Comments on: Real Journalism

By: JB

JB — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 16:26:59 +0000

I guess it’s all speculation, as far as Lebanon goes, but the UN stuff was directly related to the situation, whereas Iraq is certainly more of an assumption of indirect influence.

I don’t buy that excuse regarding the WMDs. If they said “we believe there’s WMDs” or even “based on our best evidence, we believe…” then that would be one thing, although there have been numerous reports from intelligence officials who have said that they were told not to present any evidence to the contrary, so even then they can’t say “based on our best evidence…” when they were actively ignoring and suppressing evidence.

But even if that weren’t the case, they said “we have evidence which leaves no doubt” which was clearly a lie. As you yourself said above, reporting suspect information as hard facts is lying; there is no denying this, and the evidence they had was suspect. Especially since it turned out to be wrong, it could not have been “evidence that leaves no doubt”.

By: Nate

Nate — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 15:11:46 +0000

Interesting that you think it’s so obvious that it was pressure from the UN, and neighboring countries that had the most influence on the happenings in Lebanon while the affect of Bush’s foreign policy can only be speculated.

I am deeply disturbed by lack of WMDs, but I do think it is possible that many people inside and outside the Bush administration were absolutely convinced by the evidence they had that there were vast amounts of illegal weapons in Irag.

By: Dave Z

Dave Z — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 04:31:21 +0000

ok, please dont be insulted - do you know the last reference? I made a mistake it was two groups in the last refernce but one same group member.

once at blockbuster my son answered my different questions with a different video cover that was handy, it was fun for 2 minutes.

By: michel

michel — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 02:25:52 +0000

This is getting too weird. Let’s stop.

By: Dave Z

Dave Z — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 17:39:44 +0000

I have the tire tracks all across my back..

By: Dave Z

Dave Z — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 17:37:44 +0000

been all along the watchtower too long trying to escape my inner voodo child, slight return.
( new reference ) can’t find by way home and want to get back on the sea of love this weekend away from this white room.

By: michel

michel — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 17:28:23 +0000

Dave, looks like there’s some nasty Crosstown Traffic here. Why can’t we be Bold as Love. After all, (new reference) Everybody Knows This is Nowhere.

By: JB

JB — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 07:25:23 +0000

Interesting that you bring up the Syria/Lebanon issue, since it was the united voice of the UN security council nations, as well as pressure from other local countries that eventually achieved the desired result; no invasions and occupations necessary.

To say that it was influenced (positively) or coerced (negatively) by what we’ve done in Iraq is nothing more than speculation.

As I said previously regarding the numbers, I don’t know if DN in particular did report them, and if so, whether they reported them as “hard facts”. If that is the case, then I would concede that it was a lie; I have no obligation to defend them if they’ve done something wrong.

Now let’s hear you (by that same standard) admit that the statement “we have evidence that leaves no doubt” was also a lie, in light of the fact that their “evidence” was not only suspect but in many cases directly contradicted.

By: Nate

Nate — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 06:52:53 +0000

So you don’t think the protests that forced Syria out of Lebanon were influenced in any way by the what’s going on in Iraq?

Reporting suspect numbers as hard facts is lying.

By: JB

JB — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 06:51:15 +0000

Just read another post from the Powerline site, regarding the Joe Wilson / Valerie Plame issue, and noticed how they pretty much just go over the some of the talking points distributed by the RNC which attempt to confuse the issue by attempting to attack Wilson’s credibility and bickering over whether the blatantly obvious retaliatory outing of his wife as payback for him revealing the administration’s deceitful Niger uranium story was technically illegal. Reading that kind of thing (the talking points memo, linked above) is sickening to me. I know both parties probably do it, and what’s worse is it ends up achieving the desired effect, steering the public’s attention away from the real underlying issue at hand.

It’s really too bad that these guys don’t allow comments on their site. I guess they don’t want to deal with comments / questions like these.