The Other McCain

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Sully: Israelis ‘Got Their US Media Mouthpieces’ to Criticize Obama’s Speech

Posted on | May 23, 2011 | 15 Comments

“So it’s pretty obvious that it was the Israelis who immediately got their US media mouthpieces to spin the speech as some sort of attack.”
— Andrew Sullivan, May 20

Doug Ross called attention to this rather disturbing accusation: U.S. criticism of President Obama’s speech was not really of domestic origin, Sully says, but rather was the result of Israeli manipulation.

Sullivan makes specific mention of Matt Drudge, Fox News and Mitt Romney. Which of these, or which others, does he outright accuse of being “mouthpieces” issuing “spin” at the behest of Israelis?

My own response to the speech was to aggregate the reactions of others, and I noted that Max Boot of Commentary, Ed Morrissey of Hot Air and John Tabin of The American Spectator all initially saw Obama’s speech as very Bush-like. William Jacobson was immediately critical, as was Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, but there seemed to be a delay before John Podhoretz and Omri Ceren came out with negative reactions.

It may be fair to suppose that some of Obama’s critics took their cue from Israeli sources: “Let’s see what Bibi says” is a reasonable stance for those who profess friendship for Israel. But that is a very different thing than Andrew Sullivan’s depiction of Israeli puppeteers secretly pulling the strings of their American media marionettes.

You can’t just casually drop that kind of accusation into a post and then walk away as if you hadn’t said it.

UPDATE: Jeff Dunetz sees widespread use of the “Jewish media manipulation” meme on the Left.

UPDATE II: Linked by Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom — thanks!

UPDATE III: Linked by Moe Lane, although I’m pretty certain it’s spelled “Joooozz!”

Category: Andrew Sullivan, Doug Ross, Israel

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