Is conservative right-wingnuttiness a degenerative disease?
From deep within the echo chamber, Charen rolls out the stock conservative whining points on the Iraqi Oil-For-Food wannabe-scandal (to prove she’s objective, it’s titled “Friends of Saddam”):
Good morning, and welcome to today’s edition of “What’s News?” A Senate committee has released a report alleging that two prominent European opponents of the Iraq War were paid off by Saddam Hussein as part of the U.N. Oil for Food program. I’ll reveal their names in a moment. [Only Mona knows this important information.]
For the record, here’s the story Mona is whining about from the Times (which reported the story hours before the US media but they don’t get credit because they’re British):
Mr Galloway, who overturned a 10,000 Labour majority in Bethnal Green & Bow, dismissed the congressional report last night as a “Republican Party dirty trick”. He repeated his earlier denial that he had received any oil allocations from Iraq.
“For the 500th time, I have never seen a barrel of oil, never owned one, never bought one, never sold one, and neither has anyone on my behalf,” he said. “The Mariam Appeal’s finances were exhaustively investigated by the Charities Commission and nothing improper was found.
“This committee has never written to me, never spoken to me and has not even acknowledged my offer last year to appear in front of them, so it is not much of an investigation.”
Back to Mona:
You will search in vain for this story on the print or Web versions of The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, or the Chicago Tribune. I found it in The Washington Times and The New York Sun. [Actually, only Mona searched in vain.]
The point here is not to beat up the liberal media for their lack of coverage, but merely to observe that news judgment – that sacred totem of journalism – is not and probably never can be a neutral or unbiased matter.
What the New York Times and New York Sun respectively believe about the world around them is reflected in what they put on the front page – or cover at all.
Since Charen claims to have looked in the NY Times, how could she have missed Old Reliable, Judith Miller:
Hussein Gave Oil to French and British Officials, Senate Panel Says
By JUDITH MILLER
Published: May 12, 2005
Mona, Mona! Don’t you know the NY Times already surrendered to conservative political correctness? Where’s the love?
OK, how about the Washington Post?
Panel Connects Oil Program To Europeans
By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 12, 2005; A16
The Chicago Tribune?
Committee Releases Oil-For-Food Documents
By NICK WADHAMS
Associated Press Writer
Published May 13, 2005, 7:50 AM CDT
LA Times?
Oil-for-Food Report Alleges Officials Gained
May 12, 2005
By Maggie Farley, Times Staff Writer
Enough, yet?
Unburdened by facts and still cheery after toiling in the archives of the liberal media for our edification, Mona carries on:
That’s why it is essential to get your news from more than one source – preferably from two sources with differing biases. As for me, I like to get both sides of the story – the right and the far right (kidding).
Oh, that Mona – so funny. Just one more example of why conservatives are famous for their sense of humor.