Anatomy of an Anatomy of a Smear of a Smear
Bear with me, it’s a little complicated. Here’s how it works. Talking Points Memo intones in serious, knowing, disgust-tinged tones about the painfully obvious, none of it revealing any previously unknown anatomy or any smear, then adds unsupported speculation, as well as some distortion, for verisimilitude:
TPM notes that Murdoch-owned Times of London writes about Obama’s Auntie Z.
It’s unclear how the paper learned of the woman’s presence in the U.S.
(Italics mine. Looks more breathless that way.)
TPM then notes that it gets picked up by right-wing echo chamber.
From there, the story quickly got taken up by the right-wing echo chamber. Fox News (also Murdoch-owned, of course), Drudge, the Boston Herald, and various conservative blogs — as well as some mainstream outlets — began breathlessly hyping the story.
Hey, thanks for the Herald shout out! The “mainstream” link at TPM is to Boston Globe. “Breathlessly hyping” by the way refers to the process of reporting on the previously unknown presence of the Democratic presidential candidate’s beloved auntie in a local housing project.
TPM then notes that the Associated Press … known for its McCainist agenda, much like the Boston Globe … has been fed dirt on the illegal status of Auntie Z, but notes AP notes it was unable to determine whether it was being spun, used, etc.
But note the way in which AP seems to have obtained the information. High up in the story, it reports:
Information about the deportation case was disclosed and confirmed by two separate sources, one a federal law enforcement official. The information they made available is known to officials in the federal government, but the AP could not establish whether anyone at a political level in the Bush administration or in the McCain campaign had been involved in its release.
In other words, it looks like someone in the Bush administration leaked the information, with the goal of throwing a last-minute wrench into Obama’s campaign. And someone else confirmed it, with similar motives.
I’m sure that is in fact what AP very much wanted to say. In other words, it isn’t able to, but in a slightly weaselier way that TPM, is trying to. TPM is, however.
On the record, of course, the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, is telling reporters it can’t comment on any individual person’s immigration status. It would appear to be a violation of department procedures, at the least, to leak such information.
We’ve seen this same tactic used recently by the Bush administration. Earlier this month, law enforcement sources leaked the news, also to the AP, that the FBI has begun a nationwide investigation into ACORN. Again, the obvious purpose of the leak was political — to bolster a Republican campaign to stoke fears about voter fraud, in an effort to de-legitimize an Obama win. The Justice Department still has not confirmed the existence of the investigation.
Either that, or reporters were asking every fed they know about ACORN, due to multiple and massive cases of fraud popping up all over the place making it pretty much impossible to ignore that inconvenient scandal. But we’re pretty much back into Bush lied, people died territory at this point. The anatomy of that is, if you want it to be so, just say it.
Welcome, RCP, etal. Always good to see you. Come on in. Also, see comments below for discussion/full disclosure on my own role in the vast Murdochian rightwing conspiracy/echo chamber. Admission forced by some clever reader who uncovered the fact that I work for the Boston Herald. Meanwhile, today’s consmearacy update: The Auntie Z Oversight.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 4:38 pm on Saturday, November 1, 2008
15 Responses to “Anatomy of an Anatomy of a Smear of a Smear”
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November 1st, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Of course it’s Bush’s fault - probably Cheney’s. It couldn’t have anything to do with the governor, friend of both Obama (who couldn’t afford to pay his Harvard parking tickets until he ran for president) and Dianne Wilkerson (a victim!) . No Deval is creating an ethics task force and they will pin this to Rummy no doubt - I’m sure it’s connected to the Iraq war and the unrest around the world.
November 1st, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Of course. FBI officials never leaked information before Bush became President. So it MUST be his fault. Like everything else. Except the good stuff.
November 1st, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Rupert Murdock has a lot of power.
He trys to swing elections for republicans, using his substantial resources.
Soros is a nothing compared to Rupert Murdock and his right-wing billionaire buddies in the MSM.
November 1st, 2008 at 5:30 pm
*tries*
I should also mention Richard Mellon Scaiffe, the Sinclair brothers, Neil Bush and his family…. the list goes on and on as far as right-wing billionaire media controllers.
Anyone that thinks “liberals” like George Soros controls the MSM is delusional.
No question that Rupert and his White House buddies are doing all they can to smear Obama.
Of topic, anyone looking forward to Sarah Palin’s interview on “Meet the Press”?
Oh that’s right off script, she babbles like a confused teen pagent queen, “Such as…”
Give me a break, McCain could have gotten Olympia Snowe, someone SMART, for the VP job.
Country First, give me a break.
November 1st, 2008 at 5:50 pm
I did a quick dd Wiki on the Boston Herald… hmmm, the last owner was Rupert Murdock and is present owned by Patrick Purcell who was a former News Corporation executive.
News Corporation, isn’t that Rupert Murdock’s company?
Patrick Purcell was a high-level exec that worked for Rupert Murdock… man you can’t make this stuff up.
So I have to ask, jules crittenden are you a sockpuppet?
November 1st, 2008 at 6:58 pm
This is clearly a much more serious invasion of a non-citizen’s expectation of privacy than the Joe Wurzelbach matter. What has TPM said about that?
If the US MSM had shown any interest at the names in Obama’s memoirs, this would have been known long ago. And if it had been McCain, davemartin, it would have been news before the primaries.
November 1st, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Damn your eyes, davemartin456. Yes, it’s true. You know our secret … the Boston Herald is a former Murdoch publication. Pat Purcell bought it from him. I worked for Murdoch and now I work for Purcell. As noted in the “about.” OK, you’ve figured out our vast rightwing conspiracy. Now, see if you can figure out why my our Murdochian masters decided to break this story 3,000 miles away, and how we twisted the Globe’s and the AP’s arms into doing our wicked bidding. As for my sockpuppetry, there’s no hiding from someone with your investigative skills. My name is Glenn Greenwald. I am a former constitutional lawyer and civil rights litigator. Perhaps you’ve read my two New York Times Bestselling books? Please visit http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/ to enjoy my lengthy self-adoration, I mean bio. Be sure to click the “more.”
Extra credit for figuring out how we got Auntie Z to stay in the United States illegally, in public housing.
Meanwhile, I have to go see what is this “wiki” that contains all these secrets, including our dark lord’s secret identity, “Murdock.”
November 1st, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Of course, all this “leaking” couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the fact that Auntie Z and ACORN are being investigated because they’ve flouted US law.
November 2nd, 2008 at 3:46 am
When certain people stumbled in here, did anyone check to see if they were allowed to have anymore? You do know that if he hits someone, you could be held responsible for serving him intoxicating thoughts. Obviously he’s having trouble holding what he’s already got.
November 2nd, 2008 at 3:51 am
BTW, a link if you will.
November 2nd, 2008 at 7:49 am
Sorry for being OT but here’s what Rupert Murdoch is saying about Obama whilst he’s down here in Oz
“Obama? He just worries me. I’ve met him three times. He’s very nice. Very intelligent. But when you talk to him about economics, he seems very naive. Hopefully, he’s just saddled with policies for the election. As president, it’s a question of whom he brings around him and will he listen to them.”
Don’t know how to do the linking very well so here’s the http
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24582348-5001030,00.html
November 2nd, 2008 at 1:13 pm
[...] Jules Crittenden and Mark Steyn make related observations. [...]
November 2nd, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Swings elections, eh? Murdock, you magnificent bastard!
November 2nd, 2008 at 7:00 pm
In this case, “Breathlessly” is pretty much from the ridicule Rule of Saul Alinksy’s methodology for attacking the critics of marxism.
November 2nd, 2008 at 11:53 pm
Interesting how this works– when the leak is about government information that harms the US and embarrasses the Bush Administration, then the MSM wants to talk about the content of the leak. When the leak harms only Democrats, the MSM wants to focus on the scumbags behind the leak.
They get away with this double standard over and over and over. It ’s almost like they think we can’t remember yesterday or something.