Friday, March 04, 2005

6 degrees of TANG to GANNON

From Daily Kos:

Follow this timeline.

Now go forth and fill in the blanks. Because this story has more holes than Sonny Corleone midway through The Godfather.

The truth is out there and it's closer than we think. The fact that this story has died down is upsetting, since a collective short attention span is the greatest stumbling block we face. The initial firestorm all erupted over the span of 2 weeks. Here are some of the most revealing moments:

Sept. 8, 2004 - First CBS report on Killian memos. To protect a lady's honor, Southern Gentleman Burkett intimates that an officer named Conn gave him the TANG memos but Conn denies it. They report Dan Bartlett told John Roberts in the morning that "I have no reason to doubt their authenticity" so many times in the same way Roberts notes it in his book. Presumably this was the comment decided upon by he and Rove to make that day. Bartlett also says, "The memorandum in your possession shows that he spoke to the commander who made that order to talk about his personal situation and the fact that he is going to Alabama. So at every step of the way, President Bush was meeting his requirement. Granted permission to meet his requirement. And that's why President Bush was honorably discharged." Because Bartlett had used the forged copies to say that Bush fulfilled his TANG requirements, Roberts told his superiors, the memos are authenticated. Had Roberts been "played"? The trap, whoever forged the documents, was ready to close on Rather and destroy the potency of the TANG/AWOL issue.

September 8, 2004 - Within 18 minutes of the end of the TANG report, posts from "Buckhead" appear on FreeRepublic.com, saying he thinks something is phony. Within a few hours, Buckhead is putting forth forensic analyses of fonts and proportional spacing, claiming the memos are forged and actually word-processed. (help me find link on this)

September 9, 2004 - Media trumpets forgery claim, discrediting Rather and whole TANG issue.

September, 10 2004 - Jeff Gannon receives a "scoop" from unknown person that Mapes was the CBS producer responsible. BEFORE writing his own scoop, Gannon tells Sean Hannity about Mapes. Hannity: HANNITY: "Now, Jeff Gannon, who is a terrific Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent for Talon News, actually shot me an e-mail today, and he's about to break a story in an exclusive about these CBS documents." HANNITY: "And apparently they're also, according to Jeff Gannon, the -- Talon News -- this woman, Mary Mapes, this Dallas producer, is under pressure for the [CBS] network, and now there's doubts about their authenticity has taken place." [The Sean Hannity Show, 9/10/04]

SNIP

Sept. 11, 2004 - Dallas Morning News reveals inclusion of Staudt in 1973 Killian is incorrect and proves it to be a forgery. This was one of the main tip-offs inserted presumably by Bartlett and Rove to expose the forgery.

Sept. 15, 2004 - Marian Knox, Killian's secretary, recounts errors in TANG forgeries for the Dallas Morning News, including the inclusion of the Staudt name in the forged "sugar-coat" memo of 1973 and the word "billets" instead of "barracks".

Sept. 17, 2004 - Another Gannon story on Mapes with supposed inside source at CBS: "Sooner of (sic) later something like this was going to happen. When you see how hard they've been working this National Guard story, you know they weren't going to come up empty-handed one way or another."

SNIP

Sept. 20, 2004 - CBS News retracts claim of authenticity for Killian memos. Burkett admits a fellow Guard officer did not give him documents and tells of Lucy and the Unknown Man giving him the memos.

Sept. 21, 2004 - NY Post reports rumors that Roger Stone got the forgeries to Burkett. He has no comment. MacCauliffe repeats the Stone charge and asks the White House and RNC what they know about Stone and the documents. Stone later denies allegation but never provides an alibi for where he was on March 3, 2004, the day the Unknown Man gave Bill Burkett the envelope with the TANG Forgeries inside.

Sept. 21, 2004 - USA Today article on both parties accusing the other of forging the memos.

SNIP

Sept. 23, 2004 - Gannon also went after Mapes in this 9/23 Talon News story--now scrubbed

Sept. 24 2004 - After lawsuit, White House releases 1971 document showing the TANG Killian memos could have had superscript type in 1972. Republicans had been attacking TANG forgeries because they had superscript "th" and by withholding this document they had let Rather twist in the wind. Lost in the whole uproar is the fact that Mrs. Knox verified that there were original memos that she typed (on a manual with only a primitive superscript capability) and someone must have forged the CBS copies.

Sept. 2004 - GOP House members, presumably getting call from White House, or seeing Stone rumor reports, DROP calls for a Wire Fraud investigation, as does the retiring William Safire. (could use a link on original story of GOP calling for Wire Fraud investigation)

Sept. 2004 - Media ignores Stone angle and trumpets the Fall of Dan Rather. No further mention of Stone at all.


The most important elements in all of this are these two facts: doubts were raised about the authenticity of TANG memos by Right Wing bloggers within 18 MINUTES of the CBS report. That's some pretty speedy detective work, Columbo. Second, Mrs. Knox - Killian's secretary - verified that she did type similar memos, implying that while the documents may have been forged, the sentiments expressed therein were TRUE. Aaaaand, after the CBS backlash, the White House released a 1971 document showing the TANG Killian memos could have had superscript type in 1972. So, someone in the White House knew all along that the disputed memos could have been typed by Knox AND that they could have appeared as they did, since they released similar looking documents mere days after the controversy erupted. I don't think I need to bring up the fact that the WH released the documents after emphatically stating on several prior occasions that they had released EVERYTHING they had already....

It's a near perfect crime, confusing the facts with sketchy details that derail and undermine the true argument: Dubya never actually met his National Guard requirements and then was rewarded with an early release from his duty.

The Right Wingers have already undermined the Fourth Estate's credibility by flogging the Rather/TANG story to death. I think the Lefty bloggers can flog a not-quite-dead-yet horse as well as the next partisan hack. So, get flogging! There's some smoke - let's start a fire.

On Deck: Krugman

The call-outs of Greenspan's hackery continue, this time on the editorial page of the NYT: take it away, Paul.

This is just a great week. Democrats showing they actually have balls for a change.

This week we've seen... Conyers forcing a discussion on actual election reform, Durbin and Bayh are standing up strong against the Bankruptcy bill (which looks as if it will pass, sadly) and FOR our soldiers' well being, and Byrd charging against the Frist's idea threat to do away with the filibuster (as Frist calls it, the "nuclear option"... sicko). Not to mention Harry Reid, as Benari does below.

The Dems are starting to flex their muscles and look like an actual opposition party. It's about time.

Oh, and if you haven't seen his debut yet, check out the newest journo on the national scene... Dino Ironbody. He's going places, watch out Gannon/Guckert!

Reid it and weep

I have to admit, I wasn't exactly thrilled when the Democrats chose a pro-life, soft-spoken old white dude from Nevada in the form of Harry Reid as the Senate Minority leader...but I am happy to have been proven wrong about him.

Already, Reid has been more than willing to stand up to the Administration on every issue from protecting Social Security to blocking federal nominations of extremist judges. And he's coined some nifty phrases, as well, like calling the growing deficit a "birth tax." The deficit is, in effect, a birth tax for the next wave of Americans, placing a financial burden on future generations. What's shocking is how well and easily articulated the phrase is. It's been awhile since I've heard a Democrat distill the argument down to one nifty soundbyte.

And now Reid has stood up to the recent carelessness of Alan Greenspan, a man who's opinion I had trusted after the spectacular boom of the 90s, but who betrayed our trust by helping promote an irrepsonsible fiscal policy which has yielded the largest deficit in American history.

Read all about here.

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Don't let the facts get in your way

Salon has a terrific article on how the current administration has carefully and methodically (and successfully) chipped away at the foundation of journalistic integrity, as the Fourth Estate ultimately pays the price for the Presidential Propaganda machine's wrong-doings.

It's a brilliant strategy on the part of Rove and his evil team of spin doctors. After planting their own phony stories and fake journalists - and thereby muddying the murky waters with dubious facts - they then question the (already lazy) press on its fuzzy facts and effectively confuse the public.



"It's basically gaming journalism," says Alex Jones, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. "It shows withering contempt for journalism. What's frightening is that it's been done with total disregard, or lack of concern, about being exposed."

Moreover, they revealed their complete and utter contempt for the media by having a male escort pose as a faux journalist, creating an actual, honest-to-goodness media whore.

According to David Brock, author of "The Right Wing Noise Machine" and CEO of Media Matters for America, a progressive, not-for-profit advocacy group, the White House's ultimate aim is to raise doubts about the information independent journalists produce. "Their explicit goal is to get us to the point where there are blue [state] facts and red [state] facts," Brock says.

By creating these Red State and Blue State facts, they have effectively eliminated the actual facts. And, as John Adams once famously said: "Facts are stubborn things." At least, they used to be stubborn things for Republicans. But no more.


"They have an ability to confuse an issue and neutralize the facts that aren't in their favor," says Brock. "When a reader looks at a story and does not know what to make of it, then Fox has done its job."

That's how groups like the Swifties were so successful in their smear campaigns. When you're lying, you have nothing to lose. But John Kerry - a man who had the facts and the truth on his side - can only lose, because baseless allegations must get equal time in order to appear "balanced." Calling John Kerry's character into question - when he was telling the truth - diminished him, even though the charges were completely false. In the end, the truth was the ultimate casualty. And God help any who the truth favors.

It's like that ol' saying about mudwrestling a pig; you both get dirty, but only the pig likes it.

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Putin on the Ritz!

I'm sure Dubya would describe irony as "what ya do to get wrinkles out of your pants," but I'm sure if he knew what the word really meant, he'd see the humor in his latest exchange with the Ruskie leader, Vladimir Putin.

As Salon reports:

When George Bush sat down with Vladimir Putin in Bratislava last week to deliver his long-awaited lecture on civil liberties and freedom of the press, Newsweek says Putin shot back with an attack of his own: "We didn't criticize you when you fired those reporters at CBS."

Bush was apparently slack-jawed, and senior White House aides were angry. "Putin thought we'd fired Dan Rather," one administration official told Time. "It was like something out of '1984.'"


Note to attentive readers: When the Administration accuses someone of doing something wrong, it means they're doing it themselves. So, if they feign shock over "1984"-like propaganda tactics, it means they're employing "1984"-like tactics. And it took a Red to point out that the Emperor has no clothes...and that he's been using his state-controlled media to try to convince everyone that he's fully dressed.

Meanwhile, everyone's favorite gigolo is back in action! Ah, yes. Right-Wing stooges never die; they just start a new website.

Accepting the exceptions to the rules

Bias in the media? Nah. Oh, well, there's this little tidbit from Media Matters.

While reporting on the 2004 presidential campaign for The Boston Globe, technology reporter Hiawatha Bray apparently wrote posts for several weblogs in which he declared his support for President Bush, attacked Sen. John Kerry, and bolstered discredited allegations by the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (now Swift Vets and POWs for Truth).


Well, people are allowed to express their personal opinions...oh, but wait. It might be an ethics violation:


The Boston Globe is owned by The New York Times Company, whose ethics handbook, Ethical Journalism: A Handbook of Values and Practices for the News and Editorial Departments, lays out specific guidelines for the political behavior of its journalists, such as: "Journalists have no place on the playing fields of politics. Staff members are entitled to vote, but they must do nothing that might raise questions about their professional neutrality or that of The Times. In particular, they may not campaign for, demonstrate for, or endorse candidates, ballot causes or efforts to enact legislation."


What's even worse about this, is that every time one of these stories breaks, the Right continues to denounce the so-called liberal bias in the press, saying that it's fine for these blatantly biased conservative journalists to break the rules because the liberals run everything. Well, at some point, the Right needs to have a reality check. In the past three years, we've had numerous stories of conservative bias in the media and conservative journalists violating ethics rules, demonstrating a clear bias in what's supposed to be objective reporting. And the argument that these instances are just the exception that proves the rule only gets you so far, until these "exceptions" become so prevalent, they clearly prove themselves to BE the rule.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Ann Coulter is a Psycho Hose Beast

I'll admit, I never, never watch FauxNews. But I do occasionally see clips from shows on Satan's Network elsewhere in the blogosphere. This one almost knocked me out of my chair. It's a clip of Alan Colmes actually showing some spine and getting up in the face of Ann Coulter, who then calls him a liar to his face, at which point he starts swinging back in his own pathetic way. It reminded me of when Jim Everett was on the Jim Rome show and Rome kept calling him "Chris" (the female tennis player). It went so far that, after telling him to stop a few times, Jim Everett went over the table at Rome, live on tv. Pretty spectacular. Sadly, however, Colmes is a wuss, and his defense and counters are pretty weak, as Coulter shouts over him. The guy has to be the least respected personality on any cable 'news' outlet.

And watching it again, I just can't believe Faux is the number one "cable news network in the country"... is it just people being entertained, or do they consider this actual journalism? I'll never know, and I'll never turn the station on by my own free will.

Anyway, here's the VIDEO (via Milk and Cookies). What do you think? Look how defensive Coulter's body language gets... she's on the ropes for a bit there, and Colmes and whoever that other guy is let her off. Wankers.

Update: Media Matters has some additional reading for those of you not yet familiar with Mme Coulter.

Monday, February 28, 2005

Family values and faith-based slayings?

From the wires:

BTK suspect confesses to killings.

Now, I still firmly believe in innocent until proven guilty. However, since this case covers a 30-year span and is just now producing an arrest, I have to believe the evidence against this guy is pretty solid.

Should he be found guilty of these terrible crimes, let's just take a brief look at his profile, shall we?

Rader, a married father of two, a Cub Scout leader and an active member of a Lutheran church, was anything but a recluse.


His job as a city code enforcement supervisor required daily contact with the public, and he even appeared on television in 2001 in his tan city uniform for a story on vicious dogs running loose in Park City.


Married, scout leader, active in his community, goes to church, worked in public safety. Interesting.


Before becoming a municipal employee, Rader worked for a home-security company, where he held several positions that allowed him access to customers' homes, including a role as installation manager. He worked for ADT Security Systems from 1974 to 1989 — the same time as a majority of the BTK killings.


Mike Tavares, who worked with Rader at ADT, described him as a "by-the-books" employee who would often draw diagrams of houses and personally make sure technicians installed systems correctly.


Middle America, straight-laced and "by-the-books"...



"I never would have guessed in a million years," said a tearful Carole Nelson, a member of Christ Lutheran Church, where Rader was an usher and the president of the church council.


President of the church council.

I emphasize this because the Republicans have made church and family the cornerstone of their re-definition of American values and every now and then, it takes a shocking story to remind us that just because people are married, go to church on a regular basis, and live in the Midwest, it doesn't automatically make them good people. Aside from the brutal murders, this guy fits the GOP's model for the ideal American man. Which should illustrate just how hollow an ideal it is.

So the next time you hear the GOP yammering on about protecting marriage and protecting children and family values, just remember this Wichita, Kansas citizen. Dennis Rader: Born and raised in the heartland of America. Religious, active in his church. Married with children. Top suspect in the "BTK" slayings.

Midwestern family values, indeed.