Why Let Franken Win?

ROLLING OVER

Franken Scores At WSJ Columnist's Expense



Rather than taking on one of the left's sleaziest characters, is maintaining a stuffy media pecking order more important? Or can this blunder be chalked up to pure ignorance?

Exposing a key danger of conservative disunity, a Wall Street Journal columnist has needlessly allowed Air America talk show host Al Franken to score points at his expense.

And it's forced the Radio Equalizer to address one of the conservative media's biggest weaknesses: structural quirks that interfere with good story judgment. Is it about rivalries, or other issues?

We watched the liberal media establishment ignore Air America's funding scandal story, where $875,000 in taxpayer funds were apparently diverted from an inner-city nonprofit, until readers began to fight back. Eventually, some relented, including the New York Times. Increasingly, the story is attaining nationwide awareness levels.

Completely missing in action, however, has been the Wall Street Journal. Why?

Since it published 2004's best expose on the liberal talk network's many unpleasant operational issues, it would seem natural for the WSJ to tackle sleazy revelations instead left to Malkin and Maloney, the New York Sun, Post and others.

Nothing about the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club's money transfers to Air America, Franken's confirmed lying on when he first knew of the scandal (proven via a notarized document), corporate shell games, near-constant lawsuits, or quasi-panhandling seem to interest the Journal's staffers.

Coming to terms with this eventually occurred for the Radio Equalizer, but an infuriating incident this week finally uncorked the bottle.

Exceptionally popular online writer James Taranto, who writes "Best of the Web Today" for WSJ's OpinionJournal.com, managed to roll over and play dead in an elementary playground-level fight with sleazy Al Franken.

Since July, the Radio Equalizer isn't aware of one word written by Taranto on the Air America scandals. If he's not interested, fine, but we've always sent email alerts to the latest developments.

On September 16, Taranto appeared on the FOX News Channel's Hannity and Colmes show, claiming President Bush's poll numbers had begun to improve after a post-Katrina hit. Colmes and Internet liberals quickly pounced on Taranto, who conceded he may have been mistaken.

Though a later Rasmussen survey did appear to partially verify the assertion, it's not clear what he thought he'd seen. When pressed, Taranto quickly backed off of it, which in hindsight appears a good call.

Enter previously uninvolved Al Franken, whose intellectual dishonesty is exceeded only by his incredible arrogance. Writing Taranto, Franken's account of events was, according to the leftist Media Matters:


In an on-air conversation with Media Matters president and CEO David Brock on September 21, Franken described the email exchange he initiated with Taranto asking him about his assertion on Hannity & Colmes:


FRANKEN: Now I emailed James Taranto.

BROCK: Is that right?

FRANKEN: Yeah, I got his email address from somebody.

BROCK: Great.

FRANKEN: And this is what I wrote. I wrote, "Hi, James. I have a radio show on Air America Radio, and something we do is check stuff that doesn't sound right to us."

BROCK: [Laughter]

FRANKEN: "Recently on Hannity & Colmes, you said, quote: 'I think we've already seen the poll numbers start to bounce back.' When Colmes asked, 'Where?,' you said, 'I've seen some polls in which the approval rating is almost as high as the disapproval.' We've had difficulty finding such polls. Could you direct us to them? Thank you, Al Franken."

BROCK: [Laughter]

FRANKEN: Now to James Taranto's --

KATHERINE LANPHER (co-host): Credit?

FRANKEN: -- credit -- to his credit, he emailed me back and wrote this. He said, "Dear Mr. Franken, It's possible that I was mistaken about this. Cheers."

BROCK: [Laughter]

FRANKEN: Now, here's the thing. Let's not punish a guy --

BROCK: Right.

FRANKEN: -- for getting back to me. Right?

BROCK: Sure. Absolutely.

FRANKEN: It was a very quick and forthright response.

BROCK: Right. And he's not being dishonest in his response.

FRANKEN: No. Now I -- and when I wrote him back, I was extremely careful to -- I just said, "Thank you for the quick and forthright response."

BROCK: Right.

FRANKEN: And I didn't say anything snarky.

BROCK: Sure.

FRANKEN: I didn't say like, "Oh, one other question: Why would you act like you're so certain" --

BROCK: Right.

FRANKEN: -- "about something that you clearly were mistaken about and had no basis for?" I didn't do that.

BROCK: Right.

FRANKEN: And you know why? You don't punish someone.


Of course, one wonders how much Franken has twisted and contorted these events. Why did Taranto fall for it in the first place, however? He'd already admitted his potential mistake to others. Why give Franken the satisfaction?

Rather than fire back over Franken's proven ethical lapses in Air America's sleazy scandal, Taranto rolled over and played dead. Franken and Brock are now having a great time at his expense.

Did maintaining a stuffy media pecking order force Taranto into a duel with an unloaded weapon? How could you not shoot back by mentioning Franken's unclean hands in the honesty and accuracy department?

It appears not acknowledging a Journal-ignored, blogger-led story was more important than holding Al Franken accountable for his sleaziness. Franken hasn't a moral or ethical leg to stand on, regardless of the topic. He's the last person that should challenging anyone on accuracy matters.

Or could it really be possible Taranto isn't aware of the Gloria Wise scandal? Seems unlikely, but one never knows. Would he face the wrath of his Journal editors?

Luckily, the Journal has been nearly alone in shunning the topic, at least from conservative-leaning publications. Between top-quality blogs, the National Review, Weekly Standard and a number of newspapers including the Washington Times, coverage has steadily increased with each damning revelation.

The Radio Equalizer makes these points as a longtime fan of both the WSJ and Taranto's work. In that spirit of constructive criticism (of which I now expose myself to his), add this: what good came from trying to appease Franken?

In Thursday's column, Taranto noted the Media Matters attention, realized he was actually correct on the Bush poll data, and mentioned Franken. Yet somehow, the Air America scandal still wasn't worth addressing (Tip: reader Andy B.)

Today Powerline has a superb piece on Al Franken's Friday Yale Law School speech (tipped off by investigative partner Michelle Malkin), with rough notes from "our own correspondent" on scene in New Haven. It shows how Franken's now busy using Taranto's weak response as ammo against the right:


· Taranto says on Hannity and Colmes that Bush’s numbers are bouncing back. Franken writes him and e-mail asking for polls that show president is bouncing back from Katrina…Taranto writes back “Dear Mr. Franken I may have been mistaken” and corrects himself the next day…says he got lots of angry mail, that all the angry left can do is be angry.

· Franken says he’s bullsh------…sometimes you have to get angry. Why shouldn’t we be angry at this malfeasance? Why shouldn’t we be angry a guy with no experience is at head of FEMA? Same with homeland security? Wasting billions going to cronies that could be used to educate people? Used to save lives in Africa? Is that not worth being angry about?


I'd like to find out why Taranto took this approach with Franken. If he responds to my email, I'll let you know here. If events have been mischaracterized (which would be good news), that will be indicated as well.

In the meantime, should you find yourself in a battle with the likes of Al Franken, go ahead and take the gloves off. With any hesitation on your part, you may get nailed below the belt.


Welcome Powerline and Free Republic readers.


Franken graphics by Pete at IHillary. Franken/AAR scandal by Darleen Click. Taranto photo and WSJ graphic from OpinionJournal.com. Your Amazon orders help to support this site's efforts. Thanks!