No one in American politics has it better than the Democrat who is in good standing with the press. You can literally commit manslaughter, and national newsrooms will still lionize you as a hero of the republic.
The latest example of this sort of thing comes from the Washington Post, which published a profile this week of media darling and former CIA operative Valerie Plame. The article, titled “Valerie Plame, America’s most famous ex-spy, finds her new identity,” is big on the glossy details. For example, it notes that the former agent, who is running to replace Democratic Rep. Ben Ray Lujan in New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District, looks absolutely fabulous for her age.
Yet amazingly, the profile makes no mention of Plame’s repeated promotion of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and tropes on social media. Weird how stuff like that gets lost in the shuffle, isn’t it?
In 2017, Plame, who hopes one day to hold a seat in Congress, shared an article on Twitter titled, “America’s Jews Are Driving America’s Wars.” Her tweet was met with fierce backlash, to which she responded with defiance and indignation.
“First of all, calm down. Re-tweets don’t imply endorsement. Yes, very provocative, but thoughtful. Many neocon hawks ARE Jewish,” she said in a series of tweets that no longer exist because that specific Twitter account no longer exists. “[T]oo many who are so ready to go to war. Haven’t we had enough for awhile?”
“Read the entire article and try, just for a moment,” she continued, “put aside your biases and think clearly.”
“Just FYI, I am of Jewish decent,” she added for good measure. Or at least some of her best friends are probably Jews.
Under withering criticism, she ultimately abandoned her defiance and laughably claimed ignorance.
“OK folks, look, I messed up,” she said in a series of since-deleted tweets. “I skimmed this piece, zeroed in on the neocon criticism, and shared it without seeing and considering the rest….Apologies all. There is so much there that’s problematic AF and I should have recognized it sooner. Thank you for pushing me to look again,” she added. “I missed gross undercurrents to this article & didn’t do my homework on the platform this piece came from. Now that I see it, it’s obvious.”
This is a former CIA operative, mind you. She should know enough about the world that this isn’t an excuse.
I am not sure which is funnier: That her “apology” indicates that she did not read the article she implored her critics to read more carefully, or the fact that she claims she was surprised to learn that an article titled “America’s Jews Are Driving America’s Wars” contained anti-Semitic themes.
And that was not even the first time Plame had shared anti-Semitic materials on social media.
In 2014, she promoted an article authored by Philip Giraldi (he of “It’s time to re-think David Duke” infamy) titled, “Why I Still Dislike Israel.”
“Well put,” Plame tweeted in response. Later, in 2015, she promoted an article titled, “The Dancing Israelis.” The story’s subhead reads, “Trump was right about 9/11, but they weren’t Muslims.” In case you’re wondering, the article says exactly what you think — that Jews celebrated 9/11.
In 2017, Twitter user Anthony DeRosa posed the question of whom else former White House press secretary Sean Spicer had called, besides GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, to apologize for comments about the Nazis gassing non-Jewish Germans. Plame responded with a simple: “Other rich Jews?”
Plame has a troubled history of promoting anti-Jewish cranks and tropes and conspiracy theories. She now wants to be in Congress. Yet not a word of this is mentioned in the Washington Post’s glowing write-up of her congressional bid.
The reader is treated instead to passages such as:
The Washington Post profile also says Plame’s House campaign represents:
The article mentions that Plame is an ex-spy; it mentions her divorce from former U.S. Ambassador Joe Wilson; it mentions that she is an ex-spy; it mentions she is the subject of a movie and a book; it mentions she looks great for her age; it mentions that she is an ex-spy; it mentions she has one really inspiring campaign ad; and did we mention that she is an ex-spy?
Remember, kids: Democracy dies in darkness.
