MOTHER JONES Chief Goes On A Tear Against 'LOW CLASS' Former Bush Press Secretary

[Segami]

Republican operatives beware: If you come at Mother Jones, you might face the wrath of David Corn. Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary under George W. Bush, learned that lesson on Wednesday after he spoke dismissively of a tough piece on New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez ®. The piece, authored by Andy Kroll of Mother Jones, contained audio recordings, text messages and emails in which Martinez and her staffers made derisive, profane remarks. Martinez has already tried to raise money off the piece and conservatives have done their best to discredit Mother Jones. Fleischer took the latter approach in an interview with US News & World Report. “Any time Mother Jones attacks, Republicans will rally around the ‘victim.’ It's hard to imagine a more reviled outlet than Mother Jones,” Fleischer said. “Tell me the worst thing she said – not her aides, but her.” Those comments left Corn incensed. The Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones lashed out at Fleischer in a series of tweets, highlighting the former Bush spokesman's insistence throughout 2002 and 2003 that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.


Here's a sample of Corn's tweets.

Hey, @AriFleischer, get lost. http://t.co/b5U4lzZeLQ (BTW, let's not forget the Iraq war & your defense of the 47% remarks.)
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) April 16, 2014

.@AriFleischer: "We know for a fact that there are weapons there." January 9, 2003
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) April 16, 2014

.@JohnJHarwood It sure takes chutzpah for @AriFleischer to call anyone else "reviled."
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) April 16, 2014

Last word: I don't think @AriFleischer should call anyone else "reviled" until the W gang shows regret for the 100K+ Iraqi civilians killed
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) April 16, 2014

Corn wasn't done there. He told TPM in a Wednesday phone interview he finds it "interesting that [Fleischer] is not taking issue with the accuracy of our reporting." He also noted that Fleischer's embarrassing pronouncements aren't limited to the Iraq War. "This is the same guy who defended Mitt Romney's '47 percent' remarks and also believed that Mitt Romney was going to win by three or four points," Corn said. It was Corn who broke the '47 percent' story in the fall of 2012 and Mother Jones has continued to haunt conservatives with several notable scoops ever since.


Mother Jones reported last year that Chris McDaniel, the Mississippi tea partier running for Senate, once addressed a neo-Confederate conference host by a group of present-day secessionists. Earlier this month, the outlet revealed that Hobby Lobby, the company waging a legal challenge against Obamacare's contraception mandate, actually invests in contraception makers.



cont'

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/david-corn-mother-jones-ari-fleischer

[AzDar]

1. Corn!

[Scuba]

4. +1 for David Corn!

[hootinholler]

10. No GMO there either! n/t

[spanone]

2. ari head

[Segami]

3. +1000

[hootinholler]

9. I gotta steal that gif tonight.

I hope I remember it.

[longship]

5. David Corn is damned good. R&K nt

[mountain grammy]

6. K & R for David Corn.

[lillypaddle]

7. Love Corn

and David, too!

[GeorgeGist]

8. Note to Democrats.

Republicans suck at defense.

[pocoloco]

11. No wonder!

They don't get much practice!

Very few Dems challenge them!

[vanlassie]

12. Corn is poppin'! Go David!

[Voice for Peace]

13. I'm a fan of David Corn.. Ari Fleischer made my blood run cold

Susana Martinez is my governor. Unfortunately she has Koch.

[Control-Z]

34. Ew. I'm sorry. (nt)

[1StrongBlackMan]

14. As others have noted ...

It's really poor strategy to attack MJ's reporting on anything conservative, as any attack will draw more eye-balls to the story ... eye balls that would have been unlikely to have seen the original reporting.

This reminds me of a time when BabyGirl 1SBM came running into the house and emphatically stated: "Dad, I don't care what anyone says ... I didn't break Mrs. X's window."

Me: "I hadn't heard about any broken window. Who is Mrs. X? And where does she live?"

Had she not "played defense", it is unlikely that the broken window would have came to my attention.

[Tippy]

15. Way to go David Corn...

David

[liberal from boston]

16. David Corn

Love, love David Corn!!! He is an excellent investigative reporter.

[TheJames]

18. duzy

[calimary]

19. Abso-freakin'-lutely! Get in their faces and hang it around their necks

like the millstone it is. Make 'em wear it. Hell, make 'em GAG on it!!! Don't let people forget. And wash over 'em like a frickin' tsunami - that doesn't let 'em even come up for a breath of air!

Keep 'em busy. Jab! Jab! Jab! And NEVER STOP!!! That's what I learned in sparring class when I was a karate student. Keep 'em busy. Whatever happens, keep punching. Even if all you have is one arm or one fist to punch with. Keep 'em busy! Frustrate them, overwhelm them, and wear 'em out. Our sparring teacher would remind us of one of the matches he fought. In another division there was a guy who had an injured arm. All he could do was jab. But he jabbed like there was no tomorrow. And he won! Outlasted the opponent, just wouldn't let up, just wouldn't stop coming. Wouldn't stop jabbing.

[tblue37]

23. unfortunately, though, it is usually the right wing that follows that

strategy, not liberals.

[Boomerproud]

26. Liberals better learn that strategy-and quickly!

It really is crunch time and we better get going. Thank you David Corn.

[calimary]

27. Damn straight!

Dammit - I've heard Democrats in speeches and writing in columns and blogs - "we've been too nice. We've been too polite." WELL, NO DUH!!!!!!!!! Ann Lewis said so. Donna Brazile said so. This was back during the early bush/cheney years. Heard it again and again to the point of nausea. Tell me something I don't know! But MAN - put them in the ring with ANY republi-CON and they curl up and melt and defer and back down and turn belly up all over the room.

Donna Brazile is the poorest and most miserable excuse for a political infighter that I have ever seen. WORTHLESS. She ran the Gore campaign with all the brass knuckles you'd expect to find in a piece of kleenex. No wonder the bad guys got close enough to steal it. NO WONDER!!! She frickin' got RUN OVER. And it infuriated me again and again when I'd watch CNN and their idea of "fair and balanced" on any given panel of talking heads was a republi-CON Congressperson, a CONservative columnist, somebody from the Heritage Foundation or the Cato Institute or the American Enterprise Institute - and Donna Brazile. Made me want to throw up. And all she could do was to offer a hundred different versions of - "well, they do make a good point…" or "well, yes, I agree that…" NO spine. NO backbone. NO spit or vinegar. NO resistance. NO objection or even an attempt at one. NO NOTHING. A plate of cold leftover pasta would have put up a stronger front than she ever did. She probably consumes same only after taking her teeth out first. Heaven forbid she make any waves. Or try to draw any blood. Or even try to win a point in a debate with the enemy.

[7962]

39. Donna Brazile has never been a good political voice. She's too easily reduced to stammering.

But tell us what you REALLY think about her!!

[Boomerproud]

43. I couldn't agree with you more.

Donna Brazile makes me ill. "Cooking With Grease" (the title of her bio) my ass. She's the one who's cooked. Excellent points you made and I'm not making excuses for these wimps anymore. Go home, Donna, and stay there.

[Voice for Peace]

41. they're not that smart, so they keep doing the same jab, over and over and over, from only

one or two directions.

[hibbing]

32. Throw it right back into their lying smug faces

I'm with you, throw their lies about that immoral war right back into their faces. All of those lying idiots who to this day say they would do the same thing again today. Absolutely no remorse as the liberal media goes to them for their expert analysis on current events. Condi, Dick, Colin, Ari, and the Rembrandt of no Remorse himself, the dog painting idiot psychopathic son. I would love to see all of these war criminals face some questioning by real journalists.



Peace

[tooeyeten]

20. David gets Goliath again! N/t

[Stellar]

21. Alright DAVID!!!!!

That the way it's done. LOL!!!

I knew somebody was going to come after Mother Jones after everything they have found on those wingerz, and Thank goodness David had a comeback and a way to back it up!

[HughBeaumont]

22. Rank the Bewsh Admin's loathsome press Secs from worst to "I give a new MEANING to the word":

4: Tony Snow
3: Scotty 2 Hottie
2: DanUH Perrino
1: Airy Flesheater

[calimary]

28. danuh perino?

How 'bout just shortening it to "DUH" perino? Anybody remember when she went up to the podium to take questions and got stumped by the Bay of Pigs? Had no idea what that was. She later admitted that even her boyfriend at the time was chagrinned: "oh dana…" But she was spokesperson for duhbya, so the fact that she herself was such a dim bulb sorta made her fit in better, I suppose.

[nikto]

24. Ari Fleischer is a turd

And that's the best thing that could be said about him, too.

[Skittles]

25. THANKING MR. CORN

NAIL THAT LYING BASTARD

[Cha]

29. Good.. it must be so easy and satisfying to strike back at ari

Fleischer Propaganda. ari's still pissed David Corn helped break the mitt/47%ers!

great news.. thanks Segami

[Jake2413]

30. You got'a love David Corn

[Segami]

31. MSNBC....

...Get rid of Tweety and replace him with Corn.

[emsimon33]

33. K&R

[Iwillnevergiveup]

35. David Corn

synonymous with journalism.

[Warren DeMontague]

36. Remember when Ari Fleischer accused Obama of getting extra characters for his tweets?

TWEETGHAZI!



http://www.mediaite.com/online/ari-fleischers-attack-on-the-might-of-obamas-twitter-account-hilariously-backfires/

[sabrina 1]

37. Corn forgot Fleishcer's role in the Plame affair apparently. A despicable COWARD when he though he

might be prosecuted himself, he ran to the prosecutors and ratted out his buddies, airc, in return for immunity.

I am sick to death of seeing these war criminal even given the dignity of communication.

I am not at all fond of Corn, worked on blog where he was a writer for a while.

He's an insider and plays the game required in order to remain on the inside.

Mother Jones best response would have been to publish a history of Fleischer's War Criminal career AND his role in the Plame Affair demonstrating the depravity of this worm, apologies to worms.

Thse tit for tat exchanges with War Criminals do NOT do them a disservice, the acknowledge them as worthy or interacting with, defending oneself against a war criminal's rantings is not my idea of 'victory' or worthy of cheering. I would not be surprised if a Corn and Fleischer are seen at the same cocktail party in DC a couple of weeks from now.

Sorry, not impressed, seen these people do this too many times before. And we are all 'oh, look, a catfight between a War Criminl and a inside DC 'reporter'.

Wake me up when one of our Journalists does an in depth investigation into what Fleischer's role in the Plame affair actually was, and documents the lies, AND THREATS TO those who 'dared to challenge those lies', of Ari 'war criminal' Fleischer.

You don't associate with War Criminals, certainly not on Twitter.

[7962]

40. I'm glad you brought that up. I've heard the same about Corn

And its just odd to see someone in his position reacting like a whining high schooler to criticism. Much better to do what you said; keep reporting. Otherwise, it just looks like a pissing contest.

[sabrina 1]

42. Corn is a DLCer/Third Way supporter. They all attend the same DC cocktail parties, including with

Karl Rove. I learned that a while ago and have no interest in their PR escapades such as this one. 'Look at us important people arguing and proving that there really ARE two sides for you to choose from'.

I fell for it for a long time also.

You are correct, the ONLY job of a 'journalist' is to REPORT facts. Corn is doing exactly what a journalist should NEVER DO.

His wimpy 'but you were WRONG about these little details in Iraq' makes me sick. It implies that it was all just a mistake, incompetence, continuing the narrative that were 'well intentioned' but made 'some mistakes'.

Nothing could be further from the truth. They are liars, deliberate liars, they hired PR Firms to LIE more effectively to the American people. They went on to commit massive war crimes against humanity. They are despicable excuses for human beings who should never be accepted in any civilized society.

As I said, Ari and David will be hob-nobbing together at the next big DC cocktail party. But both are getting a lot of attention from this little 'spat' and that means 'money' to them and more vindication for the War Criminals' main propagandist.

[vlyons]

38. Make no mistake, the Bush crowd are fascists

Actually the whole GOP leadership are fascists, especially the Cheney wing. They lie, steal, cheat to keep the 1% corporatists in power. War and the war industry is their jobs plan. Abolish the safety net and all worker rights and minimum wage, and instead offer the army/navy as the only viable job opportunity for the poor.

[Generic Other]

44. Anytime a Bush operative gets an ass kicking I am applauding it

[malaise]

45. David Corn has done more first rate investigative journalism

with his Mother Jones website than all of M$Greedia combined.
Lash him David!