“MEDIA MATTERS Watch” : Media Matters’ Falsehoods Exposed!

Reaching a new level of desperation, a September 7, 2006, post is rife with errors, falsehoods, and inaccuracies. MMatters makes an absolutely ridiculous attempt to save its face regarding the Joe Wilson-Valerie Plame affair. MMatters and other liberal outlets have been roundly discredited since it has now been publicly confirmed that Richard Armitage, not Karl Rove or "Scooter" Libby, leaked the identity of Valerie Plame to columnist Robert Novak.

1. Media Matters falsely suggests that the following claim is false:

The truth is that Plame was greatly responsible for getting her husband sent to Niger. A 2004 Senate report publicized an actual letter of recommendation (!) that Valerie Plame wrote to the CIA trumping her husband’s "good relations with both the Prime Minister and the former Minister of Mines [of Niger], not to mention lots of French contacts."

MMatters is simply flat-out wrong on this. MMatters’ years-old citation of unnamed "CIA officials" has been methodically debunked and discredited.

2. Media Matters also claims that the revealed role of Armitage somehow does not absolve Rove and Libby. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is well illustrated by columnist Christopher Hitchens in his must-read column, "Plame Out:The ridiculous end to the scandal that distracted Washington."

3. Media Matters also falsely asserts that the following claim is false:

Uhhh … MMatters completely ignores the fact that Joe Wilson flat-out lied in his July 2003 NY Times op-ed. The 2004 bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee reported, "The report also said Wilson provided misleading information to The Washington Post last June." (Here is a must-read link.)

That MMatters even attempts to defend Wilson in this regard is astounding. Even John Kerry distanced himself from Wilson during his campaign after Wilson was exposed as a liar.

For more reading on this entire fiasco of an affair, check out these excellent pieces by Christopher Hitchens:

"Case Closed: The truth about the Iraqi-Niger ‘yellowcake’ nexus."

"Plame’s Lame Game: What Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife forgot to tell us about the yellow-cake scandal."

"Wowie Zahawie: Sorry everyone, but Iraq did go uranium shopping in Niger."

"Plame Out: The ridiculous end to the scandal that distracted Washington."