Alterman: With a straight face

[dArKeR]

A Lie:  From When Presidents Lie:  “Even the very best newspapers have never learned how to handle public figures who lie with astraight face.”
--Ben Bradlee

Transcript, CNBC’s “Capital Report,” June 17, 2004

Gloria Borger: “Well, let’s get to Mohammed Atta for a minute, because you mentioned him as well.  You have said in the past that it was quote, “pretty well confirmed.”

Vice President Cheney: No, I never said that.

BORGER: OK.

Vice Pres. CHENEY: Never said that.

BORGER: I think that is...

Vice Pres. CHENEY: Absolutely not.

Transcript, NBC’s “Meet the Press,” December 9, 2001.

Vice-President Cheney: “It’s been pretty well confirmed that he did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April.”

Well?

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/

[NMDemDist2]

1. jon stewart did a great bit on that tonite n/t

[Bozita]

2. Yes, that's MUST SEE TV

Stewart rubbed Cheney's nose in it.

Bigtime.

[aden_nak]

3. Tip of the iceburg, really.

Did you see the two-part interview he then did with Steven Hayes, where he essentially destroyed the man on national (even if it is cable) television? Stewart was brutal, but hey, that's what you get for plugging a book about al Queda and Saddam the week that the 9/11 commission says that there was no link.

I think Stewart was venting a bit, really, but it was glorious to watch. Every time Hayes made some absurd unfounded point, Jon actually had. . . perish the thought. . . facts. Though I think the highlight of the night (and I must paraphrase here, but the point holds) was when he listed a summary list of all the "reasons" we invaded Iraq, such as:

Developing weapons of mass destruction
Harboring or funding terrorist organizations
Brutal oppression of its own people

And then pointed out that based on that description, no one can say for certain what country he just described. The crowd kind of, um, went nuts. If anyone has the full text, PLEASE post it. Otherwise, be sure to watch the re-run of this episode at 6 PM today, 'cause the interview was so scathing I can't imagine they'll host it up on the website.

[globalcitizen]

4. saw that last night

Jon Stewart is amazingly bright and well-informed. And he can get away with challenging these wing nuts because he does it in a feigning-dumb manner.

[Miss Authoritiva]

5. Ben Bradlee was right -- about newspapers and print reporters, but

the lies of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al are on videotape and from multiple sources. As they did on "The Daily Show" last night, all you have to do is cue up the videotapes.

How much lazier can the media get?

And did you notice the flicker of fear in Borger eyes when Cheney harrumphed that he had never made that statement? She had to decide fast. Push Cheney on this and her career was over.

[Grins]

6. Love this quote

(From "Handouts from the slavemaster", July 09, 2003, Paul Vallely, New Zealand Herald)

"I am not one of nature's cynics. Indeed some have said I am a bit too gullible to be a journalist. When I was a young reporter on the Times, one of the paper's most legendary figures, Louis Heren - who rose from cockney copy boy to deputy editor - took me out to lunch. He wanted to pass on a tip he'd had from an even more legendary American journalist when he was Washington correspondent.

"When you are interviewing someone, you need always to keep in the back of your mind the question, 'Why is this lying bastard lying to me?'"

Love it.