Friday Freeper Double Feature, Part One

(You have to think a minute about this pic, I know, but it’s appro- priate…trust me.)

I can see that this Guest Opinion that appeared in the Bucks County Courier Times yesterday written by Bob Callahan of Upper Southampton is going to keep me busy (he describes himself as a graduate of the College of New Jersey with a degree in biology and the Pennsylvania College of Optometry – so, I guess that means that he can understand the strange life form he’s writing about here without actually being able to see it…??), so I’d better get started (no link available – nice one, phillyburbs).

This has to do with Flush Limbore’s “phony soldiers” controversy; Callahan is defending Limbaugh, or trying to anyway – I’ll let you decide.

In his Oct. 26 column (republished in the CT on the 26th, but originated on the 23rd), Dan Thomasson enshrined the latest lie into media common knowledge. Then Doonesbury attempted to drive it into deeper public awareness, as funny page simpletons repeated the lie. The course whereby this lie arrived at its destination should alarm every American.

Sounds like this should have been written by Dr. Earl Tilford, who once threatened that we would be invaded by Venezuela (haven’t been able to find much about him online lately, though, which is a triumph for informed discourse).

Seamless integration of press, politician, and propagandist on such a grand scale is indistinguishable from the tactics employed by communist regimes. The lie that radio personality Rush Limbaugh referred to soldiers opposed to the conduct of the Iraq war as “phony soldiers” prompted Congressman Patrick Murphy to launch a personal attack and Sen. Robert Casey to sign a letter of censure.

Here is a link to Patrick Murphy’s post on HuffPo about this; I’d love to read through what Patrick said and highlight key points, but I’m having a technical issue with HuffPo in that my browser window frequently locks up from this location when I try to read their content (my guess is some kind of scripting conflict with a pop-up ad or something). I’ll keep at this.

Also, here is a link that takes you to the Media Matters post on this with the transcript; Callahan will get into that a bit later, but you can read it and hear the audio before that if you want.

And the Limbaugh censure resolution followed the idiotic “wrist slap” of MoveOn.org for its “General Betray Us” ad here (and, as noted from the link, many of MoveOn’s members are former military personnel and families and friends of presently serving members). Of course, Callahan won’t tell you any of this.

Media Matters for America, an Internet site Sen. Hillary Clinton claims to have “helped start,” initiated the process.

Oh brother…

Here is a link to a Wikipedia article on Media Matters that tells you at least three things: 1) It was founded by David Brock in 2004, 2) It has not been or is not now bankrolled in any way by George Soros, and 3) Aside from mention in site posts from time to time, Hillary Clinton has nothing to do with it (and for good measure, here's more information on who runs the group).

Their “phony soldiers” version was repeated verbatim by print and broadcast outlets, and within hours the president’s press secretary was being asked if Mr. Bush agreed with Limbaugh’s assessment that soldiers who disagree with the administration are “phony soldiers.” Within hours, senators and congressmen were offering condemnations and threats from their chambers and elsewhere. In terms of choreography and coordination, the attack was as stunning as any Broadway spectacle.

I suppose, pretty much parroting in a way what the right-wing noise machine (with Limbaugh often figuring prominently) has been inflicting on our discourse for years. And if you want to read just one example of this (there are many, many others, most notably the Terri Schiavo circus), this tells you how Hillary Clinton’s “laugh” became the “news” story of the days a couple of months ago.

Even for a cynical and informed observer, the breadth and synchronization of this attack was awesome. Imagine if the full weight of media, every avenue of information – broadcast, print, even cartoon – tried to crush you with slander.

I don’t have to imagine, Callahan. I watched you and your fellow travelers inflict this on President Bill Clinton from the early stages of his campaign until the moment he left office.

Imagine if the United States Senate, with total power of regulation over your profession, bludgeoned you with this lie. Whatever one thinks of Limbaugh, he would not be crushed, and the parties to this attack were thoroughly discounted. In particular, the credibility of dominant media has fallen so far that the news reporting must be considered for entertainment purposes only.

That last sentence is solely Callahan’s laughable opinion, and to this day, I have not seen an apology forthcoming from Media Matters, VoteVets or anyone else who quite rightly held Limbaugh to account because no such apologies are necessary.

For anyone who heard Limbaugh’s show in real time on Sept. 26, it was impossible to miss his meaning.

That much is true.

Inspired by an ABC News broadcast about soldiers who misrepresent or fake their service, termed by ABC the “Phony Heroes,” Limbaugh, on Sept. 25, aired a morning update (a monologue that runs proceeding the show) discussing phony soldiers. This morning update was an exposition of how the anti-war movement presents soldiers who are abject frauds, such as Jesse Macbeth, or military personnel who submit fraudulent accounts, such as Scott Beauchamp. In either case they are celebrated for their ability to discredit, demoralize and endanger the U.S. military with fabrication being irrelevant.

It’s laughable at this point to watch someone like Callahan create more of a smokescreen in defense of Limbaugh here as to what he really meant when the Media Matters transcript plainly shows that Limbaugh was not referring to Macbeth or Beauchamp by name, but just for the record, here is the story on Macbeth (and only Limbaugh would have the gall to utter the phrase “genuine phony soldier” as he does here with a straight face).

Also, I would suggest reading this well-researched column on Scott Thomas Beauchamp (I know a plethora of other blogs have covered him already) and tell me that you don’t think something fishy is going on, particularly between the Drudge obfuscation noted by writer Tim Rutten, the sloth of The New Republic’s editors in publishing Beauchamp’s claims without corroboration, and the Army’s refusal to comply with TNR’s Freedom Of Information Act request regarding the Beauchamp case. Given all of that, I think there’s more to this story than Callahan will ever tell us.

On Sept. 26, a caller to Limbaugh’s show, referring presumably to anti-war activists, stated, “they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and spout to the media.” Limbaugh responded, “the phony soldiers.” After ending the telephone conversation, Limbaugh read the text; “Here is a morning update we did recently about fake soldiers.”

He detailed how the phony soldier and anti-war hero Macbeth’s false accounts of U.S. atrocities were publicized and even translated into Arabic by anti-war media. His outrage was with the purpose of the phony soldier paradigm, employed to damage the stature and morale of the U.S. military. By extension, Congressman Murtha’s deceitful description of Marine conduct in Haditha fits this template.

Callahan should read this account of what happened in Haditha, particularly this excerpt…

The Pentagon has said little publicly about the Haditha deaths, and in Iraq the incident has caused little controversy - US troops there are already viewed by most Iraqis as trigger-happy and indifferent to civilian casualties.

Now four marines in that group, including Staff Sgt Frank Wuterich, 26, are facing charges of unpremeditated murder.

A further four face lesser charges over alleged failures in investigating and reporting the incident.

The US military has confirmed that 24 Iraqi civilians died in Haditha that day, none of them killed by a roadside bomb.

Col Stewart Navarre, announcing the charges on 21 December 2006, said: "The reporting of the incident up the chain of command was inaccurate and untimely."

And by the way, “Democrat” Congressman John Murtha (Even overseas? Oy…) is mentioned at the very end of the story after all of the grisly details have bee presented, and the quote about “Iraq’s My Lai” is not associated to him, but to “media commentators.”

From that exchange, Media Matters inferred an abuse of authentic soldiers where no reference is made, and ignored the lengthy discussion where phony soldiers are defined. Clinton’s Internet proxy offered the tedious and inane defense that allowing the caller 90 seconds to make an additional unrelated point before referencing only one example of numerous and documented phony soldiers somehow nullified the truth.

I don’t know what the hell that sentence means, and at this point, I don’t really care because Callahan is flat wrong anyway.

And the axis of Internet propagandists, corrupt politicians, and subservient press, in ferocious unison, tried to destroy a man and his reputation. Where do our politicians fall within this axis of weasels?

Yep, Rush knows all about trying to destroy reputations, whether or not it’s through his sickening spectacle of imitating Michael J. Fox’s symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (here) or impugning 12-year-old Graeme Frost who committed the unpardonable offense (in Limbaugh’s evil eye) of standing up to President Nutball and his veto of SCHIP (here).

It is telling that Murphy and Casey chose the dishonor of propagating a lie instead of promoting the truth about phony soldiers and the incredible damage inflicted by false portrayals of the character and conduct of our American servicemen. And it is telling that among the large body of American media only radio penetrates institutional deception.

I think the best way for me to end this is to let Jon Soltz of VoteVets have the last word here (via ThinkProgress – I have more “fun” to get to shortly).