Poll_Blind (1000+ posts) Mon May-15-06 02:52 PM
Response to Original message
30. No, but there was a person from TruthOut who came here...
...and posted a very strongly-worded message. The exact words were "For those who have been waiting for this, here it is. For those who still doubt, well, I guess this is the big throwdown." This message was intended to whip up excitement about the article and to more widely publicize it. Because of the poster's notoriety many who had already been burned before by news reports of action againt the Bush government felt that this story had been vetted and by someone they trust the judgement of. Well, when the "24 hours" was later clarified to "Monday, it's 24 business hours" and then clarified furter to respresent "24 business hours meaning 3 business days", folks started asking questions.
We've all been on this emotional rollercoaster before and each time it crashes I think it's reasonable to state that all of us who were on the ride vow never to get on it again unless it's the Big One. Anyway, the questions kept on coming and there developed a backlash against them- with some folks perceiving the skeptical as something a a bit more than merely Democrats who didn't want to be emotionally burned agian.
Then it got worse- by Sunday night I was watching threads where expressing (truly) basic questions about whether this story was true or not were met, openly and with a great deal of malice, with charges that those expressing reasonable questions were gutted for being conservatives in disguise. This is a very ugly charge to make at Democratic Underground.
Then after those threads had been locked the original poster who originally whipped up the frenzy in the first place started at least one thread, in what appeared to be an intoxicated state, claiming that has helped root out secret conservative trolls at Democratic Underground and that as gratefulness for such a service DU ought to pay him "cold hard cash". Of course, he didn't appear to be serious. What he did appear to be was very abusive, condescending and personally helping to stoke the fire between the two sides.
At no time did I ever see Mr. Leopold participate in any of this. I do not blame Mr. Leopold for any of the fallout from this behavior. Mr. Leopold merely wrote the article. However, I beleive it's fair to say because of the way this article was promoted by the poster referenced above that he will suffer consequences as a journalist. The original poster implied that this article would make or break TruthOut and Mr. Leopold.
It did neither, at least in my opinion. The way he handled this was make or break for himself and he came up sorely wanting. The poster whipped up a frenzy at DU, personally attacked those critical of the information presented, fed an atmosphere of absolutism and polarization and then, drunkenly, posted that we should all be very thankful for his behavior.
I find this behavior loathsome and certainly beneath the potential for the poster. Mr. Leopold, who may suffer greatly career-wise because of the way this was handled on DU had no direct part in it. This appears to be related entirely to someone who, I feel, has shown that they should sit on the sidelines next time something like this comes to light.
PB
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1194118&mesg_id=1194425
Nice Smackdown of Will Pitt. Compliments of windansea at CU. Is this a Leopold lackey throwing Will under the bus?
Maybe. Or maybe it's even Leopold himself. Regardless, the significant fact is they're already circling their wagons over this. And, it at least appears that Leopold may get more sympathy (even though his initial story was bogus to begin with) than Pitt, who supported his getting that story out. That is, IF this attempt at backing Leopold works.
WOW! Is this ever great to watch.
But this is par for the course in DUmmieland