Media complicity in spreading GOP lies about terrorism

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

There was some remarkable news reporting on Friday evening. This was the week that Republicans politicized terrorism again for partisan political advantage. Rep. Peter King (R-NY) complained that President Obama doesn't say the word "terrorism" enough (which was George Bush's talisman) even though he does, and King is using the "underpants bomber" in fund raising letters for his exploratory senate campaign. Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee (and the clown who announced that "we have found weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq), has also exploited the "underpants bomber" in fund raising letters for his gubernatorial campaign. The Washington Monthly. I guess we can call them Pete and Repeat nonsense.

Lying at the heart of this politicization of terrorism is the alternate reality in which conservatives live and the revisionist history they promote: that acts of terrorism did not occur on George W. Bush's watch, but did occur with the "underpants bomber" on Obama's watch. Mary Matalin, Vice President Dick Cheney's former assistant has made this bold-faced lie, as has former White House press secretary Dana Perino. On Friday, former New York Mayor "a noun, a verb and 9/11" Rudy Guiliani also unbelievably made this bold-faced lie. Dude, you were there!

"The party that refused to let anyone forget about 9/11 when they thought it helped them politically has now forgotten about 9/11 hoping that it helps them politically."

Lawrence O'Donnell does a brilliant body slam take down of this alternate reality revisionist history with a timeline of acts of terrorism during George Bush's watch in this segment.

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Rachel Maddow has additional reporting on the demise of Rudy Guiliani's political future as a result of his bold-faced lie. Maddow also addresses George Stephanopoulos's failure to confront Giuliani on his bold-faced lie during the interview (for which Snuffaluffagus belatedly apologized in this blog post Giuliani Update – George's Bottom Line).

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The larger issue here is the complicity of the mainstream news media in spreading GOP lies about terrorism – and everything else for that matter. The media is supposed to live in the "reality based community" of facts, not the GOP's alternate reality and revisionist history propaganda. As Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, "You are entitled to your own opinion but not to your own facts."

It is the obligation and the duty of reporters to stop an interview and call "Lie!" when someone engages in this alternate reality revisionist history. Reporters have an obligation and a duty to confront a speaker with the facts and to force the speaker to explain him or herself. This is not "gotcha" journalism, this is your job, as Lawrence O'Donnell explains in this segment. Eric Burns of Media Matters correctly observes, "We don't have a culture of accountability in our media." This has got to change.

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