Cartoonists are our only hope

Amazingly, cartoonist Tom Toles is showing more journalistic integrity than any of the Washington Post’s editors (via the good Dr. A):

toles.gif

Can I get one “heh” and one “indeed,” por favor?

And the estimable Mr. Greenwald points us to this horrifying chat transcript with Lois Romano, the WaPo’s national political reporter:

Obama and “the rumors”: Lois: I object to today’s story in The Post talking about the “rumors” floating around that Obama is Muslim. It is simply inaccurate and poor reporting to call them rumors. They are false claims. Obama is not a Muslim; calling them rumors gives them credence. In fact, even using the phrase “Obama’s Muslim ties” is debatable. Having a stepfather who did “occasionally attend services” at a mosque and having a Muslim grandfather who lived on the other side of the world are pretty slim “ties.” Why is The Post perpetuating these unfair attacks?

Lois Romano: We are getting many questions of our story on Obama today. I’ll try to address this as best I can. These are always very difficult decisions– how to address something that people are talking about, that has clearly become a factor in the race, without taking a position.

hollowearth.jpg

Above: Disagreements exist regarding hollowness of Earth


By “people,” she means “crazy assholes.” By “talking,” she means “posting crazy shit on a damn Internet forum.”

Hey Lois, people are also talking about the vast underground cities that exist within the Hollow Earth. Maybe you should write a balanced article giving them equal time with geologists.

Part of our job is to acknowledge that there is a discussion going on and to fact check and lay out the facts. The Internet has complicated this responsibility because there is so much garbage and falsehoods out there.

Well duh. And CNN, of all places, had already debunked these rumors. Why bother revisiting crazy shit that’s already been debunked by a damn cable news network? Does the Post blow this many goats?

This discussion has reached a high pitch on the Internet and our editors decided it was in the readers interest to address it.

Again, I refer you to the Hollow Earth crowd. They’d like to have their story plastered on page 1 of what used to be America’s most reputable newspaper as well.

I have heard people say that they won’t support Sen. Obama because they read he doesn’t put is hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance. He has denied this– so airing some of this and giving him a chance to deny its accuracy could be viewed as setting the record straight.

Lovely. Next week you should do a story about the allegations flying around that Bush withdrew the Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination because she was Hitlery KKKliNtoN’s seKKKret l0v3r. Bloody losers.

 

Comments: 24

 
 
 

That’s it – I’m calling Warren Buffet. Time to dump some stock.

 
Smiling Mortician
 

giving him a chance to deny its accuracy

Oh piss off, Lois. And I mean that constructively.

 
 

Jourlnalists love to extol their own profession. Journalistic standards, getting the facts right, asking the hard questions, blah blah blah. But this is what the “profession” is really about. Gutless and lazy.

 
 

So help me, I think it’s time to start inventing new rumors about Democratic candidates. The Washington Post will be unable to stop themselves from writing stories about the “suspicious rumors that Hillary Clinton is the literal reincarnation of Genghis Khan and will use eldritch China-magic to turn us all into Mongolians.” And “New rumors have surfaced that John Edwards is a reptoid who will feast upon our human brains with a side order of Evil Lawyer Fries. We can’t say whether these rumors are true, so let’s assume that they are.” And “It is rumored that Barack Obama is actually Britney Spears in disguise and will, if elected president, use hypnotic dance moves to make us shave our heads and wave umbrellas around. OMG, save us, Mighty Rudy!”

Sure, they’ve already destroyed their credibility with the left — I don’t know that they have the self-control to keep from destroying their credibility with everyone else if you wave a “Democratic rumor” under their brown little noses…

 
 

Someone should write to Lois Romano and ask her to substitute the following phrases in her last quoted comment:

I have heard people say that they won’t support Sen. Obama because they read he sodomizes baby hippos. He has denied this– so airing some of this and giving him a chance to deny its accuracy could be viewed as setting the record straight.

I have heard people say that they won’t support Sen. Obama because they read he feasts nightly on the flesh of Christian babies. He has denied this– so airing some of this and giving him a chance to deny its accuracy could be viewed as setting the record straight.

And then compare to something like:

I have heard people say that they won’t support Sen. Obama because they read he plans to raise taxes to support universal health care. He has denied this– so airing some of this and giving him a chance to deny its accuracy could be viewed as setting the record straight.

Anybody wanna lay odds whether or not she’d see the difference?

 
 

Bardrocket my dear, I see your “Heh. Indeed” and I raise you a “Quite so”

 
Arky - Cthulusexual
 

Lois Romano is Dana Perino.
And she blows dead goats.

 
 

The Washington Post: Nazi, or merely racist? Opinions differ.

 
 

And she blows dead goats.

In her defense, you can go for a pretty long time without even knowing the goat is dead. Rigor mortis and all. I mean, so I’ve heard.

 
 

Does the Post blow this many goats?

Sadly, Yes!

And it really hurts me to say this. There are still good reporters at the Washington Post, but they were hired before Donald Graham took over. And they’re slowly and steadily being replaced by the Lois Romanos, Jeff Gerths, and John Solomons of the world. People who would easily fit in at the New York Post.

 
Arky - Cthulusexual
 

There are still good reporters at the Washington Post, but they were hired before Donald Graham took over.

Sometimes it’s hard to believe the Post (Washington) broke the Walter Reed story.

 
 

Obviously, the telling data point here, truly the 800 pound elephant turd in the room, is not the journalistic “standards” of Post. It’s not even that they’ve done it again, and taken the perfectly benign descriptor “Muslim” and turned it into a slur.

No, the telling point, the piece of this where we learn something important and dark about post-millenial American society is that nobody even bothers to mention, to even raise as a point on page A24 that simply being a fucking MUSLIM is not something one should even have to defend!

Talk about your perfectly institutionalized bigotry!

Gaaahh. I may not hate everyone, but I’m pretty certain that I now hate a plurality, if not a majority…

mikey

 
InsaneInTheCheneyBrain
 

I heard a rumor that George Bush ruined my country beyond recognition or repair.

 
 

“He has denied this– so airing some of this and giving him a chance to deny its accuracy could be viewed as setting the record straight.”

Uh—if I read her own freakin’ quote correctly, HE’S ALREADY DENIED IT. In journalistic terms, that means THERE’S NOTHING THERE.

Not to mention that IF THERE WAS DOUBT AS TO WHETHER OBAMA PUT HIS FUCKING HAND OVER HIS FUCKING HEART DURING THE FUCKING PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE, WHY DON’T THESE FUCKING ALLEGED JOURNALISTS GO LOOK UP SOME FOOTAGE AND SEE FOR THEIR FUCKING SELVES?

Sorry to raise my voice, but I went into journalism in the first place because of The Washington Post’s Watergate coverage.

Stupid stupid STUPID fuckheads.

 
 

I REALLY thought it was just Mickey Kaus that blew goats. There seems to be an epidemic of this bestiality among republicans. Is it gay to blow a goat? Is gay bestiality a requirement for republican candidacy for national or even local office?

 
 

A nice contrast — though still a little weak — is this article that appeared on the front page of the New York Times this morning.

Headline: Citing Statistics, Giuliani Misses Time and Again

Third graf (after citing three examples of Rudy-Toot making numbers claims on the campaign trail):

All of these statements are incomplete, exaggerated or just plain wrong. And while, to be sure, all candidates use misleading statistics from time to time, Mr. Giuliani has made statistics a central part of his candidacy as he campaigns on his record.

I can’t remember the last time I saw any news report say that a political candidate was “just plain wrong” about anything.

 
 

Mikey sez…
“No, the telling point, the piece of this where we learn something important and dark about post-millenial American society is that nobody even bothers to mention, to even raise as a point on page A24 that simply being a fucking MUSLIM is not something one should even have to defend!

Talk about your perfectly institutionalized bigotry!”

Don’t look so shocked Mikey. A certain part of society depends on an enemy to define themselves. “nigger”. “commie” “faggot”. “muslim”. Sound familiar? The epithet changes, and the target of unthinking hatred changes, but the need to blame some other fucker doesn’t change.

T’aint so surprising that sometimes the media panders to those morons. Pandering is more or less all they do.

 
 

I’m much more disturbed by the rumors that Obama has invented a perpetual motion machine that produces free energy and will make it available it to all Americans at no cost if he is elected president. And he has yet to deny it.

 
 

I heard a rumor that the Washington Post is owned by a crazy self-proclaimed deity. That’s actually the Washington Times, but still, the idea is out there, and it’s good to bring this up so that the Washington Post can have the chance to deny that it’s owned by a cult leader.

Also, there was some discussion that “Lois Romano” is a made-up fictional nom de plume used by a Cheetos-stained (and probably obese) comics obsessive (imagine a picture of the Comic Book Guy here). While this claim is entirely without evidence, we do consider it significant that “Lois Romano” contains the name of Superman’s girlfriend, the name of a cheese, and is an anagram of “Sailor Moon”.

I think the readers of the Washington Post deserve a response to this, since it was on the internet and all. It’s irresponsible not to speculate.

 
 

What’s wrong with you people? The real story here is that the world is hollow, not that somebody said something untrue about somebody else.

Read ‘s Foucoult’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco and you’ll finally understand the real meaning of truth. Truth is what we believe it to be.

 
 

Truth is what we believe it to be.

So if I believe, real hard like, that Curious George hasn’t really been the President for the last 7 years, then it will be true? Wow. The power of the human mind!

I suppose I could believe something more selfish, like that I’m a well-hung stud with a dictionary-sized little black book, but I’ll be altruistic and believe the above, for the benefit of my fellow humans.

So, how long do I have to wait for it to be true? [drums fingers]

 
 

MzNicky said,

November 30, 2007 at 20:40

“He has denied this– so airing some of this and giving him a chance to deny its accuracy could be viewed as setting the record straight.”

Not to mention that IF THERE WAS DOUBT AS TO WHETHER OBAMA PUT HIS FUCKING HAND OVER HIS FUCKING HEART DURING THE FUCKING PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE, WHY DON’T THESE FUCKING ALLEGED JOURNALISTS GO LOOK UP SOME FOOTAGE AND SEE FOR THEIR FUCKING SELVES?

That’s a cry from my heart too, MzNicky. What’s wrong with these people? Who cares if he denies it? Go and look, idiots!

 
 

I had never heard of Obama before this election I think in a perverse way he’s trading upon the fact that His name sounds very, very Islamic. Honestly I do. Like they say any publicity is good publicity. He gets peoples’ attention more than anything because of his name. It’s certainly not for his record. As far as I know he’s never done anything. He’s even more obscure than Ron Paul who has been in office 20 years or so and has basically been invisible.

 
 

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