Cernig at Larisa Alexandrovna’s site had me persuaded for two whole paragraphs.
Now, having little taste for the fine art of distractions-from-distractions, I tend to roll my eyes at the transparently partisan diversionary tactics one sees all over the web from Democrats in defense of John Edwards (eg “who cares about a politician’s adultery when there’s potholes in the streets!”). However, Cernig’s complaint that the national media was focusing on that rather tawdry and meaningless scandal to the exclusion of the crisis in Georgia, had some legitimacy. Reading it I paused for a moment, reflected on the non-Olympic television news coverage I’d watched over the past 24 hours, and decided Cernig had a legitimate point.
But it turns out in paragraph four that what Cernig’s really upset about is that the press isn’t using the occasion to abase itself in apologies for Russian imperialism, and denunciations of the US alliance with Georgia as an expression of a sinister conspiracy of greed. And then there’s this stupefyingly absurd angle the press is supposedly ignoring:
Un-amazingly, few have mentioned Cheney’s obsession – black gold – in their analysis of the reasons behind American backing for Georgia in it’s confrontation with its far larger neighbour.
(at-largely)
Just pathetic. If that’s the alternative Cernig, may the media resume Edwards coverage unabated.