Alone On A Limb

In regard to the mainstream media coverage of Ray McGovern's confrontation with Rumsfeld, MCJoan of DailyKos writes:

When does the fact that people are opposed to this administration and are willing to say so loudly and publicly stop becoming the story? Is it too much to ask that the media actually start examining the content of that opposition, and reporting on that? The story is not Stephen Colbert. The story is not Ray McGovern. The story is the lies.

Ad hominem arguments are certainly not exclusive to the Rove-Bush machine (I resolve often to avoid them myself, but it feels sooo good to lambast the so-and-sos occasionally - Rove-Bush machine--ahhh!! And, I suppose, MCJoan could have used "incompatible statements of the two sides" in place of "lies" above.), but the president's folk have perfected this form of distraction from real debate, and seem to carry the main stream media along effortlessly. When an ambassador or general or any Democrat disputes their policy they attack his motives, or patriotism, or sanity, or emotional stability, and barely bother, if at all, to counter his arguments. Whether Bush, or Rove, or Wilson, or Zinni, or McGovern, or Yours Truly, is a blacker sinner is irrelevant. As every good Methodist knows, we are all vile sinners. The rightness of policies is not always directly proportional to the purity of motive of its proponents. Let's debate the message rather than the messengers for a while. And the media should do the same.