So let me deconstruct this thing for you, since I doubt you’ve been following the recent intramural skirmish among liberal pundits. Joe Klein, representing the old guard, has been single-handedly duking it out with the glitterati of the progressive blogosphere including Markos Moulitsas, Glenn Greenwald and “the tenacious” Jane Hamsher. The whole thing started when Klein wrote a characteristically banal piece in Time magazine lamenting what a bunch of wimps the Democrats are when it comes to national security. This article included a couple of paragraphs on the congressional wrangling surrounding FISA reform. Klein apparently didn’t get all the details right; in a subsequent sort-of correction he published on Time‘s blog, Klein confessed, “I may have made a mistake in my column this week about the FISA legislation passed by the House, although it’s difficult to tell for sure.” Time‘s editors also said something about his original reportage, but I’ll be damned if I remember what it was. The area of substantive disagreement is that Klein reported that lclkecerv5tg5oghg0vff0oldwldlf4ogoj3-fpdnmwcm-f3-f4mv4-celkwkdgwifeofero – I’m sorry. I feel asleep at the keyboard. A possible error in a widely ignored Time magazine article is not significant enough to get into. Whatever happened, the left wing blogopshere went crazy over Klein’s piece; collectively, they haven’t gone this far off the deep end since the vultures began circling John Edwards’ erstwhile bloggers. Glenn Greenwald has written about nothing other than the Klein dust-up for the past week, except for one brief post where he gloated over John Howard’s downfall. Meanwhile, Daily Kos front pager Kagro X (if that’s his/her/its real name) noted the fearsome, destructive power of Time magazine:
The petty tyrants at Time and their egos are the reason the public is so misguided? Who knew? Maybe I should master the details of the story. On second thought, never mind. Left unanswered by Kagro X is the nagging question of whether the Constitution going down the toilet is triggering riots in River City the way the Koran going down the toilet triggered riots in Riyadh. Wait a second–that erroneous report came from Markos Moulitsas’ new employers at Newsweek. Besides, upon further reflection, Kagro X is probably speaking figuratively. But I digress. Like I said, the substance of the story is too boring to pay attention to. FISA is important; Joe Klein’s multiple pratfalls in trying to nail down his story and Glenn Greenwald’s Javert-like quest to nail down Klein are not. Then again, we could have used these lefty bloggers during Rather-gate. They are indeed tenacious. It’s too bad the left wing bloggers didn’t pay attention to the Beauchamp affair. If they had, they wouldn’t have been so unpleasantly mugged by the reality that reporters, writers, and magazines sometimes make enormous errors and don’t show any noticeable zeal in addressing those errors. Mind you, I’m not saying that Klein made any enormous errors; on the substance of the matter, I remain determinedly, blissfully ignorant. The fact that this has become the dominant focus of progressive bloggers the past week just shows what a really odd place the blogosphere has become. They pose as the voice of the people, but guess what? The people don’t give a hoot about Joe Klein writing on FISA. Not the people who have lives, anyway. There’s a presidential campaign going on. I wonder how many people think the “petty tyrants at Time” and their reportage of the intricacies of FISA reform are a major issue.
