The Hub of Politics

Having already canceled my subscription, I'm usually spared the unctuous rantings of the principal know-it-all harpy of the Boston Herald - Margery Eagan. But as I still get the paper delivered (and will for free, I suppose, until they figure it all out), I can yet manage to catch a glimpse of one of the main reasons I decided to save the roughly $45 my monthly subscription used to cost me.

Now I will admit when I first heard the tape-recorded statements of recently released CSM reporter Jill Carroll - praising "the mujahideen" in Iraq and parroting the standard BushLied™ meme - I was pissed. I was ready to call for the young lady's head on a plate, I thought she was a traitor and I looked forward to a good old-fashioned lynching were she to ever stray far from deep-blue New England and away from this cesspool of Bush Derangement Syndrome.

But something didn't add up. While it was relatively easy for me to believe that Carroll was just another media leftie - more than happy to sacrifice her journalistic "integrity" to become the next Cindy Sheehan - it didn't seem to fit. I mean, nothing about her translator being killed, nothing that jived with her previous tapes where she - like any of us would - looked scared to death.

What was not clear to me from reading the press reports at the time was that she was still, for all intents and purposes, in captivity when she made that video - a tape she has subsequently disavowed - quickly and completely, to her great credit (h/t to Aaron).

So, I feel somewhat sheepish for not catching the contradictions a little quicker, and a little bad for my initial reactions to the Carroll tape. In that situation, you say what you need to say to survive another day - period - and I apologize to Ms. Carroll for my unkind thoughts.

Enter, stage left, Ms. Eagan.

As usual, you don't have to get far past the title:

Carroll critics big on ignorance, short on courage

to know just where this is going.

After calling-out (as prrof of her thesis, mind you) some random samples (3, in total) of bloggers and emailers who apparently weren't willing to, as I did, think before they blogged, we were then treated to these, in succession:

We know the left demonizes Bush: He’s a moronic oil baron. And the right demonizes Hillary: She’s a satanic socialist.

OK, so demonization is just fine - I suppose - if you're a public official.

But what’s with demonizing, without any facts, a woman they saw over and over again on TV, weeping and pleading for her life?

They screwed-up - and will, hopefully sooner rather than later - man-up and admit to it.

But then Ms. Eagan cannot resist the urge to demonstrate why she is the Pot to the hair-triggered bloggers Kettles:

I say what we’re dealing with here is a bunch of cowards and chickenhawks, the sorts who’d die of fright were they forced to endure for one day what Jill Carroll endured for 82.

And you say this based on what, precisely?

Ignorant of all the facts much?

Jumping to conclusions much?

And who the heck are these people you're calling out and using to tar the entire right-blogland as chickenhawks? A couple of simple AltaVista searches pulls-up precisely nothing related.

Here's what I say, Margery - you made them up. Disprove.

If they had any courage at all, they’d be lining up to apologize, en masse, today, now that Carroll herself has spoken. But don’t bet the ranch.

Well, perhaps your imaginary friends are doing just this. Why don't you go ask them.

So let's recap - you have demonstrated precisely the same level of ignorance toward certain people, whom preliminary evidence indicates you've made up out of whole cloth, you have spilt valuable ink and wasted valuable column-space claiming were assailing Jill Carroll. And you managed to throw-in a ChickenHawk™ to boot!

Drop dead, Margery.