Phony News Nexus: Links between Hezbollah, Jon Benet's "Killer" , Wilson/Plame Rove Scandal and Hurricane Katrina Hysteria Connect.

Earlier this week, we looked at connections between media hype over Hurricane Katrina and Hezbollah allegations of "massacres" in Lebanon.

In the wake of the announcement that the "news" media was fooled by the phony confession in the Jon Benet Ramsey murder AND the fraud perpetrated against Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby and others in the Wilson/Plame CIA leak case, we add more links to the nexus of phony news which seems to permeate the lamestream media.

Howard Kurtz, reporting in the Washington Post brings the latest two threads of this nexus of phony news together.

Sadly, in the case of the Ramsey murder, it means a family is still deprived of justice. In the case of the Wilson/Plame fraud, the democratic process itself is the victim. For years officials of our government, who have weighty responsibilities on a daily basis for what truly are life and death issues, have been further hamstrung by dealing with phony allegations of illegal activity.

I'm reminded of Ray Donovan, Secretary of Labor in the Bush Administration who was acquitted of charges of corruption. But the damage was done. Donovan famously asked "Where do I go to get my reputation back?"

The damage from years of the Wilson/Plame media fraud has been done. The big lie has been effective in creating false impressions of how our government's top officials conduct themselves.
Ray Robison offers us the following analysis:

Polling Report has a page devoted to the Plame leak case. Let’s review:
ABC/Washington Post asked in September of 2003:

"The U.S. Justice Department has opened an investigation into whether someone in the White House broke the law by identifying a former diplomat's wife as an undercover CIA agent. The former diplomat claims this was done to punish him for criticizing U.S. policy on Iraq. Have you heard or read anything about this situation, or not?"

Yes 68%
No 32%

So over two-thirds of American’s had heard the allegation. Now compare that to the recent survey that indicated how few people could name two SCOTUS justices at only 24%. I bet Ford and Coca-Cola would love that kind of market exposure.

So how effective was the marketing of this lie? The same poll asked:

"Just your best guess, how likely or unlikely do you think it is that someone in the White House leaked this classified information: very likely, somewhat likely, somewhat unlikely or very unlikely?"

Very Likely 34%
Somewhat Likely 38%
Somewhat Unlikely 13 %
Very Unlikely 10 %
No Opinion 5%

That’s right, the reporting was so damning that 72% of American’s indicated they believed the White House did it. Close to three-quarters of the United States populace were duped by the media reporting that the Bush Administration had done it in retaliation.

Just as Secretary Donovan asked in 1987: Where do all those falsely accused in the Wilson/Plame fraud go to get their reputations back? And what about the American people? Where do we go to recover the damage done to our national security and political process by people out to undermine our democratically elected leaders?

In the wake of the Jon Benet Ramsey "confession" fraud, a reporter asked whether it would be appropriate for charges to be filed for lying to the media and creating this scandal. Many of us wonder instead if the "news" media and their allies in the Democrat lie machine who promoted falsehoods against the Administration should not be held accountable. Just look at this report from Jason Leopold, "Karl Rove Indicted on Charges of Perjury, Lying to Investigators " from May 2006.

When will these people be held accountable in a court of law for seeking to undermine the democratic process and the Constitutionally elected government of the United States during a time of war?

When?

UPDATE: Christopher Hitchens Wraps Up the Loose Ends.

Christopher Hitchens has been all over this story from the beginning. His wrap up on the issue is worth reading in full. I doubt it will make much of a dent in those who cling to their hate-Bush prejudices which have been encouraged by left-wing manipulators the last five years. But for anyone not suffering from that intellectual disease, take a look:

Plame Out
The ridiculous end to the scandal that distracted Washington.
By Christopher Hitchens
Slate.Com

I had a feeling that I might slightly regret the title ("Case Closed") of my July 25 column on the Niger uranium story. I have now presented thousands of words of evidence and argument to the effect that, yes, the Saddam Hussein regime did send an important Iraqi nuclear diplomat to Niger in early 1999. And I have not so far received any rebuttal from any source on this crucial point of contention. But there was always another layer to the Joseph Wilson fantasy. Easy enough as it was to prove that he had completely missed the West African evidence that was staring him in the face, there remained the charge that his nonreport on a real threat had led to a government-sponsored vendetta against him and his wife, Valerie Plame.

Hitchens notes that David Corn, who along with Michael Isikoff co-authored the book, which is "amusingly titled Hubris," was among those who falsely condemned the Bush Administration. "It was Corn in particular who asserted—in a July 16, 2003, blog post credited with starting the entire distraction—that:"

The Big Lie: The Wilson smear was a thuggish act. Bush and his crew abused and misused intelligence to make their case for war. Now there is evidence Bushies used classified information and put the nation's counter-proliferation efforts at risk merely to settle a score. It is a sign that with this gang politics trumps national security.

How long will it be before Corn and the other propagators of the big lie apologize for hoodwinking the public and dragging the country through this mess for years?