Are yesterday's investigative journalists today's "conspiracy theorists"?

[Minstrel Boy]

I ask, because it seems like anything which deviates from the official story as handed down by the White House is fair game to be slagged off as "conspiracy theory."

Investigative journalists didn't used to regurgitate press releases and call it news. They questioned received truths. Where are they now? When you do that today, what do you get called?

I'm not even talking about 9/11. I'm talking about any story. Dispute the White House's version of events, and this is how you get slapped down, and told in no uncertain terms that line of inquiry is out of order:

Q Thank you. Can you describe what the United States knows about the conditions under which President Aristide left Haiti? Do we know, did he leave of his own? Was he forcibly --

MR. McCLELLAN: No, that's nonsense. I would just say -- I've seen some of the reports. Conspiracy theories do nothing to help the Haitian people move forward
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/03/20040301-4.html

QUESTION: Congresswoman Maxine Waters told us that she had spoken directly with Aristide, who claims over and over again saying he was kidnapped, that the coup was completed by the Americans, they forced him out, they disabled his American security force; basically saying that he did not resign, he was forced out, America completed the coup.

MCCLELLAN: I think I just answered a question to that effect. As I said, it's nonsense, and conspiracy theories like that do nothing to help the Haitian people realize the future that they aspire to...
http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0403/01/se.01.html


MR. McCLELLAN: ... And it was -- it's interesting to see the conspiracy theories that are out there, because there are certain privacy issues always involved when the National Guard or any government agency releases information.... I'm just amazed by the kinds of conspiracy theories that some have chosen to pursue. The facts are very clear. But there are some that are simply not interested in the facts. And the American people deserve better.
http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/m-news+article+storyid-234.html


Q: -- the personal record of a President is --

Scott McClellan: No, hang on, Helen, hang on. I've said from this podium, if we have new information that comes to our attention that relates to this issue, we have made it clear we will share that information. You're asking me to go and chase rumors. There was a conspiracy theory --

Q: I think --

Scott McClellan: Hold on, hold on, Helen. There was a conspiracy theory made by one individual, when everybody he accused of being involved in that said, it's ridiculous, didn't happen.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_02_08.php

Tucker Carlson beats this discrediting drum all the time:

Why is Halliburton so darn bad? Well, that's a long story, a conspiracy theory, really, too complicated to explain here, or, for that matter, anywhere.
http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0310/28/cf.00.html

It is the ugliest possible conspiracy theory and it's a destructive one, too. If you don't like Ashcroft's policy, attack them, critique them. But don't accuse him or any other American of knowing about 9/11 in advance. It's just too much.
http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0403/09/cf.00.html

So much is happening: Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest press conference, a court ruling on whether the recall will go forward, not to mention Gray Davis' latest conspiracy theory.
http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0308/20/cf.00.html

FRANKEN: And remember, they warned in February of 2001 that a catastrophic terrorist attack was coming? And remember what the president did? Nothing. He appointed...

CARLSON: That's part of your conspiracy theory, Al. But the fact is...

FRANKEN: No, no, no, that's not a conspiracy theory. That's a fact.

CARLSON: Well, it sounds a bit like a conspiracy theory.
http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0308/25/cf.00.html

And if journalists aren't cowed into silence by being called "conspiracy theorists", they can always be declared enemies of the state:

WOLF BLITZER: Let me read a quote from the New Yorker article, the March 17th issue, just out now. "There is no question that Perle believes that removing Saddam from power is the right thing to do. At the same time, he has set up a company that may gain from a war."

RICHARD PERLE: I don't believe that a company would gain from a war. On the contrary, I believe that the successful removal of Saddam Hussein, and I've said this over and over again, will diminish the threat of terrorism. And what he's talking about is investments in homeland defense, which I think are vital and are necessary. Look, Sy Hersh is the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist, frankly.
www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/17/1047749726195.html

[Syrinx]

1. You've got it!

And you have a great idea for a very interesting magazine article. Take this post and expand it to a few thousand words, and dare a major newsmagazine to publish it!

[liberalmike27]

2. Personally,

I believe there is a lot to conspiracy theories. They are a lot like many sayings, they don't get that way without there being something to them.

I think we've got things going on in the black-holes of our government that'd make our hair stand on end. Of course this administration is a lying bunch of *ssholes, no doubt about that. I'm not sure Kerry is going to be much better, I really hate him being a bonesman, just like Bush. It is just too weird that two, from this highly secretive organization where only about 800 are alive at any one time, end up both being presidential candidates.

But, then, the Skull and Bones, Yale Power-sharing cabal is dismissed just the same. It makes me very uncomfortable that Heinz was also a bonesman, and then Kerry marrys her, consolodating power, when I had just read that they try to intermarry with their families. Too weird.

[Minstrel Boy]

3. Here's Gore Vidal calling out Carlson's discrediting tactic.

Very sweet it is, too.


VIDAL: Now, you use the magic word, you don't believe there's a conspiracy? Now that is a word that's been demonized. So anybody who says that there is a conspiracy believes in flying saucers, you know.

CARLSON: That's true, yes.

VIDAL: So I've changed.... I've changed the word for you. The fact that the -- Mr. Bush senior and Mr. Bush junior, Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Gale Norton, secretary of the interior. These are all gas oil people.

Is this a conspiracy? No

Because we don't have conspiracies in America' we never have had one. It's a coincidence and I hope from now on that you use that word, coincidence, then we're clear because otherwise I'll say that you believe in flying saucers and you may be taken off at any minute by strangers and aliens from another planet.

...

VIDAL: I think there's a lot of conspiracy going on as we can see with the USA patriot act which Congress passed without reading it. Something like 400 pages in which many of our liberties are removed from us. It's a war on the Bill of Rights. It came out 20 days after 9/11. That meant it was already written. You don't write it that fast. So that was in preparation. That's a coincidence that it was just sitting there, suspending (UNINTELLIGIBLE) corpus and all sorts of things that are un-American.

CARVILLE: Let me paraphrase, what your saying, they are using the war of terrorism as a pretext to deny American citizen rights?

VIDAL: The fact that we may be struck again by whoever it was who did it, yes, Mr. Bow tie I do believe it was Osama bin Laden, who was an Arabian.

CARLSON: Mr. Vidal, Mr. Turtleneck, I if can call you that, you just said a second ago in an indirect way that the patriot act was written before 9/11 but it's just a coincidence. But your implication is the federal government knew that 9/11 was going to happen. That's what you're implying why don't you just say it.

VIDAL: If I thought it, could prove it, I would say it. I suspect it, but I don't really think it. We know nothing. You missed the point to my little book which was I was setting up some of the charges that could be brought against George W. Bush when he comes to be impeached by the House of Representatives. He swore on oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States. He swore that as all presidents do. Well the United States is we, the people and Congress assemble. We were not protected at 9/11. He was warned by everybody from Mossad to President Putin in advance. We have stacks of warnings that came in.

www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0302/25/cf.00.html

[phoebe]

4. how 'bout ..today's conspiracy theorists are tomorrow's journalists?

n/t

[Minstrel Boy]

5. I think some are already.

Daniel Hopsicker's dug up amazing stuff on 9/11, particularly the Florida connection. An investigative journalist in the grand tradition.



http://www.madcowprod.com/

[Minstrel Boy]

6. kicking back, and to the left. n/t