Little Green Footballs

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Charles Johnson and Mark Foley

Little Green Footballs supremo Charles Johnson, a self-declared former liberal who now cheers for the Republican party but still somehow maintains that his site is a fair and balanced take on world affairs, has a problem. That problem is called Mark Foley.

Foley, as most of the world now knows, is a US congressman alleged to have exchanged saucy emails with boys. He is also an anti-pedophile campaigner, and has thus become the Republicans' biggest liability in the run-up to the November congressional elections.

The news about Foley's actions starting leaking to the public on September 24. For a full timeline, look here. But while one of the biggest and most critical political storms gaining strength, Charles Johnson decided not to post a word about the scandal, until October 2 - a week after it first broke. And when he did, his post was an attempt to undermine Foley's accusers on the basis of a half-baked theory that retyped emails somehow invalidate originals (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22801).

Remember, we've been there before: during Charles Johnson's 15 Minutes of Fame in 2004, he successfully showed that a document about Bush's military record shown by CBS was fake. What he didn't show was that the facts presented by the document were fake.

So you would by now expect such a crusader for truth and honesty as Charles Johnson to have written more about Foley. And indeed he has! In a second post, Johnson says that Foley's "actions are completely inexcusable". He also takes a swipe - again - at Foley's accusers. And, eh, that's it.

A congressman who appears to have abused his position to fiddle with boys and mislead the public gets as much attention on LGF as an anonymous person's photoshop prank about someone most Americans have never heard of or care about (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=22830).

You may think that's sick, but the truth is, it's all in a day's work for Republican standard bearer Charles Johnson, whose ideological convictions have made him blind to such minor issues as honesty and integrity in public officials. Don't believe us? Why not search for some posts about other recent Republican scandals on his site? Remember Abramoff? Remember Tom DeLay? Good luck!

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