Purge

I'm a little concerned about Josh Marshall's and TPM Muckraker's coverage of the attorney purge. Sometimes their headlines and synopses are, I think, misleading. It seems almost as though, having been the first to open this can of worms and dig into it, they are determined to put as bad a face on it as possible. Actually, I don't think that's necessary, anyway. Its face is pretty ugly as it is.

For instance, two corresponding articles on Gonzo's testimony today make it seem like he testified that Harriet Miers (former White House Counsel) may have fired US attorney Debra Wong Yang because she knew Yang was looking for a more lucrative job and wanted to help her out, and that's laughable.

Doing her a favor by firing her, eh?

Josh Marshall comments:

Gonzales on why White House Counsel Harriet Miers wanted Lewis prosecutor Debra Yang fired: Because she was sensitive to Yang's financial situation and that she wanted a more lucrative job. Said Gonzales: "Ms. Miers may have known about Ms. Yang's concern about being able to remain on the job due to financial reasons."

[...]

Needless to say it's always helpful to fire someone when they're looking for more profitable employment.

But if you look at the video that TPM's Muckraker site provides, you realize that Gonzo was more likely saying that Miers didn't want to leave someone in such an important position who was seeking other employment. Whatever Harriet Miers' real reason was, that excuse seems like a reasonable one to me. In fact, Yang did find other employment - in the offices of the law firm that was defending a Republican Representative that Yang's US Attorney's office was investigating. Now that's weird.

I don't think this particular instance supports Marshall's continuing raking of the muck in this case. But you wouldn't know that if you didn't read "below the headlines" of his reporting.

In fact, the comment about Miers being sensitive to Yang's concern wasn't the last thing Gonzo said, and Josh cutting off the quote before he (Gonzo) indicates that the position was too important to have someone looking for a higher paying job in it I think smacks of misleading reportage.

I read Marshall's posts daily, and normally I think he does an excellent job, but this is by no means an isolated incident of this kind of reporting, and I'm really sorry to see it every time I do. I don't want liberal propaganda any more than I want conversative propaganda.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

The reason we hold truth in such respect is because we have so little opportunity to get familiar with it. --Mark Twain