Imagine that- David Corn, author of The Lies of George W. Bush, has turned into a right-wing apparatchik and apologist for the Bushhitler administration:
If Gannon/Guckert did receive preferential treatment–because of his ideological bent or any other reason–that would be wrong and a matter for the White House to explain. But let’s move on to his personal (or other professional) life. Bloggers have made much of his apparent effort to earn a buck as a prostitute for men. This is not gay-baiting, they say, it’s hypocrisy. The question is, hypocrisy on whose part? On Gannon/Guckert’s? He’s been accused of being a gay-baiter. But how true is that? As part of my investigation, I had my assistant, Alexa Steinberg, search through a collection of Gannon/Guckert’s articles for pieces on gay-related themes. She found eight pieces. Most were straightforward accounts of political tussles over gay marriage.
Paging Gertrude Stein. Paging Gertrude Stein.
Myopist
You, too, huh?
Glitch the Obscure
For even more fun take a stroll through Corn’s comments. His own readers have largely turned against him, it seems. I used to read Corn regularly pre-9/11. I was working in a media environment at the time, so my workplace got complimentary copies of The Nation. I never really agreed with anything he said, but I admired the guy for being even-handed and fair.
Seems like those qualities are no longer appreciated by the left.
As a commenter at Red State noted, Corn is about as far left as you can get in the American political scene without becoming a Marxist. If he’s on the short list for excommunication from left-leaning media, why does this bode for political discourse? Howard freakin’ Dean, the current leader of Democrats everywhere, flat-out states, with pride, that he hates Republicans and everything they stand for? Doesn’t this kind of rhetoric worry anyone on the lefft?
Terry
Glitch asks if the kind of rhetoric thrown at Corn by the Left is worrisome to those on that side of the divide. Occasional reading at such blogs as those of Oliver and atrios suggests not; in fact, if they are at all typical of the Left, they’re out there pouring gasoline on the fires of political hate and worse.
Kimmitt
Oh, you’re so cute when you’re sanctimonious.
A recent survey of some right-wing rhetoric.
(Note for the irony-impaired; all of the quotes are real, but the left-wing target has been replaced with an analogous right-wing target to make a point.)
Anyways, I think that David Corn failed to take context into account when going after Dean (easily the most moving comments were the ones made by people in that thread saying, “I’m just an ordinary person, but Dean inspired me to . . .”), and you’ve mischaracterized his post. It’s not about how the Left’s gone nuts, it’s about how blogging seems to encourage irresponsible speculation, even among people with whom Corn generally agrees!
Mikey
Okay, I have a question. Is the paranoia shown by Mr. Corn’s commenters congenital or is it something that one has to work hard at to acquire?