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Politics : I Will Continue to Continue, to Pretend.... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (7599)	2/8/2005 12:18:57 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

The Post Issues A Correction Powerline blog Last night, we posted an extensive deconstruction of a column by Bill Moyers in which, among other things, he recycled a fake quotation by former Interior Secretary James Watt to support the argument that conservative Christians are out to despoil the environment on the theory that Jesus will return any moment, so it doesn't matter. This morning, we added an update, noting that the Washington Post had repeated the same fraudulent quote in yesterday's paper, likely in reliance on Moyers. We concluded: <<< Sounds like the Post reporter, Blaine Harden, read Moyers' speech and cribbed from it without doing any fact-checking. We've written the Post to request a correction. >>> This evening we received the following email from Blaine Harden, the Post reporter: <<< the Post is running a correction on the Watt quote in Tuesday's paper. >>> We would hope that the Post will not be relying on Bill Moyers as a source in the future. Next up: the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which originally ran Moyers' column, which was a tissue of lies and misrepresentations throughout. Posted by Hindrocket powerlineblog.com

To: Sully- who wrote (7599)	3/9/2005 12:16:09 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

The furphy flies down under Power Line Attila the Pun writes: <<< I thought you may be interested to note that the Bill Moyers slander of James Watt has been repeated verbatim in one of Australia's most prominent newspapers. Alan Ramsey, a columnist with the Sydney Morning Herald, has reprinted large chunks of Moyers' speech given when receiving his Harvard Medical School award. There is no mention of the fact that Watts never made the comments attributed to him, nor the fact that the comments grossly misstate his position. Here is the op-ed piece: "Seeing beyond faith to a dire revelation." I have blogged on it here (mostly a link to your original posts). smh.com.au attilathepun.blogspot.com The thing that did strike me is that, had I not read powerline - a US blog - I would have had no idea that an Australian columnist was feeding me a complete furphy. As always, please keep up the great work. >>> We have previously quoted Mark Twain's maxim that a lie can travel half-way around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes. This case provides a striking illustration of the maxim, and taught me a new word. HINDROCKET adds: Tim Blair, who's on the scene, is also on the case, alerted by Attila and others. The truth actually stands a better chance of catching up in the internet age. Posted by The Big Trunk powerlineblog.com

To: Sully- who wrote (7599)	3/9/2005 12:20:05 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

OBLIVIOUS TO THE FACTS Tim Blair You should be terrified, writes the Sydney Morning Herald’s Alan Ramsey. Quoting Bill Moyers, he warns: The delusional is no longer marginal! Voters and politicians alike are oblivious to the facts! Ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite reality! <<< Bill Moyers, the founding director of Public Affairs Television in Washington, retired three months ago, one of the United States’ most honoured journalists. Harvard Medical School that same month named him the recipient of its fourth annual Global Environmental Citizen Award. Moyers’s acceptance speech should terrify you. If not you deserve everything you get, even if the rest of us don’t. Here is an edited version. "One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the Oval Office and in Congress. For the first time in our history ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven. Ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite reality. When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts. "Remember James Watt, President Reagan’s first secretary of the interior? He was the man who told the US Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in the light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said: ‘After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back.’ Washington elites snickered. The press corps didn’t know what he was talking about. But James Watt was serious.” >>> A small problem for Ramsey: Watt never said any such thing, as Powerline pointed out last month. Moyers subsequently apologised: <<< Bill Moyers has apologized to former U.S. Interior Secretary James Watt for referencing a quote, which has been wrongly attributed to Watt for years, during a speech Moyers gave last December upon receiving an award from Harvard Medical School. The text of the speech has since appeared in several newspapers and on numerous Web sites. "I said I had made a mistake in quoting him without checking with him,” Moyers told E&P today. “I should have done my homework." >>> As should have the ideologue Ramsey, who’s been holding stoutly to a world view despite reality for some time. Why, it’s almost as though he’s delusional, or oblivious to the facts. Over to you, Media Watch; Ramsey deserves everything he gets. (Via Attila The Pun and several readers) UPDATE. More on Alan Wrongsey from Professor Bunyip. timblair.net Posted by tim timblair.net

To: Sully- who wrote (7599)	5/21/2005 4:41:30 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

Lies and the Lying Liberals Who Tell Them Power Line Last February, we helped former Interior Secretary James Watt set the record straight when he was libelled by Bill Moyers. Our exposure of Moyers's falsehoods resulted in a letter of apology from Moyers to Watt (which, however, was insincere), a correction in the Washington Post, and a weird sort-of-correction in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Now, to its credit, the Post has given Mr. Watt equal time to rebut the slander that is being perpetrated against conservative Christians. Watt's article is "The Religious Left's Lies". Here are some excerpts: <<< The religious left's political operatives have mounted a shrill attack on a significant portion of the Christian community. Four out of five evangelical Christians supported President Bush in 2004 -- a third of all ballots cast for him, according to the Pew Research Center. ... The religious left took note. Political opportunists in its ranks sought a wedge issue to weaken the GOP's coalition of Jews, Catholics and evangelicals and shatter its electoral majority. They passed over obvious headliners and landed on a curious but cunning choice: the environment. Those leading the charge are effective advocates: LBJ alumnus Bill Moyers of PBS fame, members of the National Council of Churches USA and liberal theologians who claim a moral superiority to other people of faith. Last December Moyers received an environmental award from Harvard University. About three paragraphs into the speech, after attacking the Bush administration, Moyers said: "James Watt told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, 'After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back.' Beltway elites snickered. The press corps didn't know what he was talking about. But James Watt was serious. So were his compatriots out across the country. They are the people who believe the Bible is literally true -- one-third of the American electorate if a recent Gallup poll is accurate." I never said it. Never believed it. Never even thought it. I know no Christian who believes or preaches such error. The Bible commands conservation -- that we as Christians be careful stewards of the land and resources entrusted to us by the Creator. Moyers is not without reinforcements. A liberal theologian and active participant in the National Council of Churches, Barbara R. Rossing of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, published a book titled "The Rapture Exposed." ... Rossing contends that Christians who believe in the Rapture presume that there is no need for stewardship of natural resources because of the expected return of the Lord. She writes: "Watt told U.S. senators that we are living at the brink of the end-times and implied that this justifies clear-cutting the nation's forest and other unsustainable environmental policies. When he was asked about preserving the environment for future generations, Watt told his Senate confirmation hearing, 'I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns.' Watt's 'use it or lose it' view of the world's resources is a perspective shared by the Rapture proponents." Rossing fictionalizes this whole scenario and neglects to finish the sentence, which was as follows: "I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns; whatever it is we have to manage with a skill to leave the resources needed for future generations." On Feb. 14, the National Council of Churches issued a statement "in an effort to refute" what NCC theologians "call a 'false gospel' . . . and to reject teachings that suggest humans are 'called' to exploit the Earth without care for how our behavior impacts the rest of God's creation. . . . This false gospel still finds its proud preachers and continues to capture its adherents among emboldened political leaders and policymakers." If such a body of belief exists, I would totally reject it, as would all of my friends. When asked who believed such error, where adherents to this "false gospel" might be found, the NCC turned to its theological sources, Moyers and a magazine called Grist, which had also apologized to me. I then contacted the chairman of the NCC task force and asked him about the "some people" who believe this false gospel and the "proud preachers" advancing this false gospel. He could not name such persons. >>> This would be shocking, if we were not so thoroughly accustomed to the mendacity of the left. A Lutheran theologian offers, as the key support for her attack on a former government official, a single sentence--from which she has removed the second half, thereby reversing its meaning. Is this really what they teach in the seminary? As a Lutheran, I hope not. Then, the National Council of Churches issues a press release attacking a purported body of theological opinion which is said to be associated with "emboldened political leaders and policymakers"--Republicans all, of course. Yet, when challenged to name a single person who holds these supposedly widespread views, the person who headed up the task force for the NCC is stumped. He can't name a single human being who holds the views he has so vigorously denounced. This is, apparently, the quality of scholarship we should expect from the National Council of Churches. Pathetic. Thanks to Jim Watt for pointing out today's article to us. Mr. Watt is a kindly gentleman who was enjoying a well-deserved retirement from public life, when he was dragged back into the political fray, against his will, by virtue of being relentlessly libelled by Bill Moyers and other liberals. It's good to see that, having been forced to participate once more in public debate, he is defending himself with the skill and determination that, decades ago, he brought to his years of public service. powerlineblog.com powerlineblog.com washingtonpost.com