Kristol Clear: Bill Kristol, PNAC, 9/11 and the Media!

Kristol Clear

Bill Kristol, PNAC, 9/11 & The Media

To understand Bill Kristol, you have to examine his modus operandi – his devious ways of plying a nefarious art. Bill Kristol is a master neocon, a heartless warmonger and an accomplished charlatan.  But Bill Kristol works behind the curtain.  He sets the stage and pulls the strings, while others do his dirty work.  And Bill Kristol, with little fanfare or publicity, is one of the most influential architects of George W. Bush’s wars.

To know the man, you have to look behind his overt persona. Bill Kristol makes no secret of his views or his philosophy.  He has never hidden his affiliation with of the Project for a New American Century, of which he is a founder.  And yet, when introduced to the public, he is never, ever connected to that organization.  He is always presented as the editor of the Weekly Standard, as benign an introduction as can be.
 

Neither Kristol nor the magazine is ever tied to PNAC by the corporate media. The dots are never connected.  The truth is never told, and the facts behind the story remain hidden.  But just this week, a slight slit appeared in the mask.  A recent feature article in Kristol’s Weekly Standard gave this editor food for thought.  Some signs of anxiety and concern on the part of the always-smiling, always-suave Bill Kristol may just be seeping through.  See if you can follow me.
 

SONNY BUNCH IN WASHINGTON

You just have to smile when you read an article with the byline Sonny Bunch.  I’m sorry, but the name takes something away from the stature of an assistant editor at a reputable magazine. Then again, when the publication is Bill Kristol’s Weekly Standard, it’s not unusual to confuse the ridiculous with the sublime.

Sonny Bunch is an assistant editor to Bill Kristol, and Sonny Bunch writes claptrap.  Kristol makes the rounds of TV panel shows, always sporting the frozen grin of someone whose underwear is a bit too tight.  Bunch stays out of the limelight and writes articles that highlight his abject ignorance about the real world.
 

Together, they play good cop, bad cop with some very explosive and momentous issues.  On September 26th, Kristol’s neocon magazine took on the McKinney inquiry into 9/11.  Bunch was sent to Washington, D.C. to cover a series of panel discussions titled “The 9/11 Omission: Did the Commission Get it Wrong?”   His approach was almost laughable.
 

Unable to discredit the message at the conference, Bunch went directly after the messengers with a headline fit for the sleaziest of tabloids.  It read: March of the Conspiracy Theorists: America’s nuts make the long journey to Washington.

Even for the Weekly Standard, this was a substandard bit of reporting.  Bunch gave a fairly accurate account of the panel and the topics under discussion.  Strangely, he never once made an attempt to disprove a single allegation about 9/11. He offered no counter argument by anyone who supports the Kean Report.  He made no substantive attempt to discredit the claims of the speakers, many of whom were highly respectable people with unimpeachable credentials.   And yet and yet….
 
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And yet…the article was filled with insults and denigrating comments, designed to ridicule the panelists.  Cynthia McKinney was lumped with the lunatic fringe.  Wayne Madsen was dismissed because his hatred of all things George W. Bush, and love of all things conspiratorial, almost rises to self-parody. Michael Ruppert was described as the grand-daddy of all conspiracy theorists.
 

Apparently, according to Bunch, not a single credible person had anything meaningful to say.
 

Once again, Bunch refuted nothing that was presented by the panelists.  Rather, the article offered a rather benign picture of a group of eccentric people who came together to discuss something quite unimportant and totally insignificant.  So why take the time to cover the conference and write the article?  Why, indeed.