More Dishonesty from the Right

It does seem that the Right counts on the laziness of its readers. My previous post showed how Michelle Malkin uses bogus sources to support her positions. Memeorandum led me to an even higher level of dishonesty - Michael Goldfarb of the Weekly Standard's post today was deeply disingenuous.  I'm talking about bald faced lies. Inaccurate quotes.

The title of the piece is "The NY Times is Shameless." It quotes the Times' editorial of today that stated "The news our of Iraq just keeps getting worse."  The editorial discussed the dangerous problem of Turkey and Iraqi Kurds.

You wouldn't know this from reading Goldfarb, who immediately switches the topic to argue that the situation in Iraq is improving, and that the Times itself proved it today. This dastardly discrepancy between their reporting and their editorial is what has Goldfarb up in arms.

He links to and "quotes" the report:

A U.S. helicopter opened fire on a group of men as they were planting roadside bombs in a Sunni stronghold north of Baghdad on Tuesday, then chased them into a nearby house, killing 11 Iraqis, including at least 6 civilians, the military said.

The report in the Times to which he linked actually reads:

BAGHDAD (AP) -- A U.S. helicopter opened fire Tuesday on men seen planting roadside bombs in a Sunni stronghold north of Baghdad, then chased them into a nearby house and continued to shoot, killing 11 Iraqis, including five women and one child, the military said.

Neighbors and relatives of those killed said 14 civilians were killed. They prayed and wept over the bodies, which were wrapped in colorful blankets for burial in the desert north of Samarra.

Dhurgham Hamid, a man from the area that was hit, said the dead included a man who was a supervisor at the provincial education directorate, his wife, and an accountant at the agency.

The picture painted by Goldfarb's inaccurate quote is obviously a lot rosier than the real report.

And for Goldfarb, this is insufficient dishonesty. He also wrote, clearing referring to the Times, that:

Even Richard Clarke has turned on them.

Clarke did not turn on the Times. What Goldfarb linked to was a quote from Clarke in which he referred to divisions between insurgent groups:

It's always good news when they are divided," said Richard Clarke, the former White House counter terrorism adviser, now an ABC News consultant. "It's reflective that U.S. tactics are having some success."

Clarke is not referring to the NY Times' editorial regarding the problems between Ankara and the P.K.K. But then neither is Goldfarb.

He's just lying.
(P.S. I have not linked directly to sources I quote, as I hope the reader goes to Goldfarb's piece and follow his links)

Comments

[rick]

Of course, the real story is that an American helicopter killed no civilians whatsoever. The principle of sanctuary is as old as civilization and warfare. Warriors don paint or feathers or red coats or you choose the adornment, not as decoration, but to say to their enemies "I am your target in this fight and those not dressed like me are innocents. They then hide their women and children and elderly in the fruit cellar and march out to face the enemy in an attempt to provide sanctuary for their loved ones. These cowardly bastards (who the good Senator Kennedy has described as Minutemen, proving that he is as good at judging human character as he is at driving a 1969 Oldsmobile) we now face in the sand, do not adhere to this timeless principle. They hide in ambush, then when discovered, retreat seeking sanctuary amongst their innocents, killing them in the process. The folks planting the roadside bombs killed the civilians, not an American helicopter. Arafat retreated across the Jordan in the early seventies wearing a bhurka. A man's man indeed.

Just to clean up old business, if civilians died at the hands of Blackwater, it was for similar reasons. If Blackwater kills ya, they had no other option.