The Left has been beastly to Richard Cohen

[fightingdem]

The Fighting Democrat

In which Richard Cohen stomps his little feet and yells, "Oh yeah! Well...so's you're old man!"

"Truth to tell, I peeked into only a few of the e-mails. I did this because I would sometimes recognize a name I thought I knew, which was almost always a mistake. When I guilelessly clicked on the name, I would get a bucket of raw, untreated and disease-laden verbal sewage right in the face..."

So welcome to the online world, Cohen. It's savage, raw and filled with people who say nasty things. Anybody who's run a blog, participated in an online forum or made the mistake of exercising an opinion and revealing their email address could tell you the same.

"Usually, the subject line said it all. Some were friendly and agreed that Colbert had not been funny. Most, though, were in what we shall call disagreement. Fine. I said the man wasn't funny and not funny has a bullying quality to it; others (including some of my friends) said he was funny. But because I held such a view, my attentive critics were convinced I had a political agenda. I was -- as was most of the press, I found out -- George W. Bush's lap dog. If this is the case, Bush had better check his lap..."

I not surprised you missed the point. What Colbert did, in the guise of his television character, is engage in a little "street theatre". He essentially told Bush he was a bully and a lying coward. He then turned to the Washington press and told them they were enabling whores, sitting down and breaking bread with Bush when they should have been out running down the evidence of his little criminal enterprise that he calls his administration. If Colbert was unfunny it is because Bush is not funny. The mainstream Press is not funny.

"What to make of all this? First, it's not about Colbert. His show has an audience of about 1 million -- not exactly "American Idol" numbers..."

Oooo, that had to hurt. I'm sure you have A MUCH WIDER AUDIENCE than Colbert. You sure put HIM in his place.

"The hatred is back. I know it's only words now appearing on my computer screen, but the words are so angry, so roiled with rage, that they are the functional equivalent of rocks once so furiously hurled during antiwar demonstrations. I can appreciate some of it. Institution after institution failed America -- the presidency, Congress and the press. They all endorsed a war to rid Iraq of what it did not have. Now, though, that gullibility is being matched by war critics who are so hyped on their own sanctimony that they will obliterate distinctions, punishing their friends for apostasy and, by so doing, aiding their enemies. If that's going to be the case, then Iraq is a war its critics will lose twice -- once because they couldn't stop it and once more at the polls."

What Cohen does here is advance the RED HERRING FALLACY. In his book "Attacking Faulty Reasoning", T. Edward Damer writes...

"The strange name of this fallacy comes from the sport of fox hunting. A herring is cooked to a brownish-red color and its strong smell is used to train dogs to follow the fox scent. Dogs that can be easily pulled off are not ready for the real hunt. People who oppose fox hunting also use herring to pull dogs off a scent. In argument, using a red herring means consciously or unconsciously steering a debate away from one issue to a different, perhaps related issue in such a way as to make it appear that the related issue is relevant to the issue at hand, but primarily as a means of avoiding the obligation of addressing the main issue or criticism."

In focusing on the bad language and "hatred" of his critics, Cohen plops down a big fat "red herring". In telling us that Colbert was "unfunny" and that his critics are "hateful" he avoids the main argument against Cohen himself: that what he writes is largely irrelevant and pointless and serves the purposes of those who are damaging this country.

Rather beastly of him, what?

[Mythsaje]

1. Too bad he only "peeked into" a few e-mails.

He might have learned something.

This is what I wrote.

******
Most of the time I don't find Colbert particularly funny. His pretend Republican shtick doesn't work for me. Usually. But standing in front of Bush himself and delivering the same message? Well, that's a different story.

Sorry, Mr. Cohen. It was damn funny. Uncomfortable at times, especially for those in the audience who didn't want to draw attention to themselves, but still funny. Scalia laughed loudly enough while Colbert openly mocked him. Takes a certain kind of guy to do that.

Guess Bush isn't that kind of guy. Now there's a surprise.

You don't get the joke? The joke is that this man and his administration insulate themselves from criticism at every opportunity. The press is walking on eggshells as if afraid they'll be dragged into a dark room and beaten with a stick for pointing out not only their foibles, but their outright deceptions.

As long as one American soldier, or one Iraqi child, is held captive to his imperial ambitions, Mr. Bush should be forced to suffer the indignity of public mockery on a regular basis. In person.

It's only fair.

Don't get it? Too bad for you. We certainly do.

[Fenris]

2. I love how he attempted to claim it was not about Colbert...

And then attempted to slyly insult him.

As a corollary to that, I would like to say that this post has nothing to do with Cohen, who looks like Colonel Sanders with more facial hair and a more frightening smile.

[MADem]

3. Move over, Cohen, HE's the old man. Adapt, adjust or DIE.

Friken crybaby. Keep making those buggy whips, while everyone's driving Model T cars. And then sob into your pillow when no one's buying!

[grasswire]

4. once again, Cohen, show us the proof

We cannot believe Cohen received thousands of hateful screeds. The whining of WaPo employees about alleged hate mail from the left has become a pattern and a strategy. We simply cannot believe it is the truth.

So prove it, Cohen. Print the mails.

[Ian David]

5. Colbert to Cohen and the press: The Emperor Has No Clothes! n/t

[ShortnFiery]

10. & Cobert to Cohen: You (The USA Press Corps) have no credibility :P n/t

[Beacho]

6. This is the same crap Malkin pulls

After a particularly nasty screed to garner attention, she'll whine about thousands of 'big meenie wibwuhls' saying nasty things to her.


Nice to see Cohen using the same play book.

[ShortnFiery]

11. But Malkin is cuter when she pouts ... awe, mean ole' Democrats :P eom

[Dr Fate]

7. Cohen ENDORSED Bush in 2000 (link)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1139504&mesg_id=1140097

[AX10]

8. Then Cohen tries to move around the issue and...

directly attack the liberal blogs for critizising him. Maybe if he did his job then....oh...he never does his job.

[enough already]

9. Hatred?

If opposing everything about this crooked administration is "hatred", then so be it.

[ShortnFiery]

12. To Cohen, Hatred is equivalent to Stating the Facts! Shh!

Here the Corporate Press thought that they had fooled US (The Chattering Classes) just like Rove and Rummy promised THEM it would. :puke:

[Ms. Clio]

13. In which Richard Cohen stomps his little feet and yells, "Oh yeah! Well...

...so's you're old man!"


:rofl:


thanks for the link!