'Filegate' officially thrown into the scrapheap of pointless right-wing plots
March 11, 2010 11:25 am ET by Eric Boehlert
As the Washington Post reported:
But Tuesday, U.S. District Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth tossed the case. "After years of litigation, endless depositions, the fictionalized portrayal of this lawsuit and its litigants on television," Lamberth concluded in a 28-page opinion, "this court is left to conclude that with the lawsuit, to quote Gertrude Stein, 'there's no there there.' "
The plaintiffs, he wrote, "after ample opportunity . . . have not produced any evidence of the far-reaching conspiracy that sought to use intimate details from FBI files for political assassinations that they alleged.
"The only thing that they have demonstrated is that this unfortunate episode -- about which they do have cause to complain -- was exactly what the defendants claimed: nothing more than a bureaucratic snafu."
But 'Filegate' didn't just happen. It wasn't able to maintain a decade-plus shelf life on its own. It was concocted and nurtured by partisan forces, both on Capitol Hill and in the media. And if there were any justice today, they'd have pay the mountainous legal fees that were wasted on 'Filegate' and similarly hollow Clinton-era scandals.
Writes Joe Conason at Salon:
Googling the term "Filegate" brings up stories that should embarrass the Wall Street Journal editorial page; the Media Research Center, whose chief wingnut Brent Bozell continued to flog this discredited fake as late as November 2007; National Review Online; WorldNetDaily; Fox News Channel, then in its noisome infancy; and indeed, nearly every other organ-grinder and kazoo-blower of the Republican noise machine.'
Unfortunately, the GOP Noise Machine appears to immune to embarrassments stemming from factual errors and conspiracy theories gone awry. And the Beltway press has made a tradition out of ignoring right-wing crusades that crash and burn.
So what's the unfortunate 'Filegate' legacy? There's still no political downside to launching fanciful, unglued attacks against Democrats. And it's a lesson that today's right-wing blogosphere, AM radio, and Fox News crew has taken to heart.
Imagine that.
It's almost like I was right when I said a week ago that rightwingers have a pattern of believing in baseless conspiracy theories!
As MMFA says, "fanciful, unglued attacks against Democrats."
Fighting with the truth as your weapon as Media Matters does so well is great. But IMO, unless we are fighting on all levels we are ceding part of the constituency. After what we have witnessed in Obama's first year there can be no denying that the Repubs still are able to create memes and media narratives, far better than the Dems. And they do it through the basest means; by appealing to the worst in us.
Of course we have MM, Hufpo, Koz, 538, TMP, and many other fine organizations that do a great job of turning the truth into memes and narratives. (just think how terrifyingly dark it would be in America with out them) But we do not have a ANY organized or funded effort to out right lie, and misinform.
Big mistake.
I think their is a logic in the minds of liberals that prevents us from simultaneously telling the truth and telling lies. This affliction, obviously, does not hinder the average repub.
I am not advocating that MM and koz and all the rest become liberal versions of FOX, ushering in an age of universal Orwellian Newspeaking (Fox and Msnbc are alike in that they are both partisan, but unalike in that Fox is not overly concerned with the truth, and MSNBC for the most part is. )
But what Must happen if we are to be able to fight the repub-con corporatist on a more equal footing is for a liberal ends justify the means, lying smear machine to be funded by some rich ego driven Machiavellian liberals and fear based fund raising.
There will always be unethical and (to just be upfront) evil people that will attempt to manipulate others by using lies, threats, etc. We can see this today with the charges being leveled against the Justice Department lawyers defending those people incarcerated at Guantanamo (some of whom are innocent).
The "filegate" charges were done for political, economic (it sells papers), and just evil reasons, but these charges would have never gained traction without the main-stream press. Uncritically promoting such charges, as was done in the media, is primarily to blame.
Without a willing publicity platform (FOX, MSNBC, CNN, etc) the people willing to make such charges are not likely to do so. The perception that our political discourse has become increasingly contentious is true, but not because there are an increased number of unethical people (we will always have such people), but because the main-stream media has decided to provide them a forum (and doing so just to increase ratings/sales/etc).
The ultimate failure is the Corporate Mindset that puts money and profits in place of truth and values.
When the Fairness Doctrine was gutted, ushering in the era of the "Free Market of Ideas", it was the repubs who first realized that just like any other market, When it comes to selling abstractions,the facts are too hard to pin down, but sensationalism sells.
The left has become better at turning reality into sensational narratives. But considering the very ugly the reality that eight years of Bush have supplied, our job has been easy, yet still we find ourselves being neutralized by the wing-nut machine.
The arrow we are lacking in our quiver is the power of the lie.
Repubs have an arsenal of big lies. lies that have been cultivated for decades. Even when these lies are exposed as falsies by events in reality, the Republicans don't abandon them.
Even the most obvious reality is never simple when put under a microscope. Repubs are masters at looking under the microscope and lying about what they see and they always 'see" the same things...Proof that their big lies were right after all.
The MSM treats every issue as if each side has equally valid points. They operate as if it is their job to present both sides of the case and then let the Public decide. They have abandoned their jobs as truth seekers.
So we have a situation where one side is dealing in truth while the other pushes more and more lies and a press that splits the difference. What is half way in between the truth and a lie?
A lie.
If both sides lie, the middle point is still a lie. There is no longer a truth continuum. But there is still a right / left emotional continuum to consider. A dem lie machine could go along way in moving peoples perceptions toward the left.
There is no reason we can not deal in truth, while simultaneously on other levels thru alternative venues, lie our asses off....