Glenn asks:

"(W)ould it ever be possible to compile enough evidence to force an abandonment of that most scared, petulant and patently false Article of Faith among our right-wing warriors and their media allies -- namely, that our establishment press is a "liberal media" that is hostile to conservatives?"

No.

To quote Atrios, this has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.

There are so many ironies, hypocrisies and contradictions at work in the Great Millennial War on A Tactic, but here is one that I have not seen much discussed:

The Neocons continually trip over each other in their mad rush to give up their (read our) freedoms in order to preserve order and protect us from random violence, yet insist it is all made worthwhile by our efforts to give the blessings of those same freedoms (at gunpoint, to be sure) to the Iraqis who arguably had just the sort of ordered, freedom-free society they covet -- before we took it away from them.

Bilal Hussein would never have been jailed in my America. If Iraq has "secured the blessings of liberty" he won't be convicted in Iraq. But in Saddam's Iraq, and George Bush's America, "Incorrect Narrative" is a capital offense.

Now that Glenn has thoroughly humiliated Klein yet again, the question presents: why? Why does this fool retain his lofty perch despite his apparent incompetence?

Klein isn't where he is because of any claimed or actual expertise as a reporter. And he sure as hell isn't where he is because of any substantive expertise in telecommunications, or espionage, or any of the other things he writes about.

His lackey-ness is obviously part of it. But I think the other aspect is his perceived expertise in process. As an insider, he is seen as qualified to opine on the horse race. And that is the underlying problem -- the fact that Time and Newsweek and the teevee meat puppets all value process over substance. It is all Chris Matthews and his kind care about.

And I suspect that Klein's willingness to lie about his authorship of "Primary Colors" actually serves the function of making him a "made man" -- proving his bona fides as a principle-free bullshitter in a world that demands that truth be subservient to its moneyed masters. Those masters like the "Dems are pansies" line, but they especially like keeping hoi polloi a safe distance from the substantive truth.

And because Klein still hews to that line, minor transgressions like this will pass without a murmur of trouble.

But I am not sure it represents progress.

The Bush Administration finally admits what we have been saying for years now -- that our presence in Iraq is permanent.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004772.php

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/04/10/21_war.html

(Three years ago, "Endless War" was an accusation; now it is a video game.)

And Joe Klein admits that journalism is unrelated to his job description.

One could argue that when the wolves feel comfortable casting off their sheep's clothing, the rest of us should be very worried.

Yesterday in a comment to one of Glenn's earlier posts I said:

One could argue that when the wolves feel comfortable casting off their sheep's clothing, the rest of us should be very worried.

Once upon a time, perhaps the opinion of folks like us mattered. But today the Time bandits know that we few thousand bloggers and DFHs are gnats on the ass of their elephant keepers. They know the millions of their subscribers are, and wish to remain, comfortably numb. And so they are so complacent they can afford to cheerfully admit their utter abdication. There will be no consequences of consequence.

The truth truly can now be said to have a liberal bias -- a bias our press stars have systematically purged from their work.

I am very, very worried.

No, not that Time is in the tank. No surprise there. And no surprise that most of the MSM close ranks around them in a sort of Thin Blue Line of silence. But two things that are a bit unexpected.

(A) that Time is still stuck in a journalistic "pre-9/11" mindset; that is, that they still think that sticking their fingers in their ears will work. (Though, to be fair, the outrage of all of us combined is barely audible compared to the thunder of one blustering, cocktail-weenie wagging neocon. Outside the blogosphere, it IS working.)

(B) Where the hell is Olbermann? I despise hero worship, but he is the closest thing to a talking head hero we have. Yet Keith hasn't touched this one either, at least that I have seen. Surely this story warrants at least a WPITHW mention. If Keith is in the tank, the war is over, folks.