Posted 1:14 AM by Scoobie Davis

Somerby on John O'Neill and Jerome Corsi
This is tight:

The [New York Times] began to publish silly attacks on the “blogosphere” late last year, and Schwartz continues the onslaught this morning. The Times is eager to let readers know how stupid those folks on the Net really are. They used to rant in their corner bars! But now, they’ve been given computers!

Yes, people like Schwartz are very brave when it comes to targeting folks on the Net. They search for silly statements by anonymous shlubs, then rush the odd statements into print, letting readers understand how idiotic the Net really is. But how brave and bold are fellows like Schwartz when it comes to influential crackpots? As we read Schwartz’s piece this morning, our thoughts drifted back to the Times’ brave conduct when it came to those cranks called the Swift Boat Vets—the cranks who transformed a White House election while fellows like Schwartz sat and stared.

Ah yes, the Swift Boat Vets—a group of crackpots with powerful interests behind them, a group which actually changed an election! When John O’Neill and Jerome Corsi published Unfit for Command, it was clear—to anyone who read it—that the pair were deeply kooky themselves. The book self-contradicts on page after page, and its gonzo chapter on Kerry-the-commie was straight from a mid-50s fever swamp. Any sensible person who read it would have known that its authors had emerged from those corner bars and were now engaging in “crackpot theorizing” and “ill-informed rumor-mongering” right out in public! And this, of course, is the very problem which Schwartz bravely types on today.

So what did Schwartz and his brave colleagues do when Unfit for Command appeared? Of course! As their type has done through the annals of time, they ran and hid themselves deep in the bushes! O’Neill and Corsi were visible crackpots, but they were also powerful crackpots, with powerful interests arrayed behind them, and the Schwartzes knew that they should hide and pretend not to see the pair’s crankery.