Once again, the doom and gloom types look to have yet another reason to say, "I told you so," as the warmongers' whores do their part to scare America silly and the warmongers themselves enter Phase Two and make serious preparations for the "inevitable" war with Iran. Glenn asks some good questions about the whores, and their willingness to cheerlead us all into the unthinkable:

One of the critical issues which that disgraceful Michael Gordon article in yesterday's New York Times raises is the extent to which so many national journalists are so eager to prove to right-wing fanatics that they are sympathetic to their agenda. Years of being attacked by the Rush Limbaughs and Sean Hannitys and Bill O'Reillys as being part of the dreaded "liberal media" has created an obsequious need among many journalists to curry favor — through reporting which echoes right-wing narratives and/or by attacking the "liberal bias" of their fellow journalists — all in order to avoid being criticized by the right-wing noise machine.That is the defining symptom of The Mark Halperin Syndrome.

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Manifestly, Moran — just like Halperin — is eager to show that he is pro-military and was desperate to convince Hewitt that he is not one of those dirty anti-American subversive liberals. To achieve that goal, Moran paraded in front of Hewitt and smeared his fellow journalists as being "deep[ly] anti-military" and claimed that they have a "dangerous" hostility to "American projection of power around the world." Identically, Halperin begged Hewitt not to"lump [him] in with people in [his] business who are liberally biased and don’t seem to care about it." 

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The influence of The Mark Halperin Syndrome on our media cannot be overstated. There is a pervasive desire on the part of many national journalists to prove to the right-wing noise machine that they are not like their horrible, leftist, America-hating, anti-military journalistic colleagues which the Right has so successfully demonized.

There are days when one really has to wonder why anyone- no matter how much they want to be popular or not picked on by the Freepers or how many parties it means they’ll get invited to- could avocate for what will likely turn into a multigenerational Clusterfuck that bankrupts the nation and guarantees repeated terrorist attack on American soil at best, and could lead us to WWIII and Armaggedon at worst. On no level does an invasion or major attack on Iran at this time make any sort of logical sense.

Even Corrente’s #1 and most beloved right-wing troll agrees on this.

As Glenn and others point out, the voices that most strongly repeat the Administrations completely obvious lies about Iran aren’t even that original. How stupid must they be to fail to understand that to most of us, this drumbeat is tired and you really can’t dance to it?

So I thought I’d toss out there what I think is really at the heart of all of this. Sure, war cheerleaders in the media are most likely racist, willfully ignorant, bigoted, closet encased hypocrites who get off on the idea of other people dropping bombs on innocent non-coreligionists. But anyone can be that way- what is the logic of going on record as such, time and time again?

In a word: money.

I may come back and make a serious post on this topic later, so forgive the laziness tonight. But take a look at this really old (Intertube year-wise) piece on how right wing writers and “thinkers” are supported financially. Keep in mind too- this article is about conditions before Bush was installed, and the treasury became the Republican party cookie jar. If you’re less than talented, unpopular with the Kewl Kids (the smart, liberal people, that is) and you don’t know what to do with your life…Voila! Become a partisan media hack for a few years, and your career is made.

Gannon is the obvious example here. Besides being a really Manly Military Top (8” cut), Gannon showed us that everyone who pumps says the right things can get ahead in today’s media environment. And stay there! I know Gannon got fired from his “job” at the Blade, but I’m sure he’s doing OK. And even if he did prove to only be worth paying so long as he kept those manly top-only inches hard, “respectable” people like Moran and Gordon won’t have anything to worry about. They can all look forward to cushy TV and think tank gigs, insider deals and opportunities, and swank vactions and parties, for the rest of their lives. Let me remind people again that many of these parasites are paid with your tax dollars, illegally.

So the next time you read about another kneepad-abusing “journalist” avoiding actual journalism to bring about the end of the world, keep in mind that the gravy train is good, and money cures all common sense. I suspect that several drinks in at their little Beltway parties, these whores and their masters wax insanely, and rumminate about the comfortable bunkers and shelters to which they will retreat, should Russia or China decide that they don’t really want us to take over all the oil fields in the Middle East unopposed. There is no fantasy quite so twisted a fascist fantasy, and I don’t forget that even to the end, the Nazi leaders were patting each other on the backs, sure that no matter how many of their brownshirt rubes died, they would remain safe, well fed and comfortable.