Thursday, July 06, 2006

Greenwald smacks Putz around.

We've previously noted Putz's fondness for the false equivalence, but this was over the top, even for him.
INCOHERENCE ON PRIVACY: Dave Weigel thinks that the New York Times did nothing wrong in publishing the GPS coordinates of Cheney and Rumsfeld's vacation homes, because anybody can find that stuff in this Internet age. But in the same post he writes:

As so often happens with these things, angry bloggers have struck back and posted the addresses and phone numbers of the Times' photogs. (No link.)

No link? Why not? By Weigel's standards, a link wouldn't contribute to invasion of privacy. Anybody can find that stuff, right?

Putz is throwing his support behind his buddy Michelle Malkin over the latest phony outrage in the wingnutosphere, which led to this theater of the absurd outside of the New York Times building.

You see, the Malkin-led wingnuttery screeched that the Times' travel section "outed" Cheney and Rumsfeld's residences as payback for their recent criticism of the paper.

Problem is, the pieces were written with Cheney and Rumsfeld's full permission and cooperation.

Oops.

Putz, who's clearly not very bright, wasn't smart enough to stay well away from this embarassing spectacle, and Greenwald unloaded on him for it, but good:
While numerous right-wing bloggers commented this weekend on the truly inane attacks against the NYT Travel article, none (at least that I read) condemned Horowitz for promoting the campaign to publish the home addresses of editors and reporters of the Times. They had much to say about the Evil that is the NYT, but nothing to say about this extraordinary and despicable campaign perfected by extremist groups on the Right and now promoted by Horowitz and groups such as StopTheACLU, to intimidate and endanger journalists and private individuals by collecting and publishing their home addresses.

Beyond merely failing to condemn these tactics, Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds yesterday deliberately defended them by arguing that they are no different than what the NYT did in its Travel article. Reynolds attacked a post written this weekend by Reason's Dave Weigel, in which Weigel condemned publication of the home address of the NYT photographer. Reynolds -- who pointedly avoided condemning Horowitz and publication of Spiller's home address -- quoted and then attacked Weigel's condemnation as "incoherent"...

In order to avoid criticizing his comrades on the Right who are engaging in thug tactics, Reynolds actually equates discussion of the vacation homes of top government officials (who enjoy the most extensive and high-level security on the planet) with publication of the home addresses of private individuals and journalists (who have no security of any kind). By his reasoning, mentioning that the Vice President has a vacation home on the Eastern Shore of Maryland is no different than publishing the home address of private individuals who are publicly identified as traitors.
Exactly. Of course, it's worth repeating that Cheney and Rumsfeld gave their permission for the stories, presumably along with the Secret Service. So there's no "incoherence" at all, Putz.

Greenwald, not done, adds:
And, lo and behold, the Right's tactics of intimidation against private individuals are reduced by the conniving Reynolds into nothing more than a common and innocuous invasion of privacy of which the NYT and many others are also guilty. And with that corrupt equivalency established, Reynolds is able to posts on these matters without condemning the Right's thug tactics, and in fact, implicitly defends them by suggesting that they are rather innocuous and common and nothing to get excited about.
Damn. Remind me never to piss off Greenwald.






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