Posted on 10/30/2006, 12:48:52 PM by L.N. Smithee
In his October 29, 2006 article about the Dixie Chicks documentary Shut Up & Sing, Boston Globe writer Damon Smith’s two opening paragraphs contained a big, fat whopper born of leftist urban legend. He wrote:
It is ironic that Damon Smith would speak of the importance of “context,” because Fleischer’s words were not meant to warn against ‘voices of dissent.’ A reading of the transcript of the September 26, 2001 White House press briefing in which Fleischer said “Americans…need to watch what they say, watch what they do” makes that crystal clear. Apparently, proper context was not Damon Smith’s first priority.
Just weeks after 9/11, Ari Fleischer, then White House press secretary, warned Americans to ‘watch what they say.’Beyond alarming civil-rights advocates, who recoiled from the ominous tone of his words, Fleischer's admonition was a reminder that, in some quarters at least, any voice of dissent could be construed as anti-patriotic, regardless of content or context. Just ask Bill Maher -- or the Dixie Chicks…”
From the White House web site: The following is the exchange with WorldNetDaily reporter Les Kinsolving in which Fleischer made his ballyhooed statement (bold and underlining mine).
You've read the statement. Now, here are the events that led to it.
Q: As Commander-In-Chief, what was the President's reaction to television's Bill Maher, in his announcement that members of our Armed Forces who deal with missiles are cowards, while the armed terrorists who killed 6,000 unarmed are not cowards, for which Maher was briefly moved off a Washington television station?MR. FLEISCHER: I have not discussed it with the President, one. I have --
Q: Surely, as a --
MR. FLEISCHER: I'm getting there.
Q: Surely as Commander, he was enraged at that, wasn't he?
MR. FLEISCHER: I'm getting there, Les.
Q: Okay.
MR. FLEISCHER: I'm aware of the press reports about what he said. I have not seen the actual transcript of the show itself. But assuming the press reports are right, it's a terrible thing to say, and it’s unfortunate. And that's why -- there was an earlier question about has the President said anything to people in his own party -- they're reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do. This is not a time for remarks like that; there never is.
On a September 17, 2001 edition of his now-defunct ABC late-night show Politically Incorrect, Maher agreed in principle with one of his guests, conservative author Dinesh D’Souza, who disagreed with others’ characterization of the terrorist hijackers as “cowards.” However, Maher took things an extra mile:
Note that in his answer to Kinsolving, Fleischer was addressing not only Maher’s ‘unfortunate remark,’ but another one by someone in the President’s own party, i.e., a Republican. That was a reference to an outrageous statement made by former Congressman John Cooksey of Louisiana. Also on September 17, 2001, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, Cooksey said this regarding airport security in a radio interview on Louisiana Radio Network:
DINESH D'SOUZA: Bill, there's another piece of political correctness I want to mention. And, although I think Bush has been doing a great job, one of the themes we hear constantly is that the people who did this are cowards.BILL MAHER: Not true.
D'SOUZA: Not true. Look at what they did. First of all, you have a whole bunch of guys who are willing to give their life. None of them backed out. All of them slammed themselves into pieces of concrete.
MAHER: Exactly.
D'SOUZA: These are warriors. And we have to realize that the principles of our way of life are in conflict with people in the world. And so -- I mean, I'm all for understanding the sociological causes of this, but we should not blame the victim. Americans shouldn't blame themselves because other people want to bomb them.
MAHER: But also, we should -- we have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly. You're right.
(Rep. Cooksey, who was running for Mary Landrieu's Senate seat, lost in the GOP primary.) In comments earlier in the briefing to a question about Cooksey’s remark and the furor it set off among American Sikhs – who, unlike American Muslims, commonly wear turbans in public -- Fleischer said the following:
“If I see someone come in and he's got a diaper on his head and a fan belt around that diaper on his head, that guy needs to be pulled over and checked.”
Fleischer’s request that “Americans...watch what they say” was in reaction to both statements that could be interpreted as unpatriotic or critical of the President AND statements that could be interpreted as religious bigotry in the name of patriotism. Those folks Damon Smith describes as “civil-rights advocates” somehow missed the bipartisan context of Fleischer’s words. To them, Fleischer, in an "ominous tone," was only talking about Maher's "coward" remark, his specific reference in the same breath to his previous answer on Cooksey's "diaper on his head" quote be damned.
MR. FLEISCHER: The President's message is to all Americans. It's important for all Americans to remember the traditions of our country that make us so strong and so free, our tolerance and openness and acceptance. All Americans -- and we come from a very rich cultural heritage, no matter what anybody's background in this country. And that's the strength of this country, and that's the President's message that he expressed in his speech to Congress and as he has done when he visited the mosque a week ago Monday, and in the meetings that he's hosting here at the White House today with Muslim Americans and Sikh Americans.
Was that an accident or an oversight? It is to laugh. For the so-called "civil-rights advocates" it’s not good business to acknowledge clear evidence that George W. Bush is not a fascist. Of course, in defense of Damon Smith, perhaps he's just a typically lazy journalist who doesn't check and double-check, like movie reviewers who take the word of Natalie Maines that Free Republic has a "Hate List" on which the Chicks are first.
What a PR campaign, using us for publicity and lying; VH1 has them on tonight as well.
Well, that's gratitude for ya. I guess with the buck teeth, Hung looks too much like a "redneck."
Unfortunately, there is an unsightly moment at the end of the clip. Even though Lance Bass, Rosario Dawson, and Chris Kattan were in the crowd, the VH1 cameras chose to zoom in on audience member William Hung giving the Dixie Chicks a standing ovation. Thankfully, Mr. Hung has a beautiful wife.
Where's the pic?
Of whom?
For some reason I was expecting a pic of that fat little Natalie Maines. I now realize the title was referring to their film.
For the record, here is the pic official DixChix blogger Junichi P. Semitsu identifies as showing Hung's wife.
...and here is a pic of Mr. Semitsu, delighting in having been asked to purchase tampons for the Chicks before the show's taping. I am not making that up.
Follow the link to the blog. You'll get all you can handle.
When the Chix first formed the group, I had an odd attraction to Natalie. But ever since she began to shoot from the lip, she has become more and more repulsive.
I have a feeling that fruity blogger boy was buying the tampons for himself.
I would wager that showbiz-wise, William Hung is hotter than either Bass or Kattan. Hung is thrown back into the spotlight with every new season of Idol. Bass had to come out of the closet to get attention, but what was left of his fan base of screaming teen girls is gone, and On the Line proved he has no future in the movies (at least, not movies that wouldn't premiere on the Logo channel). And when was the last time anyone thought of Chris Kattan other than in the context of flipping through VHS copies of Corky Romano in the clearance bin?
it's a bitchy little catty dig to take at somebody who is presumably supporting your cause.
Hey, Junichi is just aping his mistresses, who dissed their own fans. I am sure some of them stuck with the Chicks until they scrunched their faces on 60 Minutes at the notion some of their fans could be "rednecks."
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