Cited by the Right Wing Conspiracy

Readers of left-leaning blogs likely know about Markos Zuniga, founder of the hugely successful blog, Daily Kos. Markos has been hugely influential in increasing activism on the left and on Internet fundraising for Democratic candidates.

Markos made a highly incendiary comment on his blog last week, commenting on the deaths of the four private civilians in Fallujah. "Kos," as he is known, got pretty worked up and said that the deaths of these "mercenaries" made him "feel nothing." He also wrote, "Screw 'em." Well, Kos' comments sparked a lot of commentary, even within the site. I myself didn't agree with the sentiments.

Kos ultimately wrote further on the issue, noting his upbringing in war-torn El Salvador, and contritely noted that he actually did feel something -- anger that these deaths received so much notice, when these were men who were choosing to go into these dangerous areas for as much as $1000/day, but the deaths of five U.S. soliders, who get paid very little and are stuck in an impossible situation, in Iraq the same day went unnoticed.

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page has a blog that discusses the day's news in as impartial a fashion as we've come to expect from the WSJ Ed. page. On Friday they hammered Kos, and took great glee in publicizing and demonizing him. This negative publicity ultimately forced multiple advertisers, including John Kerry, to pull their ads on his blog. I thought their piece was terribly one-sided, so I e-mailed them to say so, thinking nothing further would come of it.

(Interestingly, that same day, on the Diane Rehm show on NPR, Clarence Page expressed a similar argument to Kos about these private firms in Iraq (albeit with less incendiary language), and he too was slammed by Tony Blankeley. I haven't seen a protest or outrage about Page yet.)

Imagine my surprise to see this lead story in the WSJ e-mail today:

BEST OF THE WEB TODAY

BY JAMES TARANTO
Monday, April 5, 2004 1:53 p.m. EDT

Soldiers as Victims
Our item Friday on blogger Markos Zuniga's post about the four Blackwater Security Consulting contractors murdered in Fallujah, Iraq, last week--"They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them," Zuniga said--brought this response from reader Josh Waxman:

It would be "fair and balanced" if you also mentioned that Markos explained that the reason he was angry was because the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq got second billing to the deaths of these individuals.

But that might not please your master, would it? It's really nice when facts are things you can use as you wish, and discard when they're inconvenient.

We don't want to get into any trouble, so if you see our master, please don't tell him we published Waxman's letter. Anyway, we're not sure how Zuniga's professed sympathy for soldiers is a mitigating factor. "Screw them," he said of four men who had been lynched. Is such an attitude less despicable because there are other people whose lynching Zuniga would object to?

What a badge of honor. Again, I don't agree with what Kos said, but the right is trying to turn him into a "cartoon character," as Bill Clinton described it at the DNC Unity Dinner last week.


- posted by Joshua @ 3:27 PM