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Downing Street Memos and MSM

By Jeralyn, Section Media
Posted on Mon Jun 27, 2005 at 11:49:20 PM EST
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The Wall St. Journal credits Daily Kos readers for creating the buzz on the Downing Street memos (free link.)

In mid-May, three regular readers of Daily Kos, a liberal blog, published their own Web site to publicize the documents. According to its operators, Downingstreetmemo.com was created by a Silicon Valley Web-page designer, a Chicago college student and a Canadian citizen certain they had stumbled onto the smoking gun that could drag the Bush administration down.

They were joined later by three other Daily Kos readers, including Bob Fesmire, husband of the Silicon Valley Web designer. Mr. Fesmire, a marketing executive for an engineering business, said he returned from a business trip to find his wife, Gina, obsessed with the leaked British documents, so he read them. "I said, 'This is it -- this is what's going to crack this whole thing open,' " Mr. Fesmire recalled. He was equally struck by the lack of interest in the documents, even among liberals.

There's more so read the article. The Wall St. Journal deserves credit for making several of their main political articles available free each day--and keeping them online for free for 30 days.

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    Downing Street Memos and MSM | 15 comments (15 topical)
    Re: Downing Street Memos and MSM (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:37 PM EST
    The current Internet pressure from the left is reminiscent of a publicity battle waged by conservatives during Mr. Bush's re-election run that questioned Democrat John Kerry's service as a Swift Boat commander in Vietnam and his antiwar activity that followed. Though Swift Boat Veterans for Truth used some traditional media to get its message out, the group mounted a potent cyberspace campaign that helped keep the issue at the fore of the public debate. How can he say this, there was a constant barrage from the MSM about the swift boat liars. And now that Kerry's service records have been made public we see for real that the SBLiars lied. The phrase has appeared nearly 800 times since Mr. Clark's efforts began, although it isn't clear the extent to which this is the result of his campaign. It certainly was not the result of the MSM.

    Re: Downing Street Memos and MSM (none / 0) (#2)
    by scarshapedstar on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:37 PM EST
    Wow, so if I make a crappy web site and CNN decides to cover it 24/7 for a month, that's a potent cyber campaign?

    Re: Downing Street Memos and MSM (none / 0) (#3)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:38 PM EST
    I said, 'This is it -- this is what's going to crack this whole thing open,' " Mr. Fesmire recalled
    If not for a "but" instead of an "and." Not to mention we don't have copies of the orginals....if they every existed... Instead we have transcriptions. Fake, but accurate??? You can thank Rathergate for the reluctance now shown.... Own worst enemy, eh?

    Re: Downing Street Memos and MSM (none / 0) (#4)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:38 PM EST
    Jim the Bush ass licker. What does "is" mean again? Sauce for the goose. so why doesn't the British Prime Minister just say that they are fake? Because they're not.

    Re: Downing Street Memos and MSM (none / 0) (#5)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:38 PM EST
    Che - Excellent question. Perhaps he doesn't want to get in a pis*ing contest with a skunk. Who knows? Perhaps they are real? But why didn't the reporter just release a copy of what he was given? Protecting his source? What if, as in Rathergate, his source was claiming he got the information from another source? But, if "real." The writer was a relatively low level Brit writing a summary of what he thought was happening. And, again, you have the use of the word "but" when, if you want to say intellogence was being skewed, the word "and" should have been.

    Re: Downing Street Memos and MSM (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:38 PM EST
    Holy crap, you are pathetic Jim!

    Re: Downing Street Memos and MSM (none / 0) (#7)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:38 PM EST
    BooBear - Nice non-refutation of my points. Let me help you. You can put the first and second of my points to one side, as "ifs." So, now you can focus on explaining the use of "but" instead of "and" in the document you love so much. There now, see? I always lower my expectations of the slower ones.

    Re: Downing Street Memos and MSM (none / 0) (#8)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:38 PM EST
    Che writes:
    Jim the Bush ass licker. What does "is" mean again?
    Huh? You have confused me. I don't understand the terms used. Since you are so knowledgeable, obviously you have practiced what you described. Can you educate us?

    Re: Downing Street Memos and MSM (none / 0) (#9)
    by Al on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:38 PM EST
    PPJ thinks he's being clever: "Perhaps they're fake, perhaps they're not". Yeah, it's like Saddam's "weapons of mass destruction". Maybe they're there, maybe they're not, maybe Saddam is about to unleash nuclear Armageddon, or maybe he's not ... In the meantime, let's assume everything Bush says is true. Go debate the authenticity of the minutes with your grandmother, Jim.

    Re: Downing Street Memos and MSM (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:38 PM EST
    perhaps you can debate their existence with the ghosts of dead Kurds. do they exist in your world? were they gassed in your world?

    Re: Downing Street Memos and MSM (none / 0) (#11)
    by Al on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:39 PM EST
    Try to stay on topic, Ed.

    Re: Downing Street Memos and MSM (none / 0) (#12)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:39 PM EST
    Al - You know, I pose a thought, and you call that being clever? Heavens, what low standards you must have. I guess in your world all is black and white. If it is against America, you believe it.

    Re: Downing Street Memos and MSM (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:41 PM EST
    PPJ Hey James, if
    Bush ass licker
    confuses you then the equally applicable terms sphincter thinker, rectal rhetoric and colonic cogitation are going to mean a trip to the dictionary (big book, full of words, no telephone numbers after them).

    Re: Downing Street Memos and MSM (none / 0) (#15)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:41 PM EST
    DA - What, not attempt at an original insult this time? I am shocked. Yes, shocked. Delta - My, my, you sure know some big words. Did, as Che must have, learn them from personal experience? I only ask because I looked up "rectal rhetoric" and there was a reference to DeltaSlyHoney. Any relation?

    Re: Downing Street Memos and MSM (none / 0) (#16)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:00:41 PM EST
    PPJ (And I Quote) - You confirm my point. You know nothing about the technical issues, so you go for the put down. Typical.

    Downing Street Memos and MSM | 15 comments (15 topical)