Sunday, March 04, 2007

Joke of the Day

The Nation sent someone to infiltrate CPAC. (Michelle Malkin mentions it here).

Among other things, he claims that Malkin went 'unhinged' when asked about her book, 'In Defense of Internment. He stalked her across the floor, taped the episode, and then edited it to filter out the mild stuff, leaving this nasty exchange:

MB: Hi, Michelle. I'm Max Blumenthal with the Nation.
MM: Oh, hello.
MB: Hi. I loved your book, In Defense of Internment. I was wondering...
MM: Uh, I don't think you did.
MB: (Proferring a photo of an internment camp.) Can you make this out to 'Max?'
MM: I'm not going to sign that.
MB: Why? What's the problem.
MM: I'm not going to sign it.
MB: Well, why not?
MM: I'm not going to sign it.

SNIP!

MM: (Points at the camera) Let me tell you something since you are filming this. I am all for honest intellectual debate.

SNIP!

MM: I had extensive exchanges with critics of my book. I put up an errata page. I invited the...
MB: You had to issue errata?
MM: Excuse me. Exactly. I did.
MB: So you made a lot of errors in your book?
MM: I made a lot of errors and I acknowledged several errors in my book.

SNIP!

MM: I absolutely detest your initiative in trying to smear my work without even reading it.

SNIP!

MM: Thank you very much. That's all the time I have...
MB: (Following her) That was a good speech, Malkin. Now I was wondering if you'd learned any lessons... um... journalistically...

MB: There she goes...I think that went really well...

Pretty vicious on Malkin's part, huh?

All it took was four edits to produce such unhinged comments as 'I made a lot of errors in my book, and 'I detest your initiative in trying to smear my work without even reading it.'

It's cute. Blumenthal even prefaces the video with the tease 'see seven minutes of raw, unexpurgated right wing action' and then posts a clip that's heavily edited. I bet they don't have the guts to show the full exchange. Malkin was polite at all times, if direct - not a surprise considering the confrontation Blumenthal sought.

I wonder what he said to her that he edited out?

Further, if the Nation is looking for truly unhinged material, have they tried looking at any of the leading Leftie blogs?

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