JAY ROSEN has a number of thoughts on how the press didn’t change after 9/11, and what that’s likely to mean for the future.

He certainly captures some of the things that have frustrated me, and many other bloggers.

LAST NIGHT I said that Chris Matthews appeared to have done a bad job on Hardball.

Apparently, he agrees. Toward the end of the show (I saw the last few minutes of the 11 pm rebroadcast), Matthews got flustered and when John O’Neill complained about Matthews interrupting him, Matthews accused him of trying “conservative tricks.”

That’s not in the transcript that’s posted now. But I saw it, and so did quite a few readers who emailed me about it. (If you taped or TIVO’ed it, it’s in the last 7 minutes or so — I turned on the TV at 11:53, if I recall correctly.)

Kerry may or may not win the election, but he’s going through Big Media credibility like a wrecking ball along the way.

UPDATE: Interestingly, there are two transcripts. You can read this one and see the difference:

O‘NEILL: You haven‘t let me talk about most of them. We talked about his first Purple…

MATTHEWS: You talked about each one.

O‘NEILL: His first Purple…

MATTHEWS: One of the oldest tricks on this show is for somebody to come on the show after talking for 20 minutes and say they haven‘t had the chance to talk.

O‘NEILL: Well, the first…

MATTHEWS: I‘ll be glad to clock you, John…

O‘NEILL: OK.

MATTHEWS: … on how many minutes you spoke on the show. So don‘t try that old trick. It is a particularly conservative trick, OK?

Since the first transcript — which was all I could find — is apparently a “highlights” transcript and not the complete transcript as I had thought, I guess it’s not fair to accuse them of whitewashing. On the other hand, it certainly gives a very different impression of how Matthews was conducting himself — read the whole thing.

And here’s someone who took up the invitation to clock the series. Reportedly, O’Neill talked for 7.5 minutes out of 21.

Video link to the relevant segment here. (Via this collection of links.)

MORE: I’ve spoken to the MSNBC folks. The video link above is an unauthorized one (note the tag at the end, which I don’t believe was on the show). But MSNBC is going to put up a digitized version of the whole show; I’ll let you know when it’s available.

STILL MORE: It’s here — scroll down to the video launcher. (But click on the picture, not the “launch” button). Or just click here, which should play both clips consecutively.

MORE STILL: The end, after a commercial, is cut off in the link above — I just noticed, and the MSNBC people didn’t know until I told ’em. They’re trying to fix it. In the meantime, you can always follow the earlier link.

STILL MORE: The whole thing is now up here — thanks to the MSNBC folks, who did this at my request, and who worked hard on the weekend to get it up and running!

HURRICANES, AND OTHER DISASTERS — over at GlennReynolds.com.

UNSCAM UPDATE: UN Let Oil-for-Food Abuse Occur:

Multiple investigations now under way in Washington, Iraq and at the United Nations center on one straightforward question: How did Saddam amass so much money while under international sanctions?

An examination of the program suggests an equally straightforward answer: The United Nations let him do it.

“Everybody said it was a terrible shame and against international law, but there was really no enthusiasm to tackle it,” said Peter van Walsum, a Dutch diplomat who headed the Iraq sanctions committee in 1999 and 20000, recalling the discussions of illegal oil surcharges.

Well, that’s a shocker.

“NEAR CAMBODIA” — here’s a graphic illustration of just how much of Vietnam is “near” Cambodia in the sense of being within 50 miles.

Rather a lot, really, as you can see.

Now that even the Kerry campaign has given up on the “Christmas in Cambodia” story, I don’t suppose that there’s a lot of factual research left to do.

The spin — and noncoverage — continues, though. I may do a post comparing coverage of this with the “Bush AWOL” story later. In the meantime, this column makes a similar comparison.

MORE HURRICANE BLOGGING — from Fort Myers.

UPDATE: Links to more hurricane blogs here.

PERHAPS RELEVANT to the Florida hurricane story:

I had a worrisome conversation the other day with a former administration official about homeland security. My complaint was that things remain futile and stupid, with airport security checks confiscating tweezers and engaging in other pointless but inconvenient measures, while real antiterrorism efforts remain weak. He agreed, but said that there was another problem: So much effort is being put into anti-terrorism efforts (futile or not) that the United States is now less prepared for major natural disasters than it was a few years ago. If we face a major natural disaster this year, he said, it’s likely to turn out badly.

We may find out whether he was right, very soon.

KHAANNN! Lynx Pherrett says that the New York Times is the culprit. “Pakistan Intelligence ‘Outed’ Khan to the NYT. It seems that as far as I or anyone else can determine, the New York Times was the first to publish Khan’s name.”

MORE HURRICANEBLOGGING:

I’m sitting in Sarasota. All of the barrier islands like Longboat Key and Siesta Key have been evacuated. All the mobile homes, RVs and trailer parks are empty. They estimate that some 300,000 people have been moved out of harm’s way along the SW Florida coast. . . .

I’m in a good place: even with a Cat 5 hurricane (think Floyd or Andrew), my apartment isn’t in an evacuation zone. In fact, about a block away is a hurricane shelter. And since I’m on the second floor, I probably don’t have to worry about flooding. Assuming, of course, that the roof stays on and the windows don’t blow in.

Indeed. Er, nobody stay in a dangerous place just to blog, okay?

BELIEVE IT OR NOT, there’s more to this election than Vietnam reminiscences. Here’s an analysis of the Kerry spending proposals.

TOM MAGUIRE LOOKS AT KERRY’S SHIFTING CLAIMS ON CAMBODIA and notes that this is a pattern we’ve seen before from Kerry, with regard to the stories on Vietnam Vets Against the War, and Kerry’s shifting dates of military service. Noting that ABC’s The Note called the campaign’s explanations of Kerry’s behavior “squirrelly and unsettling,” Maguire observes:

Like the rest of us, this campaign is on a voyage of discovery into John Kerry’s past. And like the rest of us, they are repeatedly learning that their candidate’s memory of his Vietnam era is conveniently unreliable. . . . The recurring theme – what Kerry remembers isn’t always what is true, but it is self-serving.

Luckily, the media doesn’t seem to want to make much of these problems.

UPDATE: But at the Washington Post, it’s the readers who are doing the reporting:

The Aug. 12 editorial did not mention one charge that gives credence to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth: that Sen. John F. Kerry lied when he repeatedly stated that he was on a mission in Cambodia on Christmas Day, 1968. In a floor speech in the Senate on March 17, 1986, Mr. Kerry said the memory of being in Cambodia that day was “seared” in him.

Now that he has been challenged on that by his fellow officers, Mr. Kerry, through a spokesman, says his seared memory is now a “mistaken recollection” and he’s not sure where he was that day. His fellow officers say that they and he were 50 miles away at Sa Dec on the Mekong River. Mr. Kerry has been proven to have spoken falsely about one major aspect of his service that he has used to score political points. Rather than pointing an accusatory finger at Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, The Post should give Mr. Kerry’s record the thorough vetting Americans need before they decide this year’s presidential contest.

It’s democratic distributed journalism for the masses!

UPDATE: And the Post is outsourcing its corrections, too — the author of the letter quoted above emails to note a typo: The Kerry speech was March 27, 1986, not March 17, 1986 as shown above. She’s told the Post, too.

HURRICANEBLOGGING: Here’s a guy who’s blogging Hurricane Charley from the Tampa Bay area.

KERRY’S CAMBODIA STORY IS CHANGING AGAIN: Here’s the old story:

I remember spending Christmas Day of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese Allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real.

Or, if you prefer, there’s this version:

But now that witnesses have come forth saying that these are false, here’s the new one:

“On Christmas Eve he was near Cambodia; he was around 50 miles from the Cambodian border. There’s no indictment of Kerry to be made, but he was mistaken about Christmas in Cambodia,” said Douglas Brinkley, who has unique access to the candidate’s wartime journals. . . .

He said: “Kerry went into Cambodian waters three or four times in January and February 1969 on clandestine missions. He had a run dropping off US Navy Seals, Green Berets and CIA guys.” The missions were not armed attacks on Cambodia, said Mr Brinkley, who did not include the clandestine missions in his wartime biography of Mr Kerry, Tour of Duty.

(Emphasis added.) Hmm. 50 miles isn’t that “near” — it’s about halfway to the coast. That also seems to conflict with this 1992 Kerry statement:

Kerry, who served in Vietnam on a gunboat in the Mekong Delta from 1968 to 1969, said he was involved in a “black mission” near Cambodia. “On Christmas Eve of 1968, I was on a gunboat in a firefight that wasn’t supposed to be taking place,” Kerry recalled. “I thought, if I’m killed here, what will my family be told?”

It’s certainly a convenient change for Kerry, as Ed Morrissey notes, since it’s after witness Stephen Gardner, who says Kerry was never in Cambodia, left the boat.

He’s said it happened at Christmas for 25 years. I guess it wasn’t so “seared” into his memory as he’s been claiming . . . .

And what’s even more amazing — and considerably more appalling — is that I just checked the New York Times and Washington Post sites and there’s still absolutely nothing on this story there. A Kerry claim proven false, a retraction, and a retrenchment — and absolutely no coverage at all. If we were seeing the same sort of questions raised about George W. Bush I think we’d be getting wall-to-wall coverage. It’s as is they’re letting their coverage be shaped by the fact that they want Kerry to win or something. Kind of makes you wonder what else they’re leaving out.

MORE: Jim Geraghty: “50 miles away counts as ‘near’ Cambodia? Give me a @#$%^& break.”

FROM TAMPA: My friend and former bandmate Larry DeWitte emails:

Well it’s 9:45 on Thursday night and we are starring down the barrel of a Cat 3 hurricane which at current estimates will make landfall in our backyard. We are under mandatory evacuation but for the time being we and many of our neighbors are sticking tight. At the moment there is not a cloud in the sky or even a breeze blowing. I am sure tomorrow will tell a different tale. I am sure once the 110 mph winds start ripping off the second story we will be wishing we were inland. Of course I bought a new boat last week, but hey, it’s all good. The “Double Shot” is triple tied in the slip. Maybe we would be better off staying on the boat and riding the storm surge on in to Orlando.

I’ve suggested that he head inland. More hurricane news here. Is anybody blogging this down there?

IRAQI BLOGGER HAMMORABI is posting regular reports on Najaf.

MY GOODNESS: I didn’t see Hardball tonight, but judging from my email, a lot of people think Chris Matthews was rather unimpressive.

HUGH HEWITT: “An interesting juxtaposition: Scot Peterson’s lie to Amber Frey about being in Paris, and John Kerry’s lies to the Senate about being in Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968. Peterson’s lie has practically guaranteed his conviction as whatever small bit of credibility he possessed is now destroyed. John Kerry, on the other hand, got a pass this morning from the Washington Post and the New York Times even though his campaign yesterday recanted a central detail of Kerry’s Vietnam narrative that he has been peddling for three decades.”

Go figure.

UPDATE: Sardonic Views: “All I could think of was Tim Johnson, the former manager of the Toronto Blue Jays who lost his job in ’99 after it was revealed that all of his war stories (that he used mainly to motivate players) were complete lies. Johnson was a Marine Corps reservist.”

I’m not sure that analogy — or the Joseph Ellis one — quite fits. On the other hand, neither of them was running for President.

ANOTHER UPDATE: No, sorry, this isn’t quite right either.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Nope. I’ve already ruled that one out.

DON’T MISS THIS WEEK’S CARNIVAL OF THE VANITIES, which is full of rich, bloggy goodness.

JEFF JARVIS has a link-rich McGreevey resignation roundup.

UPDATE: Gayblogger BoiFromTroi has thoughts on McGreevey:

Why is it that when a straight politician is in an adulterous affair *ahem* Bill Clinton, for example…it is is just “private matter”? If McGreevy thought plain old adultery (or even being sued for it) were grounds for resignation alone, he would have called for President Clinton’s. Is Governor McGreevy trying to tell us that Gays are unfit to serve in public office? That is certainly the message he’s sending!

P.S. Anyone find it funny McGreevy’s campaign theme was “Straight Talk”?

Plus many more humorous observations and links.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Tim Cavanaugh is soliciting conspiracy theories.

MORE: “Excuse the expression, but screw Obama. This was the speech of the year. . . . He sort of makes me want to go gay, too.”

MORE STILL: Slantpoint offers a history, with links.

ERIC SCHEIE WRITES that the “Republican base” is for losers. (Wrong link earlier — fixed now. Sorry!)

UPDATE: Craig Henry responds.

THE CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT says that gay marriages performed in San Francisco are null and void and never had any effect. Howard Bashman has all the links.

UPDATE: Eugene Volokh comments here.

ABC’S THE NOTE WRITES:

Let’s face it: there is something squirrelly and unsettling and not quite right about the way Michael Meehan answers the media’s Vietnam-era questions — something that makes nearly every member of the Gang of 500 think there is still something there.

Vietnam questions? I haven’t heard much about those. . . .

More thoughts here.

UPDATE: Read this, too.

HERE’S AN INTERESTING ARTICLE ON DIGITAL CAMERAS from ABC, wondering how they’ll affect archiving and memory.

G-Scobe thinks we’ll do better, not worse. I think that’s right. I store every memory card onto two CDs, and file them. And although I still have all the negatives from my “serious” photography days, I usually lose the ones for family snapshots, and color film negatives have a very short shelf-life anyway.

INSTAPUNDIT’S AFGHANISTAN PHOTO CORRESPONDENT Maj. John Tammes sends this photo, and this report, from Bagram:

I happened to go into one of the camps on our base to take some photos of construction. When I was taking my shots, one of the painters from the villages around base came up to me, and using his 6 words of English (and my 4 words of Dari) he managed to ask me to take a picture. I thought he wanted one of himself, and that was OK. Instead, he brought one of the older fellows from his crew over and I got the message. Here is the photo of them. I went back to the office and printed an 8 ½ x 11 in color for them, and put it in a plastic cover. Later, I returned to the camp and found the pair. Their reaction was rather enthusiastic. I gathered that this was actually the first picture of himself that the older man ever had (through our 10 common words and many gestures). I ended up doing the same for the whole crew. I guess I am now their team photographer.

The wonder of ubiquitous digital photography. And printers!

UPDATE: Reader Peter Lawrence emails:

When I was in Sudan in 2002 as part of the Joint Military Commission Nuba Mountains* I carried my Olympus Camedia everywhere. I took images of my guards, guys loading the WFP planes (which I was inspecting to ensure no weapons were not being loaded) and anytime I met anyone official. I made it a habit to make hardcopies of the images using my inkjet printer. I would either give the images directly, if the fellow was senior, or pass it to the most senior fellow in the group if there were many (giving the senior fellow status). They were both a form of building friendship and a currency of sorts.

You would not believe the goodwill doing such engendered. Tremendous!

I would, actually.

THE MUDVILLE GAZETTE is offering its First Annual John Kerry Fiction Contest. Er, shouldn’t this year’s winner be John Kerry?

I love the first entry, though.