Daily Kos: Joe Wilson Responds to Washington Post Editorial

[Dudley_DUright]

The world awakened this morning to a puzzle of ridiculousness: a Washington Post op/ed that can only be described as a hit piece on Joseph Wilson's "absurdly over-examined visit" (the editorial's words, certainly not mine) to Niger, in which the editorial staff claims there was no effort at the White House to discredit Mr. Wilson ... while its news pages headlined an investigative piece on the front page entitled "A `Concerted Effort' to Discredit Bush Critic."

The ironic juxtaposition of the two articles was not lost on Mr. Wilson, who in a private communication to me this morning (sorry, no link) made the following statement:

Sunday's Washington Post lead editorial once again misrepresents the facts as the paper's own reporting in the Barton/Linzer article in the same edition makes clear. While I respect the separation of news and editorial function it might be helpful to the Post's readers if the editorial board would at least read the news before offering its judgments. One of the reasons my trip to Niger has been overanalyzed, as the Post editorial says, is because people like those who wrote the editorial continue to misconstrue the facts and the conclusions."

more...

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/4/9/114828/4742

[Gabi Hayes]

1. along the same lines....whoever that Powerline blogger is....was on

Kurtz' show this morning, calling Wilson a LIAR, over and over and over. neither Kurtz nor Arianna Huffington ever once bothered to even ask the whiny little puswort exactly WHAT Wilson was supposed to have lied about, much less make him defend his accusation. they just took his assertions at face value

Stephanopoulous also accused Wilson of lying, to his face, to which Wilson responded, correcting the misinformation spread about him by the Senate Intel committee (presumably the source of that Powerline asswipe's contention).

they just can't stand the fact that the WH ADMITTED almost immediately in July that the 16 words should NOT have been allowed in the SOTU, yet they keep rewriting history, trying to justify their inclusion

amazing

[janx]

4. The wingnuts always cite the Intel Committee report.

It's all they have since it was dominated by other wingnuts.

[leftchick]

20. I saw the asswipe

To be fair to Arrianna she hardly was given time to breathe two breaths while kurtz gave overkill time to the asswipe. It was disgusting. I wonder how howie will handle it when cheney and bush are indicted for Obstruction of Justice? How the fuck will you spin that howie?

[qanda]

2. kick

[fedupinBushcountry]

3. Right on, Mr. Wilson

"if the editorial board would at least read the news before offering its judgments."

:patriot:

[in_cog_ni_to]

5. Excellent reply. I love how Wilson never backs down.

He always takes it to the rat bastards.:thumbsup:

[Dudley_DUright]

6. Some more rebuttal of the WP Wilson hit piece by Thinkprogress

(I won't dignify it by calling it an editorial)

This morning, the Washington Post published an editorial — entitled “A Good Leak” — vigorously defending President Bush’s decision to authorize a leak of classified information as part of a political effort to discredit former Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Apparently, it isn’t a very strong case because, in order to make their point, the editors had to mangle the facts –

CLAIM: Wilson said Cheney sent him to Africa “Mr. Libby’s motive in allegedly disclosing her name to reporters, Mr. Fitzgerald said, was to disprove yet another false assertion, that Mr. Wilson had been dispatched to Niger by Mr. Cheney.”

FACT:

Wilson never said that Cheney sent him, only that the vice president’s office had questions about an intelligence report that referred to the sale of uranium yellowcake to Iraq from Niger. Wilson, in his New York Times article, said CIA officials were informed of Cheney’s questions.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/04/09/post-mangles-facts/

[Pirate Smile]

7. More from the Diary on DK showing how screwed up the WP editorial

truly is:

-snip-
Indeed. Let's follow the absurdity, shall we (all emphasis mine)? The editorial states:

Mr. Wilson subsequently claimed that the White House set out to punish him for his supposed whistle-blowing by deliberately blowing the cover of his wife, Valerie Plame, who he said was an undercover CIA operative. This prompted the investigation by Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald. After more than 2 1/2 years of investigation, Mr. Fitzgerald has reported no evidence to support Mr. Wilson's charge.
-snip-
The material that Mr. Bush ordered declassified established, as have several subsequent investigations, that Mr. Wilson was the one guilty of twisting the truth. In fact, his report supported the conclusion that Iraq had sought uranium.

Then on Page 1, we find the news report:

A 'Concerted Effort' to Discredit Bush Critic

Prosecutor Describes Cheney, Libby as Key Voices Pitching Iraq-Niger Story

By Barton Gellman and Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, April 9, 2006; A01

As he drew back the curtain this week on the evidence against Vice President Cheney's former top aide, Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald for the first time described a "concerted action" by "multiple people in the White House" -- using classified information -- to "discredit, punish or seek revenge against" a critic of President Bush's war in Iraq.

Bluntly and repeatedly, Fitzgerald placed Cheney at the center of that campaign. Citing grand jury testimony from the vice president's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Fitzgerald fingered Cheney as the first to voice a line of attack that at least three White House officials would soon deploy against former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV.

Cheney, in a conversation with Libby in early July 2003, was said to describe Wilson's CIA-sponsored trip to Niger the previous year -- in which the envoy found no support for charges that Iraq tried to buy uranium there -- as "a junket set up by Mr. Wilson's wife," CIA case officer Valerie Plame.

Here we have a two-fer in terms of self-debunking: (1) There was indeed total validation of Mr. Wilson's charges of persecution, despite what the editorial says; and (2) The news story confirms that there was "no support for charges that Iraq tried to buy uranium there" - in direct contradiction to the editorial's claim that Wilson's report supported the purchase effort.

Seriously, it should be apparent to anyone following the Washington Post that ever since Bob Woodward made clear that protecting his Bushie sources and his books profit margins were more important than informing readers, the Post has been a dying newspaper. Let's have some "regime change" at the top of the Post - get a good start with Len Downie and Fred Hiatt - or readers will have to assume the newspaper is simply a thinly disguised propaganda arm of an administration that took us to war under false pretenses and is undermining our entire democracy.

[KoKo]

9. One does wonder who is paying the WP...the shenanigans there have

been so outrageous. And, shouldn't Woodward be under some kind of investigation for willingly complying with Bushies giving him access to "classified info" for his book...before they "declassified it" to give to their other chosen reporters down the "food chain?"

Seems that Woodward got what our Dems in Congress were NOT allowed to see ...even today. Something's very wrong when the Media is embedded with the political party who runs our country and is running it into the ground with lies that have led to debt and war.

[joefree1]

8. Civil Suit

On This Week Joe Wilson stated that he was keeping all options open in reply to Stephanopoulos asking if he was prepared to start a civi suit against the administration.

Yeah Joe, go for it. Drag those mofos into the gutter where they belong.

[Dudley_DUright]

10. Clip of Joe Wilson's "This Week" appearance for those that missed it

at Crooks & Liars:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/04/09.html#a7851

[JanMichael]

11. That was one bullshit WP editorial.

Here's a question: How free is our so-called free press when thay get caught with aggregious lies like today in a so-valled "liberal" paper?

Just curious.

[Dudley_DUright]

13. Caught by their own front page no less

The editorials at WP are starting to resemble those at the WSJ.

[tblue37]

24. When did the WaPo hire Baghdad Bob

to write its op-ed pieces?

[Neil Lisst]

12. How badly does one have to owe Satan to write an editorial like that?

Even for the WaPo of recent years, this is an action that should embarrass the entire staff of the paper.

[Dudley_DUright]

14. One more K&R for Joe Wilson?

:patriot:

[DoYouEverWonder]

15. You can smell the fear this morning

The Bush lapdogs are just about foaming at the mouth. The more excuses that they make, the further they dig their own graves. They don't even deny the wrong doing anymore, all they are left with are feeble attempts to justify their crimes. It's nice to see whose with us and whose against us at this point. It will make it so much easier to weed out the rift raft.

[Cooley Hurd]

16. K&R #5 - Joe and Valerie have been through more shit...

...than anyone should have to endure in a lifetime - all for telling the goddamn TRUTH!!!!!

:patriot:Joseph and Valerie Wilson:patriot:

[Dudley_DUright]

17. Thanks for reminding me that both Joe and Valerie are

true patriots. They also serve who stay out of the spotlight and in the shadows.

:patriot: Joe and Valerie :patriot:

[BrklynLiberal]

18. So, the WaPo editorial staff does not even read their own paper.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[young_at_heart]

19. Katharine Graham would roll over in her grave

I don't think this sort of thing would be happening if she was still here.......it used to be a very good paper.

[Dudley_DUright]

21. Jane Hamsher (Firedoglake) shreds Fred Hiatt's WP editorial

into itty bitty little pieces suitable only for use in a litter box. See it here:

For years now the GOP machine has succeeded in strong-arming the Washington Post into legitimizing their propaganda, dribbling out sensational disinformation during Whitewater to the hacktackular Sue Schmidt to put on the front page without skepticism or question. Over time they have provided easy, sleazy copy and traded "access" to the point that it has fueled an empire of mediocrity where only the people willing to limbo low enough and shape the news to Karl Rove’s satisfaction are rewarded with the scoops that trigger seniority. Both editors and reporters alike know their only ability to ascend the hierarchy comes from emulating supreme access pimp and BushCo. dupe Bob Woodward in a slavish devotion to stenography and the propagation of disinformation.

The new Washington Post editorial, an enormous turd that editorial page editor Fred Hiatt no doubt wrote, is such an unmittigated piece of BushCo. propaganda, such a giant bag of bullshit it deserves to be taken apart, piece by piece and beaten into the ground. Armando has a rundown of Hiatt’s bloodthirsty warmongering for which the paper will one day soon be held to account. But today’s editorial on the BushCo. leak shows just how the Post is earning its reputation for being just a few shades less reliable than PRAVDA:

much more...

http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/04/09/does-fred-hiatt-even-read-the-washington-post/

[symbolman]

22. I have HOURS of testimony by many and including

JOE WILSON'S that HE NEVER SAID THAT CHENEY SENT HIM.

This was said UNDER OATH IN THE Capitol at the Conyer's Downing Street minutes hearing which I filmed in HiDef and heard with my own EARS..

I created a film called "Rove's War", a 2 DVD set at Takebackthemedia.com that shows all this, the complete chronology, maybe I should send a copy to the Newspaper

http://www.takebackthemedia.com

Also created a two set dvd with the entire Downing street minutes hearing on it AND the event afterward where Conyers showed up at the White House gate ith over 500,000 signatures demanding to know what the hell was going on..

Why didn't BUSH announce this EARLIER? If he said he was going to fire the one who leaked this then HE should be firing HIMSELF :)

[EVDebs]

23. I guess the 'best thing' about being a R is not having to think !

The effortless party. No thought or examination required. Leave the country on 'auto pilot' i.e. Bush, or should I say President Blush ?