Monday, August 04, 2008

Keith Olbermann! Gerald Posner has no clothes!!

I was shocked to come home and see Keith Olbermann again turning to Gerald Posner for "information" regarding the Anthrax case. I had to sit down and fire off a letter to him pronto. I doubt he'll even see it, but he should. Because Gerald Posner is clearly not his friend, or ours, and should NOT be featured on his show.

Here's what I wrote:
Keith!!!

How can you be so naïve???

Don’t you know who Posner is? Or is that the price you have to pay to keep your show on the air?

Posner has proved to be little more than a shill for the intelligence community. His books reek with the access he has received, and his book on the JFK case is one of the single most dishonest books I’ve ever read on the subject.

Has it not occurred to you that if the anthrax attack was an inside plot to help build the case against Iraq, that Posner would be trotted out yet again to spin a theory that takes you FURTHER, not CLOSER, to that horrible truth?

Most of the time you are so insightful and bright that I just want to pull my hair out when you do something so dumb as to give this man credibility by putting him on your show.

Please. There are honest commentators you can have on. But this guy does not deserve your approval. Please – read this, by a historian Posner himself praises:

“Gerald Posner argues that the Warren Commission properly investigated the assassination of JFK. He claims to have refuted the critics, purports to show what actually occurred, and asserts simple factual answers to explain complex problems that have plagued the subject for years. In the process he condemns all who do not agree with the official conclusions as theories driven by conjectures. At the same time his book is so theory driven, so rife with speculation, and so frequently unable to conform his text with the factual content in his sources that it stands as one of the stellar instances of irresponsible publishing on the subject.”

Consider his other books:

Mengele – excuses the CIA for failing to find Mengele (unless of course, they did, in which case he is covering for the CIA.)

His first book by himself – a novel lauding the Cold Warrior old guard of the CIA against the younger corporate types. It’s also about the very people Ivins was a part of – the bio-warfare community. How many inside sources did he have when he wrote The Bio-Assassins?

He openly admitted his extensive contacts in the intelligence community when he wrote Hitler’s Children and a book about the Chinese drug trade (excusing the CIA of course from its golden triangle dealings and focusing instead on the equivalent of the mafia in China).

His book on the Martin Luther King case is even weaker than his book on the Kennedy case, which I hardly thought possible. And then the guy writes about 9/11 and expects anyone to believe him?

Wake up and smell the CIA asset you’re being played by, Keith! Seriously. Start with Carl Bernstein’s article on the CIA and the media and smarten up. I love you, but you’re naïveté is a threat to this nation, given your pulpit’s reach. You can read the whole thing here: http://www.carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php. It’s just a start. But you need to know what’s going on under your nose.

Seriously, I love you, but you’ve got to wise up. You’re the only guy most of us have in the mainstream media that’s believable at all. The more you fall for these guys, the more you become a part of the problem and less a part of the solution.

With great affection and frustration,

Lisa Pease

19 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you, Lisa.

Jeff Cohen has documented how GE/M$NBC dictates the guest lineups on these shows. So my guess is that this is one of the compromises that Olbermann is willing to make in order to stay on the air. Of course there's always the possibility that Keith and Posner are of the same page?

Another of those compromises seems to have been, in order to dump the Skull & Bonesman, Dana Milbank, we get stuck with pundits like Gerald Posner instead.

BTW -- Is it just a coincidence that 'Mr Case Closed / Lone Nut' Gerald Posner is being given such a prominent platform for this case?

8:52 PM  
Blogger Real History Lisa said...

I have to say - there are a bunch of truly inaccurate conspiracy theorists out there who so pollute the waters that mainstream newspeople won't go near them with a plane! I imagine Keith, being one of the few more liberal commentators, probably has heard his share of unsupported theories, and finds it easy to dismiss them en masse.

I really don't want to contemplate the alternative. Secretly I hope he's playing along, and is savvy enough to know better. But I don't know.

9:14 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Olbermann may be one of the many shills they use in the media who, on the surface, appears all "liberal" and a "truthseeker" but in reality is allowed to spout a lot of stuff which seems anti-establishment so that when he does as he is told people will say, "Look, even Olbermann agrees that yada, yada, yada, ..." There's just no way of knowing short of backing these guys up against a wall, putting a gun to their head and demanding answers.
In the 1970's the defence correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph was a CIA asset. He was free to write pretty much what he liked, even the occasional "anti-CIA" article, but when CIA wanted a favourable (to them) story, that's what he wrote. Then if the guy was criticised for toeing the CIA line, he could point to the numerous articles he had written which were "unfavourable" to the intelligence community. It's a perfect scam.
Even Dick Cheney has used it, getting that faux bastion of liberal thought, the New York Times, to print something favourable to him and his evil ambitions and then going on TV soon after to say, "Look, even the NYT agrees that yada, yada, yada, ..."
And I have to tell you that I am deeply suspicious of that great "hero" of the left, Noam Chomsky (aka Gnome Chumpsky) who seems to be allowed to say with impunity anything derogatory about America just so long as he continues to support the "lone nut" theory.
As for Posner, what I think of that oleaginous creature couldn't be printed here. Suffice to say that the man is an odious dissimulator, fantasist and unprincipled charlatan.
Hooah!

7:33 AM  
Blogger Real History Lisa said...

I really don't think Keith is an asset, but I share your suspicion re Chomsky. Btw - did you know Thom Hartmann used to work for the CIA? He's said that himself.

There ARE good people, liberals even, who have worked for the CIA. But the ones who truly share my values would never be hired by the CIA.

7:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's funny that you mention Thom Hartmann. I was thinking of the same analogy. Most on the left take everything Hartmann says, as gospel. Then they wonder why he has so many right wing guests?

Being a regular contributor on Countdown w/Keith Olbermann seems to have anointed Gerald Posner with a similar type of credibility with the left :o(

9:51 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lisa,

If you really want Keith to see this you should post it as a Diary on dKos. He's pretty regular there. If you prefer, I could re-post it as a diary myself, but it would be better to come directly from you, IMO.

10:13 AM  
Blogger Real History Lisa said...

Please cross-post, Dave. I was banned from DK a while back.

11:41 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lisa,
I don't think Olbermann is a CIA asset either. My point is that there is no way of knowing for sure. But that's true for us all. I could be CIA, Mossad, MI5/6 or just another Walter Mitty. It's the latter by the way, although you only have my word for it! ;-)
I didn't know that about Thom Hartmann but I do now. Thanks.
And I agree with you that there are good people working for organisations like the CIA - I'm thinking particularly of those honest FBI agents who suffered during the Hoover years. However, people like that rarely (I probably should say never) make it to the top. The good not only die young, they tend to stay at or near the foot of the ladder. And yeah, I don't think the CIA would employ anyone who fully shared your values ... or mine. And that thought cheers me up immensely! :-)

3:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just a heads-up, Lisa...

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Robert A. Maheu, a former Howard Hughes confidant and CIA operative once involved in a failed plot to poison Fidel Castro, has died in a Las Vegas hospital. He was 90.

Maheu died Monday evening of congestive heart failure at Desert Springs Hospital, according to his son, Peter Maheu.

10:08 AM  
Blogger Real History Lisa said...

As much as I detest much of what he did during his life, I feel for the survivors. Death is never a good thing. In his case, I would have liked him to know that his secrets were being exposed - that would have been punishment enough, for someone like that. Now, it's too late for that kind of justice. I hope we can still get some sort of historical justice.

1:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, let's hope we can get historical justice. I was 20 when JFK was assassinated and for several years thereafter I believed that the truth would be revealed in my lifetime. I still believe that but, you know, they better hurry up 'cause I ain't gonna hang around here forever.

As for Maheu, well, he's out of range of human justice now. Let's hope there's another kind waiting for him.

2:32 PM  
Blogger holytoledo said...

I also was repulsed by Posner's presence on the show. One would think that Olbermann would have left his baseball card obsession alone long enough to read one good book on the JFK case. Then he might refuse to suffer GP on his show. Dana Millbank is an angel compared to GP!

Lisa, thanks for all you do. I'm a big fan. (How come you're not on the show?)

6:45 PM  
Blogger Real History Lisa said...

There are so few of us who are awake, and understand what people like Posner represent. People on the left and right are oblivious to how they are being manipulated.

Your comments here give me hope that there are a few of us who know better, and we may yet help others learn more. Only when we recognize the source of our bondage can we then free ourselves, and each other.

12:03 AM  
Blogger Real History Lisa said...

And HolyToledo - who are you?? ;-) You're a new name to me here. Thanks for your kind words!

12:03 AM  
Blogger JJR said...

I've only been following the story of the alleged Anthrax suicide(d?) perp tangentially, but I can't shake the fact that the word "patsy" keeps burbling up in my consciousness. Seems like the powers behind the curtain trying to create another "lone nut" mythology for public consumption...limited hangout, etc.

Hope you are able to keep tabs on this wider story, Lisa. I always respect this blog as tool to vet media information.

1:57 PM  
Blogger JJR said...

Re: Chomsky

This is why I prefer Michael Parenti to Noam, and Parenti has taken Noam to task over his position on the JFK Assassination and the change of policy in Vietnam that came out of it...
Parenti's book HISTORY AS MYSTERY is especially good, as is his book on Julius Caesar, subtitled a "People's history of Rome".

PS: also not a fan of Keith's anti-gun statements of late in the wake of the Heller case. Gun control is 1) unconstitutional 2) an electoral loser 3)actually irresponsible in the face of such increasingly absolute executive power.

2:13 PM  
Blogger Real History Lisa said...

I disagree re gun control - I think there's a healthy balance to be had that allows the owning and appropriate use of a gun, while making it much harder for kids to run out and just get a gun cheap with hardly a background check.

And believe me - if the government wants to get you, your gun isn't going to stop them at ALL. So if you think that's going to protect you, please read up on the variety of nonlethal weapons they have - they can get to you through walls. Your gun is no use there.

2:57 PM  
Blogger hANOVER fIST said...

Excellent letter, Lisa!

I'm not a televion watcher, so I constantly miss such gems.

He really put on that piece of shite?

This is the same assmouth who said, against all other information, that Deborah Jeane Palfrey committed suicide, when she had EVERYTHING to live for!

She even made advanced payments on the house! Does that sound like a hopeless suicide victim?

Posner is a total tool.

1:00 PM  
Blogger hANOVER fIST said...

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And you can add Dr. Barbara Hatch Rosenberg and Dr. Marian Rippy.

Type in any search with these names and ANTHRAX.

1:08 PM  

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