Death, corruption and fabrication.
Posted on 03/23/2005 5:25:25 PM PST by Stellar Dendrite
ABC News, the original source of the story on the alleged "GOP talking points" memo now appears to be backing off the story. Blogger Josh Clayborn has been talking to ABC representatives, both on and off the record, and they are now telling him that they never meant to imply that the "talking points" memo originated with the Republicans--only that it was given to some Republican Senators. See his most recent posts at In the Agora.
ABC's current position, as reported by Josh, makes little sense, as their coverage certainly did say that this was a Republican memo. (ABC's website described the memo as containing "GOP talking points.") But the fact that they are now backing off suggests that in reality, they have no idea where the memo came from.
Doubts are starting to appear in other quarters, as well. Just a little while ago, the memo's authenticity was discussed on MSNBC; the fact that bloggers have questioned the memo's provenance was discussed, and at least one guest expressed the opinion that the memo is a Democratic dirty trick.
Finally, we got this email from a staffer for a conservative Republican Senator:
Regarding this phantom “strategy memo” about Terri Schiavo, I can say with almost complete certainty that this memo did not get passed out by Republicans. For starters, nobody up here who knows anything about the Senate refers to last week’s activities as “the Budget Act” (bullet point #2). We didn’t work on the Budget Act last week; we worked on the budget resolution. It may sound like a silly, semantic point to make, but that statement in particular jumped out at me.
Next, there was absolutely no need to take action “before the Budget Act” was pending business. Action could be taken at any time to vote on the Schiavo resolution. In fact, Senators Reid and Frist tried to do exactly that, but were blocked in their request for unanimous consent by Sen. Wyden. On this same note, the budget resolution was “pending business” all week! Debate and votes on the budget resolution began Monday, March 14. Why would we pass out a memo instructing Senators to do something BEFORE the budget resolution was being debated in the middle of debate over the budget resolution? That would be like passing out a memo during the 7th inning of a baseball game instructing us to take batting practice or stretch before the game started. It makes no sense.
I was on and off the Senate floor all throughout the week, including during the Thursday night vote-a-rama. The only piece of literature that I saw being distributed was a simple list of amendments that were being voted on, and it had the Majority Whip’s name on it. No talking points, no summaries – just a simple card with a list of stacked amendments. My boss never received this alleged Schiavo memo. And trust me, given the ideological leaning of my boss, if anybody were to see this memo, it would be him.
I have not talked to any GOP staffers up here who have seen this phantom memo. Nobody I know received any e-mails containing anything even remotely close to this memo. Granted, nothing I have offered is conclusive, but this whole issue really stinks of fraud.
Wow. Dan Rather sure found a new job in a hurry.
Nah. He'll increase the volume of his accusations and demand more light on the situation. Bwahahahahaha.
Would I be completely out of bounds to instantly blame the worthless Rather? Nah...
Hee hee. Go, Frank, go!!
Taking a break from writing for Scrappleface, are we?
Where did Mary Mapes go to work after she got fired? Is she working for ABC now?
Death, corruption and fabrication.
Just the fact that the leaked memo was given to Mike Allen, the Bush Hater of the Washington Post says it was Democrats doing this deed.
I've heard that mentioned. Your spelling maybe a bit off...
LOL.
Reading Powerline, you really have to pity the left for two reasons:
1) the faked memos are so poorly done, it both demonstrates the simplemindedness of liberals and the aftereffects of their public school "educations."
2) the MSM, while simultaneously denying any sort of liberal bias, takes these pathetic faked memos, and dutifully reports them, verbatim, without even the barest hint of fact checking and source verification. Isn't one definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result?
There is also what I call a "bias magnification" effect, as exemplified by the Boston Globe and Chris Matthews to name a few, where the alleged "source" of the memos keeps moving higher and higher up in the Republican leadership with each telling of the story.
Intellectually lazy just doesn't cover it anymore.
It will have the intended effect unless it is quickly shot down and the perps identified IMHO.
I agree. It makes you wonder.
Who do I see about getting permission to put that on a t-shirt? Not for sale, just for me.
"There is no way that a major news organization would go public with a memo unless they were certain it was genuine and authentic."
Where the hell have you been? Please tell me you forgot the /sarcasm switch!
Yup. More lies from the Dems, and their allies in the tar pit.
Well, I just IM'ed Matt Drudge, hopefully he will run with it.....
Someone should check and see what Lucy Ramirez has been up to.
No!
You're right - and it is difficult to keep attention on it.
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