The Anchoress

Sec’y of State Condoleeza Rice has responded to former President Clinton’s weekend “spontaneous outburst” (or “planned scene” depending on one’s point of view) and I love Kobayashi Maru’s take on it:

How ironic that the man who claimed to have felt, as a child, the pain of black churches being burned in his home state (nothing of the kind actually took place, as Siggy points out) is being called to account by a black woman in power… who actually did.

Rice’s remarks were made to editors of the NY Post, and in no way can one expect her rebuttal to make the sort of headlines Clinton’s rant-o-lies did.

Clinton gave the MSM talking points they will repeat ad nauseam, and no they won’t fact-check a word of it or report on the extensive fact-checking that has gone on - all over the blogosphere - and has more than proved Clinton’s “facts” as lies.

This is where things stand, September 2006, in the world of information dissemination. Blogs have made inroads, but not enough, and all of their fact-checking amounts (in the eyes of the MSM) to little more than soundwaves in the echo chamber. “One side” of the partisan chasm has the whole story and sits nearly impotent with it, while the other has the “preferred story,” accredited and promoted by the “mediating intelligences,” who still (and will for the foreseeable future) hold the largest sway over public opinion, by sheer dint of their control of public knowledge.

The blogs did an incredible job of fact-checking Clinton - they were quick and accurate - they found files of articles from the NY Times and the WaPo utterly dismantling Clinton’s assertions. They floated the video from NBC News (not a known right-wing establishment) suggesting we had OBL more than “in our sites.” But it will be to little effect, I fear. In subsequent news reports, the “mediating intelligences” have not picked up a bit of the analysis, have not used any of the facts easily available on hundreds of blogs.

Not the right story, you see. Clinton is not the right president to prove a “liar.” The press wants desperately to bring down a president, but Clinton is not the one. And so, facts-schmacts, the only facts that matter are the ones the master can pull out of thin air.

And if that doesn’t demonstrate, more than anything, that we are living in an age of diabolical disorientation, where up is down (the excellent economic news is bad) and right is wrong (men who served with John Kerry know nothing about him) and truths are lies, (US policy from 1998 on was regime change in Iraq, but only until we did it) I don’t know what can.

I feel no great thrill here to see Clinton in a purple rage, nor to see how brilliantly some parts of the blogosphere responded, because in the end our limited audience is still been trumped by the vast and attention-span-challenged audience of the MSM, who click on, absorb a thirty second “Clinton good, others bad” sound bite and click out, certain they’ve got the information they need.

The blogosphere is growing in effectiveness and becoming a force for change in some respects. Blog commentary is increasingly dependable, professional and penetrating, and the fact-checking is above reproach, but our influence is still limited.

We may hope, though, that each new “blogswarm” so saturates the information market that a few drips or rivulets of “blogtruth” manage to meander into the consciousnesses of a few more minds. For now, we are still - unfortunately - ignorable by the MSM. And whenever a story involves a Clinton, the press closes ranks and does its seemingly solemn duty - not to the truth, but to the man. I simply feel tired of how predictable is the denouement.

It’s spooky how often Siggy and I dovetail: He writes:

This week, Bill Clinton went down in flames- nobly, of course. The MSM and the left are all a twitter, because Bill Clinton, beautifully and articulately lied his pants off. It didn’t matter that Mr Clinton wasn’t telling the truth- the proud moment was achieved because he lied with polish, poise and earnestness. The MSM and left are so proud!

Rather than be ashamed of an former President of the United States boldly lying on national television, much of the MSM and the left believe they can finally touch themselves in public, for a change.

Read it all:

Also, AJ notes Dr. Rice’s response: The person to lead of is the hyper intelligent and classy Condi Rice. One of the best people to take on Clinton is Rice. She is soft spoken and her words are always well chosen. She also represents the coming break for the Democrats - women and minorities. Talk about standing up to power! Her response to Clinton sets an amazing juxtaposition between a serious career woman and a ranting womanizer.

UPDATE: The Sanity Squad talks Clinton’s behavior on their latest podcast, with their guest Gagdad Bob. It’s no echo chamber - they agree on some things, disagree on others. Since most of them VOTED for Clinton, it’s interesting stuff.