Glenn, as usual you get it right. I read a piece in the WSJ last night that did exactly what you describe in this post. I sent an email last night to the gentleman who wrote the piece and then posted those comments on the WSJ website today. I then wrote a blog piece about it and linked to your piece here because it was so on point. Thanks for once again helping out this new blog writer by writing a piece that so perfectly illustrates the point I tried to make. I only wish I could write as well as you do. LOL

My blog post link is in my sig. I hope some of you will check it out and please let me know if you have any problems in accessing my blog. I'm new to this and I'm not sure if I have too many gadgets on my blog that prevent an easy download. If it takes too long to open the website obviously I won't get very many people reading my pieces. Thanks guys.

Thanks for the heads up on the Morning Joe videos. I posted another Morning Joe video the other day where Meacham, Scarborough and Deutsch all sat around pretty much repeating that there should be no prosecutions while at the same time saying we don't know what happened. It was pathetic. Just watching their body language and their faces while they kept up with their mantra of no prosecutions was enough to make you want to vomit.

Mitch, I agree with you. I was trying to put together a blog post on that very subject but haven't had time to do so. Hopefully someone like glenn or emptywheel will get one together (they're quick not to mention thorough). I'll keep working on one just in case they don't have time either. I hope others will too.

I'm glad that you posted a little bit about the Washington Post/ABC poll. I did a blog post about that poll earlier today because the raw numbers in the Post's poll really debunk the lie about liberals being the only ones who are for accountability on torture and that this is just a partisan issue. It also makes me wonder just how many conservatives are actually in favor of accountability. The link to my post is at my sig.

More on our establishment media's narrative on torture from this past weekend.

Link at my sig.

View the first three posts on the website.

I just watched Gabriel Sherman from TNR on Morning Joe going on and on about how valuable Matt Drudge is to the establishment media. I guess Holly is one of those people who Idolizes Drudge. Link at my sig.

Looks like John Meacham has been on a quite a roll lately.

His facial expressions in this first one really shows how he feels about "prosecutions" - Oh, no, mustn't have that.

http://democracity.blogspot.com/2009/04/delusional-inside-beltway-torture.html

http://democracity.blogspot.com/2009/04/meet-press-missing-goodwinmeacham.html

What's just as shocking and unbelievable...

...is that anyone would expect "Meet the Press," aired on a network owned by General Electric, to espouse, support or cause to be disseminated any point of view other than that those at the top should not be prosecuted.

The problem is that every network and every major newspaper is pretty much the same way. I don't think any of us really expect them to cover it any differently but it's depressing never the less. I am beyond frustration at this point. I just don't know where to turn anymore. Our country is being fed a line of BS a mile long and despite our best efforts they're buying into the BS. We keep pointing out that it's BS but our voices are not carrying as far as these media outlets. In effect, we're losing the battle for the hearts and minds of our own citizens. We're caught in a hamster wheel, running and running and never getting anywhere. We have to come up with a strategy to short circuit this propaganda that is going out to the population about torture. This is too important just to sit back and give up. I know that you know ALL of this and maybe I'm just saying it to you because I need a mental boost today. Sorry for the rant, Jim. You know I luv ya!

In viewing Meacham's comments from the Meet the Press video and his comment in the Newsweek piece one gets a better sense of Meacham's views about abuse of power and about how he applies the lessons of history.

While most historians would view examples of previous president's abuses of power as major mistakes on a presidents record, Meacham views these abuses of power as nothing more than precedents to be exploited by future presidents to justify committing similiar abuses of power in the future. This twisted view of history would certainly explain both his stunning statement in the Newsweek column and his equally stunning statements from his Meet the Press appearance where he cites the "great sins" of "great war presidents" as an excuse to defend the illegal torture authorized by George W. Bush.

http://democracity.blogspot.com/2009/04/meet-press-missing-goodwinmeacham.html

Glenn, thanks for putting together such a detailed post on this subject. I added a link to your post to my abbreviated post on my blog about this subject. In my Post I challenge the establishment media to disseminate the truth as much as they did the lies. So far I haven't seen anything on TV about it. Let's see if they at least try to put the toothpaste back in the tube on this one. I have my doubts and those doubts are well founded.

http://democracity.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-now-discredited-interview-tilted.html