More on the Absurdity of our Elite Media Guardians

Resuming a little later than I hoped to on this theme -- but I think you all remember our story to date.  

So let's review -- which of the following will get you fired by a major media organ?   

1. Disseminate disinformation about connections between al Qaeda and Saddam as part of your cheerleading for an unprovoked attack on Iraq;
2. Cease calling waterboarding -- long legally and journalistically recognized as torture -- torture in the nation's paper of record in response to pressure from those who authorized the torture;
3. Advocate for torture on a major Op-Ed page.
4. Spread lies and fabrications about global warming on a major Op-Ed page;
5. Advocate for covering up the embarrassing utterances of military and political figures on a major Op-Ed page.
6. Say something snarky about Matt Drudge to a private email community prior to getting your job.

Naturally, number six is the correct answer.  Not only is number six the answer, but it's number six that will send the other "real" journalists into paroxysms of outrage. 

Glenn Greenwald had a series of excellent posts taking Goldberg and the rest of the mainstream media to school.  (I know I frequently take issue with Greenwald over political tactics, but I have to say I am totally with him on this topic.)  Of course, an attack on a Villager of good standing caused the ceremonial circling of the wagons, with Joe Klein leading the charge.  It infuriates Klein and Goldberg that Greenwald was right about the war in Iraq and they were oh so tragically wrong.  So what do you do when you have been shown to be wrong on matters of such gravity?  Well you punch a dirty fucking hippie.  And that's what Klein did -- launched into an utterly McCarthyite attack on Greenwald for having the nerve to 1) notice that Goldberg was and is wrong about Iraq; 2) remember that Klein, too, was in favor of invading Iraq; and 3) suggest that the liberation of the Kurds doesn't actually give retroactive justification to the immoral, grandiose, delusional clusterfuck that was/is the Iraq War. So how does Klein respond:

 Greenwald--who, so far as I can tell, only regards the United States as a force for evil in the world

So that's it -- calling an illegal war of aggression and torture used in its prosecution is indicative of being anti-American.  It's funny, I seem to recall a time when being opposed to wars of aggression and torture were quintessentially American views -- views we at least felt compelled to give lip service.  Now our elite media asks the powers that be what they should believe -- and if it's war they want -- or torture -- they've got it.  Or, at a minimum, their obedient, discrete, and complicit silence.

But they can be counted on to not send nasty emails about conservatives.  And in the end that's what really matters.   

Comments

[Joe]

I think you're mixing your metaphors there, Sir C ("Circling the wagons / leading the charge).

[kathy a.]

i am so darned sick of dissent -- or even questioning what is put out there -- being framed as un-american.

[jeanne marie]

Amen, kathy a

[litbrit]

I just love the fact they regard speaking truth to power--the very definition of American-ness--as being un-American.

What craven, pathetic, ill-informed twats.

[T.R. Donoghue]

More dispatches from Joe Klein's own personal Versailles.
http://steampoweredopinions.blogspot.com/2010/07/joe-kleins-idiocy-public-sector-edition.html

[big bad wolf]

this is like the 90s when we all hated joe klein. it gives me hope that all journalists we hated in the 90s will get their condign assessments.