DISSECTOR DISSECTED

EMAIL BLIZZARD SKEWERS COLUMN

NEW PIECE BY SAM GARDINER

I usually end these blogs with your letters but today I was given a taste of what happens when you get on the radar screen of the ditto heads who see you the way shark sees meat in the water. They attack.

My op-ed, a.k.a. a “viewpoint” column in Newsday yesterday, on the lather over Rather (now featured on MediaChannel.org home page) had hardly been out, before Google picked it up and the letters started flying calling me everything from a dumbo to ugly to a whole variety of unmentionables. I wrote back to one denouncer of my hypocrisy and worse to explain where I was coming from. He responded with surprise that I even bothered to write and sort of apologized for his very aggressive and offensive tone.

But he was an exception. I guess if you can’t take the heat you should stay out of the old Kitchen but I still found it sad to see my central thesis about how partisans can’t and won’t hear anyone validated. The torrent of letters also confirmed my observation about how the ravers on the far right prefer to insult and denigrate people they disagree with instead of engaging. Here’s a taste of the hate mail I received. I am more used to compliments than condemnations but you can’t take this drivel personally.

In a sense it is a compliment because rather than being ignored, I have suddenly become what the Pentagon calls a “High Value Target ” (HVT). Nixon called it the Enemies list. And I am on it for now which could be construed as compliment.

Here’s Ron Wright with an acronym for MAINSTREAM MEDIA (MSM.) Interesting isn’t it how the left thinks the right controls the media but the right believe the opposite.

“The MSM has failed to report significant stories that are readily available on the Net. Why haven’t we seen much coverage on these issues? Is the MSM so ’stewed’ on not finding WMD in Iraq they can’t see for the forest for the trees? If someone from the MSM would cover these stories it would restore some of my faith in the MSM.

“You sir as a member of the MSM have a journalistic responsibility to objectively report the news of the day granted you under the 1st Amendment by WE THE PEOPLE to control those whom WE THE PEOPLE choose to govern. The biases of the media conglomerates of the ‘infotainment industry’ has invaded the editorial boardrooms and have become active players in the political process. That’s why this story is so important because it exposed this bias. CBS and Rather got ‘conned’ because they so much wanted to believe the story. This is why it is so easy to fall victim as the ‘mark’ in a con game. The mark is lulled into a sense of believing the story told by cons. They lose their frame of reference and fall prey to the con.”

I love this.

Suddenly I am a member of the mainstream media. It gets worse. M Morahan advises me: “know when to dummy up, dummy . . . Boy, are you the blogosphere laughingstock of the day” Not content to call me “Danny the Dunce, he looks up my picture and concludes: Boy, you are really gruesome to look at. Is that the commie look?”

I guess it is. I do have a beard. Glasses. That Jew York thing. So call me Ismael and lets get over it. 152 people commented on the column on one right-wing littlegreenfootballs.com website. They got my number good, as an Osama loving, Saddam worshipping, godless gook. And those were only the posters who were kind. You might check this out and share your views . . . Wrote Bruce Blakesly:

“Just a comment to let you know that your recent article on the cbs controversy is exposing your extremely left wing bias. If an attack like this had been brought out against john kerry the press would be all over it instead of making excuses for the left wing leanings of a major network. But then why should I be surprised. ”

So now CBS, the network that was praised for the best war coverage by the rightwing’s #1 monitoring group is suddenly left-wing. Up is down and down is up. Give us a break.

CBS announced an outside probe into what its admitted — and stupid — mistake of not verifying the documents it used — or were set up with. A former Attorney general and head of the AP have been called in. Sources at the network say Rather is depressed and angry, convinced he has been had. At the same time other journalists I spoke with are pissed at CBS for giving the GOP a new pretext for discrediting criticisms of the President. I have heard a number of conspiracy theories. They are tantalizing but so far I haven’t seen any persuasive evidence.

I have to post this early because I am leaving in the morning for LA. I will be showing WMD at the Silver Lake film festival on Sunday afternoon, and after a 14-hour day I am running out of gas. Forgive me. My i-Mac seems to be having a fit, perhaps because of these letters and I have lost many of the items and some of your letters I hoped to run. That’s a sign from the Mac gods.

NEW SAM GARDINER ARTICLE

www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6943.htm

Keep your letters coming. Write dissector@mediachannel.org