‘The blogosphere was the engine on this story’

March 13, 2007

Time’s Jay Carney has a message for the blogs who’ve been covering the prosecutor purge scandal from the beginning: We were right, he was wrong.

Twelve days ago, after David Iglesias went public, I said that if there turned out to be a broad conspiracy behind the firing of the U.S. Attorneys, “I will take my hat off to Marshall and others in the blogosphere and congratulate them for having been right in their suspicions about this story from the beginning.”

My hat is off. Josh Marshall at TalkingPointsMemo and everyone else out there whose instincts told them there was something deeply wrong and even sinister about the firings, and who dug around and kept writing about them while Iglesias decided whether to talk to the press or go quietly on to his next job, deserve tremendous credit.

When this story first surfaced, I thought the Bush White House and Justice Department were guilty of poorly executed acts of crass political patronage. I called some Democrats on the Hill; they were “concerned”, but this was not a priority. The blogosphere was the engine on this story, pulling the Hill and the MSM along. As the document dump proves, what happened was much worse than I’d first thought. I was wrong. Very nice work, and thanks for holding my feet to the fire.

That’s extremely encouraging, and Carney deserves credit for having the class to give Josh and the blogs credit here.

I can only hope Carney’s media colleagues are paying attention.

As recently as Thursday, “NBC’s and ABC’s nightly news programs [were] yet to cover the controversy over the Bush administration’s dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys, despite considerable congressional attention to the issue, including hearings begun on March 6.”

Last night, ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News devoted exactly zero seconds to the controversy, combined. Kevin Drum mentioned just two days ago that he had found that his family hadn’t heard a word about this story, and I’ve found a similar trend with people I know.

I don’t watch television news, so I don’t know what’s going on this afternoon on the cable networks, but I suspect today is the day in which the dam breaks and the scandal comes rushing onto TV screens everywhere. At least, it better.

This isn’t just some random flap — it’s a massive political scandal involving likely criminal activity. It’s likely to force the resignation of the Attorney General. The hearings, at which top White House officials will be called to testify, will probably be devastating.

Carney’s post on Time’s blog was reassuring. As was the case with the Plame scandal, the blogs have taken the lead on this story, but traditional news outlets seem to be waking up. Editors stumbled upon their WaPo and NYT this morning and probably said, “Hmm, maybe those blogs were right after all.”

It’s about time.

In cases like these, blogs have a longer attention span than the MSM. They truly are an engine of issues.

  • I wouldn’t get my hopes up. There are docs that are going to push this story front pages, but if not for them, I doubt this would be anything but accusations and never see the light of day.

    I have always wondered if Nixon hadn’t taped everything, would he have resigned, I doubt it.

  • Gonzales used the good old passive voice, “mistakes were made”. Yes, or you could say, YOU made mistakes, Bush made mistakes, Rove made mistake, Miers made mistakes and the mistakes you made were trying to screw over the American people.

  • I don’t watch television news, so I don’t know what’s going on this afternoon on the cable networks, but I suspect today is the day in which the dam breaks and the scandal comes rushing onto TV screens everywhere.

    We had it on at my house today, and yeah, the story is all over the place.

    And let me just say-

    “Instincts”?!? How about common sense? Carney is suffering from contemporary-middle-class-centrism in which he thinks that nothing bad ever happens except in maybe other parts of the world, and all the things the Democrats accuse the Republicans of doing are just fantasy.

  • Firing US Attorneys for not going after White House targets tells us very clearly that the White house has been (is) using the Justice Department for personal political ends.

    THAT, among other things, is EXACTLY what the House was ready to Impeach Nixon for.

    Next to Gonzales, John Mitchell looks much better.

    We had a better class of Senators, Congressmen and, above all, journalists in ’73. Now it’s Carpetbagger, TPM, Etc or its fascism.

  • and all the things the Democrats accuse the Republicans of doing are just fantasy.

    It’s a consequence of growing up in the suburbs, you know, every person who’s not bad thinks that no one else is, as long as they’ve never been a victim themselves. If I talked bluntly to people, I might advise someone like to stop writing about politics, and move over for someone who’s smart.

  • Expect this tonight on Hardball:

    “The American People don’t want Alberto Gonzalez to resign”

    -Andrea Mitchell

  • Saw the Gonzales presser. What a bunch of hooey. What did he take…5 questions? He also repeated many times: “I am responsible”. Yet, others have resigned. Not him. He’s goind to make sure that there is accountability for the “mistakes that were made.” If he is accountable for the mistakes, seems like we can save a lot of time and money by him stepping down, no?

  • Carney deserves credit for admitting he was wrong about this. Of course, this sort of story is exactly the reason I pay so little attention to television news; they are mostly useless when it comes to covering stories of substance and complexity. Even now, as this story finally breaks into prime time, many of them will fumble it. They will repeat the dishonest republican spin (“Clinton fired all 93!”) with little comment on why it’s irrelevant.

  • Swan #4 has a good point. Most people haven’t come to terms with the fact that the Republicans have corrupted our system almost to the point of all those “little” countries we, mainstream citizens, used to hear about where corruption was rife. The country whose politicians don’t observe the rule of law are no better off than the countries who don’t have a rule of law.

  • Just imagine what the world would be like if bloggers were allowed to attend the White House Press briefings? The blogs are the only ones asking questions because the big Washington insiders club thinks it would be rude to ask pointed questions of their valuable sources inside the government. But the press’ valuable sources are only resources for lies and spin. There’s no Pulitzer Prize for stenography. Guys like Carney would be well served to pay more attention to the left side of the blogosphere rather than falling into the trap of hounding down Drudge Report misinformation and dutifully repeating whatever the White House wants them to print.

  • …….they are mostly useless when it comes to covering stories of substance and complexity

    Thats why DRUDGE is their God and meaningless stories about Obama’s Madrassa, Pelosi’s travel arrangements, Edwards house sale, and Hilary’s husbands speaking fees are heavily reported on….

    This is caused by laziness, a sincere lack of curiousity, and an unexplainable and inherent trust in all things Republican.

    Hopefully the tide will change……doubtful though….

  • If this republic is going to be saved, it will be saved by the people. Recently I read that increase in the number of people who are turning to the Internet and blogs for their information has increased by 1400%, and 73% of voters are already paying close attention to the election of 2008. Already I think think MSM seems to be perusing the blogs looking for stories, and eventually we may get our country back. Anyway this is a nice piece of encouragement for me and for the others like me who felt completely abandoned after the election theft of 2000, and all that has happened subsequently.

  • “When it comes to Bush Administration, assume the worst. It saves time.” – Some Other Blogger referring to Josh’s persistence.

  • Scott W. I believe it is Brad DeLong who constantly reminds us that even after you have taken into account that the Bush administration is worse that you think possible it is still worse than you think possible.

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  • Economaniac @16: Bingo. Even when I try to be as flagrantly cynical as I can muster, the Bush regime always outdoes me.

  • the blogs are the true free press – that is until everyone and their brother starts getting sued for copyright infringement (i.e., Viacom vs. Google, Inc.)…

    one of the best articles i’ve read in a long time was in last month’s Harpers magazine – the whole point is that it is nearly impossible to track the origins of a particular theme, motif, poem, book, video, and so on…though it is lengthy, take a gander: The Ecstasy of Influence…i’d be interested to know what y’all think: mousester81@gmail.com

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