Reply #59: Hertsgaard's investigations

[Febble]

are certainly ambiguous. Or, as he says, "nuanced". Nuance is good, in my book. Things tend not to be as simple as they appear.

I suppose it's possible that Hertsgaard was Making Stuff Up. But judging from his conclusions, he doesn't appear to have a motive for doing so. The reader I mentioned who objected to Hertsgaard's piece, was, however Making Stuff Up. I have not read MCM's book, but I read his VF piece, which I also found to contain assertions and interpretations stated as fact. I don't expect he Made Stuff Up, but he does not appear to have been particularly discriminatory.

That isn't "selective" criticism based on someone's position. It's criticism based on the degree to which someone has apparently weighed their evidence properly and independently.

And my criticism is quite independent of political position. I condemn both Bush and Blair for failing to weigh the evidence before waging war in Iraq. And yet Blair is leader of my own political party. I joined it before he did. Bush is the leader of a party whose principles I emphatically reject.

(edited to correct homophone)