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Holden Lewis spouting malarky, says:

>I will call Xerxes by the name he wishes to go by. He writes, in
>reference to the Tailwind report:

No, let's try to be accurate here, Holden.  I did not mention Tailwind.
My question, see below, has to do with the policy of Freedom Forum to host
rebuttals for journalists who's efforts have been repudiated by their
former employers.

>>Freedom Forum should make its policy clear on which discredited journalists
>>will be afforded hosting services for rebuttals.

The issue I raise has almost nothing to do with the repudiated story.
Rather, it is a question about making resources available for rebuttals.
How is the decision made to make such resources available?

>Later, he notes that Jim Fallows has been hounded for saying that
>newspapers should cover what readers want covered,

Fallows has been hounded.  See Lloyd Grove's article on him in the Post.
But the reason you cite is one you supplied, not I.

>and that The Dallas Morning News had to withdraw a story about Monica
>Lewinsky that maybe was
>true after all.

The story was about former and present secret service agents.  Some of
their grand jury testimony at this point has been widely reported, based on
their's or their attorneys' statements.

>Xerxes is engaging in some of the behavior he implicitly criticizes:
>making judgments before the facts are in. Prejudice, in a word.

Oh nonsense.  Exactly what judgments do you imagine that I have made?  My
observations were of widely reported events, and there was little or no
interpretation involved.  Besides, I am not an editor or reporter.  And, I
am not now, nor have I ever been employed to report or disseminate news.

[much blarney snipped.....]

The Secretary of Defense and Clinton appointee, former Senator Cohen, has
stated, based on an inquiry he initiated, that there was never any sarin
gas in the entire theatre of operations.  Holden, do you imagine he is a
fool, or part of some "vast" confabulated cover-up?

>
>It bothers me that Xerxes doesn't identify himself and his affiliation
>because it makes me think that maybe he works for the CIA or the military
>and is trying to mislead us.

Numerous people on this list have met me in person.  I have never served in
the military, nor have I served in any intelligence agency, either as an
officer or contract employee.  The accusation is pretty funny, actually....
8-)    My personality is far too anti-authoritarian to serve in either of
those spheres.

>There is a vast, organized effort to
>discredit and punish CNN and the reporters behind the Tailwind report,
>maybe justifiably and maybe not. I wonder if Xerxes's posts are part of
>that effort.

Vast, huh?  The CNN-Time folks appear to have discredited themselves.  They
seem to have needed no help from anyone.

The summer before an election season typically surfaces inflamatory,
ill-supported allegations, tailor made for paranoids.  Remember the SJose
Mercury story in 96' about the CIA peddling cocaine in LA?  Look how far
that fiasco story went.  The CIA has long been the standard whipping boy
for conspiracy flakes for 30 years.  What else is new?

You enjoy conspiracy tales?  Go see the X-Files film.  You'll love it.





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