European Tribune - Community, Politics & Progress.

Paranoia: hit piece on Blair in WaPo as he refuses war in Iran

by Jerome a Paris
Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 10:20:51 AM EST

The coincidence is troubling, to say the least:

Blair refuses to back Iran strike (Scotsman)
TONY Blair has told George Bush that Britain cannot offer military support to any strike on Iran, regardless of whether the move wins the backing of the international community, government sources claimed yesterday.
Amid increasing tension over Tehran's attempts to develop a military nuclear capacity, the Prime Minister has laid bare the limits of his support for President Bush, who is believed to be considering an assault on Iran, Foreign Office sources revealed.

Britons Feeling 'Tired of Tony' (Washington Post)
Blair fatigue has become the dominant narrative in British politics. The posturing of Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, Blair's presumed successor-in-waiting, and the look-at-me style of David Cameron, 39, the new Conservative Party leader, are endlessly debated. Scandals come and go; the Iraq war never leaves.

One thing is true - the narrative of "Tony should go" is certainly gaining ground. In that same Scotsman, one can find a story of the same kind:

Tide turns against arrogant Blair
IT IS a country in chaos. Two contending leaders grapple ruthlessly for power in a culture of blatant corruption where the police investigate a prime minister who, despite his repeated moving of the goal posts and influence in media circles, has become an object of distrust and dislike to many. Nobody knows where authority resides. It is a shambles. And there are problems in Italy too.
It may seem a harsh comparison, but has Tony Blair's Berlusconisation of Britain brought him to the verge of his own downfall?
(...)
Above and beyond these matters, there is the wider issue of integrity. After nine years of New Labour and its bold talk of transparency, openness and a new morality, there is now a feeling that it was just that - little more than talk. This climate of corruption has collided with a non-deferential media and a public which will no longer give this government the benefit of the doubt.
There must now be the most rigorous police investigation into abuse of honours by any and all parties. Meanwhile, the Blair/Brown stand-off is increasingly paralysing government. The implications all point in one direction.
There is a tide in the affairs of men and it is ebbing fast for Tony Blair.

There are real scandals under way - the financial contributions by wealthy individuals to Labor's campaign last year, and the suspicion that they were rewarded in various unseemly ways (honorary titles and the like); the scabrous story of the husband of a minister apparently involving in the cover up of one of Berlusconi's numerous crimes; and a general disanchantment with the poodle-acting ways of Blair viz. Bush and his support for the mess in Iraq.

The media is also getting tired of the Blair-Brown rivalry, and has been attracted by the perspective of a revival of the Tories under David Cameron, their new, young and photogenic leader, and is thus keen to play up any possibility of Blair finally leaving 10 Downing Street.

But these stories are mostly of domestic interest. For the WaPo to have a story on the topic once in a while is naturally not strange, but both the timing, and the very title ("tired of Tony") cannot but raise suspicions in the current context of unrelenting support of the WaPo for the Bush administration, and the build up of the noise machine around Iran. Blair's declaration that he would refuse any military action is pretty explicit:

in the midst of international opposition to a pre-emptive strike on Tehran, and Britain's military commitments around the world, the government maintains it cannot contribute to a military assault. "We will support the diplomatic moves, at best," a Foreign Office source told Scotland on Sunday. "But we cannot commit our own resources to a military strike."
Meanwhile, a new report on the Iran crisis has warned that neo-conservatives in the Bush administration are on "collision course" with Tehran.
(...)
The approach contrasts sharply with the strategy employed during the run-up to the war in Iraq, when ministers repeatedly issued grim warnings to Saddam Hussein over the consequences of not falling in line with their demands.

So - is Blair falling out of favor? Is he going to join Old Europe in Rumsfeld's dustbin of history? Or is this just a freaky coincidence?

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Paranoia: hit piece on Blair in WaPo as he refuses war in Iran | 25 comments (25 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Paranoia: hit piece on Blair in WaPo as he ref (none / 1)

I don't know Jerome.

I AM pretty damn tired of Tony.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar?

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 10:25:48 AM EST

Well (none / 0)

I understand the Brits talking about this. It IS a major story for you guys. But in the WaPo?

Anyway, I wrote in for dKos (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/16/10248/2514) - I expect it to fit right in with the mood other there...

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 10:27:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Well (none / 0)

It's not so odd to see it in the WaPo. The NYT covers British politics every few days (and French or Italian "crises" almost every day, it seems). I don't get the sense that any reporters in America take David Cameron seriously. To them, he's John Edwards, without the looks or charm. They also seem to pump up Gordon Brown, and it wouldn't be an American article on Britain if the Blair/Brown competition weren't mentioned in at least four paragraphs.

Basically, you can apparently take the most shallow political coverage from Britain, run it through the American filter (making it, where possible, even more shallow), and -- voila! -- you have an article on British politics.

I wish the BBC would expand its coverage in America, so that I could actually get ahold of more real news, worldwide and in Britain. As it stands now, I would need digital cable or satellite tv to watch it, and I don't have that kind of money (nor would one channel be worth paying three times the price).

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 01:36:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Well (none / 0)

The WaPo might just be saying that Blair is in the same situation as Bush regarding popularity. If even the Brits are suffering from Blair fatigue, it's not that ominous that Americans are suffering from Bush fatigue.

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 04:35:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Paranoia: hit piece on Blair in WaPo as he ref (none / 1)

Which dustbin? We will look back at Bush/Cheney/Rumsfield as more than a dustbin, but a shitpail in comparison. Sometimes it is smart to jump off that trainwreck...

"Once in awhile we get shown the light, in the strangest of places, if we look at it right" - Hunter/Garcia

by whataboutbob on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 10:30:56 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Paranoia: hit piece on Blair in WaPo as he ref (none / 0)

Tony Blair's Berlusconisation of Britain

Wow, the Scotsman is really flailing out!

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 11:19:21 AM EST

Re: Paranoia: hit piece on Blair in WaPo as he ref (4.00 / 9)

Note that it just says Britain cannot contribute to or commit its own forces to a military strike, not that it necessarily would condemn it. So I don't know if it's such a big deal to the neo-Jacobins.

Off-topic, but speaking of WaPo hit pieces: what do you guys think of the Maryscott article yesterday?

I almost never send feedback to journalists, but here I fired off this:

Dear Mr. Finkel,
I would like to congratulate you on the stellar piece on Maryscott O'Connor.
You succeeed admirably in painting this impassioned leftist blogger as a hysterical hate-monger consumed by a primal rage born of personal trauma. Special kudos for exquisite details such as questioning her parenthood.
The photo chosen by your editors was a deft final touch. I am confident that they are pleased with a hatchet job well done against the exasperating liberal bloggers who have bothered your noble publication and exposed its puerile rightwing blogger as a fraud.
Most professionally of all, you even got your target to like you! Sir, my hat is off to you.

The world's northernmost desert wind.

by Sirocco (sirocco2005ATgmail.com) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 11:24:03 AM EST

Re: Paranoia: hit piece on Blair in WaPo as he ref (none / 1)

Great letter, Sirocco.

I wrote and as someone who used to be a photo editor I concentrated on the photograph selected as I felt it displayed a very low level of photo-journalistic integrity.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 11:29:20 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Paranoia: hit piece on Blair in WaPo as he ref (none / 0)

It would be a challenge to disagree... According to Maryscott, even the reporter groaned when he heard they had selected that photo.

Here is the front page teaser for the article:

Good grief.

The world's northernmost desert wind.

by Sirocco (sirocco2005ATgmail.com) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 11:38:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Paranoia: hit piece on Blair in WaPo as he ref (none / 1)

Yes, bad picture - but no surprise. I do remember before the primaries in the US, the WaPo used a picture of Dean where he really looked like a moron, for the articles about him. The day after it was clear that Kerry would be the canditate, they switched to a real nice looking picture of Dean. It's not just the word they use, it't also the pictures and their choice of picture is no accident in my opinion.

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 11:57:10 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Paranoia: hit piece on Blair in WaPo as he ref (4.00 / 2)

What a stinking hit-job. Note the casual way Fink(el) refers to major blogs : "a Web site called Eschaton", etc. Suggesting all this is way out to the fringe somewhere and no one has ever heard of it, but Tintin the intrepid reporter is out there bringing you the news.

I expect more of this kind of thing. I think it reflects journalists and pundits' growing discomfort about blogs and their realization the Fifth Estate can shake up their closed worlds. I may be imagining this, but it also seems to me I'm hearing the strains of: "The left is imposing its discourse and shouting everybody down, we are no longer free..." coming from some of the pipes and drones of the Mighty Wurlitzer.

Keep screaming, Maryscott.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 12:39:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Paranoia: hit piece on Blair in WaPo as he ref (none / 1)

I found the MSOC profile horribly condescending and dismissive. I only skimmed the blowback, but I was surprised at how few people read it that way.

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine - Patti Smith

by dvx (dvx.clt ät gmail dotcom) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 12:32:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Paranoia: hit piece on Blair in WaPo as he ref (none / 0)

I instantly disliked it, but only on second reading did it dawn on me how low it really is. As I wrote on my blog (and this is an understatement):

For those of us who know and love her, Maryscott shines through in this piece. For the garden-variety reader, maybe not so much. The naked fury is at center stage, and to many it may be disturbing, even pathological. This isn't Maryscott's fault, of course. And if anything, it illustrates why liberal blogs are needed in the USA.
The "liberal media" is the evanescent daydream of unicorns.

The world's northernmost desert wind.

by Sirocco (sirocco2005ATgmail.com) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 12:45:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Paranoia: hit piece on Blair in WaPo as he ref (none / 1)

The WaPo has officially become a joke. The WaTimes, as Washington's right-wing "alternative," has a dedicated base of readers, whereas the Post's (more liberal) readers are, I'm guessing, dropping subscriptions to go and read people like Maryscott. The traditional sources are going to attack bloggers for a few years, and Maryscott is a fairly big name in the American blogosphere. More people read Daily Kos than read the WaPo, I believe, so I guess this is to be expected.

Once the home of great reporting -- Watergate being the greatest in its history -- the WaPo will likely continue to decline. Then again, even the reporter who became the face of the Watergate articles, Bob Woodward (or simply "Booby" as Atrios calls him), has become a hack.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 01:27:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Sirocco (none / 0)

good letter. Can you send me a short email with Finkel's email? I'd like to ask him to write about Energize America...

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 02:12:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]

I've written to Finkle as well (4.00 / 6)

Dear Mr Finkel
I read with interest your article about Maryscott OConnor and the "Angry Left". As a regular blogger on DailyKos (under the name "Jerome a Paris" - see http://www.dailykos.com/user/Jerome%20a%20Paris), I'd like to point out an other side of what we do on the blogs of the left, besides venting, and would be really grateful if you accepted to do a follow up story on this theme.
I write mostly about energy issues (as well as about international economic stuff and European news - I am French) and I don't think it's too big a claim to say that I am recognised as the leading "resident expert" on energy on DailyKos - as a matter of fact, I will be running the energy session of YearlyKos, the convention organised in June in Las Vegas for the DailyKos community.
The reason this may be interesting to you, beyond my personal vanity, is that I have been leading an effort to draft a comprehensive energy policy for the United States, an effort to which dozens, if not hundreds, of DailyKos members have contributed to, helping to improve the content, shape the message and discussing the practical, economic and political consequences of every proposal. That has been made possible by the interactive nature of DailyKos, with the ability to rate comments and to respond to individual comments in a simple way, and by its size, which makes it possible to have experts on every topic under the sun around and willing to contribute their expertise.
That energy proposal has gone through several drafts, which were extensively critiqued and commented upon, and we now expect to have a final version to unveil at the YearlyKos convention - which the DailyKos community will then ask Democrat politicians to endorse.
This "open source policy forming" is something totally new, made possible by the unique position of DailyKos (the fact that it now brings together a huge number of people), and its software which allows for smart/useful comments to be easily identified thanks to the ratings provided by the community, and I hope that it will draw your interest. It was briefly mentioned in the New York Review of Books's recent article on Markos Moulitsas's book, Crashing the Gates, but it is certainly worth further investigation. It took me, its instigator, completely by surprise, and I am frankly amazed by the result so far (if you want to look at the latest version, it's here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/12/13/84849/522 (Energize America - A Blueprint for U.S. Energy Security (Fourth Draft)).
I look forward to hearing from you.
With kind regards,
Jérôme Guillet
Editor, European Tribune
Paris, France

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 04:53:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: I've written to Finkle as well (none / 0)

But that letter is so civilized... it can't possibly have come from the Angry Left.

The underlying message seems pretty clear to me. I hope it's not too subtle for our friend from the WP.

by the stormy present (stormypresent aaaaaaat gmail etc) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 05:48:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]

... And I got a nice reply (4.00 / 5)

Dear Mr. Guillet,
Thank you for your note. I had read some of your posts and was already aware of your thoughtful approach to issues. I will pass your suggestion on to my assigning editor to see if there's more to be done on the effects of blogs; perhaps what you have described would make a good case study of what is and isn't being accomplished. If I can do more on the subject, I will be in touch. Again, thank you for taking the time to read the story I wrote about Ms. O'Connor and for taking the additional time to write to me.
My best regards,
David Finkel
The Washington Post

Let's see where this goes.

(I am making this correspondence public because, beyond the fact that there is nothing sensitive or confidential in there, I really feel that this "open source wonkery" is a collective thing and, while I'm clearly in the thick of it, it's not something I am doing on my own).

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Mon Apr 17th, 2006 at 04:22:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Good News (none / 0)

If Blur wont support King George who will? Apart from super poodle Howard.

by observer393 on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 01:40:11 PM EST

Re: Good News (none / 0)

The Marshall Islands, surely?

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 04:32:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Good News (none / 0)

Another Pacific Islander: Koziumi who is still enormously popular among us Japanese.

I will become a patissier, God willing.

by tuasfait on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 09:38:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Good News (none / 0)

AH yes the most hated asian in asia (xcepting Japan of course)

by observer393 on Mon Apr 17th, 2006 at 07:27:20 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Hmm... (none / 0)

Not directly related to your question but...

What about the phrase "...President Bush, who is believed to be considering an assault on Iran, Foreign Office sources revealed."?

Isn´t "considering an assault" according to British sources a bit more "real" than "all options are on the table" (paraphrasing Rice)?

Seems to me that this is at least partly a confirmation of Hersh and his article. Not of the possible use of tactical nukes of course but of extensive planning for an air strike right now.

Looks to me as if the Brits are trying (desperately?) to avoid such a scenario. By stating "publicly" that they won´t participate in such a strike. Hoping perhaps that even Bush would hesitate of going alone?

I seem to remember polls in the USA before the Iraq war that - without British support - American public support for that war would have been lower too.

by Detlef (Detlef1961_at_yahoo_dot_de) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 03:08:27 PM EST

Re: Paranoia: hit piece on Blair in WaPo as he ref (none / 0)

I think you are being paranoid. Calling the WaPo's story a hit piece suggest that it is either not true or an exaggeration to talk about Blair fatigue. During the campaign for the May 2005 elections here in the UK it emerged that Labour candidates did not want Blair's picture to appear in campaign leaflets as they felt it would hurt their chances of being elected. You can't get more 'fatigued' than that.

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 04:31:43 PM EST

Re: Paranoia: hit piece on Blair (none / 0)

phony tony...you can fool some of the people, some of the time,
you can fool enough of the people at first, so to better fool yourself,
but you can't fool all the people, all the time....

too brilliant for his own morality, a voice and charm of faux-innocent duplicity,

a lesson in the banality of evil, and the slipperiness of hypocrisy,

a modern-day faustian character study, in all its earnest sincere camera close-up horror, as you watch the devil squeeze, and the lies pop out ever more fluently as the soul's rent is paid....

on the other side of the atlantic, alfred e. neuman provides perfect counterpoint.

will the real gordon brown please stand up?

the enigma in the pinstripe suit.

cameron, the new kid on the block, slick and daft as bowler full of rabbits.

lawd....

perfect recipe for voter apathy, purtroppo.

a logjam of futility whuch makes italian politics seem deliciously colourful and blessedly over the top.

what's with romano's first speeches harping on friendliness with america?

is he a plant?

taking over from the last one?

better get some sleep...magari.

"Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do." Jim Hightower

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sun Apr 16th, 2006 at 10:24:38 PM EST

Paranoia: hit piece on Blair in WaPo as he refuses war in Iran | 25 comments (25 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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