Posted 12:11 AM by Scoobie Davis

Spinsanity Vs. Media Whores Online

A few days ago, Brendan Nyhan of Spinsanity wrote an article critical of Media Whores Online for “crude ad hominem attacks on the media, all-encompassing good guy/bad guy ideological dichotomies and inflammatory rhetorical attacks linking conservatives to dictatorship, Nazis, radical Islam and al Qaeda terrorists.” This is of particular interest to me because I read both sites on a regular basis. Both sites have mentioned me favorably and I have both on my “Sites That Rock” list of links.

Nyhan does have an impressive list of examples of MWO’s invective. However, these MWO statements, while not as thoughtful as they could have been, are tame compared to a typical hour of right-wing talk radio. While Nyhan has some points about MWO’s rhetoric, his comparison of the Horse to Rush Limbaugh is specious at best. Certainly the rhetoric on MWO does get vitriolic but Limbaugh, on the other hand, is a consummate smear artist. To compare the Horse to Limbaugh is a gross caricature. If and when MWO becomes one percent as unfair as Limbaugh, then I believe it would be worthy of comment.

In addition, there is one small but important criticism of the Horse that I emphatically dispute: Nyhan criticizes the Horse for mocking “the sordid personal problems of the Wall Street Journal's John Fund” (I also have made similar criticisms of Fund in the past). Nyhan certainly is correct to consider the mention of the private lives of political opponents as unseemly. No disagreement here. I concur not only on ethical grounds but aesthetic ones also. Thinking about naked Republicans doing the nasty evokes mental pictures that disgust me (I once clicked onto a progressive web site that had a nude picture of Dr. Laura—way too much information). Are Fund’s private affairs an unpleasant subject? Certainly. Are they fair game? Hell yes. Fund made his personal life an issue.

Let me elaborate. Fund was a major player in the effort to pry into Bill Clinton’s personal life. The viciousness of the effort was mind-boggling. This largely involved Scaife-paid “journalists” who reported the tall tales of Scaife-paid road cops and unreconstructed racists (such as Judge Jim Johnson) not only about Bill Clinton’s personal life but also the sex lives of his wife and Vince Foster’ (mind you, this was after Foster died). When these initial reports came out, various local and AP reporters found serious holes in the troopers’ stories (confirmed by their depositions in the Paula Jones case). This was no problem with Fund’s Wall Street Journal editorial page, which self-righteously repeated these charges as fact (without disclosing that Fund was part of this elaborate smear campaign). These charges were also treated as fact on talk radio--another reason why Nyhan’s comparison of MWO to Limbaugh is inapt. Fortunately, the Cosmic Foot of Karma placed itself up Fund’s hindquarters. Author John Connolly disclosed that Fund had been playing a little game of hide the salami with his ex-girlfriend’s daughter—among other things (Fund had initially asked his former girlfriend if he could show her daughter around town). What a user.

The moral of this story is that when you dig up dirt on a man who had admitted that he had made mistakes in the past and you don’t care about the truthfulness of the accusations, then your own personal life is a valid issue. Fund got the scrutiny and ridicule he deserved. I can’t speak for MWO, but observing and commenting on karma-in-action is a part of my religion.

In sum, Nyhan has a point that MWO sometimes does cross the line and that it should avoid some of its more inflammatory language. However, the transgressions Nyhan cites are minor compared to the disinformation and smears found on sites on the right such as Newsmax, FreeRepublic, the DrudgeReport, WorldNetDaily, as well as talk radio. The goal of Spinsanity to be impartial, at times, has led to a false moral equivalence. Overall, MediaWhoresOnline is a reaction to, not a cause of, the breakdown in political discourse.

UPDATE: I realize this is a bit dated. I was going to post it earlier, but it's just that I was busy at the Swimfan premiere and I was doing other stuff. Erika Christensen is not only a good actress (she was Michael Douglas's daughter in Traffic), but she is hot. I probably won't post again until Thursday night because I have a gig as an extra for the upcoming show American Dreams.