"A fair number of the Americans not working in the media may . . . by now be experiencing Jersey Girls Fatigue -- or taking a hard look at the pronouncements of the widows," writes Dorothy Rabinowitz, intrepid teller of untold -- not to mention mistold -- stories, in Opinion Journal:
Who, listening to them, would not be struck by the fact that all their fury and accusation is aimed not at the killers who snuffed out their husbands' and so many other lives, but at the American president, his administration, and an ever wider assortment of targets including the Air Force, the Port Authority, the City of New York? . . .
The core group of widows led by the foursome known as "The Jersey Girls," credited with bringing the 9/11 Commission into being, are by now world famous. Their already established status in the media, as a small but heroically determined band of sisters speaking truth to power, reached ever greater heights last week, when National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice made her appearance at a commission session -- an event that would not have taken place, it was understood, without the pressure from the widows . . .
Others who had lost family to the terrorists' assault commanded little to no interest from TV interviewers. Debra Burlingame -- lifelong Democrat, sister of Charles F. "Chic" Burlingame III, captain of American Airlines flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11 -- did manage to land an interview after Ms. Rice's appearance. When she had finished airing her views critical of the accusatory tone and tactics of the Jersey Girls, her interviewer, ABC congressional reporter Linda Douglass marveled, "This is the first time I've heard this point of view."
That shouldn't have been surprising. The hearing room that day had seen a substantial group of 9/11 families, similarly irate over the Jersey Girls and their accusations--families that made their feelings evident in their burst of loud applause when Ms. Rice scored a telling zinger under questioning. But these were not the 9/11 voices TV and newspaper editors were interested in. They had chosen to tell a different story--that of four intrepid New Jersey housewives who had, as one news report had it, brought an administration "to its knees" -- and that was, as far as they were concerned, the only story.
The other story -- the one the "mainstream" media mostly chooses to ignore -- is being told in the blogosphere. We and countless others blogged about that "zinger" Condi scored -- the one that drew a burst of applause from the "other" families -- last week:
Our favorite moment came when Condi turned the tables on a whining Bob Kerrey. He was complaining about the Bush White House's consideration of going after Saddam in response to the bombing of the USS Cole, when she trumped him by recalling a speech of his that had made the very same point.
Forget about speaking truth to political power. We are BLOGGING truth to media power.
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