Well, the week went pretty much as I predicted seven days ago:
BUSH LIED!! Not.
BLAIR LIED!!! Not.
But it turns out JOE WILSON LIED! PEOPLE DIED. Of embarrassment mostly. At least I’m assuming that’s why the New York Times, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, PBS drone Bill Moyers and all the other media bigwigs Joseph C. Wilson IV suckered have fallen silent on the subject of the white knight of integrity they’ve previously given the hold-the-front-page treatment, too. . . .
But before he gets lowered in his yellowcake overcoat into the Niger River, let’s pause to consider: What do Joe Wilson’s lies mean? And what does it say about the Democrats and the media that so many high-ranking figures took him at his word?
He also quotes Roger Simon approvingly. The Los Angeles Times’ Tim Rutten on the other hand — still spinning for Wilson — uses the same quote, but isn’t as happy about it. No word from Rutten on the L.A. Times’ own accuracy problems. It’s a “sea of malice, mendacity and misrepresentation,” all right. And Wilson is one of the fish.
UPDATE: Tom Maguire — who’s on a roll — has more on Rutten’s piece, “which continues the pattern established by Josh Marshall and picked up by Wesley Clark’s former press spokesperson at Salon — begin with name-calling and derogation of the other side.” It pretty much ends there, too.
ANOTHER UPDATE: More from The Ombudgsgod, here. Excerpt:
So thorough was Wilson’s discrediting that the media’s “Bush lied” narrative came briefly to a halt. Wilson’s name nearly disappeared from print, except in the columns of a handful of conservative pundits who pointed out what had happened. Even Jim Romenesko, who normally covers media controversy like a rash, was totally silent, despite having provided plenty of coverage to Wilson’s earlier claims.
Now, like Imhotep in the Mummy Returns, Wilson is attempting to bring himself back to life.
I think he’s coming unwound.