The Anchoress

:::::UPDATE::::::UPDATE:::::::

I am informed that Mr. Eric Boehlert has (for the third time) referenced this post in his unending series of rants about rightwing “warbloggers” and their supposed irresponsibility in (gasp!) questioning the Associated Press about a report and it’s source. At least this time he has quoted me correctly, so that’s a nice change from earlier.

Boehlert uses the quote to huff that I think there is no need for a press (!) and cites the The Iraq Study Group Report (that bastion of enlightenment I do believe he is the only person still referencing) as evidence that, indeed when it comes to the US Military it might be best to take the uncorroborated word of Iraqi locals and stringers who lack evidence over our soldiers. Raise your hand if any of that surprises you.

Boehlert still apparently maintains that because Jamil Hussein exists, this AP report is true. As I wrote here:

Let’s test that logic with a syllogism, shall we?

No, that doesn’t work. The logic fails.

It seems odd to me. How does someone being extant automatically mean his uncorroborated story is simply true? Why are people in a free country not allowed to question the press without having to face the rambling wrath of Eric Boehlert?

These seem like simple questions and yet the answers are slow in coming. Seems strange.

Whatever. I’m bored, and this will be the last time I write about this issue or Boehlert’s columns, at least until we get some more information (something beyond “Jamil Hussein exists”) on the initial AP report, which has been changed (four mosques are now one, etc) but never corrected. All of the ranting and railing against “right wing warbloggers” has not managed to provide any sort of verification of the incident - but it has thrown up a nice smokescreen, and for some it has managed to obfuscate those questions we keep asking: What really happened? Is the report real? Four mosques or one? Six people burned alive or none? Where is the evidence, pictures, interviews?

To that question there answer seems to be: sound and fury, signifying nothing. And oh yes, a whistling and chill, chill wind. Do not question the press.

I did have to chuckle when I read this line of Boehlert’s:

To date, the warbloggers’ admissions of errors have been grudging and brief, despite the fact they wrote enthusiastically and freely while lodging their nasty allegations..

Heh. Where to start? Given his singularly cranky and ungracious acknowledgement that he’d um, selectively quoted Seedubya, and his complete inability to admit that he also - by omitting part of one of my sentences - mischaracterized my meaning, I’m not sure Boehlert has room to talk. He also implied that I hold “contempt” for the first amendment, a charge to which I do not take kindly.

And does Boehlert really want to talk writing “enthusiastically and freely while lodging…nasty allegations?” My sides hurt.

And I’m still not a “warblogger.”

Related:
Sir, that is not quite what I wrote
Sigh. This is getting dull.

:::::::END UPDATE::::::::

Flopping Aces is making a very serious charge against the mainstream media. If what he is laying out proves to be more than a suspicion, well…then the “mediating intelligences” and “high priests” in the press need to address it, for the sake of their “church,” their credibility and ummmm…yes, dammit, the sake of our soldiers and our nation.

I’m not holding my breath for that, but still.

Whoops, hold on, Curt’s got an update: Centcom says it never happened. Of course the press will believe anonymous sources over Centcom, but I’m still willing to take the word of an officer in the US Military over others.

I’m linking to his backup site because the main site is super busy with this.

Police Capt. Jamil Hussein seems to be the Greg Packer of the Middle East. Has the press been relying on a bogus spokesperson since…last April???

Go read it all. seedubya and protein wisdom have taken Flopping Aces start and run with it. (Note: Seedubya updates here)

Could it be this easy? Get your information from a dubious source and use it to declare “civil war?”

Well, why not? The press has done everything else it possibly could to undermine our troops and the president, since 2003. It’s all about honor, you know. Honorable withdrawal and stuff. [Clarification - I was writing angry when I posted this and that’s never a good idea. Brian Montopoli at CBS Public Eye has rightly found my overgeneralized language objectionable, and I want to take this opportunity to say that no, I do not believe that ALL journalists are actively working to undermine the troops or the president. But SOME are…I think most in the press just don’t like the Iraq story or Bush and wish both would go away, but they are not working from a place of active malice…but some are. And they’re really not that hard to find, if you look. The NY Times does, I think, actively work at undermining. Leaking that SWIFT banking information hurt us, and then we got the “public editor’s” late and lame declaration: “I discovered there was no crime…we shouldn’t have published that information…but I just hated Bush so much I couldnt’ do my job!” Yes, I think there are some in the press who perhaps do not realize how far out they have gone. - Admin]

Further, check out this: AP makes a terrible charge against our troops with unnamed sources. The military denies it, the press says, “yeah, sez you, we’re running it and not naming a single source, because we believe anyone but you guys…”

How long does this get allowed to continue? And how are blogs supposed to overcome something like this, when the press won’t cover it? Heck, even Drudge doesn’t have this.

UPDATE I:
Also writing:
Wizbang
Michelle Malkin
Gateway Pundit
Blue Crab Boulevard
Powerline
Newsbusters
Democracy Project
AllahPundit
BizzyBlog

Related: Iraq: Bloggers “premature”, press “focused”

I wonder how many of our troops are being further endangered by the fakery we’re discovering here? I wonder how many of their deaths in the coming weeks will be due to this sort of stuff?

As usual with stories like this the fake story - and the impressions it has made on the minds of the public - is out there, damage done. I don’t see how alternate media can win against a major media that fabricates crap and puts it out there knowing that even if they correct the story a week later, they’ve done their damage. It’s a sneakly lawyer’s trick, actually - like putting an idea in a jury’s head and then having the judge tell them to “disregard” it.

I frankly don’t know how the president had endured this non-stop game, the incessant lying and leaking, distortion and hate-mongering in the press. I don’t know how anyone can endure it and not lose heart. Perhaps he has. The press is literally trying to not simply destroy the man but take down his government and surrender a military action that is important to the survival of our identity, and the West’s. And, sadly, they seem to be succeeding.

This cannot end well. The government needs to slap down the press and demand some accountability. They’ve needed to do it for a couple of years now. They won’t.