If quality and ethics were a factor in media personnel decisions, Maureen Dowd would have been demoted or fired some time ago. Christian Lowe details the new-told lie:
"Yes, the president's Oct. 29 trip to Dover Air Force base in the dark of night to greet a C-17 carrying fallen Americans killed in Afghanistan was a vivid example of the reality of that war and should pause to those who call for increased commitment there. And it was honorable of Obama to see for himself the human cost of his decisions -- as every commander and chief should.
But to reflexively defend the photo op engineered to create news about the president's "sobering reminder" by claiming that the man who got us into Afghanistan in the first place never faced them is just plain bunk....
We wrote a wide-ranging investigative piece on the conduct of the services during the killed-in-action notification process and the support they provided along the way.... For, unlike Dowd, who I doubt has ever spoken with the family of a fallen servicemember, I was forced to confront the world I obliquely reported from afar -- to hear the quavering voices of mothers whose sons had been obliterated by roadside bombs. And you know who else did that very same thing dozens of times in his eight years as president?"
You can guess where this is going...
"In my conversations with those who sacrificed a son, a husband, a brother, or a boyfriend, all were universally grateful for George W. Bush's sincere -- and private -- conversations with them either before or directly after an event or speech at a military base. As a routine, Bush would meet behind closed doors with family members who'd lost loved ones as part of his stop at military installations.
These were not simply pro-war, anti-war, pro-Bush or anti-Bush families -- they were all of the above. Some were against the Iraq war; others were steadfast, despite their unimaginable sacrifice, for victory there. But to a man and women, these grieving Americans appreciated the president's heartfelt compassion and deep understanding of their sacrifice -- and of the weight of the decision to send potentially more of America's young to their deaths."
I'm not sure this will matter to a narcissist viper like Ms. Dowd, because I doubt that truth means very much to her. She has a narrative to sell, and lies are justified in the telling.
Bill Whittle has a pretty good video post about that mentality, which actually has a strong set of philosophical defenders and underpinnings in the Left.
It's a philosophically valuable piece, albeit not nearly as funny as his "The Dowd Conundrum" Star Trek episode takeoff, complete with sets. Hell of a Shatner imitation, Bill, and an interesting point or two along the way about intellectuals and power.