Drudge + warbloggers = foolery

[babylonsister]

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200704100023

Drudge + warbloggers = foolery

by Eric Boehlert

Is there any tag team capable of doing more damage to the truth than over-eager warbloggers enlisting with gossip guru Matt Drudge? The two factually challenged camps joined forces last week in an effort to slime CNN's Iraq reporter Michael Ware by spreading the bogus story that he'd heckled Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) during a Baghdad press conference. It actually took less than one day for the malicious falsehood to be debunked. And in the end, Drudge and the warbloggers -- those bitter, pro-war, dead-enders -- simply made April fools of themselves for peddling the concocted tale.

But before the embarrassing hiccup fades into oblivion, it's helpful to detail the events in order to really understand the willful disconnect warbloggers have with reality, and particularly when it comes to smearing journalists trying to cover the deadly fighting in Iraq. Even a week after Drudge's blunder, warbloggers were still clinging to dubious evidence to support their smearing of Ware.

It's also instructive because despite being wrong about the war for four years running, warbloggers still retain an unfortunate amount of media influence, thanks in part to the fact that the mainstream press refuses to detail the warbloggers' blatant failings.

And as the Ware attack illustrated, left to their own woefully inadequate ethical standards, warbloggers have almost no interest in acknowledging their sloppy errors or expressing regret for the harm those errors cause.

The media dust-up began when war supporter McCain recently went on conservative Bill Bennett's radio show and announced that there were neighborhoods in Baghdad where the two of them could walk around safely. The wishful thinking was part of McCain's latest push to suggest things were improving in Baghdad and that the press wasn't telling the American people the full, optimistic story. Responding on-air, CNN's Ware wondered what parts of "Neverland" within bombed-out Baghdad McCain was referring to where Americans could roam freely on the streets. (McCain later conceded that some of his claims about Baghdad were not true.)

That set up the Drudge smear. Relying on a single anonymous "official," Drudge reported on April 1, that Ware had "heckled" McCain during the senator's press conference in Baghdad. "I've never witnessed such disrespect. This guy is an activist not a reporter," said Drudge's "source." (Raise your hand if, over the years, you've simply assumed that most of the anonymous quotes Drudge uses in his "exclusive" reports are fabricated. Me, too.) The charge was bold and unequivocal. It was not that Ware had giggled or talked during the press conference. It was that Ware had had repeatedly interrupted McCain with argumentative questions.

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