Manufactured Nontroversies, Inc.

Matt Osborne catches ABC's Jake Tapper falling hook, line, and sinker for shiny Winger iron pyrite, and then building himself a golden idol to worship out of it.

Sure, no Very Serious Beltway reporter would think to get Arab reaction to a story about public communications aimed at the Arab world. After all, it’s such a chore to chat up the nearest felafel vendor. But would it be too much to ask that ABC not give the right-wing media machine a stovepipe for its smoke?

Answer: of course it’s too much to ask. Here’s how Jake Tapper reported (“EXCLUSIVE!”) last Thursday on Obama’s rebranding of the Iraq war as “Operation New Dawn:”

The move has met with some criticism. In a statement, Brian Wise, executive director of Military Families United said, “You cannot end a war simply by changing its name.  Despite the Administration’s efforts to spin realities on the ground, their efforts do not change the situation at hand in Iraq. Operational military decisions should not be made for purposes of public relations, as the Secretary of Defense cites, but should be made in the best interests of our nation, the  troops on the ground and their families back home.”

Wise should know something about rebranding. “Military Families United” is an astroturf organization related to his better-known project, the “Foundation for the Defense of Democracies,” where he is the Director of Media Relations. FDD is one of those CPAC-welfare agencies supporting otherwise-unemployable neocon mouthpieces like Clifford May.

Like Tapdance checks crap like that.  This guy with this organization said it, and it has "Military" in the title, so it must be totally legit, right?  But Wise's astroturfing and Jake Tapper's judgment aside, Matt hits upon my major beef with the Village:

FDD and MFU exist to manufacture nontroversy; and while the Beltway ought to know this (it’s not hard to figure out from a simple Google search) I get the impression folks like Tapper just don’t care.

At some point, the mavens of journalism decided there can be no story without two sides — never mind if one side has nothing to offer but stupid lies and fear. The rules just require a contradictory quote, is all. Because why report straight news without controversy?

And that's the heart of this darkness here.  I was a journalism major in college.  Rule one was drilled into us: always check your sources.  Guys like Tapper apparently not only don't check, but are so cynical that they simply don't care enough to check in the first place.  I know Washington is a con game, but frankly the Village is so jaded that the entire process is to just find a way to make excuses for why the con game should continue.

So when a new con game comes along, the Village adapts right into justifying the con.  Every con needs a mark, after all.  These astroturf cons are set up to bag Villagers.  They then run that information as fact.  It became overt government policy in the run-up to Iraq, and it never really stopped.  Anything Iraq-related out of the Village should be treated as triply suspect as a result.

The Wingers are just better at it.