Letters to the Editor
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Republican Talking Points Radio... I mean NPR
must have used Bumillers notes to write their report on the hearings that aired this morning.
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The cloning of Judy Miller
In military drill there is something called the preparatory command and the command of execution. These were the two commands, followed in lockstep by the press yesterday:
Prepare to kiss ass.
Kiss ass.
Or should I say David Petraeus' ass, followed by a whole raft of retired generals who were immediately featured on the television "news" to re-spin the Petraeus' spin, where he used the terms "al Qaeda Iraq" and "ethno-sectarian" about 2,000,000 times apiece in the space of a few hours.
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and She Works for the NY Times?
In some past life of that shadow of its former self (dare I say) newspaper, Elisabeth Bumiller's performance would have merited her a quick backbench seat at a copy desk. Now she is thrown up front to misuse the English language, and to abuse the sensibilities of the rest of us who can distinguish softball from hardball analysis. Geez, journalism sure is demanding these days...
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Press says, "The Mac is back!"
I doubt Elisabeth Bumiller will be alone in her praise of John McCain. With his "Straight Talk Express," McCain was a media darling. He fell out of favor, but the press loves a good "comeback kid" story. His performance at the most recent Republican debate (watched by no one) gave them all the incentive they needed. Look for more fawning over John McCain in the months to come.
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I was going to say that Bumiller
is Judy Miller Lite but I see someone beat me to it upthread.
Between Bumiller and Michael Gordon, the Times is now set to serve as an echo chamber for the Iran War Marketing Campaign.
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DemocratIC!
"...but she lumps McCain in with Democrat presidential contenders ..."
Tim
Can you PLEASE use our proper name? They are Democratic presidential contenders. I hate that you and others have picked up this Frank Luntz-inspired name-changing of the descriptor of members of the Democratic Party. They love it because their new name for us ends in "-rat." Please stop helping them and from now on use the correct name.
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Et tu, Tim Grieve?
Please don't use the word "Democrat" as an adjective.
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Dead Lazy
And that's the best that can be said about it...
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Following up
I find the Republicans' "Democrat" game so juvenile that I really don't give it much thought. I really didn't mean to play along today; my use of the word was somewhere between a typographical error and a brain slip. I've corrected it.
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I didn't catch it, but so true
It can't be emphasized enough about the demoCRAT Luntzian phrasing.
Now, Defeatocrat is just fine.
Seriously, they need to be called on that every time. Thom Hartmann called it on Bob Barr (I think that's his name, ex-republican congressman??) the other day. Thom stopped him dead in his tracks and said the correct phrase is "democratic".
Loved it.
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Democrat
The "Democrat" game may indeed be juvenile, but the Republicans know what they are doing. The same game was played to turn "liberal" into a four-letter word.
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Bumiller is NOT a journalist
Bumiller's reporting was appalling! Apart from ascribing emotional states only to the Democrats with all the erudition of emoticons, she MIS-reported that Obama went overtime. Any newspaper #1) should print a retraction 2) fire her biased, lazy, unprofessional self -- or refer her to an advertising agency for a job as copy writer. She has no place in a news room.
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Better yet
is Alissa Rubin's piece today in the NYT that informs us that Iraqis view Gen. Petraeus's report as fundamentally accurate and that they think US troops should remain in their country. How does she know all this? Interviews done with "over 20" Iraqis, that's how. Of course late last week, we learned of a study done by a Japanese news organization, the BBC and ABC in the US which canvassed over 2200 Iraqis and concluded the exact opposite of Rubin's "over 20 Iraqis." Needless to say, Rubin neglects to mention the study, preferring the results of her interviews.
Amazing. If this were Sociology 101, Rubin would get an F, but since it's only manufacturing consent for elite policies by a highly influential newspaper with millions of readers, her utterly unreliable methodology and ignorance of pertinent information get a pass from those watchful Times editors.
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Generalismo Petraeus 07
Without reading or wishing to read the Times article, it's possible that it was nice of McCain to remind us of the 'failure' of the Iraq police AND who was responsible for that failure, the General in question.
However misleading it's intent may have been to deflect this criticism today:
ARUN GUPTA: "...'Petraeus’s role in helping to set up the Special Police Commandos. In 2004, 2005, he was given the mission to train all Iraq military and police forces. And, in fact, in July 2004, Newsweek had this cover of him, saying that Petraeus was going to train Iraqis to take over the fight. Now, the reality is, is that was, of course, a failure, because three years later he was back with an escalation of US forces."
A Look At How Petraeus Helped Arm Warring Sunni and Shia Militias in Iraq
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/12/1410237
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Bumiller is a ...
(1) an embarrassment
(2) an ass
(3) incompetent
(4) an idiot
(5) all of the above?
I chose (5) ... She's an incompetent, assinine, embarassing idiot.
But then all of that is pretty typical for the NYT these days, and explains why the stench of decay at the old grey lady is getting a wee bit overpowering.