The Swift Boat Saga, Part Whatever: The Left Melts Down

Watch this video.

It's been a long time since I blogged about the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. That's mostly because I didn't see the need, since their story was finally being discussed by the mainstream media, which had desperately tried to ignore it. And the hypocricy of the mainstream media was exposed when Dan Rather and his minions at CBS News chose to publicize a completely unsubstaniated smear against the President, after ignoring the documented claims by the Swift Boat Veterans.

It's clear that much of the media has sold itself out to the Democratic Party. That's their right, but it means their lack of credibility has been exposed. People will no long trust Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw -- or their eventual replacements -- to deliver the news in an unbiased manner. That's a good thing, despite the moaning from old-school media types who think it's terrible that people don't have faith in the network news, as they did during the days of Cronkite and Brinkley and Reynolds. Sorry, but old-school liberalism delivered with a paternalistic smile as if it emanated from a non-partisan viewpoint no longer works in a world where I can find the news 24 hours a day, delivered from people who continue to earn my trust, rather than relying on the trust built by Ed Murrow and Eric Severeid during World War II.

But back to the Swift Boat Veterans, who have clearly contributed more to the downfall of the media by exposing its traditional role as a tool of the left. Maybe their charges didn't matter -- but they deserved to be aired as much as any of the talking points put forth by the Kerry campaign regarding their candidate's character. Kerry trotted out his "Band of Brothers" as support for his campaign. The Swift Boat Veterans trotted out their version of the truth, and backed it up. Sometimes their version did not agree with the facts, but the same was true of the Kerry campaign's account of Kerry's service in Vietnam. In the end, both sides of this story needed to be told. The media only wanted to tell one.

Which brings to Lawrence O' Donnell's performance in the video above on MSNBC's Scarborough Country. In his entire rant, he calls John O'Neill a liar approximately 25 times, says O'Neill is "unfit to publish" (which seems somewhat idiotic in a free society), and even calls him a creep at one point. These are all standard debating points for a partisan, although we would probably expect some more substance than O'Donnell provides. Indeed, one is struck by how O'Neill provides substance to Pat Buchanan's questions, while O'Donnell merely rants and raves. This is what the left has in this case -- screaming, ranting and blather. O'Donell almost seems offended by the mere presence of O'Neill -- he can't be telling the truth, because it questions the gospel of John Kerry and the Democratic Party.

But O'Donnell's not some unbalanced partisan -- he also holds a position as "MSNBC’s senior political analyst and substitute host of Hardball With Chris Matthews." Perhaps it's not all that shocking when you realize that O'Donnell was once the Democrtic chief of staff on the Senate Finance Committee, or that he cut his political teeth as an advisor to the late Democratic Senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Hey, maybe you didn't know that Chris Matthews was a former speechwriter for Jimmy Carter and an aide to Tip O'Neill... both liberal Democrats, in case you're a bit too young to recall. Heck, maybe in ten years George Stephanopolous won't be remembered as Clinton's campaign flunky and just be listed as a serious journalist.

The problem, of course, is that the door has just begun to be opened to conservatives. With the notable exception of Buchanan, who was generally relegated to co-hosting Crossfire alongside a liberal, it was difficult to find a journalist with conservative credentials granted air time (and don't give me Diane Sawyer) before Fox News. Now, there's voices all over the spectrum being heard. Scarborough is a former GOP Congressman. Dennis Miller has established himself as a libertarian alternative. O'Reilly seems to be all over the map and gets the highest ratings on cable news. Personally, I'm hoping that by 2008, someone like O'Reilly will be asking the questions in a Presidential debate (I'm really hoping for Brit Hume, but I won't hold my breath).

Maybe it's harder for liberals to debate issues, because they get raised in an academic cocoon where the debate it always slanted intheir favor. Conservatives, at some point in their academic careers, are typically forced to debate the other side in an environment where the chips are stacked against them. For me, this was law school more so than undergrad, but it toughened me up for debates with people who disagree with me. I don't have to call them creeps or dismiss them with simplistic ad hominem attacks, because I was forced at one point to learn to marshall real facts to support my arguments. Many liberals never had to do this -- and it offends them in mainstream life when they're forced to back up their arguments with facts.

The mainstream media has generally been a similar place to academia -- the liberals held sway. Now they don't. No wonder the left has lost its bearings -- they no longer control the media ship.