Comments on: Guilty by search

By: boo

boo — Sun, 19 Sep 2004 02:32:42 +0000

I’ve got a student this semester named Pat Buchanan. I wonder how much inadverdante hate mail he gets.

By: Shelby

Shelby — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 00:49:37 +0000

“This explains why James Lileks is almost a regular.” Lucky bastard. Here in San Francisco we’re stuck with the likes of Molly Ivins (who once upon a time was pretty good) and, god help us, Pat Buchanan.

By: bob mcmanus

bob mcmanus — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 22:00:37 +0000

Thanks, ikram, my daily paper and a great newspaper. Sports, business, Pulitzer winning religion section, very little fluff, entertainment section almost an afterthought. But the front page and national news section is showing a little bias, and the editorial section gone all to hell. This explains why James Lileks is almost a regular. Arggh

By: Observer

Observer — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 21:47:14 +0000

At one level, this is nothing new. People have sent letters, often hate letters and death threats, to people in the news seemingly forever. In recent years, though, this tactic has become much more organized and ugly. The primary offender is freerepublic.com. The power of that web site came into public view in early 2001 when one of the Bush daughters got arrested for use of a fake ID to get drinks. The waitress who reported the fake ID was subjected to a barrage of hate from the freepers. Not just letters and phone calls, but every tactic they could think of.

By: Ikram

Ikram — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 21:18:41 +0000

Bob—Rod Dreher, who used to write for the National Review, joined the editorial board of the Dallas Morning News a while ago. He used to be an LGF type, and I remember he pushed the “Muslim med students stopped in Florida” story hard a few years ago. He’s probably brought his LGF friendly views to the DMN.

By: ruralsaturday

ruralsaturday — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 21:11:30 +0000

Some of us would have no place, in a world egregious hounding parasites like those had no place in, and so are tempted to put tolerance above anything. Others of us long for a world and a time in which the removal of the unfit is an individual choice. The common denominator falls without selection. This is the result. Great power given to the vapid, and it ferments, and the more noble the character the more vulnerable to that power. Or, as in Strong’s case, anonymous passersby become collateral damage. Ecclesiastes is cold, but more honest, and accurate, than not: “To everything, there is a season.” They would kill us, if they could safely. Vicious cowards predominate in the national discourse. It is the rise of the infirm, and the subsidence of the fit. Is the world upside down, or just this country?

By: alkali

alkali — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 20:39:36 +0000

Following up the Robert Bork story: a friend of mine used to work for a DC law firm, and had the same name as one of those think-tank people who are always quoted on general political issues (think Norman Ornstein, but that wasn’t his name). Reporters would call him asking for his opinion on political issues and he would have to explain to them that he wasn’t that guy. Finally, he gave up and just started saying whatever was on his mind. That went on for a few months until the calls suddenly stopped.

By: bob mcmanus

bob mcmanus — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 19:40:47 +0000

The Dallas Morning News gave a cred in its lead editorial Tuesday to “Charles Johnson of littlegreenfootballs.com” I can only assumed they did their job, researched the history and tone of LGF before mentioning it, and approved. Tacitus and Obsidian Wings, who last I checked despised Johnson and LGF, need to get back into line.

By: bob mcmanus

bob mcmanus — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 19:31:07 +0000

These are today Emerson Somebody named Emerson summarizes Memogate intimidation Laura Rozen Neocon intimidation of foreign policy reporters Of course there the policies about protesters at Pres speaking events;the treatment of the soldier who leaked the Abu Gharaib photos;and the recent stories about the Secret Service being turned into Bush's Praetorian Guard or brownshirts, intimidating the press at events (cites on request). Godwin's law long been repealed. The Republican Party has turned wholly fascist. To a man, it appears.

By: PG

PG — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 19:28:25 +0000

Most astonishingly, one can hardly see this bit of scandal as being about Bush’s service record, the poverty of which already had been exhaustively discussed in 2000. This is a scandal about CBS News, and possibly whoever passed them the memos. Who is the pathetic segment of the American population that is more worried about a 30 year old war than the ones happening right now?

By: BenA

BenA — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 19:25:28 +0000

I knew an undergrad at Harvard in the ‘80s named Rob Bork. During Judge Robert Bork’s confirmation hearings, Rob began to receive a steady stream of hate and fan mail. Even though Judge Bork had no connection whatsoever to Harvard, a bunch of folks just figured he must, and mailed things to “Robert Bork, Harvard University” Naturally they landed in Rob’s mailbox. The internet in this case (as in many others) just adds a new twist to an old phenomenon.

By: abb1

abb1 — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 19:03:46 +0000

Found guilty as googled and sentenced to LGFing by the neck ‘til dead.

By: Giles

Giles — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 18:55:38 +0000

“The meat they contain is more raw and distasteful than any spam I have ever encountered.” can we see those emails then?

By: Not Guilty

Not Guilty — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 17:52:41 +0000

“Guilty until Googled innocent.”