are bright, young and naive are very self-conscious of their lack of experience, and need a lot of coaxing to speak up and reassurance that yes, their perceptions *can* be more on target than someone thrice their age.
This is why we are seeing the process of self-awareness and Enlightenment for MY taking place a bit more publically than might be comfortable to witness.
Posted by: bellatrys at September 11, 2004 02:28 PM