More Reasons to Loathe the MSM

Glenn Greenwald takes on Fred Hiatt today. Who wins? Not Fred Hiatt (or Michael Ledeen, for that matter!)

Giuliani then, according to The Weekly Standard, justified the invasion this way: "American troops deposed Saddam Hussein, 'who was a major pillar of support for Islamic terrorism,' Giuliani said." Saddam Hussein was a "major pillar of support for Islamic terrorists." Al Qaeda works for Iran. Saddam might have been responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Iran might be responsible for the 9/11 attacks. There is simply no limit, no constraint of reality, on what they say.

But in the Fred Hiatt world, none of this matters, because accuracy and reality are not considered virtues. The only virtue is a willingness to advocate war -- i.e. "toughness." That is why Hiatt thinks he is saying something derogatory about ElBaradei when he says he "was lionized by opponents of the Iraq war" for being right. To Hiatt, ElBaradei's credibility is undermined because he is on the side of opponents of the Iraq war, no matter how right he was. And the "Bomb Iran" crowd is instrinsically entitled to respect -- no matter how insane and deceitful are their claims -- because they advocate war, which is an inherently Serious position.

There is no other way to put it. From any rational perspective, Micheal Ledeen -- the preeminent Iraq Leader on the Right -- is a joke, as are the statements from those who view him and his like-minded comrades (i.e., Norm Podhoretz) as prophets, including Rudy Giuliani.

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Just fathom how shameless a person like Hiatt has to be -- how beyond embarrassment and indifferent to grotesque error -- for him to attack ElBaradei on Iran using the same exact arguments he made, almost verbatim, to attack ElBaradei's absolutely correct claims with regard to Iraq -- i.e., he is defying the UN mandate, is overly trusting of the Bad Regime With Weapons, is too eager to avert war, etc.

Hiatt insisted that the invasion of Iraq proceed without waiting and ElBaradei argued that the inspection process should be completed, but in Hiatt's mind, even though he thinks exactly the same way as he did prior to Iraq, he is still the Serious One and it is ElBaradei's credibility -- and even his trustworthiness and allegiances -- which are suspect. That is just amazing.