June 22, 2007

"Jayson Blair and the resurrected corpse of Spiro Agnew would be a great diavlog."

Former NYT reporter Judith Miller goes on BloggingheadsTV to talk about this article about female suicide bombers, and gets a tirade of abuse from the commenters:
Oh my god! Where do hack NYTimes reporters go to die, figuratively speaking of course! Why it's Blogging Heads TV!!!! Will we be seeing Rick Bragg and Howell Raines here next?

Oh God. Bloggingheads has stooped pretty low in the past, but really - Judith Miller? A dishonest hack and a proud purveyor of pre-war propaganda, one of the chief vehicles for the lies the Bush administration used to sell its phony war? Why is she being given a platform here? Could Bob not find anyone more intellectually dishonest - the festering corpse of Richard Nixon, perhaps?...

Why bother watching this? How would it be possible to guess when she's lying and when she isn't? There ought to be some minimal standards for who appears on bloggingheads.

Next up on Bloggingheads - Jayson Blair and Steven Glass...

Jayson Blair and the resurrected corpse of Spiro Agnew would be a great diavlog.
Etc. etc.

ADDED: Since I've been savaged by commenters at bhTV, I may have a distorted perspective, but I hate to see Miller treated this way. For one thing, she's talking about an interesting important subject, and it would be nice if people could pay attention to it. For another, I think her experience there will deter others from going on the show. You already have to face an interlocutor who will argue with you, perhaps intensely, in an hour-long session that will not be edited. But you also see that a strange horde of pseudonymous commenters is waiting to shred you.

23 comments:

Ron said...

Jayson Blair and the resurrected corpse of Spiro Agnew would be a great diavlog.

One used to work for a corrupt organization, and the other one stinks!

Brian Doyle said...

I thought you found the impulse to defend women to be sexist. Or is that only when the women in question are being harassed by you?

Paco Wové said...

In what way is Althouse 'defending' Miller?

Brian Doyle said...

It's the Jonah Goldberg move where you reproduce emails or comments to cast your ideological opponents in an unflattering light.

Ann doesn't like the BH.tv board because a lot of people (myself included) can't stand her appearances and plead with Bob to stop having her on.

So the more she can make them/us out to be innately hostile the better, even though it's generally a center-right board.

Unknown said...

I winced when I saw those comments yesterday, but when you participate in a fraud that results in tens of thousands of dead and unprecidented harm to American national interests, you've got to be prepared to take some abuse.

It's the same with Bush: When you completely fuck over the United States of America, people tend not to take too kindly to it.

He and his apologists and defenders deserve to be made into outcasts, the object of permanent and unrelented derision and scorn.

If I was Bush or Miller, I would fear for my soul. Something tells me the Lord doesn't look too kindly on those who kill on such a scale, nor their enablers.

Mister DA said...

[Directed to the comments to the Miller appearance, not, I say again, not the comments (so far) in this thread.]

Something that has been forcibly brought home to me, at any rate, by the blog phenomenon is that no one much like free speech for other people. I suppose I knew this on an intellectual level, but reading the anits on just about any political blog really drives it home.

Tim said...

Clearly, far to many people do not have the innate intelligence to discern the difference between "mistake" and "lie," (or the simple honesty to admit they themselves are lying for political purposes).

vet66 said...

What is particularly unnerving is the knowlege that many people wait with bated breath, hanging on every word, the pronouncements of these agenda driven useful idiots.

A good topic of conversation would be to discuss when and under what circumstances free speech becomes treason and/or aiding and abetting/providing comfort to our enemies.

Randy said...

Mister DA wrote:

no one much like free speech for other people. I suppose I knew this on an intellectual level, but reading the anits on just about any political blog really drives it home.

That's been my experience as well. I'm impressed at how many people maintain annotated enemies lists.

rcocean said...

Frankly, who cares?
Outside of Althouse, and the Bob & Mickey show, BHTV is a liberal borefest.

People like Corn/Alterman/Pinkerton, etc. say nothing original.
One might as well read the NYT Editoral page.

The dull, lefty idealogues, who dominate the comments, don't like Miller? How shocking -not.

Beth said...

Miller's reaping what she's sown. She threw away the accumulated integrity she'd built up over her career in her pre-Iraq war reporting. Having an interesting topic isn't enough if one has become disreputable. Exile is a long-honored tradition of punishment in Western culture, and she deservedly suffers it.

Randy said...

Just how long an exile is prescribed for Miller's transgressions, Beth?

Gary Carson said...

Miller is a fraud.

She should be shunned.

If that deters other frauds from trying to profit from their frauds then I think that's a good thing.

Randy said...

Yes, let's make an example of Miller, Gary! Shun her, deny her employment, cut off her utilities, deny her any public services and benefits, starve her. Let's make her wear a giant scarlet "I" on her clothes, too. She is an enemy of the people!

Der Hahn said...

the accumulated integrity she'd built up over her career in her pre-Iraq war reporting.

Huh?

As far as I can tell, she was flacking the same CIA-inspired 'Iraq is WMD problem #1' stories before Jan 20, 2001 as she was after. Of course, before 2001 this was a Good Thing because it kept inquiring minds from asking too many disturbing questions about the NorKs, Lybia, and Pakistan. She just didn't get the memo that 1/20/01 changed everything.

hdhouse said...

and of course cross commentary by Jeff Ganon with breakaways to Talon News and special features from Ollie North, Gordon Liddy and for a while at least, Scooter the liar.

Randy said...

hdhouse: You really see no difference between Judith Miller and those others that you mentioned (outside of their sex)? Gannon isn't even worth mentioning, I think. Given your own profession, and I think, your familiarity with journalism as a result, I am genuinely surprised.

Unknown said...

Tim said..."Clearly, far to many people do not have the innate intelligence to discern the difference between "mistake" and "lie," (or the simple honesty to admit they themselves are lying for political purposes)."

are you talking about bush, cheney, wolfie, powell, the american enterprise institute or miller?

Unknown said...

Internet Ronin said..."Yes, let's make an example of Miller, Gary! Shun her, deny her employment, cut off her utilities, deny her any public services and benefits, starve her. Let's make her wear a giant scarlet "I" on her clothes, too. She is an enemy of the people!"

that's one of the few things i've ever seen you post that makes perfect sense.

an i wholeheartedly agree. she lied through her teeth to promote an illegal and immoral war that's taken 1,000's of american and iraqi lives.

*and of course, you do know that she's walking away from the nyt's with about 4-5 million dollars...right?

Victor said...

I'm not sure I understand the criticism. She's a journalist that's been widely discredited. Of course she's going to be subject to abuse any time she tries to opine publicly on anything. That's the price one pays I guess.

Bruce Hayden said...

I seem to have missed how Ms. Miller was discredited. Could you all refresh my memory?

fanofalthouse said...

The most obnoxious criticism I've seen of anyone on bloggingheads was by you and of Garance Franke-Ruta. You hold the title. Don't worry, the posters talking smack about the virus-lady aren't even contenders.

So if Jayson Blair did show up on bloggingheads.tv, you wouldn't jeer at him?

fanofalthouse said...

rcocean,

You don't know what you're talking about regarding BH.tv. Here's a list of names of recent diavloggers. Why don't you tell me which is liberal? Byron York, Daniel Drezner, Eli Lake, Ramesh Ponnuru, Robert Bluey, Ross Douthat, Bryan Caplan, Will Wilkinson, Megan McArdle. Hmm ....