Naomi Wolfe offers a handsome apology, in full and humble acknowledgement of allowing herself to be played for a stupe.
Dear Conservatives, I Apologize
My “Team” was Taken in By Full-Spectrum PropagandaThe proximate cause of this letter of apology is the airing, two nights ago, of excerpts from tens of thousands of hours of security camera footage from the United States Capitol taken on Jan 6, 2021. The footage was released by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson [https://www.axios.com/2023/03/08/mccarthy-defends-jan-6-footage-tucker-carlson-fox-news].
While “fact-checkers” state that it is “misinformation” to claim that Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi was in charge of Capitol Police on that day [https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/07/27/fact-check-nancy-pelosi-isnt-in-charge-capitol-police/8082088002/], the fact is that the USCP is under the oversight of Congress, according to — the United States Capitol Police: [https://www.uscp.gov/the-department/oversight].
This would be the same Congress that convened the January 6 Committee subsequently, and that used millions of dollars in taxpayer money to turn that horrible day, and that tragic event, into a message point that would be used to tar a former President as a would-be terrorist, and to smear all Republicans, by association, as “insurrectionists,” or as insurrectionists’ sympathizers and fellow-travelers.
Let’s be clear and upfront about something here: it was indeed horrible and tragic, but not at all for the risibly-dishonest reasons many diehard Swamp critters still lamely assert. FACT: four patriotic, blameless Americans were wantonly murdered by the authorities, many others beaten and otherwise physically abused, for the “crime” of daring to exercise their First Amendment right to peaceably assemble to seek redress of perfectly and patently legitimate grievances. Horrible, tragic? You betcher. Alas for us all, it’s a lot more than just those two things alone.
There is no way for anyone thoughtful, even if he or she is a lifelong Democrat, not to notice that Sen Chuck Schumer did not say to the world that the footage that Mr Carlson aired was not real. Rather, he warned that it was “shameful” for Fox to allow us to see it. The Guardian characterized Mr Carlson’s and Fox News’ sin, weirdly, as “Over-Use” of Jan 6 footage. Isn’t the press supposed to want full transparency for all public interest events? [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2023/mar/07/biden-medicare-taxes-desantis-trump-2024-live-updates] How can you “over-use” real footage of events of national relevance?
Sen Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate minority leader, did not say the video on Fox News was fake or doctored. He said, rather, that it was “a mistake” to depart from the views of the events held by the chief of the Capitol Police. This is a statement from McConnell about orthodoxy — not a statement about a specific truth or untruth. [https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5060662/senator-mcconnell-calls-tucker-carlsons-depiction-january-6-attack-mistake]
I don’t agree with Mr Carlson’s interpretation of the videos as depicting “mostly peaceful chaos.”[https://thehill.com/homenews/media/3887103-tucker-carlson-shows-the-first-of-his-jan-6-footage-calls-it-mostly-peaceful-chaos/] I do think it is a mistake to downplay how serious it is when a legislative institution suffers a security breach of any kind, however that came to be.
But you don’t have to agree with Mr Carlson’s interpretation of the videos, to believe, as I do, that he engaged in valuable journalism simply by airing the footage that was given to him.
And remember, by law that footage belongs to us — it is a public record, and all public records literally belong to the American people. “In a democracy, records belong to the people,” explains the National Archives. [https://www.archives.gov/publications/general-info-leaflets/1-about-archives.html]
You don’t have to agree with Carlson’s interpretation of the videos, to notice the latest hypocrisy by the Left. My acquaintance and personal hero Daniel Ellsberg was rightly lionized by the Left for having illegally leaked the Pentagon Papers. The New York Times was rightly applauded for having run this leaked material in 1971. [https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1435/daniel-ellsberg].
I do not see how Mr Carlson’s airing of video material of national significance that the current government would prefer to keep hidden, or Fox News’ support for its disclosure to the public, is any different from that famous case of disclosure of inside information of public importance.
You don’t have to agree with Mr Carlson’s interpretation of the videos, to conclude that the Democrats in leadership, for their own part, have cherry-picked, hyped, spun, and in some ways appear to have lied about, aspects of January 6, turning a tragedy for the nation into a politicized talking point aimed at discrediting half of our electorate.
Another thing to be clear and upfront about, and to bear closely in mind: Wolf—like Tulsi Gabbard—remains a “liberal” at heart, which can come as no big surprise in light of her chequered past as an “advisor” to both Bill “The Creep” Clinton and Albert “Arnold The Pig” Algore when they, respectively, were running for president. That said, although still not by any means what you’d call red-pilled, she’s at least moving in the right direction for now. And for that, as I’ve argued several times about Gabbard as well, she should be applauded and encouraged, not condemned…at least until True Patriots begin the process of, shall we say, servicing targets, anyway.
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I think the comparison to Gabbard is an apt one.
Deeds, not words.
Easy apologies are cheap, and weak sauce, even if they constitute a bare first step along the right path.
Start agitating as loudly for justice for the political prisoners held without any Constitutional rights since their arrest for what has been falsely characterized as “insurrection”, and in fact barely rises to the level of a college dorm panty raid.
And then, follow the bread crumbs to the precipitating event:
Admit that the media coronation of Emperor Stumblef*ck Poopypants – which was the entire reason for the Jan. 6th rally – was the most blindingly bald-faced and biggest Big Lie in modern history, and that the odds that a man who couldn’t fill a gas station bathroom drew more votes than the man who filled college stadiums is about 81,000,000:1 odds, against.
Do that, and shout it from the rooftops, hammer it home from every available soapbox, and post it on every vertical flat surface from coast to coast, and maybe we can talk about forgiveness.
Otherwise, such a tepid and half-hearted repentance is too little, too late, and clearly comes from no deeper than a mealy mouth and quivering lips, rather than coming from the heart.
If all this amounts to is belated crocodile tears and rank patronization, let me speak for the wrongly defamed and reviled half the country: no one cares that you feel bad about being a jerk all this time..