The bad, the worse, and the ham-fisted
Jim Clark tried his fumbling hand at the old Karlrovian "Straw man outrage" trick. It goes like this: Those politically-motivated scoundrels calling for a full investigation of the Kfx scandal, including the governor's role, are really just undermining the Bob Bundy's investigation ... and how dare they malign a fine, upstanding individual like Bob Bundy!!
This is pure PR, hoping to confuse public opinion until the scandal blows over. The Waste of Times will echo it as forcefully as it can, and it may get some traction ...
But it means they're a little desperate. There's something there, I think. At the least, it's a good scandal, and these buffoons were too arrogant and foolish to cover their tracks ...
more press conferences, please! More grandstanding! Now is no time to turn down the heat. How about "Coal Miners for Truth" running some ads or ginning up a state FOIA request or a lawsuit?
posted by nemo at 10:21 AM
1 Comments:
You're right, of course, about the attempted misdirection. But we shouldn't let Murkowski's attempt to tar us all as Bundy-bashers prevent us from raising legitimate questions about Bundy's investigation, such as: Why is it taking so long? Why is it costing so much? Let's see, we've got the government ethics code, we've got the lawyers' Code of Professional Responsibility, and we've got (perhaps) the securities laws, although I believe they're beyond the scope of Bundy's mission. We've got a finite group of interviewees and a finite number of documents. In a proactive journalistic style that sometimes seems to have gone out of fashion around here, the Daily News has sketched out the timeline pretty well, identified the players, and raised obvious inconsistencies in Renkes' own statements. With all these things in hand, Nemo, I think you and I both know six dozen lawyers who could have cranked out a pretty darn good report by now, and probably come in under the first $25,000 budget. Bundy's final product is going to have to look really good, and contain some really startling new information, for me to think he justified the time and expense. - Peter
9:32 AM
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