NBC's Mitchell leads attack against Clark

I'm getting awfully tired of the pseudo-scandal about General Wesley Clark's comments regarding John McCain, so I promise I won't keep posting about it, but an exchange on TV yesterday got my dander up, and I'm not good at letting things go when I'm angry (at least in the political world).

I had a very difficult time watching the above exchange between NBC's Andrea Mitchell and General Wesley Clark. Listening to Mitchell huff and sign at Clark's explanation, you would think she's working for Faux News now. Nope, I checked, she's still at NBC.

First off, Gen. Clark has been saying the same thing over and over and over again since his appearance last Sunday on Face the Nation, and yet his rightful, common-sense explanation has been falling on deaf ears, including Mitchell's, ever since. He was simply answering the question as it was phrased to him by Bob Schieffer. Of course, just about every major news network cuts out the part of the footage where Schieffer is questioning Clark when re-running over and over and over what Clark said. Once that happens, viola - you have Clark questioning John McCain's military service, out of context, and in perfect context for McCain's cheerleaders in the corporate media like Andrea Mitchell.

Mitchell also accused Clark of being part of a coordinated attack on John McCain's military record. Hmm, just wondering, where in the hell was all this outrage in the corporate media during the summer and fall of 2004, when the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT) were dragging John Kerry's name through the mud? They sat on their hands and said nothing. More on the Swift Boaters in a bit.

Here's a few selected excerpts from the exchange between Mitchell and Clarke:

Andrea: Well, let me point out that some of the critics from the Republican side have pointed out that there seems to be an organized campaign and whether or not you played into this that also on Sunday a liberal blogger...on Americablog wrote...

First of all there's a factual issue because no one has proved that to my satisfaction that John McCain ever did any propaganda for the enemy...

He was an extraordinary man...

With all that boot licking, I'm surprised that Mitchell isn't wearing a McCain '08 button.

The blog Mitchell mentions, Americablog, had this to say (as quoted on screen by her):

Honestly, besides being tortured, what did McCain do to excel in the military?... Getting shot down, tortured, and then doing propaganda for the enemy is not command experience.

Honestly, except for the propaganda part (see below), I totally agree with it. This is 2008 - being a POW for 5 1/2 years, while tragic and admirable on McCain's part for having the intestinal fortitude to survive it, does not alone qualify someone to be president.

It's also worth noting that Mitchell isn't technically correct (or as she would call it, a "factual error") about McCain's imprisonment at the hands of the North Vietnamese. He was used as a propaganda tool, at least at first. From U.S. News & World Report in 1973 (and posted online earlier this year):

After four days, McCain made an anti-American propaganda "confession." He has always felt that his statement was dishonorable, but as he would later write, "I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine."

I cannot even begin to comprehend what McCain went through, and I'm not denigrating whatsoever what he did to stop the beatings. However, my point here is that Mitchell ought not get carried away with her McCain cheer leading (I know, fat chance), and she ought to get her facts straight. Since she is masquerading as a journalist, she could at least act like one.

Of course, Mitchell wasn't done yet. She brought up the now infamous MoveOn ad and implied that it was linked to McCain's military service, which is an outright lie, period. At that point, Clark seemed to have had enough:

Mitchell: Now, I know that John McCain...

Clark: Andrea, that [the MoveOn ad] doesn't say anything about his military career. That asks about John McCain's judgment and I think that's a very legitimate issue...

Damn right McCain's judgment about Iraq is a legitimate issue. The "General Betray Us" ad said nothing about McCain's military career, period. End of story. But, that doesn't stop people like Mitchell from trying to make the connection anyway.

Paul Waldman at HuffPo discusses the fact that McCain has successfully exploited his POW status for years with the willing help of his many fawning admirers in the media:

But to understand why the press is reacting with such outrage [about Clark's comments], you have to understand what they've been saying about McCain for the last decade.

There's a myth out there that the McCain campaign and the media have cooperated to create. It says that John McCain is reluctant to exploit his Vietnam POW story for political advantage, so modest and full of integrity is he. We've seen this repeated again and again, not just by McCain and his supporters but by reporters who ought to know better.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

From the first time he ran for Congress in 1982 up to the present day, McCain has made his POW story the centerpiece of his entire political career. The key moment of that 1982 campaign was when he responded to his opponent's (absolutely true) accusation that McCain was a carpetbagger by saying, "As a matter of fact, when I think about it now, the place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi." At every point since, it has been the deft use of this tool that has brought McCain renewed attention or won him a key victory.

Here's another terrific example of media blowhards devouring a Big Mac [from 3/5/08, when Bush and McCain appeared at a press conference where W endorsed him] From Digby:

Brian Williams: You know what I thought was unsaid — they took their position Chris, we're seeing the replay — they end up in this spot and the sun is coming is just from the side and there in the shadow is John McCain's buckled, concave shoulder. It's a part of his body the suit doesn't fill out because of his war injuries. Again you wouldn't spot it unless you knew to look for it. He doesn't give the same full chested profile as the president standing next to him. Talk about a warrior.

I mean, is Williams serious, or is this a Saturday Night Live news sketch?

This is what I'm getting at - the media's insatiable lust for McCain is downright revolting, and I'm not even talking about Faux News (that's a given).

Here's a terrific round-up from TPM of the McCain love and Clark bashing over the past year days...

The most despicable part of the round-up above (and the most despicable person) comes from none other than Oliver North, who should still be in jail for his misdeeds during the Iran-Contra Scandal:

I think General Clark's comments are small and petty, just like the man himself.

Really? General Clark, small and petty? I guess that's what one gets called these days when having the temerity to question whether the media favorite darling candidate has the qualifications to be president. I mean, Clark only served his country for over 37 years in uniform, and that's a helluva lot longer than North did. If anybody is small and petty (and I would add simple minded), it's North himself.

I also was pretty amused to hear Laura Ingraham threaten one of her guests, telling him that he "won't on the show again" if he doesn't be quiet. I also was highly amused about Juan Williams of Faux News accusing Barack Obama of doing something right out of "Karl Rove's playbook." Wait, Rove has been a Faux News hero (and current employee) for over eight years, and now State TV is admitting to us that Rove's tactics are a bad thing? I'm thoroughly confused.

I have to repeat it one more time - where was this outrage in the media in '04 during the Kerry Swift boating? Nowhere to be found, because the corporate media badly wanted and eventually received another Bush term.

Just another reason we have to be so grateful for the greedy, selfish corporations that give us our garbage corporate media.

h/t Crooks & Liars for the video & links