Right wing blogs slime Michael Ware, again

Here's a bizarre blogospheric brouhaha: On Monday, Matt Drudge and his allies in the right wing blogs were claiming that journalist Michael Ware heckled John McCain's press conference in Iraq. Raw Story debunked Drudge's baseless charge with video and an eyewitness account of the non-incident.

Now, they're accusing Ware of giggling during McCain's press conference. What do they think this is, a junior high school assembly? Actually, the video "exonerates" Ware on that charge as well--he isn't the one laughing during John McCain's inane remark that it is a strategic advantage to control a capital city in wartime. Maybe he should have been.

Comments

[mudkitty]

Surprise, surprise. Ask me anything, I'm up to my earballs in research on rightwing blogs.

[Michael]

Even funnier (for values of 'funny' that make you grind your teeth), Digby points out that Ware is one of them: a supporter of the surge, a believer in the 'emboldening the terrorists' shtick.

[Francis]

As noted by Powerline (http://powerlineblog.com/archives/017233.php ) quite a few Rightish blogs have modified their stories based on the lack of video evidence backing up Drudge's claim.

[norbizness]

You know, I thought they would all be so busy trumpeting the surge-related successes that the particular vocal inflections and activities of a lone reporter would be beneath their notice. Guess I was wrong.

[mudkitty]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the "surge" itself supposed to "thrust" in August? Isn't what we're seeing more of a splat?

[Anacher Forester]

More evidence of Drudge's advanced personality disorder(s).

AF

Malkin and her ilk have grown both fat and crafty suckling at the teat of Rove.

[Leighton]

Closing an italics tag.

[Leighton]

...except that it was an em tag. >.>

[Leighton]

All right, I can't fix it. Sorry bout that.

[greensmile]

I'd like to see these asshats in Drudge's Dragoons report a real story: McCain's campaign stops in NH make it on to local TV news here in MA. Last week there was footage of McCain serving up a warm gooey shovelfull of his "the surge is working" speech to a gymnasium full of would-be supporters and the merely curious...and the response was a respectful yet devastating DEAD SILENCE. Asked about that response afterward by a reporter, McCain quickly tapdanced off to a new subject. It was uncommon footage perhaps because TV reporters usually go for the shouted cat call or the hot-button question or some kind of sound to fill that five seconds of the clip.

That McCain is out of it is not news to me but footage, without spin or any commentary, demonstrating his huge disconnect from emerging political realities IS news, pure news. It is irresponsible to report as news shit that people just make up.

[DJA]

All right, I can't fix it. Sorry bout that.

Unfortunately, commenters can't fix open tags left by previous commenters. Only admins can do that, by finding the offending comment and closing the tags ourselves. Which is why we would like to once again take this opportunity to remind everyone that the "Preview" button is your friend. If you have used any tags in your comment, please hit "Preview" before posting so you can verify whether you actually closed them correctly. Thanks.

[chowderhead]

Giggling? How can anyone listen to John McCain talk about his shopping trip in Baghdad without laughing out loud?

[mudkitty]

Any one in the market for rugs should go to Baghdad. According to the GOP.

[Larisa]

I am still entirely confused by this whole non-story. But the fact that Drudge won't retract or correct is astounding. Imagine if a liberal publication took on Tony Snow with fabricated accounts of a drunk Tony hackling an Obama press conference. If the case were reversed, I suspect that the liberal publication or blog would have been closed down within nanoseconds.

[dr2chase]

Giggling is inappropriate. Cursing, that is more like it. Go see
Bob Harris's catch, that the British government has decided that the Lancet study (estimating hundreds and hundreds of thousands of excess Iraqi deaths) did in fact use sound methods.