WaPo's Milbank, who called Clinton a "bitch," complains about "attacks" from Media Matters
September 10, 2009 4:39 pm ET by Jamison Foser
It seems Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank isn't happy that I pointed out the absurdity of his claim that Democratic congressman Al Green made a "fascist salute" to Barack Obama during last night's speech. From Milbank's online discussion today:
Media Matters: Hey Dana, you did it! Media Matters isn't happy with your false moral equivalance. WaPo's Milbank: Dem. Rep. Green made "fascist salute" to Obama (MediaMatters, Sept. 10)
Dana Milbank: Excellent! After just 3 minutes as a hack for Barack I am back to being a right-wing stooge.
It's too bad about Media Matters. I'm sure Mr. Brock et al have some good points to make, but because they attack everybody for everything all the time, it winds up discrediting the good stuff they do and make it appear that they are just making noise.
It's too bad about the Washington Post. I'm sure* Mr. Milbank has some good points to make, but because he runs around calling Hillary Clinton a "bitch" and Nico Pitney a "dick" and accusing members of congress of making "fascist salutes" and dressing up in a smoking jacket to act out his sophomoric little skits (oh, wait: those were cancelled) and generally behaving like a not-particularly-bright thirteen-year-old, it winds up discrediting the good stuff the Post does.
Anyway, I'm glad Milbank responded, because it gives me an opportunity to address something I left out of my post last night: Milbank's column was a complaint about the decline in civility in public discourse:
As President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, the nation's rapidly deteriorating discourse hit yet another low.
...
The national debate, already raw for years, had coarsened over the summer
And so on.
Yeah, that's right: Dana Milbank, whose dress-up skit show was cancelled after he called the Secretary of State a "bitch," was handing out lessons in civility. And now he's offering lessons in being taken seriously. I'll pass.
* No, not really.
I could see a chain e-mail built around that one.
Sometimes it's hard to fathom the unbelievable arrogance of some of these corporate, Beltway hacks. Milbank's credibility disappeared quite some time ago.
As for manners, as soon as he both learns some, and displays proficiency in the use, he is welcome to point out when others lapse. Dana, remember the old saw about throwing stones if you live in a glass house...
I think part of the tempest in a teapot results from all the right wing radio jocks, and their negative comparisons of our president with, among other things, fascists. So, not only did Mr. Milbank mistakenly identify the gesture, his chosen comparison seemed to support those who have called our president a fascist, a Nazi, and a racist. It may seem a small point, but it's best not to let things like this gain any traction at all.
Actually I think you just aced it down the line with this bashing.
should be corrected to
"they attack everybody all the time"
See, the media sucks 100% of the time, so it should be criticized 100% of the time. But it's criticized for sucking, not for existing.
MMFA "attacks" by quoting people in context. That's what happens in actual civilized discourse, the thing that Milbank claims he wants but apparently has no real interest in.
not hardly, it would be an insult to real right-wing stooges. mr. milbank has been a hack forever. that he gets something right once in while is akin to the "1,000 monkeys at typewriters will eventually end up with shakespeare" bit, it's bound to happen.
that doesn't negate his basic hackery.