The Durbin "Flap"

The current "controversy" over Senator Dick Durbin's remarks is a perfect example of how our modern news media operates. A Democratic Senator makes a comment on the Senate floor that, while perhaps in poor political judgment, states an obvious truth about an important matter. Within minutes, the right-wing media machine is churning. Then, in a perfectly choreographed procession, the various arms of the media machine begin to echo the same talking point: feigned outrage over the "fact" that Durbin "compared our troops to Nazis." First are the blogs, the Drudgereport, etc. Then come the wingnuts on talk radio and cable TV. Fox News begins to cover the "emerging controversy." By the next day, Scott McClellan is denouncing Durbin and calling for an apology. By this time, the right wing magazines (National Review, Weekly Standard, etc.) have all printed outraged editorials on the subject, all repeating the same talking point. Faced with this deafening chorus, the mainstream media feels compelled to cover the "Durbin controversy." This coverage largely consists of a "balanced" panel discussion between an angry screaming right-winger on one side, and all too often, a member of the mainstream press corps on the other. The right-winger denounces Durbin in a vitriolic rant. Then the other panelist, e.g., the editor of Time or Newsweek (implicitly the "liberal" voice), responds by discussing how ill-advised Durbin's comments were. Lost in the shuffle, of course, is any substantive discussion of what Durbin actually said or of the documented cases of prisoner abuse to which he was referring. Mission accomplished.

As usual, the Daily Howler gets this exactly right.

Finally, I just want to say thank God for Andrew Sullivan. He is the only war supporter I know of who has consistently and courageously confronted the issue of detainee abuse and challenged those on the right who would rather attack the messenger or deny that these events ever occurred. I encourage you to read his multiple postings on the Durbin "controversy." Here's a key passage:

I don't know about Hugh Hewitt, Bill Kristol or NR,
but I supported this war in large part because I
wanted to end torture, abuse and cruelty in Iraq.
I did not support it in order, two and a half years later,
to be finding specious rhetorical justifications for torture,
abuse and cruelty by Americans. I'm sick of hearing
justifications that the enemy is worse. This is news?
This is what now passes for analysis? They are far,
far worse, among the most despicable and evil enemies
we have ever faced. Our treatment of their prisoners is
indeed Club Med compared to their fathomless barbarism.
But since when is our moral compass set by them?
The West is a civilization built on a very fragile web of law
and humanity. We do not treat people in our custody as
animals. We do not justify it. We do not change the subject.
We do not accuse those highlighting it of aiding the enemy.
We do not joke about it. We simply don't do it. This
administration - by design, improvisation, desperation,
arrogance, incompetence, and wilfull blindness - has
enabled this to occur. They must be held accountable
until this cancer is rooted out for good. It has
metastasized enough already.