McClellan is a Pussy (and so is the media)

Poor Scotty McClellan. He was a puppet. And good for him if he wants to reveal what a stuttering pussy of a puppet he truly was.

But the biggest crime he writes of is, indeed, the media's complicity.

David Gregory dancing on stage with MC Rove is the single most beautiful image demonstrating how widely the media spread its anus for whatever oversized propaganda dildo Bush's dungeon thugs wanted to insert.

Gregory is a stand-in for the entire Washington press corps, since he was widely seen as most willing to question the talking points. He takes it personally (as he should) when McClellan says the media fucked up.

Over on Countdown, Keith Olbermann has his outrage porn for the week, and so has been kind to McClellan; others have argued that Scotty should be commended for telling the truth (even if late) and sending a signal to future administrations not to lie. Of course, if that ever happened folks like Gregory and Olbermann would be out of a job. (At lest Olbermann, by airing McClellan's critique without challenge, doesn't come off as defensive.)

Another apologist for the status quo, David Gergen of CNN, has argued that such whistleblowing after the fact jeopardizes the security of presidential aides to give straightforward advice. Just like executive privilege, this protects those around the president from the lies they tell to advance the agenda of the single most powerful entity on the planet.

For me, it's simple: anything the administration -- any administration -- says should be assumed a lie until proven true (which is where real journalism comes in). Just because there are reporters who get paid to decode official lies, or because there are wiggle words like "outright" to put in front of "lies," doesn't change the fact that everything that comes from the government is propaganda ("manipulation of the narrative," in McClellan's words).

Using such a filter, anyone was able to see the absurdity and unproven status of what the administration was saying during the pre-invasion period. A properly skeptical press, aware of its historical role, could have prevented the Iraq invasion. Only by surrendering the drive to ruthlessly fact-check a political gang that can bring down nations, could the media fail to protect itself from the charges of a coward who finally tells the truth.