![]() NEW MORNING! Shear debunks a smear in the Post. Mainstream press culture thus changes: // link // print // previous // next //
WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2008
WORST JOURNALIST IN THE WORLD: In our principal post today, we discuss some work in this mornings Post. But Dana Milbank deserves a spot all his own, for this gruesome performance. My, how times have changed! Last year, Dana Milbank complained when Al Gore used too many big words. Today, he himself is rather wordy as he starts a Dowdian effort:
On what meat doth this Milbank feed to engage in such big-word argot? In fact, Milbank is feasting on narrative. In our view, no modern reporter is more dishonest; though he trashes members of both parties, today he targets Obama. He isnt faithful to the factsbut hes wonderfully faithful to preferred story-line. Indeed, Obama even gets called Prom Kingthough in that passage, Milbank is quoting Gabriel Sherman (the New Republic), who seems to be quoting someone else. We also get hubris, and premature drape measuring. (Truly, Milbank is Dowd with different plumbing.) The real crime, of course, is found in this passage. And just gaze on that claim about Bush!
Even Bush hasnt tried that? Good God, what perfect lunacy! Truly, Milbank is the worst pseudo-journalist in the entire world. And today, he seems to be disturbed because the Prom King has been dissing his cohort. (To ponder the double standards involved here, be sure to read Eric Boehlerts latest. You know what to dojust click here.) Here at THE HOWLER, We had a personal experience with Milbanks bizarre dishonesty all the way back in 1999. The subject matter was trivial, but the dishonesty was truly remarkable; it really helps define the way people like Milbank do business. Today, he seems peeved about the way the Prom King has mistreated the press. Well review that old incident some day; for this morning, just gaze on his latest sketch. Like few others, Milbank defines the broken moral state of a broken, upper-end press world. Postponement: Todays a big day in the Washington Post. For that reason, were postponing our treatment of that excellent piece about testing programs by the Posts Daniel de Vise; we expect to review it tomorrow. On Friday, we plan to revisit Hedrick Smith, getting tooken in 2005 by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools. Where do bogus data come from? In this case, bogus data came from a major school systemand from those who refused to check facts. NEW MORNING: Its quite a day in the Washington Post. Lets start with Michael Shears front-page piece about John McCains character problem. For the record, John McCain has always had this character problem. But in the past, the insider press corps was on his sidewhen he misstated the facts about Candidate Bush; when he told his weird jokes about Candidate Gore; when he made those anonymous robo-calls in Michigan, then lied to the press corps about them. And of course, until very recently, the press corps played by very permissive rulesif you were sliming Big Democrats. You could say any damn-fool thing you pleased about Major Dems like Clinton/Gore/Kerry. The mainstream press would stare into air. Or theyd be the ones who were saying it! But by now, major elements of the mainstream press (not all) have made a decision; they dont want to study war no more, and theyre troubled by John McCains war-love. And so, to his credit, Shear starts his report with a soft but accurate statement:
By the way: When a candidate makes repeated pledges that he will never question his rivals patriotism, hes questioning his rivals patriotism! And yes, we think Shears opening paragraph could have made its point more briskly. (The report appears beneath a headline so dull, it virtually defies you to read the full story.) But Shears report represents a major change in the mainstream press culture of the past sixteen years. In this report, the Washington Post, on its front page, directly challenges the latest slimy character charge against the latest Dem White House hopeful. This represents a major change in the way this newspaper does business. The times truly are a-changin! In Campaign 20004, the Post ran and hid from the swift boat charges against Candidate Kerry. In Campaign 2000, the Post played the leading role, for twenty straight months, in generating the smears against Candidate Gorethe smears that sent George Bush to the White House. (Your liberal leaders still wont tell you that. Theyre well-trained, polite, careful fellows.) Today, though, the Post has changed a few spots. On its front page, it is challenging one of these slimy claimsthe slimy claims that have driven our politics for lo, these many years. That in mind, we mordantly chuckled when we saw Dan Balzs name on this mornings piece. (Hes listed as Shears co-writer.) Lets recall the way things worked when the Post was still driving these smears. Return to December 1999! The Bradley campaign was now sliming Gore hard, and people like Balz were all too happy to regurgitate their talking-points for them. Late in the month, Balz finally joined a long line of colleague in printing a blatantly bogus claim. This is how the Posts elites were playing this game before growing tired of war:
Except for one thingGore didnt do that. As the bulk of mainstream reporters clearly knew, Gore never mentioned Willie Horton during the 1988 campaign. And he never mentioned Hortons crimes; he later said hed never heard of Horton at the time, and theres absolutely no reason to doubt that. Meanwhile, major players in the press corps knew these things in 1999; you can tell by the way they couched their language as they repeated Bradleys smear. Like Balz, they all knew the message with which theyd been tasked: Al Gore is nasty and negative, and his use of Willie Horton proved it. (See THE DAILY HOWLER, 11/01/02, or see our detailed listing below.) But if you check the long list of reporters who pimped this smear on Bradleys behalf, note the way the mainstream scribes used clever phrases (the Willie Horton issue) to keep their slime technically accurate. For some reason, only Balz, among mainstream colleagues, published a claim which was just flat-out wrong. The others deliberately misled readers. For some reason, Balz flat-out misstated. (Detailsbelow.) At any rate, thats the way this game has been played over the course of the past sixteen years. As of today, though, the culture has changed. Today, Balz is on the Posts front page. At long last, the great Post scribe is debunking one of these stories. After that fairly tepid start, Shear does a pretty good job laying out the facts of this caseexplaining John McCains character problem. Of course, it remains to be seen if this piece will have legsif pundits will reverse treasured narratives about McCains brilliant character. Yesterday, for example, Richard Cohen offered his latest gong-show piece about McCains stirring characterand he failed to mention this latest smear. Surely, Cohen understood what McCain has been doing with this slimy claim. He just forgot to mention it. (Cohen in February 2000, describing the scene on McCains campaign bus: You laugh and laughat least I doand when, once, I asked him why in the world he would talk to the press hour after hour, totally on-the-record, he said it was fun. That describes the culture under which weve all suffered during these smear-driven years.) But theres more in this mornings Post for those with the gift of memory. Heres Ruth Marcus, complaining about the way the Bush Admin has conducted itself in the past seven years:
Today, Marcus rolls her eyes about the foolishness of those old stories about a few [letters] pried loose from White House keyboards. But uh-oh! In real time, Marcus cohort went to town with that nonsense, most of which turned out to be factually bogus. Darlings, this showed the Clinton camps character problems, the troubled press corps said. Almost no one in Marcus cohort complained about the inanity of this matter, given the culture that prevailed at the time. (At the time, Marcus was a staff writer, not a columnist.) How was the game being played at the time? Disgracefully, this is the sort of garbage Tom Brokaw aired on NBC Nightly News:
Four towels were missing from Air Force One! Brokaw put that on the air. (Again: Most of the claims of vandalism to the White House turned out to be Bush Admin bull-sh*t.) Marcus is upset, today, about the way the Bush Admin played the game. When she wrote these wordsabout the Adminwe thought of her own gruesome cohort:
The Bush Admin was riddled with Goodlings Gone Wild? So was the Washington Post, during the years when Ceci Connolly and Michael Kelly invented those bogus claims about Gore! Truly, they were incapable of or unwilling to distinguish between the proper pursuit of political aims and the responsible administration of [journalism]. During the years, Dan Balz pimped that disgraceful sh*t about Gore and Willie Horton. They lied to you, again and again, peddling these bogus stories around. And dont forget a key ingredient: The polite, good boys of the liberal world refused to discuss the problem. (They wanted to work for the Post!) But this morning, a key part of the culture has changed, right there on the Posts front page. To his credit, Michael Shear has debunked one of these slimy smearsone of the slimy smears the Washington Post used to love pimping around. Crowley arrives: Also today, Michael Crowley debuts on the Post op-ed page (click here); its another sad day for American journalism, but it fits our rumination perfectly. Out on page one, the culture has changed; Shear is debunking one of these smears. On the op-ed page, though, Crowley appears. In the spring of 2000, Crowley (co-writing with Walter Robinson) pretended he didnt know what Gore could have meant when he claimed seven years of journalistic experience. It was Gores latest weird misstatementif you believed this latest gong-show smear, which had Crowleys name right on it (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 5/9/00). Two years later, Crowley initiated the silly complaints about John Kerrys odd, puzzling character (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 9/10/02). Today, the gentleman finally gets his reward for all those years supporting the culture. Pimping a smear: In the fall of 1999, the Bradley campaign was sliming Goreand the mainstream press corps wanted to help. In the matter under review, the campaign had cadged an old RNC smear: It was really Al Gore who introduced the American people to Willie Horton! The claim was patently ludicrous, but the RNC had pimped it since July 1992, when Gore received the VP nomination. But now, the Bradley campaign began to pimp iteven though Bradley had specifically debunked the claim in 1996, in his own best-selling book. (Again: For our fullest account of this remarkable episode, see THE DAILY HOWLER, 11/1/02. This is how this game has been played.) The Bradley campaign was now contradicting Bradleys best-selling book! (In January, Bradley would join them.) But so what? Journalists ran to pimp the new smear, explaining how vile Gore had been. And please note the way they couched their language. In fact, Gore never mentioned Horton during Campaign 1988; he never mentioned Hortons crimes. And so, most mainstream journalists used careful language, keeping their bullsh*t technically accurate. Except for Balz, they carefully referred to the Horton issuenot to Horton himself. At any rate, everyone knew the story-line: Al Gore showed he was nasty and negative by the way he used Willie Horton. This was the culture of the age. Mainstream journalists stood in line for the chance to recite Bradleys bull-sh*t:
In 1988, Gore had discussed the furlough program at one debate, for about sixty seconds. Eleven years later, this showed what a tough, mean player Gore was. It showed that he does use fear. And somehow, Willie Hortons name kept getting dragged into the twaddle. In October, Novak was reciting old RNC cant. By early December, Seelye and Connolly were channeling the Bradley campaign, which was now pimping this smear all around. And please note the careful language each used. Plainly, Seelye and Connolly each understood that Gore never said a word about Horton. Ditto for Susan Page. Ditto for Jeanne Cummings. Ditto for Roger Simon. Gore had never mentioned Horton. And it showed us how nasty he was!
Yes, we know; its hard to believe. Denial centers in the brain insist that this cant be the way the world works. But this is the way the game has been played for lo, these many years. No one debunked that smear on the Posts front page; instead, the Post helped spread it around. But those were the rules of the game until now: You could say any damn thing you pleasedif you aimed it at Clinton/Gore/Kerry.
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