skippy the bush kangaroo

Sunday, April 09, 2006

hey, if they don't read their own stupid newspaper, why should we?

susang over at dkos points out that today's washpost editorial decrying joe wilson's charge of a concerted effort to discredit his niger/uranium report is 180 degrees opposite what the washpost says on its own front page:

the ironic juxtaposition of the two articles was not lost on mr. wilson, who in a private communication to me this morning (sorry, no link) made the following statement:

sunday's washington post lead editorial once again misrepresents the facts as the paper's own reporting in the barton/linzer article in the same edition makes clear. while i respect the separation of news and editorial function it might be helpful to the post's readers if the editorial board would at least read the news before offering its judgments. one of the reasons my trip to niger has been overanalyzed, as the post editorial says, is because people like those who wrote the editorial continue to misconstrue the facts and the conclusions."
indeed. let's follow the absurdity, shall we (all emphasis mine)? the editorial states:

mr. wilson subsequently claimed that the white house set out to punish him for his supposed whistle-blowing by deliberately blowing the cover of his wife, valerie plame, who he said was an undercover cia operative. this prompted the investigation by special counsel patrick j. fitzgerald. after more than 2 1/2 years of investigation, mr. fitzgerald has reported no evidence to support mr. wilson's charge.
...
the material that mr. bush ordered declassified established, as have several subsequent investigations, that mr. wilson was the one guilty of twisting the truth. in fact, his report supported the conclusion that iraq had sought uranium.
then on page 1, we find the news report:

a 'concerted effort' to discredit bush critic
prosecutor describes cheney, libby as key voices pitching iraq-niger story...

as he drew back the curtain this week on the evidence against vice president cheney's former top aide, special counsel patrick j. fitzgerald for the first time described a "concerted action" by "multiple people in the white house" -- using classified information -- to "discredit, punish or seek revenge against" a critic of president bush's war in iraq...

cheney, in a conversation with libby in early july 2003, was said to describe wilson's cia-sponsored trip to niger the previous year -- in which the envoy found no support for charges that iraq tried to buy uranium there -- as "a junket set up by mr. wilson's wife," cia case officer valerie plame.
here we have a two-fer in terms of self-debunking: (1) there was indeed total validation of mr. wilson's charges of persecution, despite what the editorial says; and (2) the news story confirms that there was "no support for charges that iraq tried to buy uranium there" - in direct contradiction to the editorial's claim that wilson's report supported the purchase effort.
gee, guys, there's a new thing, it's called a telephone. pick one up, call the other departments, see what they're working on before you embarrass yourselves again.
posted by skippy at 9:46 AM |

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