A Federal Judge Went Full Hannity. Never Go Full Hannity.

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

21 March 21

Apparently, everyone but Fox News and the Wall Street Journal editorial page is in the tank for Democrats, so the whole press freedom thing is overrated.

hose of us who have followed the underground conservative campaign against the Clintons—which may never end, by the way—are familiar with Laurence Silberman, a judge on the federal appeals court in Washington. Back in the day, before David Brock came to Jesus, Silberman was one of his mentors among the “elves,” the cabal of right-wing lawyers dedicated to destroying the Clinton presidency. (And hello to you, too, George Conway.) In 2004, writing in Salon, Michelle Goldberg gave us the rundown on him.

Silberman's sojourn in the world of political scandal began during the run-up to the 1980 presidential election when, as a member of Ronald Reagan's campaign staff, he, along with Robert C. McFarlane, a former staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Richard V. Allen, Reagan's chief foreign policy representative, met with a man claiming to be an Iranian government emissary. The Iranian offered to delay the release of the 52 American hostages being held in Tehran until after the election — thus contributing to Carter's defeat — in exchange for arms. A controversy continues to rage over whether the Reagan team made a bargain with the Iranians, as alleged by Gary Sick, a former National Security Council aide in the Ford, Carter and Reagan administrations who now teaches at Columbia University. Yet no one denies that the meeting Silberman was at took place, and although Silberman has said the Iranian's offer was immediately rejected, none of the three Reagan operatives ever told the Carter administration what had happened. McFarlane, Allen and Silberman have all since insisted that they don't know the name of the Iranian man they met with.

The man has been a dedicated…er…activist for decades. And, on Friday, in a dissent in the case of Tah and McClain v. Global Witness, Silberman simply went full Hannity. You never go full Hannity, people. The case was a run-of-the-mill defamation suit brought by a couple of Liberian citizens against a human-rights group called Global Witness. Employing the standards set in the 1964 landmark Sullivan v. New York Times decision of the Supreme Court, by a 2-1 vote, the Appeals Court determined that Global Witness had not acted with “actual malice” when it accused the two Liberian officials of corruption. Silberman was the lone vote against Global Witness, and his dissenting opinion was a true banana farm.

First of all, Silberman wants Sullivan overturned—by any standard, a radical position in the area of press freedom.

Nevertheless, I recognize how difficult it will be to persuade the Supreme Court to overrule such a “landmark” decision. After all, doing so would incur the wrath of press and media. See Martin Tolchin, Press is Condemned by a Federal Judge for Court Coverage, New York Times A13 (June 15, 1992) (discussing the “Greenhouse effect”). But new considerations have arisen over the last 50 years that make the New York Times decision (which I believe I have faithfully applied in my dissent) a threat to American Democracy. It must go…I recognized, however, that convincing the Court to overrule these precedents would be an uphill battle. As I wrote, the Court has committed itself to a constitutional Brezhnev doctrine.

Oh, good. Nice analogy. Respect for precedent is the same thing as keeping Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia. Gotcha. But the real gold in Silberman’s defense is to be found in why he thinks Sullivan must go. Gaze in awe.

Although the bias against the Republican Party—not just controversial individuals—is rather shocking today, this is not new; it is a long-term, secular trend going back at least to the ’70s…Two of the three most influential papers (at least historically), The New York Times and The Washington Post, are virtually Democratic Party broadsheets. And the news section of The Wall Street Journal leans in the same direction. The orientation of these three papers is followed by The Associated Press and most large papers across the country (such as the Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, and Boston Globe). Nearly all television—network and cable—is a Democratic Party trumpet. Even the government-supported National Public Radio follows along.

As has become apparent, Silicon Valley also has an enormous influence over the distribution of news. And it similarly filters news delivery in ways favorable to the Democratic Party. See Kaitlyn Tiffany, Twitter Goofed It, The Atlantic (2020) (“Within a few hours, Facebook announced that it would limit [a New York Post] story’s spread on its platform while its third-party fact-checkers somehow investigated the information.

As Learned Hand once put it, holy crap, this is nuts. In a footnote, Silberman moans about Candy Crowley’s moderation of one of the presidential debates in 2012. But he’s not done. He goes on to shill for right-wing outlets.

To be sure, there are a few notable exceptions to Democratic Party ideological control: Fox News, The New York Post, and The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page. It should be sobering for those concerned about news bias that these institutions are controlled by a single man and his son. Will a lone holdout remain in what is otherwise a frighteningly orthodox media culture? After all, there are serious efforts to muzzle Fox News. And although upstart (mainly online) conservative networks have emerged in recent years, their visibility has been decidedly curtailed by Social Media, either by direct bans or content-based censorship.

Because they are run by crazy people whose “news coverage” might as well be written by semi-literate Martians. Silberman is 85. He’s done enough damage in his life. Sullivan shouldn’t go. He should leave the bench.

Weekly WWOZ Pick To Click: “It’s Your Voodoo Working” (Samantha Fish): Yeah, I pretty much still love New Orleans.

Weekly Visit To The Pathe Archives: Here, from 1929, are some women playing basketball on ice. Now that’s some madness. History is so cool.

Annnnnnnnd, scene. From the Colorado Times Recorder:

So anyone who tries to tell you that this is a fringe newspaper/media don’t listen to them. I have very good sources to say this is really good information. Is it a hundred percent? I don’t know. But it’s really good information. And we all know that there was information that was declassified just a few days before President Trump left office. And I know someone who is involved in declassifying that. And this person is getting very tired of waiting on the DOJ to do something about it. And we will be hearing about it very, very soon. And this is my opinion with that information that I have, I believe we will see resignations begin to take place. And I think we can take back the majority in the House and the Senate before 2022 when all of this is ended.

This person is an elected member of Congress.

That’s it. That’s all I have.

Is it a good day for dinosaur news, New Scientist? It’s always a good day for dinosaur news!

The bones of the ankylosaurid show that it had heavily built forelimbs and forefeet suited for digging.The fusion of several vertebrae and ribs may have helped keep the dinosaur’s trunk rigid, stabilising the body while it dug using its forelimbs. “These armoured dinosaurs, especially the Asian species, lived in arid to semiarid environments. They may have been able to dig out roots for food, and dig wells to reach subsurface water as modern African elephants do today,” says Lee. Digging dinosaurs are relatively rare, although some small dinosaurs are known to have dug burrows.

I dispute the so-called “experts.” I dig dinosaurs and I always have, because they lived then to make us happy now.

I’ll be back on Monday as an actual Infrastructure Week may break out in Congress. Be well and play nice, ya bastids. Stay above the snake-line, wear the damn mask, and take the damn shots.