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Posts Tagged ‘The New York Times’

Mary Chastain

Attorney General Eric Holder needs to send Charlie Savage at The New York Times a huge box of chocolates for Valentine’s Day. The NYT is the biggest cheerleader for Mr. Holder and this entire administration.

We all know how well I get along with Mr. Savage. His articles are notorious for being incredibly pro-Holder. This one is no different. Actually, it’s very anti-Darrell Issa. There isn’t anything negative about Mr. Holder or the Democrats on the committee. The more I read it I realize it’s not really about the hearing: It’s almost as if Mr. Savage and the Times used it as an excuse to write an article to prop up Mr. Holder. Mr. Savage completely glosses over anything the Republicans brought up.

First off, Mr. Savage, Operation Fast and Furious was not botched. Katie Pavlich at Townhall wrote about it here. It worked exactly the way it was suppose to. It was not botched. It did not fail. If anything, Operation Fast and Furious worked out the exact way it should.

Mr. Savage is right: The Republicans did rip into Mr. Holder, but for good reason. He forgets to mention the reason why the Republicans are so mad. They gave Mr. Holder and the DOJ a subpoena on October 12, 2011 and the department has given them the bare minimum. The department is stonewalling them. They’re mad because the documents were dumped on a Friday night. Again. Mr. Savage only brings up a quote from Representative Burton about Mr. Holder stonewalling them. He could have talked about Mr. Issa’s opening statement about the DOJ not cooperating.

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Mary Chastain

Remember this? Yes, last Friday night the DOJ dumped documents on Congress about Fast and Furious. Anyone with an ounce of common sense & critical thinking skills would come to the conclusion based on the emails between Monty Wilkinson, Attorney General Eric Holder’s then deputy chief of staff, and then-US Attorney Dennis Burke, Mr. Holder and quite possible Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer knew about Operation Fast and Furious.

The majority of the media ignored the documents. They took the AP article and printed it, but buried it among other articles. Only NPR, The Daily Caller, and CBS had original articles. The New York Times really buried it: Even if you searched for it you wouldn’t find it. The AP article mentions the emails at the very end, but just repeats the talking points instead of using their common sense. “Mr. Wilkinson does not recall discussing this aspect with the attorney general.” Come on people let’s use our brains! Do you believe Mr. Wilkinson, Mr. Holder’s deputy chief of staff, did NOT tell his boss about this?

But Congressional Democrats and the media don’t think this way. Instead of investigating further they simply take someone’s word, even if it sounds suspicious. This morning I saw an alert from The New York Times. The Democrats on The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee cleared the Obama administration of any wrong doing. This is the same Times that ignored the Friday night document dump. This story appeared on the front page of their US section and is an original piece written by Charlie Savage. Ironically the article by Pete Yost at the AP is the most concise one he’s written about Fast and Furious. Gee, I wonder why. The Huffington Post put Mr. Yost’s article on the front page of their politics section. What’s this I see? The Washington Post actually didn’t publish the AP article, but had Sari Horwirz write an original piece? I believe that hasn’t happened since September.

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Mary Chastain

Media outlets didn’t cover March For Life while it happened, despite knowing it was going to happen and hundreds of thousands of people there. News outlets do have stories on it now, but of course the number of people there are distorted and the stories are pretty bland. Again, remember how much effort went into Occupy Wall Street coverage. Reporters were at the scenes. News stations were always on them. Also if they had anyone on the scene at March For Life they’d have a more accurate number of people.

Photo Credit Michelle Fields from The Daily Caller

The best coverage belongs to Judge Andrew Napolitano on his show  ”Freedom Watch” on FOX Business Network. Judge Napolitano is a fierce pro-life advocate and doesn’t shy away from the issue. At the end of every show he signs off with “The Plain Truth” and yesterday it was about abortion.


His guest was Rep. Renee Ellmers who discussed the defense of life. This was the most coverage by anyone in the media. Thank you, Judge Napolitano.

I then went to FOX News and I’ll admit, I was disappointed. The article was written by Shannon Bream and just like C-SPAN she called the protestors anti-abortion. Yes they are anti-abortion, but why doesn’t anyone ever call them pro-life? Why do they have to be constantly addressed as anti? When pro-choice protesters march they’re referred to as pro-choice, not anti-life. She did, however, give a reasonable estimate of people there, tens of thousands. Trust me, that’s much better than some of the others.

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Mary Chastain

December has been an incredibly busy month for Operation Fast and Furious. It all started with Mr. Holder’s outburst to The Daily Caller. Then the DOJ dumped over 1400 pages of documents on Congress on Friday, December 3rd, which the MSM ignored or buried, but The New York Times quickly spun it in Mr. Holder’s favor. Sharyl Attkisson at CBS shows us documents proving the ATF was using Fast and Furious to get stricter gun laws and the following day Mr. Holder testifies in front of Congress. Then Fast and Furious was brought up in the debate!

Now Mr. Holder and the DOJ are starting to unravel. Mr. Holder’s interview with The New York Times where he called us in the media racist. Last night the DOJ released a statement trying to explain that Mr. Holder didn’t use the race card. Anyone with a 1st grade reading comprehension knows Mr. Holder did call us racist. But the most telling thing to me at least is the Old Media has not reported on this statement. I’ve been surfing their websites all afternoon and evening and cannot find anything. I would think The New York Times would be more than happy to publish it, but nothing from them. They were so quick to make Mr. Holder the victim (even putting the article on page A1 of the Sunday edition!) you’d think they’d publish the DOJ statement! You know, gain more sympathy for Mr. Holder. Nothing. Complete silence.

Something interesting happened. On Tuesday CNN’s Jack Cafferty brought it up on his blog and The Situation Room. Not only did he mention Operation Fast and Furious, but he asked if this would be Obama’s Watergate. Mr. Cafferty’s blog is very neutral, too, on the operation. I’m incredibly impressed.

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Mary Chastain

Media Matters for America’s favorite topics are FOX News, the Big sites, and The Daily Caller. Chris Brown claims Matthew Boyle was so happy to accuse The New York Times and Attorney General Eric Holder in one article Mr. Boyle didn’t bother to get his facts straight. Well, the same could be said about Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown was so happy to jump on Mr. Boyle he didn’t bother to look at the article from ALL angles. Then again is anyone surprised? After all MMfA is the Obama administration’s cheerleaders. No one could ever do wrong in this administration, right?

This is what has Mr. Brown’s underwear all in knots:

Savage wrote that there are no “documents or testimony” to support allegations that Holder knew of the “gunwalking” tactics employed in Operation Fast and Furious.

“Mr. Holder has denounced the tactics used in the operation, known as ‘gunwalking,’ but said he did not know about them or sanction their use,” Savage wrote. “No documents or testimony have shown otherwise, but Republicans have pummeled him at oversight hearings and in news media appearances.”

Savage made these statements without attribution.

Despite those assertions, Holder’s office was provided with multiple briefings and memos about Operation Fast and Furious by top Justice Department officials. The memos contained intimate details of how Holder’s DOJ allowed guns to walk.

Oh Mr. Brown. You’re the almighty aren’t you? You can tell us you absolutely know for sure Mr. Holder knew nothing about Operation Fast and Furious? Because what Mr. Savage wrote was wrong. Read the sentence again, okay? Let’s say it really slow so you can understand: “Savage wrote that there are no “documents or testimony” to support allegations that Holder knew of the “gunwalking” tactics employed in Operation Fast and Furious.” OK let’s analyze that sentence.

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Mary Chastain

The Department of Justice released a statement about the uproar caused by Eric Holder using the race card.

“That is a complete distortion of the attorney general’s comment. His comments both in the article and elsewhere made clear that he believes much of the criticism is launched against him are unfortunately the typical Washington gotcha game. A simple reading of those comments show he was referring to how he is identified with the president given their close relationship and all they share in common including their ideology. The position of the attorney general has been a target for partisan attacks, and given the critical work that this attorney general he is doing at the Department of Justice, it’s no surprise that some are engaging in such tactics. His critics rightly view the attorney general is a progressive force, and given our current political environment, there will those who use any opportunity to score political points.”


Here’s what we supposedly confused [bold my emphasis]:

Of that group of critics, Mr. Holder said he believed that a few — the “more extreme segment” — were motivated by animus against Mr. Obama and that he served as a stand-in for him. “This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified with him,” he said, “both due to the nature of our relationship and, you know, the fact that we’re both African-American.

So exactly what did we distort? There’s a key word in Mr. Savage’s sentence: animus. This is Merriam-Webster’s definition:

1: basic attitude or governing spirit : disposition, intention
2: a usually prejudiced and often spiteful or malevolent ill will
3: an inner masculine part of the female personality in the analytic psychology of C. G. Jung — compare anima

I’m going with definition 2. Those of the “most extreme segment” which, let’s be honest here, include Sharyl Attkisson, Cam Edwards, Matthew Boyle, Katie Pavlich, and myself, have a spiteful or malevolent ill will towards President Obama and Mr. Holder because of their relationship and they’re African American. Could the DOJ please explain to us how that doesn’t mean he played the race card? Mr. Holder said we have a prejudiced and often spiteful or malevolent ill will against him and President Obama because of their skin color. That’s calling us a racist. RACIST. Yes Mr. Holder played the race card. He said we are attacking him because he is African American.

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Mary Chastain

Charlie Savage’s newest piece at The New York Times is, as my friend Sean Arthur on Twitter says, a shameless PR drivel and allows Mr. Holder to make ludicrous statements without challenge and pulls the race card. The New York Times and Charlie Savage are really going to do this after all the articles they published during Attorney General Alberto Gonzales scandals? Give me a break.

The hypocrisy at The New York Times is too much to take. I’ve read The New York Times articles on Mr. Gonzales over and over. I never once saw an article that was sympathetic to Mr. Gonzales. My favorite piece is an editorial titled, “Why This Scandal Matters.” What a great title! The Times covered every single detail in the Gonzales “scandal” someone had to write an editorial to justify it. You could fit the first paragraph with Operation Fast and Furious. [Bold my emphasis.]

It (the administration) has offered up implausible excuses, hidden the most damaging evidence and feigned memory lapses, while hoping that the public’s attention moves on. But this scandal is too important for the public or Congress to move on. This story should not end until Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is gone, and the serious damage that has been done to the Justice Department is repaired.

This “scandal” involved the firing of eight US Attorneys. No one died. Not a single person. Three hundred-plus Mexicans have died because of Operation Fast and Furious. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was murdered with a gun from the operation on American soil. I wonder if The New York Times and Mr. Savage could explain to me why Mr. Gonzales’s scandal mattered and Fast and Furious does not?

The best part, though, was Mr. Holder taking a jab at people like Sharyl Attkisson, Cam Edwards, Katie Pavlich, Matthew Boyle, and myself. [Bold my emphasis.]

But Mr. Holder contended that many of his other critics — not only elected Republicans but also a broader universe of conservative commentators and bloggers — were instead playing “Washington gotcha” games, portraying them as frequently “conflating things, conveniently leaving some stuff out, construing things to make it seem not quite what it was” to paint him and other department figures in the worst possible light.

Of that group of critics, Mr. Holder said he believed that a few — the “more extreme segment” — were motivated by animus against Mr. Obama and that he served as a stand-in for him. “This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified with him,” he said, “both due to the nature of our relationship and, you know, the fact that we’re both African-American.”

Conflating things? How do we “conflate things” when we provide the documents PROVING our points? Plus if we are leaving out things it’s because Mr. Holder and the Department of Justice aren’t providing us with all the details.

This is what angers me the most. Basically Mr. Holder says that people like Ms. Attkisson, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Boyle, Ms. Pavlich, and I are staying on top of Operation Fast and Furious and asking you questions is because we’re racist? Let’s return to the Times editorial “Why This Scandal Matters” shall we? Whoever wrote this editorial (I cannot find the author) said, as I stated above, “This story should not end until Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is gone, and the serious damage that has been done to the Justice Department is repaired.”

So was The New York Times being racist? After all, Mr. Gonzales is Hispanic. Think about it Mr. Savage and Mr. Holder.

How about members of the Congressional Black Caucus Mr. Holder and Mr. Savage? As Mr. Boyle and Michelle Fields report the feeling in the caucus is that the congressional investigation is warranted. So do they feel this way because Mr. Holder is an African American? Are they racists against their own race?

Of course Mr. Holder says he thinks it has more to do with his political ideology. No Mr. Holder. We don’t care you’re a Democrat. If you didn’t know about Operation Fast and Furious then why aren’t you outraged? Why aren’t you firing those who are responsible for the operation? Why aren’t you cleaning house? Why aren’t you outraged that the people who started this operation haven’t been identified? Why aren’t you outraged that when people found out about Operation Fast and Furious (including your second in command) did nothing to stop it and more importantly did not tell you? I can’t speak for the others, but the fact it appears you don’t care something like this happened bothers me a lot.

Mr. Savage has not done his research because he says (bold my emphasis):

“Some accused him of perjury; others floated theories that the operation was intended to go bad so as to build a case for stronger gun-control laws and called the Holder Justice Department an accessory to murder.”

Um, Mr. Savage, on December 7th Ms. Attkisson released a story about documents showing the ATF was using this operation to get stronger gun control laws. But I’m not shocked he doesn’t know about this. After all it seems the only time a mainstream media outlet writes on anything about Fast and Furious is when the AP writes about it. The AP has not written about these documents. By the way, Ms. Attkisson provides these emails in her article so Mr. Holder cannot say she conflated anything or left anything out.

Mr. Holder also thinks our “attacks” are payback because of Mr. Gonzales and John Ashcroft, George Bush’s other attorney general. No Mr. Holder. We’re holding you and the DOJ accountable for your actions the same way we did for Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Ashcroft. It doesn’t matter what your skin color is or your political leanings. When you do something wrong you should be held accountable. It’s that simple.

Again, it’s awful Mr. Savage just says a Border Patrol agent. Mr. Savage, that agent had a name. His name was Brian Terry. He was a son, brother, nephew, uncle, and godfather. He was a Marine veteran. More importantly he was an American citizen murdered with a gun from this operation on American soil.

Don't forget Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Accuracy in Media

From Accuracy in Media’s Don Irvine:

In a surprise announcement, The New York Times CEO Janet Robinson announced last night that she was retiring from the company at the end of the year and that chairman Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. would take over as interim CEO.

Robinson, who became the CEO at the end of 2004, leaves behind a mixed record at the paper. During her tenure, the Times cut hundreds of jobs. As print advertising and circulation dropped, they sold their crown jewel headquarters building and then leased it back while borrowing $250 million from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim at 14% interest. The loan was repaid this year, but the company’s cash flow troubles still continue.

The one potential bright spot for the paper is their digital paywall, which has recorded solid numbers to date. But it can’t even begin to offset the revenues lost through print advertising, which shows few signs of recovering anytime soon.

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Mary Chastain

I’m not happy. Operation Fast and Furious was finally brought up in a debate, but it received one question and two responses. Growing up my mother told me to either go all the way with something or don’t bother with it because sometimes going half-way is worse than not doing anything at all. This is one of those cases. I don’t blame the media for ignoring the ONE question with TWO responses on Fast and Furious. If the moderators asked Speaker Gingrich or Governor Romney maybe the media would have given it a shout out.

I couldn’t find it anywhere in The New York Times. I found a part of the Fast and Furious segment in the Fact Check article at The Washinton Post. They didn’t mention that this Rick Perry quote came from his answer on the Fast and Furious question.

“Venezuela has the largest Iranian embassy in the world there.”

— Rick Perry

This is a dubious statement, especially since Iran has much deeper interests in countries closer to Tehran, such as Iraq and Syria. The extent of Iranian influence in Latin America is often overstated. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was embarrassed in 2009 when it turned out her claim that Iran was building a mega-embassy in Nicaragua was untrue.

The rest of the articles at the Post didn’t mention Fast and Furious. There’s a blog post at MSNBC about Rick Perry, but it doesn’t mention his response to Fast and Furious. Matthew Boyle and Katie Pavlich wrote about it.

But I fault Fox News on this more than the rest of the media. Operation Fast and Furious deserved the attention gay marriage and abortion received if not more. So many people on Twitter were demanding questions be asked that Fast and Furious was even trending on Twitter.

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Mary Chastain

Here’s The New York Times headline:

Justice Department Counters Claim That It Misled Congress in Gun Inquiry

Here’s the original AP headline the media outlets used, including MSNBC:

Justice Dept. details how it got statements wrong

The NYT headline makes it appear the DOJ admits absolutely no wrong doing. However, in the AP headline the DOJ admits they were wrong, but offer an explanation.

If Charlie Savage is going to write an original story he could at least use a headline that doesn’t dupe the readers? But the headline isn’t the only bad part of the article. The whole article is completely soft on the DOJ and the tone is off, almost as if Mr. Savage is unconcerned that this operation has taken the life of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and 200+ Mexican civilians. At least Pete Yost, author of the AP article, reported the facts of these emails, didn’t add in any of his opinions, and gave detailed information of the emails.

Here is a snippet of Mr. Savage’s description of the emails. [Bold my emphasis]

The letter, which rejected early accusations of wrongdoing in Fast and Furious, told lawmakers that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives “makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico.”

Officials now acknowledge that the claim was misleading.

Here is the snippet from Mr. Yost’s article (bold my emphasis):

In a letter last February to Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department said that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had not sanctioned the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser and that the agency makes every effort to intercept weapons that have been purchased illegally. In Operation Fast and Furious, both statements turned out to be incorrect.

Mr. Savage says misleading and Mr. Yost says incorrect. Misleading could be technically true, but be presented in a way that would make you think the opposite. Incorrect means not correct, plain and simple. By using the word misleading Mr. Savage misleads his readers.

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Mary Chastain

Despite the fact the social media has eliminated the traditional media cycle, the Obama administration still thinks Friday afternoon document dumps will curtail reporting on what the documents entail. Our wonderful Department of Justice dumped over 1,000 pages with details on how they gave inaccurate information. The Associated Press broke the story at 6:16PM EST. Since then, Old Media has been slow reporting. I would usually give them a day, but I decided to check them out tonight. SHOCKER: The majority posted the AP story–NOT A SHOCKER: The majority buried it.

Before I start I need to give credit to Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News. Once again she shows what we need in the Old Media: She didn’t just copy and paste the AP article. She actually wrote an original piece on it. Thank you so much Mrs. Attkisson. (I also prefer her piece over the AP’s article.)

It’s honestly sad I am not shocked The New York Times didn’t have it anywhere on their website. I searched “Justice Department” and “Eric Holder” and there were no results for the document dump. Not one single word. [Update: New York Times published a piece on this Friday night around 9:30 pm EST several hours after this post published.]

The other media outlets (ABC, NBC, MSNBC, The Washington Post, Huffington Post) did copy and paste the AP story, but there is one major problem: you have to search for the story. It’s not on the front page. I couldn’t find it under US, National, Politics sections. Instead I went to the search box and punched in “Justice Department” and the first hit was the AP article.

I also need to note AP got an important fact wrong. Brian Terry was NOT a customs agent. He was a Border Patrol Agent.

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Mary Chastain

Your tax dollars at work America! If Media Matters for America was serious about being a “watchdog” group they wouldn’t go after the new media that picks up MSM slack. Instead they’d go after The New York Times, NBC Nightly News, ABC World News, etc. for NOT doing their jobs. But then again we all know the truth: MMfA doesn’t care about the truth or facts unless it benefits them and their liberal politicians.

Yesterday Eric Holder lashed out at The Daily Caller blaming them for all the Operation Fast & Furious attention. Our very own Dana Loesch pointed out that this isn’t the first time the administration has done this. You all know I’ve been working hard trying to get the rest of the media to cover Operation Fast and Furious. Cam Edwards, host of Cam & Company, talks Fast & Furious every night. Katie Pavlich from Townhall covers it as much as Mr. Boyle. Don’t forget Sharyl Attkisson, the only reporter in the MSM who is reporting Fast & Furious. She was cursed out by a White House staffer for asking too many questions.

Matt Gertz at Media Matters quickly came to Mr. Holder’s defense. Mr. Gertz claims Mr. Holder is right about The Daily Caller being behind all the calls for Mr. Holder’s resignation. Interesting, but Holder should be pointing the finger at himself. If he and the Department of Justice didn’t allow guns to walk they wouldn’t be in this mess and have blood on their hands. God forbid Matthew Boyle, Katie Pavlich, and Sharyl Attkisson do their jobs.

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Mary Chastain

Michele Bachmann was the first GOP presidential candidate to demand Eric Holder’s resignation. Last Monday Rick Perry published an op-ed in The Washington Times demanding Mr. Holder’s resignation and yesterday morning Jon Huntsman also remarked that Mr. Holder should resign, yet the majority of the Old Media ignore them and the other congressmen who think Mr. Holder should resign.

There is no excuse from the Old Media we should accept, especially since Mr. Perry’s op-ed appears in The Washington Times. The Old Media can deny it all they want, but we all know if this was a GOP administration they would be contacting every single Democrat politician and reporting anyone calling for the attorney general to resign.

Wait a minute. They already did! Oh yes: Remember my previous articles comparing coverage of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Mr. Holder? That’s right. The Old Media was reporting on Mr. Gonzales so much in 2007 even I was sick of it and that’s when I was still a super liberal.

Politico gave a report on May, 20 2007 when Nancy Pelosi joined in: ”The nation cannot have a chief law enforcement officer whose candor and judgment are in serious question,” Pelosi said. “The president should restore credibility to the office of the attorney general. Alberto Gonzales must resign.” Why hasn’t she said the same thing about Mr. Holder? Of course Politico included the Republicans who thought Mr. Gonzales should go. I can’t imagine how happy that made them.

Look what I found! Then Senator Barack Obama calls for Mr. Gonzales to step down! I think someone should replay this to President Obama because he could apply his answer to Mr. Holder now.

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Mary Chastain

Fifty-two Congressmen, including Representative and GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, are demanding Attorney General Eric Holder’s resignation over Operation Fast and Furious. While the new media has reached out to Congress, there is still no excuse for the Old Media to not say anything, especially since these Congressmen held a press conference Tuesday, November 15.

Then again, are you shocked NBC Nightly News and ABC World News didn’t cover the press conference? We know all year Mr. Williams and Ms. Sawyer have never mentioned Operation Fast and Furious once. If they covered the press conference they’d be forced to talk and explain Operation Fast and Furious. I’m disappointed CBS didn’t run a story on the press conference, but since they’ve been on top of the story I’m willing to forgive them. Here are some topics NBC and ABC thought were more important than congressmen calling for Mr. Holder’s resignation:

  • Low cost Lipitor!
  • Annie Leibovitz says go iPhone!
  • Texas court says dogs have sentimental value
  • ACL injuries
  • New Kennedy tapes

They will do anything to avoid talking about Operation Fast and Furious. Like Cam Edwards said they’d run an entire 30 minute show on Brian Williams and puppies before they talk about Fast & Furious. (more…)

Mary Chastain

Let’s give Mr. Alter some props. He answered my email. Granted, it took awhile but he did respond. Here’s his response. It’s not bad until the end. You’ll see what I mean.

Hi, Mary:
Yes, I would tell you and Brian Terry’s family that Operation Fast and Furious was not a scandal. It was bad public policy that went horribly awry, with tragic consequences. It was a big blunder, a fiasco and maybe some other adjectives you and I could agree on, but not a “scandal” as conventionally defined. If you believe it’s a scandal, which to my mind connotes intentional wrongdoing for financial or personal (sometimes sexual gain), than you must include other huge policy mistakes under your definition.

So I assume you are willing to agree that the Bush Administration’s failure to recognize in advance that Saddam Hussein didn’t possess WMD was a scandal (removing Saddam’s WMD was the explicitly-stated purpose of the war). That intelligence failure led to an unnecessary war and the death of thousands. Many veterans of the Bush Administration have agreed that the war, like Operation Fast and Furious, was a case of good intentions gone horribly wrong.”Stuff happens,” as Donald Rumsfeld put it.

But those unfortunate, even tragic, things are not the stuff of scandal, unless they involved stealing by contractors and the like. As it happens, I was a supporter of the war initially, then criticized its conduct. But knowing that President Bush genuinely believed WMD to be present (In the same way Eric Holder genuinely believed the U. S. government could track guns through that straw purchase program, which had begun under Bush), I never called the Iraq War a scandal. Did you?  I didn’t think so.

If you are motivated by anything beyond sheer malice toward the President of the United States you will agree with the logic of this post. In any event, please feel free to share it with your readers.

Warm regards, Jonathan Alter

I thought it was an okay response until the last part and he shot himself in the foot. If my supposed “sheer malice” for President Obama is blinding me then couldn’t I say Mr. Alter’s total devotion to President Obama is blinding him?

To Mr. Alter a scandal is intentional wrongdoing for financial or personal gain. The Department of Justice didn’t tell the Mexican government about Operation Fast & Furious. Could someone please explain to me how that doesn’t count as intentional wrongdoing? How does anyone think it’s right or a good thing to arm already dangerous drug cartels? How were they going to track the guns without anyone knowing on the other side or tracking devices in the guns?! No attempt was made at the border to confiscate the guns. The DOJ purposely did not tell the Mexican government. They didn’t inform the Mexican government because they wanted this operation fail. Operation Fast & Furious was doomed from the beginning. Eric Holder never believed they could track guns through the straw purchase program. If he did there would be tracking devices in the guns and the Mexican government would be involved. If you think about it the only way for the guns to be tracked would be to find them at crime scenes.

Another reason why Operation Fast & Furious is a scandal under Mr. Alter’s definition: the push for gun control laws. Let’s just say everything Mr. Alter and Mr. Holder has said is 100% true. It’s still a scandal because now the DOJ and some in Congress are using Operation Fast & Furious as a way to push for more gun control. They’re using this situation for personal and political gains. The New York Times concentrated on that one part of Mr. Holder’s testimony!

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Mary Chastain

Bloomberg recently published a horribly inaccurate post by Jonathan Alter titled, “The Obama Miracle, a White House Free of Scandal.” It’s time for Mr. Alter to wake up, remove the rose colored glasses, and come back to reality. President Obama’s administration has a huge scandal on their watch and it’s called Operation Fast & Furious.

I sent an email to him and the editor responsible for the article.

Dear Mr. Alter & Mr. Lavin:

My name is Mary Chastain and I’m a writer for Andrew Breitbart’s Big Journalism. Lately I’ve been keeping an eye on the mainstream media and their Operation Fast and Furious coverage. I have one question for you: Are you serious?!? President Obama is scandal free?!? You said How much research did you do? Sir, you have to take off the rose colored glasses and allow me to introduce you to Operation Fast & Furious. Have you heard of that scandal? Probably not since the only mainstream media outlet covering it is CBS and I can tell from your article you don’t put much effort into your research.

Operation Fast & Furious (part of Project Gunrunner) started in fall 2009. The federal government approved the sale of illegal guns to Mexican drug cartels KNOWING they’d be walked into Mexico and used in crimes. Yes sir. The Obama administration told gun shop owners in border states to allow straw purchasers to buy these guns even though they knew these people would give them to Mexican drug cartels and be used in crimes. Do I need to repeat myself?

The Obama administration approved an operation that told gun shop owners in border states to sell illegal guns to straw purchasers KNOWING they’d be walked across the border into the hands of Mexican drug cartels and be used in crimes.

Do you know what ended Operation Fast & Furious? The vicious murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry on December 14, 2010 in Arizona. Yes that’s right. Not all the guns crossed the border. Many have been found at crime scenes in AMERICA! One was used to MURDER Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. I’ve attached a picture of him.

I love this part of your article the most because we all know you’re alluding to Operation Fast & Furious, thus proving you DO know about it and PURPOSELY forgot about it.

Every time Representative Darrell Issa, the Republican from California who leads a House investigative committee, calls the Obama administration “corrupt” without offering any evidence, he hurts his cause. It’s much harder to make a story register as a bona fide scandal when the political motivation is so obvious.

Again, how much research did you do? Would you like to use all the research I’ve done? If you go to CBS News and use keyword Sharyl Attkisson (their investigative reporter who is on top of this SCANDAL) you receive 50+ hits on Fast & Furious.

You can go to Townhall and look at the the excellent work done by Katie Pavlich.

I can’t forget the awesome work done by Matthew Boyle and others.

Also check out Cam Edwards on Cam and Company at NRA News every night from 8-11PM CDT at http://www.nranews.com because he talks about it every night.

Here’s a link to my page at Big Journalism. http://bigjournalism.com/author/mchastain/

I will let you read through all of their hard work, which includes the EVIDENCE Congressman Issa has against the administration. I guess you missed out on all of the memos PROVING Mr. Holder was briefed on Fast & Furious as far back as July 2010. You should also check out Congressman Issa’s appearance on Face The Nation a few weeks ago. He again showed the evidence he has. You can easily find that appearance in the link I provided from CBS News.

Mr. Lavin, I know you put a disclaimer that said these are Mr. Alter’s opinions and not Bloomberg’s. But in all honesty this horrible and bias piece reflects incredibly bad upon YOU. I cannot believe you published an article that is filled with obvious LIES.

Respond back to me ASAP. I’ll have a piece up at Big Journalism soon. I’ll make sure to email it to you as soon as it’s posted.
Mary Chastain

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Mary Chastain

On October 31, government officials broke up a drug ring in Arizona. The New York Times had a great article on it, and even though it wasn’t on the front page, it was in a good spot in the US section of their website. But that’s where my compliments stop, because the AP reported a major development the following day: two guns in that raid are connected to Operation Fast & Furious.

Put aside your personal feelings about The New York Times and remember they are The New York Times. They’re supposed to be the “best” source of printed news for us. Usually, when you want information on an important subject you head to the Times. Not this time. The AP posted the update at 7:10PM EDT. ABC News posted the report that very same night. Actually if you Google the title, “AZ Sheriff Says 2 Guns Tied To Fast & Furious” there are a lot of hits! (more…)

James Hudnall and  Val Mayerik

Mary Chastain

I received another email from Mr. Brock from The New York Times and I have to admit I am shocked, but very thankful he is still corresponding with me. However, his latest response isn’t getting us anywhere and we’re just running in circles about their coverage about Operation Fast and Furious.

Here is Mr. Brock’s response.

Dear Ms. Chastain:
I think it is clear at this point that whatever we do on this coverage is not going to please you.  So I am not going to keep going into details on this.  But, yes, we did update the article – as we often do with numerous articles.  In fact, that’s the entire point of the Web site:  to keep refreshing it.  So you will see time stamps change all the time.  At any rate, here are some details that might interest you, since your original note said that you saw coverage everywhere.

The following papers had nothing in their print editions about the subpoenas:  The Washington Post, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Daily News and The Boston Globe.

Besides The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times published 3 sentences — the same three it put on the Web — the New York Post wrote an article and Newsday of Long Island printed a version of a Chicago Tribune article (so obviously the Tribune had a story.)

I think our coverage was timely and the space we devoted to it was appropriate to the development.  Once you say the subpoenas were issued – action that had already been threatened – there wasn’t a lot to say.

We will continue to cover this story as we feel there are legitimate developments.  Again, I am sorry that we are not able to meet your needs.  Perhaps others can.  But judging from the coverage of the subpoenas, you may have to hunt and hunt to find something sufficient.

Best regards,
Greg

I was honestly shocked by this answer because he tried to distract me with other media sources who didn’t do their job properly. Is that an excuse for The New York Times to be skimpy on their coverage about the subpoena? No. Actually the Times should be better than any other newspaper outlet. There was also plenty to say: why not explain exactly what the House Oversight Committee wants? Why not explain all the details about Operation Fast and Furious? Why not explain that one of these guns caused the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry?

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Mary Chastain

A few days ago, I reported on an email I received from New York Times senior editor Greg Brock in response to my questions about the paper’s coverage of the developing “Fast & Furious” scandal. While the response I was given was nowhere near as rude as the treatment I received from the Washington Post, I was still unsatisfied with the editor’s explanation for the minimal coverage of this very serious scandal, especially considering the Times’ obsessive coverage of comparatively insignificant controversies from the Bush Administration. Well, prepare yourselves for a real shocker: after more correspondence, the New York Times is still giving me excuses about their lack of Operation Fast & Furious coverage. Here’s my first response to Mr. Brock.

Dear Mr. Brock:

First off thank you so much for your prompt and well explained email. I greatly appreciate it. Thank you very much.

But I’m still not satisfied, especially since writers were so eager to write about every little development over the AG Gonzalez scandal. If that scandal, which didn’t result in the death of a border patrol agent, deserved so much coverage, how come this one doesn’t? It doesn’t even have to be on page one, but how about in the politics section? Other publications publish the new developments, but they bury it. At least, though, they’re publishing them.

Also, how is Congressman Issa’s plan to issue more subpoenas to Mr. Holder & others in the DOJ not news worthy? How is an operation that allows people to sell illegal guns to Mexican drug cartels that resulted in the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry?

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