msm on plamegate amounts to "victims responsible for their own rapes"

[unblock]

the washington post has decided that joe wilson is the one most responsible for ending his wife's career.
the logic is, he drew attention to himself by publicly disagreeing with el shrubo, and should have expected his wife's undercover status to be violated.

how is this morally different from saying that a woman is responsible for getting raped due to her choice of apparel or whatever? it's clearly blaming the victim.



the whole premise is astounding. that wilson should have expected people to dig into how "unusual" it was for a former ambassador to be called on to do an investigation (sounds to me like something that should be common, almost NORMAL) and SURELY if that ever happened, he must have family in the cia!!! and moreover, he should have EXPECTED that his wife's CLASSIFIED status would be exposed!

it's beyond insane how the shrub apologists are now spinning this story. terrorists wanting to move nuclear materials for wmds were dancing in the streets when the brewster jennings intelligence network was destroyed. the shrub apologists STILL want to portrary this scandal as some petty job loss case, when in fact it was one of the biggest losses in our intelligence network ever.

i'm really disgusted at the msm's recent turn on this....

[Hugin]

1. Yep, it's the last refuge of the Guilty.

Blame the victim.

They'll do the same thing with the Katrina victims, nine-eleven families, and anyone
else who could substantially disrupt their 'agenda'.

It's amazing what an immature strategy this is... Almost like the temper tantrum of
a infant.

[acmavm]

2. You're surprised? How can that be? They've covered and lied for this

administration for since before the first 'election'.

After a while...

[unblock]

6. actually i am a bit surprised

obviously they've been on the banana republican side, but usually just in the slant, in the keeping the focus on the job loss instead in the intel loss, e.g.

but blaming a classified intel leak on someone for criticizing shrub is beyond the pale even for these bastards!

[blue cat]

3. Me too

I have sent several angry emails to the media about this.

[madrchsod]

4. but according to the right wing talking radio creeps

the wapo and nyt are liberal news papers who print everything they possibly can to make bush look bad....

[90-percent]

5. the whole thing smells

It smells like the rovian tactic of throwing shit against the wall over and over and over until something sticks.

They are trying to get this Armitage thing to stick and MSM is lapping it up like mothers milk.

They are using a blown fuel hydro to muddy up these waters for sure.

Armitage doesn't seem like a bushbot. Why the hell would he allow all this to happen for three fucking years and then decide to have a change of heart and fess up?

The recent events MAKE NO SENSE but appear to be sticking to the MSM's wall of complete shit.

-85% jimmy

[janx]

7. Armitage is certainly not a Bushbot.

He has been cooperating with Fitzgerald from the start. When Fitz asked him to stay quiet, he stayed quiet.

When reporters started throwing his name around, his lawyer had to say something. But notice that he hasn't appeared on any MSM program, and I doubt he will.

[unblock]

8. armitage himself is not a bushbot

but i think the bushbots know that armitage will stay quiet and let them get away with whatever spin they want about it.

[johnfunk]

9. It's not the LEAK but the COVER-UP that became Fitz's focus

REALITY CHECK: Yes, Armitage leaked to Novakula -- but then, we know Rove and Libby were the sources for other journalists. So one cannot in all honesty pin this on Armitage alone.

IMNSHO, Karl Rove and Scooter Libby are traitors. Traitors. We used to hang them.

And no, FReeper lurker reactionaries, that's not eliminationist rhetoric. That's called justice. But then, FReepers don't love America -- they only care about their narrow, puerile, authoritarian worldview.

When two senior Bush aides blow the covers of DOZENS of CIA agents trying to stop the Ayatollahs of Iran from getting nukes by outing Plame -- and then try to both bully the press and cover their tracks -- they deserve the harsh ministrations of the noose or Ol' Sparky.

[Biernuts]

10. How well do you know anyone who was forceably raped?

Please reconsider because your analogy is not well taken. Rape is an exceptionally violent crime against women and girls that leaves horrific psychological and physical scars. Comparing rape to a political fight disrespects rape victims and belittles their trauma.

[unblock]

11. very, very well, and more than one.

i'm sorry you took my post the wrong way. the analogy was to a rape apologist's particularly despicable excuse, not to rape itself.

[90-percent]

12. RAPE?

Well, then, I consider the outing of Valerie Plame, which may have resulted in THE DEATHS of unknown numbers of under cover agents and informants to be pretty much on the same catastrophe level as violent rape. It is far beyond the gravity of a mere "political fight".

rape or death, which is worse?

The consequences of outing Plame were indeed as dire as rape. If the results were to ever become unclassified.

-85% jimmy

[Biernuts]

13. Consider it all you want - but there's no evidence to back up your

hypothetical speculation.

Rape or death - which is worse? Not enough information for a thinking person to answer. Every situation rests on its own merits.

A brtual rape of a 10 year old girl (or boy) is far worse than my grandmother's peaceful death after 92 wonderful years.

Would the prison rape of a 45 year old convict doing double life for murder be worse than he murder of 300 people on a transatlantic flight - If I had to choose, I'l let them live.

But its not an either-or world with choices like an ala' carte menu.

The circumstances of Plames outing doesn't in any way, shape or form rise to murder or rape. And comparing them in such a manner profoundly disrespects victims of rape and murder.

The issue at hand is that Wilson made a huge stink about the neocon WH outing his wife for revenge against him. Now it turns out that the outer was himself an opponent of expanding GWOT into Iraq as opposed to a proponent. Wilson is in a hole and can keep digging if he wants, but getting us to dig with him diverts attention from real issues that voters care about and makes those carying his water appear naive at best.

People here need a shot of realism. When you can't even get the WaPo and NYT to back up a left-leaning cause, then there is a reason - and in this case, it's because his premise is wrong to begin with. So yo can dig with Joe and waste your time, or shift to something that might actually pay off.

[janx]

14. This isn't a "left-leaning" cause.

It's far more serious than that. So Joe "made a stink," eh?

We'll see, come January. This is by no means over, however much you may like it to be.

[walldude]

16. What are you talking about? The OP was comparing the media

response not the crime itself. All the OP was saying was they are using the blame the victim mentality, he said nothing at all about comparing the crimes. I won't even get into your sad portrayal of Wilson and what was done to his family because he had the nerve to tell everyone that Bush lied about his trip to Niger... You are actually making the case for the OP by blaming Wilson for being honest and getting nailed for it.

[janx]

17. Does it not sound familiar?

:rofl:

[walldude]

19. Yeah it sure does.. the "GWOT" reference really got me

cause you know DU'ers use GOP tp's all the time :eyes:

[janx]

20. MORE here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2490096#2490718

[unblock]

18. you are failing to appreciate the significance of outing undercover agents

and you've fallen for some serious right-wing spin.

it is indisputable that an entire array of covert assets were lost from this whole episode. this is a HUGELY serious national security issue. even if none of the assets actually died or otherwise came to harm, we still suffered serious damage to our ability to track nuclear wmds. these are not facts in dispute.

the issue at hand is NOT that wilson made a stink about it. that was the beginning of the right-wing framing. they've been personalizing and trivializing the issue from day one.

the issue was that the shrub white house leaked classified information and destroyed a key part of our terror intelligence network during a war on terror.

plame's job and the shrubbies' petty political motives are but small parts in probably the biggest security breach we've ever had.

[dogday]

15. Just a last ditch desperate attempt

by the right before the elections... Don't fall for it...