Thursday, August 04, 2005
Drudge Trying To Smokescreen Roberts
Matt Drudge put out a weird-ass story earlier today about John Roberts and how the NYT is allegedly picking on him by going after his adopted kids. Now, there have been various reactions to this Drudge "scoop" (such as this one and this one), but I've gotta say this: Don't be assuming that Drudge didn't just pull this thing totally out of his ass. Sometimes Drudge's stories have at least a tenuous basis in reality, if only as something to be twisted around 180 degrees from what it actually shows. Many times, however, Drudge is just hastily making shit up on the fly in order to provide "white noise" that covers up the existence of another story just long enough for it not to survive into the next news cycle. I'm betting that this story falls into the latter category. Here are the signs therefor: 1) Absolutely no on-the-record names attached to any of the quotes. This in itself, in a Drudge story, is a strong indication that it's straight from www.pulledouthisass.com. He does mention the name of the NYT reporter who he claims is working on a story about Roberts' kids, but didn't quote him by name. 2) Earlier today, not one but TWO legitimately-sourced and very damaging stories about Roberts' pro bono hit the news: His work for a Colorado coalition of gay-rights groups, AND his work for an anti-abortion group. The conservatives obviously don't mind the anti-abortion work, but the pro-gay work is freaking them out -- so much so that conservative backers of Roberts were out doing damage control. The best way to counter these headlines? Pimp a bogus story designed to make it look as if Roberts Is Being Unfairly Attacked. Therefore, I urge you all not to bite on this story, but instead to focus on the stories it's obviously designed to stifle.
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