The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is enjoying its 15 minutes of fame today, with mentions from Andrew Sullivan, Glenn Reynolds and Roger L. Simon, and Honest Reporting's designation as "Media Blunder of the Week".
The momentum grows for my campaign to name the P-I the next Idiotarian of the Year.
UPDATE Pejman Yousefzadeh and Best of the Web also took part in today's pile-on!
As did Jim Miller, Robert Crawford, the Leather Penguin and Northwest View
If I missed anybody, please let me know.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 29, 2003 01:30 PMWhy does George Nethercutt hate America?
Nethercutt's actual remarks make him sound even more foolish. If the Seattle P-I "distorted" his comments--as you claim--they did him a bit of a favor.
Posted by: JadeGold on October 29, 2003 02:12 PMJadeGold sounds like your typical P-I reader. Note on the BOTW how the P-I bent over backward to excuse Patty Murray's idiotic remarks about bin Laden, and compare how they dealt with Nethercutt's.
Posted by: Bird Dog on October 29, 2003 06:12 PMEven Joni Balter at the Seattle Times (a Patty Murry supporter against Nethercutt) noted in her column that the P-I truncated his quote to change the meaning. Sorry P-I, with friends like that, what can you do?
Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on October 30, 2003 08:30 AMNethercutt's message was the same: what's a couple of American servicemen's lives a day when there are political points to be made?
BTW, Joni Balter actually wrote this:
At a recent meeting, Nethercutt was standing by his president on Iraq when he said: "So the story is better than we might be led to believe in the news. I'm just indicting the news people, but it's, it's a bigger and better and more important story than losing a couple of soldiers every day which, which heaven forbid is awful."
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer ended the quote after the word "day," which changed the context as the quote re-appeared in other media without context provided in the P-I. But Nethercutt's words still convey a callousness toward soldiers risking their lives.
It would not have hurt his cause if he had joined Murray in pushing for a $1,500 bonus for soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he did not. Remember, Murray opposed the war, Nethercutt backed it.
My emphasis added.
Posted by: JadeGold on October 30, 2003 04:05 PM