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Salon.com Debuts New Approach With Attack on Bush
CNSNEWS.com ^ | 3/10/04 | Robert B. Bluey

Posted on 03/10/2004 2:33:29 AM PST by kattracks

(CNSNews.com) - The liberal website Salon.com published a critical report Wednesday on the Bush administration's handling of pre-war intelligence, the first in a series of articles planned under the direction of Sidney Blumenthal, a former aide to President Bill Clinton.

The Salon.com report, which was hyped as "The New Pentagon Papers," is written by retired Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former political-military analyst and 20-year Air Force veteran.

Kwiatkowski accuses political appointees in the Department of Defense, who she claims are allies of Vice President Dick Cheney, of carrying out a propaganda campaign to rush the country to war.

"The public storyline was a fear-peddling and confusing set of messages, designed to take the Congress and the country into a war of executive choice, a war based on false pretenses and a war that, one year later, Americans do not really understand," Kwiatkowski writes. "That is why I have gone public with my account."

The man behind Salon.com's aggressive new Washington bureau is Blumenthal, a former Washington Post reporter who went to work as a senior aide to Clinton. Blumenthal is overseeing the website's venture into expanded coverage of political and international news.

"This disturbing report from the Bush Pentagon, and others that will follow, are part of Salon's new emphasis - what we call 'Unintimidated News,' " Blumenthal said in a statement.

Salon.com, which is based in San Francisco, was founded in 1995 by David Talbot, who serves as its editor and chief executive. Talbot is a former editor for the San Francisco Examiner and the liberal Mother Jones magazine.

Despite being viewed by 3 million people each month and having 74,000 paid subscribers, the website has struggled financially and has a debt of more than $80 million, according a New York Times report in January.

Earlier this year, the company secured $800,000 in funding from Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner and Adobe Systems co-chairman John E. Warnock. The contributions helped create the Washington bureau headed by Blumenthal.

"This is all part of Salon ramping up its political coverage in a major way for the coming election," Talbot told the Times in January.

Fenton Communications, the public relations firm that has liberal activist group MoveOn.org as a client, is working on behalf of Salon.com. Fenton touted Kwiatkowski's report - "Ex Pentagon Officer Blows Whistle On Iraq War Propoganda [sic] Campaign" - in an e-mail blast Tuesday.

As part of its new approach, Salon.com will share content with the British newspaper The Guardian . The website also plans to play a major role in a progressive talk radio network, Air America, which will be launched soon.

The Republican National Committee was quick to rebut Salon.com's new approach. Spokeswoman Mary Ellen Grant questioned whether people would take the website seriously with Blumenthal overseeing news content.

"They're going to have a lot of trouble passing themselves off as a legitimate news organization with a former Clinton administration official heading up the Washington bureau," she said.

E-mail a news tip to Robert B. Bluey.

Send a Letter to the Editor about this article.


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bushhaters; clintonistas; liberalmedia; sidblumenthal

1 posted on 03/10/2004 2:33:29 AM PST by kattracks
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To: kattracks
"New approach?" Sound like the same old Salon.com to me!
2 posted on 03/10/2004 2:35:02 AM PST by NYCVirago
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To: kattracks
The Republican National Committee was quick to rebut Salon.com's new approach. Spokeswoman Mary Ellen Grant questioned whether people would take the website seriously with Blumenthal overseeing news content.

Here's what I would have said -- nobody to the right of Susan Sarandon took them seriously in the first place!

3 posted on 03/10/2004 2:36:25 AM PST by NYCVirago
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To: kattracks
Here's the last financial item on Salon's finances. It seems the media even accepts the money pit vampire that is Salon, as there's been a dearth of articles about it.

Less Than Ten Cents on the Dollar ( Salon.com owes the White House $, can't pay )

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1090449/posts
4 posted on 03/10/2004 2:39:58 AM PST by Hillarys Gate Cult (Proud member of the right wing extremist Neanderthals.)
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To: All
Sidney Blumenthal, a former aide to President Bill Clinton...

Oh, fer Gawd's sake- Sid the Squid?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/723210/posts
various links | 7-27-02 | The Heavy Equipment Guy

5 posted on 03/10/2004 2:41:07 AM PST by backhoe (Has that Clinton "legacy" made you feel safer yet?)
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To: kattracks
An attack on Bush, and that's supposed to be their new tack?

I thought when you retool a business you're supposed to have a better revenue plan. Am I to understand their new plan is to take with the Democrats?

If they win they lose. If they lose they lose. What motive can I be missing? Are they a business or are they just staving off dissolvement?

It starts to make me dwell on the observations of detective Sherlock Holmes. To wit: "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
6 posted on 03/10/2004 3:38:41 AM PST by Tredge (Don't ask me, I don't know)
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To: kattracks
This stuff will only resonate with the 'Hate-Bush' crowd, who are already nuts. Big deal.
7 posted on 03/10/2004 3:54:05 AM PST by atomicpossum (Fun pics in my profile)
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To: kattracks
LOL.....oh Sidney Blumenthal, of Monica's a stalker fame!

Didn't he warn Tony Blair not to support President Bush's stance on the war against terror?

8 posted on 03/10/2004 4:04:56 AM PST by OldFriend (Always understand, even if you remain among the few)
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To: kattracks
Salon is being kept alive through the next election by infusions of leftist cash, loans and credit. The new liberal radio talk netword, ditto.

This is how liberals are getting around campaign finance laws. Every ounce of left-wing gold is being thrown in every way possible into winning the White House in November.

Should President Bush win, the liberal propaganda organs will wither away and die. They are kept viable right now as part of the desperate Democrat/socialist/commie/liberal/leftist effort to win in November.

Leni

9 posted on 03/10/2004 4:15:19 AM PST by MinuteGal (Register now for "FReeps Ahoy 3" . A week of fun, food, freeperistics, starting in the low $700's!)
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To: MinuteGal
Ah, but what if the Rats should win? Once they get into power they will dismantle the right's media apparatus. Bush needs to take the media's politcal corrption directly to the people. The GOP needs to formally out all of these channels, includeing the TV majors. They will not do it, but they should.
10 posted on 03/10/2004 4:25:31 AM PST by CasearianDaoist ((Nuance THIS!))
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To: CasearianDaoist
You're absolutely correct. Should the 'Rats win in November, President Hillary will appoint Syd (the Squid) Blumenthal as Secretary of Propaganda and Disinformation.

Rush Limbaugh will be purged and become a distant memory like Arthur Godfrey.

Salon will become the house organ of the Democrat National Committee (well, it is already, so strike that).

Leni

11 posted on 03/10/2004 4:48:24 AM PST by MinuteGal (Register now for "FReeps Ahoy 3" . A week of fun, food, freeperistics, starting in the low $700's!)
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To: kattracks
"Despite being viewed by 3 million people each month and having 74,000 paid subscribers, the website has struggled financially and has a debt of more than $80 million, according a New York Times report in January."

Where do they get these viewer numbers?

How many people view FreeRepublic, how many registered viewers/contributors do we have, and how much cash do we burn through each year to support that?

12 posted on 03/10/2004 4:57:34 AM PST by SW6906
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To: NYCVirago
...retired Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski....

In AF circles, this retired bag-o-shit will have VERY FEW friends. She's probably still pissed at "Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
13 posted on 03/10/2004 6:09:38 AM PST by ohioman
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To: kattracks
Salon.com? I thought that craphole was on the way out and dying.
14 posted on 03/10/2004 6:11:36 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (If you can read this...you're too close.)
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To: Hillarys Gate Cult
the website has struggled financially and has a debt of more than $80 million, according a New York Times report in January. Earlier this year, the company secured $800,000 in funding from Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner and Adobe Systems co-chairman John E. Warnock. The contributions helped create the Washington bureau headed by Blumenthal.

One would think George Soros would fund this worthy endeavor in toto.

15 posted on 03/10/2004 6:12:14 AM PST by mountaineer
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts
Salon.com? I thought that craphole was on the way out and dying.

Still gotta wait for rigor to set in before we can write them off.

Their gods DO seem to rely on "The Zombie Vote."
16 posted on 03/10/2004 6:14:03 AM PST by RandallFlagg (<a href="http://www.michaelmoore.com" target="_blank">miserable failure)
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To: kattracks

17 posted on 03/10/2004 6:15:57 AM PST by Samwise (I am going to need to be sedated before this election is over.)
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To: mountaineer
Salon is about one thing only, and they hope that Soros will give them some money.....money.....money......money.....money......oooops! that's 5 things, but you know what I mean, don't you?
18 posted on 03/10/2004 6:19:44 AM PST by katya8
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To: kattracks
the first in a series of articles planned under the direction of Sidney Blumenthal, a former aide to President Bill Clinton.

First lie, Sid 'Grassy Knoll' Blumenthal never worked for Bill, he was always Hillary's creature.

"This disturbing report from the Bush Pentagon, and others that will follow, are part of Salon's new emphasis - what we call 'Unintimidated News,' " Blumenthal said in a statement.

Try 'Unmitigated Bile'.

Never forget that Warnock of Adobe and Jobs of Apple and a third character from Hambrick and Quist set up Salon originally to help defend Clinton in the year of Lewinski.

At least Sid is openly working for them now, back then he just fed them oppositioin research direct from Hillary and the White House.

19 posted on 03/10/2004 6:58:31 AM PST by TC Rider (The United States Constitution © 1791. All Rights Reserved.)
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