Rathergate Anniversary - 67 days and counting - Hugh Hewitt, Newsweek, Dick Durbin

[Repost of a post destroyed yesterday by Blogger]

Click here for prior comments on Rathergate and the significance of the countdown.

"A senior journalist for the Los Angeles Times told me in the middle of 'Rathergate' that he writes with the fear that he will be 'blogged', meaning exposed as careless or agenda-driven, thus mocked and shamed and perhaps fired."

So wrote Hugh Hewitt in his book, "Blog." (page 6). On the surface, this quote appears to be good news. When major MSM/DNC journalists write in fear of being exposed, one would expect their news coverage to be less partisan. One would expect this fear to be a moderating influence on the MSM/DNC.

I still believe that ultimately we will see this result. But I think we will see it only after a long struggle. We will have to fight the MSM/DNC issue-by-issue, scandal-by-scandal, lie-by-lie.

But in the meantime, the MSM/DNC has become and will become more vicious and partisan than ever. Case in point - the Newsweek scandal. The blogosphere's ridicule and exposure of Newsweek's phony story of a Koran being flushed down the toilet at Guantanamo showed a new wrinkle in the MSM/DNC's strategy. Rather than accept defeat as it generally did in Rathergate and Easongate, MSM/DNC engaged in a protracted battle that continues even now. Shortly after Newsweek's humiliation, additional stories of Guantanamo abuse appeared in the MSM/DNC. MSM/DNC continued with these stories despite the lack of any evidence other than prisoner inspired rumors. MSM/DNC was determined to defend and justify Newsweek instead of allowing another MSM/DNC unit to be compromised and marginalized like CBS and CNN. Prisoner abuse/torture/gulag became the official MSM/DNC meme regarding Guantanamo, regardless of the consequences for national security or the war on terror. MSM/DNC had its power and reputation to defend - national security be damned.

The battle to defend the official MSM/DNC Guantanamo meme culminated in the words of Senator Durbin, who compared American soldiers to Nazis, etc.

From now on, we can expect that in the aftermath of every new scandal, the MSM/DNC will spare no effort to justify whatever blunder some MSM/DNC outlet has made. If the Washington Post says that the sky is purple and the blogosphere takes a different view, every Democratic politician will hire skywriters to spread purple smoke throughout the atmosphere. The consequences to the MSM/DNC of doing any less will be another huge loss like Rathergate. We should be prepared for Guantanamo type battles every time we point out another MSM/DNC blunder or lie.

(Hitler comparison alert!) The Normandy invasion did not soften the Germans' opposition to the Allies. The Germans fought with greater ferocity than ever before until they were finally defeated. We are now in that phase of the war that fell between Normandy and VE-Day. Rathergate was D-Day. Dick Durbin's speech was the equivalent of the Battle of the Bulge. There will be more such battles to come for us.