Here's another reason you need to stay away from Drudge

[CatWoman]

Clever as ever, Drudge makes it personal



Employing some crude editing techniques, Matt Drudge today tried to convey the impression that one of Sen. John Kerry's staunchest defenders was backing off his praise for Kerry's war service. The misinformation attempt forced historian Douglas Brinkley to clarify his statement of full support for Kerry.

The dust-up grew out of a New York Times article today addressing each presidential candidate's military service as a political issue in light of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth accusations and the controversy surrounding Bush's Texas Air National Guard duty. The passage in question, which dealt with how the issue played with voters, reads as follows:

"Every American now knows that there's something really screwy about George Bush and the National Guard, and they know that John Kerry was not the war hero we thought he was," said Douglas Brinkley, the historian and author of a friendly biography of Mr. Kerry's war years, acknowledging that Mr. Kerry's opponents had succeeded in raising questions about his service.

"'It's kind of neutralized itself, just by tiring everybody out,' Mr. Brinkley said.'"

Although somewhat clumsily stated, the point was obvious; Brinkley's quote was meant to reflect the take-away for average news consumers, not Brinkley's view of Kerry.

Drudge, in linking to the article on his homepage simply posted: "'John Kerry was not the war hero we thought he was' ... -- Douglas Brinkley, Historian, author of friendly bio of Kerry's war years..."

This afternoon Brinkley released this statement: "A story in the September 24 New York Times leaves the false impression that I think John Kerry was not 'the war hero we thought he was.' Nothing could be further from the truth. He was a great American fighting man in Vietnam and deserved all of his medals. Over the past year I have vigorously defended Kerry's military record and will continue to do so. My comment was meant to be about the political consequences of the anti-Kerry Swift Boat attacks vs. the anti-Bush National Guard ones. I was speaking about public perceptions not my personal beliefs."

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room//index.html

[yellowcanine]

1. Drudge posts out of context quotes? Who knew?

[CatWoman]

3. yet on any given day this place is teeming with Drudge stories

and Drudge links.

[trumad]

2. Drudge

Hundreds of years from now they will look back on this period of time and be ashamed that their ancestors were such fucking Moran's!

[peacetalksforall]

4. Now here is a case study.....

You can track it - and you can predict it.

Propagandists like Cece Connelly (or however she spells her name) and hundreds like her will quote Drudge until the truth is so blurred that little old ladies and angry young men will be calling in to Washington Journal and saying that some historian that formally supported Kerry has said.....yadayada in a blind swallower or purposeful attempt to perpetuate and prove the intention.

And you won't hear about Drudge posting the clarification.

And the propagandists on Reliable Sources will say months and years from now that the original statement must have been a slip that reveals the truth about how Brinkley really thought about Kerry. And the propaganda networks will never allow Brinkley as a guest unless the subject is totally different and so contained that the subject can't come up to be clarified by Brinkley.

Only a few like E J Dionne might try to defend Brinkley (assuming the true left journalists with more precise agendas won't be listened to or be given an opportunity to speak about the subject in the name of the Rule of RIGHT WING SPIN and containment).

Maybe this isn't important enough, but this is the way it works in our un-American press.

[Gruenemann]

5. drudge=depression

I quit reading sludge soon after I found DU and learned matty-boy got money each time i went there. My spouse, on the other hand, has been unable to break the sludge addiction, and she's always extremely depressed and angry, picking up all that negative BS he churns out. I'm depressed, too, but I'm much more hopeful than she is, getting a more fair and balanced view from DU. I hate to think what life would be like if I still did that drudgery.