Media Matters Says I Owe It $1,400 in Gold [Bumped & Updated!]

Update 1/8/11 8:31AM PST: All Four Media Matters Attempts Completely Blown Apart.

Update 1/5/11 16:32 PST: Just returned from work, then hit the gym, did some plinking in the backyard with my AK, played with my twin pit bulls and then prayed. Not to worry, any valid entries will be examined. I will certainly look at Media Matters' three new entries as time permits, probably reviewing in detail over the weekend. Promise.

The contest closes on 2/15, so new entries -- so long as they follow the very simple rules -- are still accepted. The reason there are a couple of basic ground-rules (and I'm open to suggestions as to how to gauge a "lie") is that I'm simply looking for the Fox equivalent of a Rathergate memo; an Al Qaqaa series of hit pieces; or a John McCain lobbyist affair fabrication. Game-changers, in those cases, all designed to turn elections. Real meaty lies, if you will.

Media Matters' big entry is that Elena Kagan didn't ban the military from Harvard Law? Everyone knows she did -- that's why it was such a huge issue at her confirmation hearing! And we have the DOD emails to prove it. That's the best lie they can come up with?

But I'm still hoping someone will come up with a real lie by Fox News Channel reporters. Just one! That's all I ask!

Update 1/4/11 17:31 PST: Media Matters pwnt. Hard.

Below, I've posted the actual emails from DOD recruiters that were entered into the Congressional record.

• Were military recruiters allowed to interview students on campus? No.
• Were military recruiters given any mechanism for interacting with candidate students on campus? No.
• Were military recruiters given permission to visit the campus in any recruiting capacity? No, they were refused permission.
• Were military recruiters even allowed to send in job openings for posting on a freaking law school bulletin board? No.
• Did the military believe their access to students was cut off? Yes.
• Did Kagan herself believe she had effectively cut off access to her students because of DADT? Yes.
• Was Kagan openly "hostile" to the idea of the military recruiting on campus? Yes.
• Did the military spend months trying to figure out how to get access to recruits? Yes.
• Did the military finally have to escalate, getting the USG to threaten to cut off $300 million in funding, before they could get access to students? Yes.

Recognizing their epic fail, Media Matters has posed three new "lies", which I will review as time permits. Remember, libs, the contest closes on 2/15. Considering only a handful of progressives have even figured out the very simple rules, you still have an awesome chance at winning the Krugerrand!

A couple of days ago, MSNBC media star Keith Olbermann appeared to suffer a Tourettes-like attack, cursing Fox News repeatedly on Twitter. His incisive message: the Fox News Channel is "100% bulls***".

Knowing that FNC kicks the crap out of every other cable news outlet, which means Americans find it the most trustworthy source of information, I launched my One Krugerrand Fox News challenge. The first person to document one lie repeated by Fox News Channel reporters can win a 1-oz. Krugerrand worth around $1,400.

There are only a few simple rules -- like providing a link to a transcript or video on a trustworthy site. Even so, amidst the hundreds of responses I received from outraged progressives, only a handful of budding Marxists even figured out how to post an entry that conforms to the rules.

Well, with nothing better to do during the day than respond to bloggers' challenges, Media Matters took a shot at the gold. Some crackpot named Matt Gertz wrote the following earlier today.

Following Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court, several Fox News reporters falsely claimed that while she was dean of Harvard Law School, Kagan "barred" military recruiters from campus:

Megyn Kelly: "[T]he criticism of Kagan is that while she was dean of Harvard Law School, and she was dean in 2003, she decided to continue a policy of banning the military from the campus because they didn't like the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy."

Bret Baier: "The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee has asked the Pentagon about its recruitment efforts at Harvard while Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan was dean of the law school there. Kagan barred recruiters in protest of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy."

Carl Cameron: "In the Clinton White House, she recommended compromised policies that worry conservatives over abortion and guns. As dean of the Harvard Law School, she made headlines supporting a controversial wartime ban on campus military recruitment."

In fact, Kagan did not support a "ban on military recruitment" at Harvard Law, and Harvard law students had access to military recruiters during her entire tenure as dean. As we've
noted:

Throughout Kagan's tenure as dean, Harvard law students had access to military recruiters -- either through Harvard's Office of Career Services or through the Harvard Law School Veterans Association. Kagan became dean of Harvard Law in June 2003. In accordance with Harvard's pre-existing nondiscrimination policy, she barred the school's Office of Career Services (OCS) from working with military recruiters or the spring 2005 semester after the U.S Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit ruled that law schools could legally do so. During that one semester, students still had access to military recruiters via the Harvard Law School Veterans Association. During the fall 2005 semester, after the Bush administration threatened to revoke Harvard's federal funding, Kagan once again granted military recruiters access to OCS.

Indeed, according to data we obtained from Harvard Law School's public information officer, graduates entered the military during each year Kagan served as dean, and the number of graduates from each of the classes that could have been affected by the prohibition on Harvard Law's OCS working with military recruiters was equal to or greater than the number who entered the military from any of Harvard's previous five classes.

CNN accurately reported on Kagan's actions in this May 10, 2010...

Mr. Ross, you owe me one ounce of gold.

Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that Media Matters is a suitably trustworthy site. I know, it's a stretch.

Now, do I trust the Defense Department or a Soros-funded, Marxist front group?

Because the Defense Department has over 800 pages of documentation that says Media Matters is full of crap. Mr. Peabody, set the Wayback Machine for June of 2010.

Before her confirmation, the Christian Science Monitor reported the real details of how Kagan's recruiting ban worked:

The issue does not lend itself to 10-second sound-bite questions or responses... [but] In 2004, Kagan barred military recruiters from using the law school’s office of career services to meet with students interested in military service... The action was controversial because it came at a time when the United States was at war in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

...In her statement announcing that military recruiters would be barred from the school’s office of career services, Kagan said: “I am gratified by this result, and I look forward to the time when all law students have the opportunity to pursue any legal career they desire...”

...Administration officials and other Kagan supporters stressed that a student veterans group agreed to help facilitate student access to military recruiters during this period... The clear suggestion was that Kagan’s policy change had no real impact on military recruiters. But the recent release of 850 pages of Defense Department documents tells a different story.

Polite and patient military recruiters were told by Harvard officials to call back later. They received this response again, and again, for weeks until the recruiting season had ended... “The Army was stonewalled at Harvard. Phone calls and emails went unanswered,” an Army recruiter said in a March 2005 memo. “The [career services director] refused to inform students that we were coming to recruit and the [career services director] refused to collect resumes or provide any other assistance.”

One Air Force recruiter’s memo concludes: “We shouldn’t allow [Harvard Law School] to play this game.”

A de facto ban is still a ban. And the DOD itself says it "was stonewalled" by Kagan's policy. Gee, this is a tough one. Do I trust the DOD or Soros Matters?

Matt, you've really outdone yourself this time: that was quite an epic fail you pulled off. No gold for you!

Next time, try one of Fox' big lies. Like this one. Oops. That was The New York Times. My bad.

As an aside, Matt, do I rate my own tag yet, like Jammie Wearing Fool?


Update: Yes! They gave me my own tag. Does this mean they'll apologize for their Dealergate fabrications now?

Update II: Matt Gertz gets up off the canvas to post a humorous screed entitled, "Doug Ross Still Owes Me $1,400 In Gold."

In it, he summarizes all of the key positions. Except one.

Curiously, he fails to mention the military recruiters -- the most important parties to the affair -- who say they were banned, "stonewalled" in their words -- from recruiting. They could not get any access to Kagan's students.

Furthermore, Kagan said she was pleased with that development. "Gratified", was the word I think she used. She was gratified that the military could not get access to students -- not because of anything the DOD had done, but because of a policy created by Bill Clinton.

I just pwnt Media Matters so hard I think I pulled a muscle.

Update III: For the final word in this matter, let's go to Senator Jeff Sessions grilling Kagan, as documented in the Congressional Record:

01:02:03 I WOULD JUST SAY WHILE MY TIME IS -- IS RUNNING DOWN, I'M JUST A LITTLE TAKEN ABACK BY THE TONE OF YOUR REMARKS, BECAUSE IT IS UNCONNECTED TO REALITY.
01:02:17 I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED AT HARVARD.
01:02:19 I KNOW YOU ARE AN OUTSPOKEN LEADER AGAINST THE MILITARY POLICY.
01:02:22 I KNOW YOU ACTED WITHOUT LEGAL AUTHORITY TO REVERSE HARVARD'S POLICY AND DENY THOSE MILITARY EQUAL ACCESS TO CAMPUS UNTIL YOU WERE THREATENED BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT OF LOSS OF FEDERAL FUNDS.
01:02:37 THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED.

Update IV: I suppose the ABA Journal, the DOD, and Senator Jeff Sessions are all "lying", too.

“I’m just a little taken aback by the tone of your remarks because it is unconnected with reality,” Sen. Sessions said near the end of his 30-minute question period, which he spent almost entirely on the recruiting issue. “I know you acted without legal authority to deny access to military recruiters...”

...“You did what DOD wanted [only] after they went to the university counsel and the president [of Harvard] and said [Harvard was] going to lose some $300 million in aid, isn’t that a fact?” Sessions asked... Kagan said the DOD’s request went through “a discussion,” and ultimately Harvard agreed to reinstate military recruiters’ access to the law school’s career office...

And from DOD emails entered into the Congressional Record:

To: Sullivan, John, Mr., DoD OGC, Koffsky, Paul, Mr., DoD OGC
Subject: FW: AF Phase I Letter to Harvard Background
I just got back and going through my e-mails . . . Harvard Law School is delaying and providing a ``slow role'' to Air Force's efforts to recruit during the Spring recruiting season. Seems they have delayed sufficiently in providing permission that the Season ending March 4th may already be ``too late''. Any advice? ...

Subject RE: Harvard Phase I Pushups
. . . checked with Army JAG Recruiting and Major Jackson provided the following.
``Hi, Ma'am--
The Army was stonewalled at Harvard Phone calls and emails went unanswered and the standard response was--we're waiting to hear from higher authority...

From: Carr, Bill, CIV, OSD-P&R
To: Dr. Curt Gilroy, SES, OSD-P&R
Subject: S: 3-22-06/Solomon Olive Branch--Or Not
...Dean Kagan is a case in point below as she reportedly ``encouraged students to demonstrate against the presence of recruiters . . . (and to) express their views clearly and forcefully.'' Not a true fan of ``equal in quality and scope'' it would appear. Despite that (or because of it) we'll want to reach out to academe to find a sober means of accomplishing our varied purposes within statutory intent, but we lack a venue . . . and AALS is too hostile to constructively . . .

Subject Harvard Law School
Thursday 10 March 2005
Sir, I just received a phone call from Mr. Mark Weber, Assistant Dean for Career Services, Harvard Law School. All my previous communication has been with one of his staff members, Ms. Kathleen Robinson, the recruitment manager. He stated that he was calling because he ``felt bad that they
had left us without an answer'' and wanted to pass on the contact data of the president of the Harvard Veterans Student Group. He stated that the faculty had still not decided whether to allow us to participate in on-campus interviews and that the official on-campus interview program for Spring 2005...

... I asked him if I could at least post a job posting via their office and he said no. He stressed that I could contact interested students via the Harvard Veterans Student Group but that his office could not provide any support to us...

...By delaying until the last minute (or never providing an answer) to the AF request to recruit, the AF is unable to organize and schedule the recruiting effort in time to participate in the HLS program which ends on March 4, 2005. We shouldn't allow HLS to ``play this game.''...

Executive Summary:

• Was the military allowed to interact with students via -- or even post job openings -- at the Law School? No.
• Did the military believe their access to students was cut off? Yes.
• Did Kagan herself believe she had effectively cut off access to her students because of DADT? Yes.
• Was Kagan openly "hostile" to the idea of the military recruiting on campus? Yes.
• Did the military spend months trying to figure out how to get access to recruits? Yes.
• Did the military finally have to escalate, getting the USG to threaten to cut off funding, before they could get access to students? Yes.

Media Matters == pwnt.

Some edumucation for young progressives
Whom Despots Fear	What really happened	To the Congress: