Wash Press Corpse never challenged WH "vandalism" story either. Braindead from Day One.

[Captain Hilts]

There were no photographs, nothing.

And the Washington Press Corpse ate it with a spoon.

Lazy asses.

So, OF COURSE, they'll believe the WMD crap.

[Atman]

1. Even after the GAO released a report calling it crap, freepers still believe it

Because, of course, no one in the press ever revealed that it was all a bunch of Rovian propaganda.

.

[blm]

19. The story LASTED on the news until 9-11. So, even the Clintons couldn't counter

the lie effectively and get their side of the story out, and he was PRESIDENT.

This invent a lie and keep it on the news tactic proved so successful, they used it again with the swifts. It was ALWAYS the media - a complicit media willing to stick to Rove's storyline OBSESSIVELY while IGNORING the truth and counters from Dems.

[Rosemary2205]

2. Yep, Day ONE "honor and dignity" Bushco LIED.

And the Press KNEW it was all lies and reported it anyway.

Fuckwads.

[senseandsensibility]

3. Yes long before 9-11 they were bushbots.

The question is why? I think the answer is that they were told to go easy o chimp by their corporate bosses/sponsors. It's the only thing that makes sense. They tried to justify it by citing 9-11, but as your example shows their pandering was in place long before that; in fact, they were lapdogs even before chimp "won." If they hadn't been, he never would have had a chance.

[deutsey]

18. Bingo...they knew if they wanted to keep their cushy jobs they'd tow

the corporate-owners' line.

[tetedur]

4. It started with "They counted the votes and I'm the winner."

His reaction to the vote count of 2000 was the first clue that he didn't believe in democracy, that he was going to subvert the Constitution and he was willing to lie to get his way.

The next thing he said was "This would be a heck of a lot easier if this were a dictatorship and I was the dictator." Alarm bells should have been ringing.

[Enrique]

5. Scott Simon of NPR fell for it hard

I email him periodically reminding him of this sanctimonious essay, and ask him if he ever owned up to being so badly taken by the Bush liars. The "nyuk nyuks" are on him.


http://www.npr.org/programs/wesat/features/2000/001227.whitehouse.html

W's. Departing Democrats defamed computer keyboards of their 'W' keys. It was a prank eight years ago. Outgoing Republicans had left Bush-Quayle stickers behind to grin at Democrats from desk drawers and computer terminals. But bumper stickers can be removed, ha-ha. At least some Clinton staffers also apparently glued filing cabinets shut, switched around the face plates on telephones and overturned desk chairs and tables. Ho-ho!

Scores of keyboards have to be replaced, tee-hee. Lewd cartoons were left in computer printers. Yuck, yuck. And, finally, some of the staff who accompanied the Clintons to New York on their presidential 747 apparently absconded with some of the flatware and china assigned to the plane. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

Part of the fun of a prank, after all, is enjoying the vision of making people laugh. Did the departing White House staffers think that vandalism is a laugh riot?

The small acts of destruction and theft somehow seem all of a piece with the Clintons' last moments in the White House, pardoning rich people with political links and accepting almost $200,000 worth of furnishings, silverware, china and a large-screen TV. The Clintons were calculating enough to accept the gifts in those few golden days between Senator Clinton's election and her oath of office, when Senate ethics laws would prohibit accepting such a trousseau of treasures.

Now there's nothing wrong with living large. But how much of the Clintons' new Robin Leach lifestyle is the American public supposed to support? Mr. Clinton is causing the government to rent an entire floor of office space in midtown Manhattan. Some other ex-presidents have settled for cheaper space, in capacious federal office buildings that are centrally located but not so near Carnegie Hall and The Russian Tea Room. Mr. Clinton's just signed a $3 million speech contract. The space American taxpayers are renting for him will presumably be used to make even more money. Senator Clinton signed an $8 million book contract just before being sworn to uphold the Senate ethics regulations. After so many years of public service, Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton are rich. Maybe they deserve to be. But they can also buy their own silverware, rather than accept gifts from people with the reason to seek favors. It is the enduring image the Clinton administration leaves with so many Americans, moments of brilliance, undermined by insistent immaturity.

[Captain Hilts]

7. Oh, my. I'd never heard/read this essay by Simon. David Broder could have written it! nt

[krkaufman]

8. Ha! I love the image of Simon regularly cursing your name.

And that was NPR. Shows you how sad the state of affairs really is.

[krkaufman]

6. They had already been lapdogs for a year by then ...

... having licked Shrub's boots throughout the 2000 campaign, whilst ridiculing Gore at every turn.

[Old and In the Way]

9. You know, that'd be a great story to revisit.

See how are the Republican corporate media hyperventilated over that non-story. I wonder if any of these people have ever thought about how silly their "expose" was in light of all the real damage this administration has delivered to this country?

Bill Moyers should dissect this story; he seems to be the only person capable of introspection on TV today.

[TahitiNut]

10. WHSG ... White House Stenographer Group

Helen is the only one that's not a waste of oxygen.

[EST]

15. David Gregory was quite a disappointment, wasn't he?

He used to occasionally ask a few pertinent, penetrating questions, but no longer. He was pilloried and smeared by the attack machine when he attempted to get something more than canned spin from the white house press agent and learned his lesson.
When he recently hosted "Hardball" on msnbc for a week, his performance was appallingly right wing attack dog, with his interviews and comments being indistinguishable from almost any rabid POX noise offering.
Unfortunately, the only key to de-fusing such performance and restoring any sort of responsibility to the delivery of much needed information lies in the rise of the editorial prowess of the blogosphere and the coincident obsolescence of conventional media, meaning that, for democracy to survive, one of the most important tasks we have is protection of the internet.

[TahitiNut]

16. Indeed ... like a broken Rocky Horror Picture Show dance record ...

... he's just kept jumping to the right and waving his butt.

[lapfog_1]

11. Trial balloon

used to measure how gullible and compliant the press would be for the fictions to follow.

Also to test how effective the RW echo chamber worked.

Which is not to say they didn't have some idea already, given the 8 years of attacking Clinton, but they needed to see how well it worked from the INSIDE... and they needed to know quickly... so gin up some crap about Clinton's staff and the transition and see if it floats.

[Pirate Smile]

12. That one still really pisses me off. I can still hear Ari at the podium saying how

they wouldn't comment on it - like they were being nice and staying above the fray when really they could have told the truth and squashed the phony story.

That was the first clue that they would be spreading disinformation and the press corp would lap it up and repeat it continuously.

Maybe that was their first dress rehearsal for promoting a false story from the WH. They started testing it right away.

[Captain Hilts]

14. Pushing the envelope of believablility/gullibility. First day in the WHouse. nt

[Kingofalldems]

13. A breathless Andrea Mitchell reported on this every night

for at least a week. It was never retracted.

[deutsey]

17. I was thinking about this today

Not one shred of evidence provided and when someone from the Clinton WH asked that the Bush junta provide a list of specific damages, Ari FLIEshcher backed down and shut the fuck up.

O would that our illustrious Fourth Estate demanded such evidence. Fucktards...