Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Conservative BS Re: Obama's Pakistan Claims:
Insty and Nedra, I'm Looking At You

So I run across this at Yahoo! news. The first thing that strikes me is how odd the first paragraph is:

"WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Wednesday that he would possibly send troops into Pakistan to hunt down terrorists, an attempt to show strength when his chief rival has described his foreign policy skills as naive."

So I think: jeez, this sounds like one of those stock reports, where it's SOP to include a hypothesis about why the Dow went up or down, but to report it as if it were undisputed fact. Like "The Dow was down today because of bad blah blah blah reports from China," or "Stocks were up today on profit itching from the pork snouts sector."

I almost just passed over it, but then I realized that this bit of BS was so egregious that it might actually be some kind of parody...but no other signs of that. Then I looked at the byline. It was, in fact:

Nedra Pickler, pseudo-journalist.

Yup. So here we have what is, in effect, a blatant attack on Obama masquerading as a lede. In effect, Pickler is asserting, without proof, that Obama is talking about sending troops into Pakistan in response to a debate dispute, in an attempt to make himself look better.

What's not there of course, is the really crucial information. Right up front it should say:

"Nedra Pickler, well-known conservative hack, makes shit up in order to undermine Democratic candidate."

Then I find that, over at Instapundit, this has become: "Invade Pakistan!"

Jesus, these people.


What Obama actually says makes real sense--far more sense than basically anything that has come out of the current administration...well, ever. However, were it me, I'd be careful with any talk about sending troops into Pakistan...even though Obama is absolutely right that we might have to do so. this is a claim that's too easy to misunderstand--or intentionally distort.

I was in no way pro-Obama two months ago...but the guy just keeps looking better and better. And the fact that the conservative noise machine is so intent on smearing him just serves to endear him to me.

18 Comments:

Blogger Tom Van Dyke said...

Nedra Pickler, alone among the AP, has been known to lean right, or at least not-left. Now you know how I feel when the patent bias of the other 99% of the press leaps off the page at me.

As for Obama, this is no small screwup. People forget that when an American public figure speaks, the world listens. Obama has no such excuse.

Pakistan, by virtue of its nukes and population of 170 million, is the most powerful Muslim nation in the world. For Obama to even hint at invading it or even violating its territorial sovereignty is, oh, how did she put it, ah yes, irresponsible and frankly naive.

I hope you clean out your bank account and knock on every door to make him the Democrat nominee. I trust the American people will not put our lives in the hands of this amateur.

3:50 PM  
Blogger Winston Smith said...

Ah, Tom, your pervasive double-standard never fails to amuse me. If you were 1/100th as tough on the current Moron-in-Chief as you are to a mere Democratic candidate...well, we'd have far fewer of these little conversations.

Amusing, also, how you take Obama's hints more seriously than Bush's actual wars...

And where were you when Bush accidentally made military defense of Taiwan our policy? I don't recall any squawking.

And I love your characterization of the radical partisan Pickler as "leaning non-left". Hilarious!

And if you really believe that 99% of the rest of reporters are more left than Pickler is right, then you really ARE viewing things through a distorted lens.

I know you righties think that everybody who doesn't toe your line is a radical lefty...but that's hilarious even by your standards... You guys are the equivalent of sports fans who blame every single loss on the refs.

4:28 PM  
Blogger Winston Smith said...

Which is not to defend Obama. He should have been more judicious.

It's *your* personal double standard that's cracking me up here.

4:29 PM  
Blogger The Mystic said...

Hold on Tom, I got this:



That's a rant, WS, and I accept your surrender. Bill Clinton got a blowjob from Lewinsky and LIED about how old his daughter was! Therefore, you are wrong.

Your main contention is that your "logical" side is morally superior, and that's just tautological.

Reagan once said "Liberals are full of self-declared truths."

Ipso facto.

4:52 PM  
Blogger Tom Van Dyke said...

Oh, my. You're projecting again, WS. We accuse others of our own faults, sayeth the Talmud.

The only biased reporter in America is conservative? C'mon, man.

5:03 PM  
Blogger The Mystic said...

"And if you really believe that 99% of the rest of reporters are more left than Pickler is right, then you really ARE viewing things through a distorted lens."

=

"The only biased reporter in America is conservative"



Yup. He got you there.

5:07 PM  
Blogger Winston Smith said...

Shorter TVD:
I know you are, what am I?

But wait, Tom...if we accuse each other of our own faults...and you accuse me of accusing you of my own faults...

The drawing of the conclusion is left as an exercise for the reader.

8:36 PM  
Blogger The Mystic said...

It's self-declared, Winston, you wouldn't understand.

9:10 PM  
Blogger The Mystic said...

You could always look it up on http://www.conservapedia.com/Self-Declared_Truth

I took the liberty of creating the page in an attempt to educate poor saps like you.

Poor, poor saps.

9:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

None of you are very bright, you're all getting pulled in by the politics and hate here in present America. You can't see the forest through the trees because your so angry with either the left or right that you're blinded by it all. Politicians on both sides are ruining the U.S. with their hate and you're all buying into it by thinking "your side" is correct. I like Newt's idea... get rid of all the idiots in Washington and start from scratch. Meanwhile the rest of you need to take a deep breath and get a life.

God Bless America,
Ron

4:42 PM  
Blogger lovable liberal said...

Wow. A visit from David Broder's nonpartisan America, sent by well-known nonpartisan Newt Gingrich to call us all stoopid, bless his li'l heart.

5:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fuck Newt. You missed my point Einstein, and yet my made my point for me. You're the exact type of idiot i'm talking about :)

Ron

P.s. who the hell is D. Broder? I'm not a lib or conserv. I'm an average citizen that doesn't get caught up in all this b.s. This is the first time i've ventured into the blogs.... and the last seeing as how dorks like you obviously live here and thrive on all this. :) Again, get a life!

6:01 PM  
Blogger Winston Smith said...

Did that guy *actually* say "God bless America"?????

Too, too beautiful...

Wait, it's a joke, right?

Who did that? LL? Mystic? DA? Matthew?

7:55 PM  
Blogger The Mystic said...

So THAT's what it's like outside of the blogosphere..

Do you think..no...well..do you think that was what they call a "woman"?

I don't know, I'm just an idiot (!= average citizen) who obviously lives here and thrives on all of this, and needs to get a life.


Apparently, though, we can completely jettison grammar, spelling, and intelligence if we ever want to leave this blog where we all live. That's good to know.

8:33 PM  
Blogger Tom Van Dyke said...

Poor Ron. "We" sure showed him.

1:01 AM  
Blogger The Dark Avenger said...

Sorry, I'm still engaged in using my intellect in coming up with a post that meets tvds' exacting, if unwritten and perhaps unexplainable standards.

1:27 AM  
Blogger Winston Smith said...

Nice knowing ya, DA...

7:53 AM  
Blogger The Mystic said...

Beware of the self-defined truth, DA. You'll think you made a good point and then BAM, you were being self-defined truthy again.

7:56 AM  

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