[To be clear, this is Paul writing, not Kevin. He had his say, now it’s my turn.]
Mr. Pein,
I have an overwhelming urge to simply write, “You are an idiot” and sign my name. That level of response would be commensurate with your effort put forth to understand both the original Rathergate issues as well as the issues surrounding Dr. Hailey and his “research.”
As the person who first discovered and documented the problems with Dr. Hailey’s report, I feel obligated to respond. You have made any number of laughable errors but perhaps none greater (or at least funnier) than the first thing you said about Haileygate.
In order to understand Memogate, you need to understand Haileygate.
You then proceed to prove -to anyone knowledgeable of the topic- that you did not understand Haileygate. What does that say about the rest of your assertions?
You incorrectly stated, “Someone found a draft of his work on a publicly accessible university Web site, and it wound up on a conservative blog, Wizbang.”
That is simply, factually wrong. It is not a matter of opinion, it is not up for debate. It is a statement of fact that is wrong. Your inability (or unwillingness) to get your facts correct speaks volumes of your effort and dare a say it, of your motives.
It was Dr. Hailey himself, who, 8 days after the 60 Minutes piece aired, began promoting his report on liberals websites. If you had taken the time to actually read many of the posts here you would have also seen the “DRAFT” issue was addressed. It did not become a “draft” until after I first posted the problems with his work. You don’t have to take my word for it… His original PDF is available here had you only taken 10 minutes of the “weeks” you claim to have spent on this story reading it.
Further, it was such common knowledge (to everyone except you) that he put the word draft on it later, that it became a running joke here at Wizbang. Certainly someone who claimed to “understand” Haileygate should have gotten that right.
Then you, quite bizarrely, say, “The blog, citing evidence that it had misinterpreted…”
Excuse me? You have stated that I misinterpreted something. What exactly?
You are simply throwing nonsense up against the wall and hoping it will stick. I misinterpreted nothing. I have over a dozen years of experience working with raster graphics. You have no clue (by your own admission) what you are looking at. There has been a ton of misinterpreting lately about Haileygate, but it has not been from me. You made the accusation that I misinterpreted something and the ignorant reader might believe you. It was either irresponsible or dishonest of you to do that. -or perhaps both.
In your (rather weak) attempt to defend your horrifically inaccurate report you say, “To prove that Hailey’s study was “debunked,” [Jonathan] Last cites the very bloggers who hounded Hailey “
To show your complete ineptitude, Mr. Last did not reference me, Wizbang or even the topic of Haileygate in his article. You did claim to be a reporter right?
This is another in a long list of things you could not bother to get right. But for the record, I never once spoke to Dr. Hailey or even emailed him. To say he was “hounded” by me (or anyone at Wizbang) is patently incorrect.
You claim to have spent “weeks” on this story but your lack of knowledge surrounding the basic facts belies that claim. If I were your employer, I’d want to know what you were doing for all those weeks. 20 minutes at Wizbang could have disabused you of many of your misconceptions. Lastly, as someone who has been intimately involved with this story since it broke, I’d guess I have have less than 20 hours into it… And you spent weeks?
In short Mr. Pein, you are guilty of exactly what you accuse the bloggers of. You started with a premiss and simply put random words on paper to support it. I have news for you. Any one of the bloogers involved in this story have been far more accurate and far more responsible than you have in your reporting.
And they get to work in their pajamas.
Well stated!!! Can’t wait to see when and if little Corey responds!
Good for you Paul!! Good for you!!
~shessh~ but will they ever learn?
Excellent stuff, Paul. But, don’t hold your breath for a respense from Mr. Pein. His ineptitude is obvious and I think he would rather (pardon the pun) not risk further visibility. He’ll probably just continue to commiserate with his cronies in their “safe” environment. Man, what the hell was he thinking? I doubt any of these dinosaurs will ever get it.
Ok, thats it. I’ve had enough. This is the last straw.
I hope Mr. Pein is feeling proud of himself. I also hope he reads this comment; he is a perfect example of everything that is wrong with contemporary journalism.
I will never buy another page of newsprint for as long as I live. I might live a long time. That’s probably thousands of dollars that Mr. Pein’s fellow journalists will lose.
Good Job.
Pein is an angry leftist who sees his future industry (the MSM) evaporating before his eyes and before his student loan deferments even expire. He has no alternative except an attempt at being “controversial.” There’s nothing left. But it doesn’t warrant your attention no less a reply. Doing so transforms him from an irelevant nobody into a …. ok, you got me there. But you get my point.
The only thing that should be added would be to give Pein a wedgie when you were done.
where is docweasel, I thought he claimed that blogs were “self-important”. If they’re so self-important, then how come journalists feel they’re worthy enough to write about?
Paul: You are an idiot.
‘Roots’ was just an attempt by Dr. Hailey to rewrite history to make Negros look better than they were.
And the word is ‘premise’, dumbass.
Look it up dumbass Premiss
Paul, don’t give minnie ammo, minnie is probably a DUer that posts here, just to give DUers more ammo, as if they were one of “us”.
Pein is no doubt ecstatic about all the attention he has been getting. Time has come to start ignoring him.
Umm, it’s both: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=premiss
Kevin and Paul,
You guys are really losing me big time; I have no idea whom you are talking about anymore or why.
Cindy
Kevin and Paul,
You guys are really losing me big time; I have no idea whom you are talking about anymore or why.
Cindy
And making her stutter
As one who first read a Weblog on Sept. 9th 2004 I appreciate your follow up, Paul. Don’t give em an inch in this deal. Thanks, It’s been fun to watch on Wizbang, LGF, Powerline, Et. Al.
Agreed, Mark.
Cindy – search for “CJR” and see the first thread on Corey Pein at: http://wizbangblog.com/archives/004698.php .
Corey Pein wrote an article in Columbia Journalism Review, defending CBS on the fake memos, promoting Prof. Hailey’s discredited study, and attacking bloggers.
His article would be insignificant except for the possibility that the upcoming CBS report on its internal investigation may try to rely on Hailey and Pein.
You doofuses don’t give up, do you? Unlike your fellow agenda-driven, truth-be-damned bloggers at Power Line, The Free Republic, and Little Green Footballs, and as well as the increasingly lazy-ass, tabloid-driven mainstream press, Corey Pein actually did some genuine research. I personally think he was way too timid and diplomatic — if it was me, I would have totally mocked the blogger “evidence” and crucified the mainstream media for not even apparently bothering to have some interns do the most elementary of research and fact checking. The memos don’t appear to be “fake” in any real way if you bother to do any real forensics research, including searching for anything that corroborates the memos’ contents and really looking into the types of equipment available at the time that would account for appearances. These plus other issues like the signature matchups, timelines, and the recollections of people around at the time all need to be collected together, and any legitimate explanation would have to accommodate all of these pieces of evidence and not just the bits that suit your political agenda. That’s how it’s done right and proper.
And denial is a river in Africa.
Hey, my nice long, well-thought out, and not at all mocking reply mysteriously disappeared – no fair!
I’m not going to repeat everything, but:
Nonesuch is a genuine river in Maine.
The memos aren’t fake in any real sense. The August 1st 1972 memo in particular is directly corroborated by 4 DOD-released Bush Guard records and indirectly by a 5th.
Daisywheel printers apparently faded from group memory even though Diablos were around since 1969 and could proportionally print in a variety of fonts and super/subscript, as well microspace, right and center justify, and even print graphs and low-rez pictures. They were so popular that the first Canon laser printers, which were OEM’d to HP for their first LaserJets, had Diable 630 emulation for “letter quality mode.
Blog sites are no substitute for real journalists dutifully doing real journalism, which has been less and less the case every year.
If that CBS internal investigation does its homework, it should come to a conclusion similar to what happened years ago during a similar investigation into an earlier “CBS Reports” about how Gen. Westmoreland deliberately misled the American public with large undercounts of Vietnamese forces. That report found nothing really wrong with the basic points of the story, but faulted how the program “in its execution . . . was seriously flawed.”
I just finished a big debate/trashing on Usenet (where manly posters troll) about this, including a summary with some bits and links at the bottom regarding the CBS memos thing that might be worth a visit if you guys are serious about knowing something other than dumbass rants and poor analysis from right-wingers and bogus experts: http://tinyurl.com/579rp
BC- Give it up.
If you suffer from delusions OK but don’t expect other people to join you in your hallucinations.