I'm picturing Murtha, who spend 30 years in Congress in near total obscrity save for the ABSCAM scandal, doing a Sally Field and jumping up and down yelling "You like me! You really like me!" when he speaks those on the left side of the party who eat up accusations like this and shower the speaker with waves of applause (until nothing happens at the ballot box, and they move on to tomorrow's flavor).

North Miami? Murtha should have gone whole hog and just said Israel is the greatest threat to peace in the world.

It's coming, you know it is.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said to an audience of more than 200

Sounds about right to me, let him go on speaking to his two hundreds...

Still no poll data for the PA 12th district?

By now, many here will be familiar with the story of Murtha's brother Robert, who has apparently lined up lots of contracts with the military via his brother's position on the Armed Services Committee. No comment from Nancy Pelosi.

ratbert, I hope instapundit takes note. Reynolds did a long post on Republican nepotism which no doubt exists, but in my opinion can't hold a candle to the long standing relationships between and among liberal politicians and the media.

"American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran"

Were I in Sun-Sentinel's shoes, I'd sit quiet as a mouse, hoping this will all blow over without much more fuss. Elizabeth Baier quotes Murtha several times in her Breaking World News (Brit Hume of Fox News as well as the Wall Street Joural have taken Baier's ball and run with it) claims of what Murtha said in Miami. When direct quotes are used, it's often the case the reporter has recorded the event, in order to make certain their quotes are accurate. What initially drew my attention was her lack of quotes for what she claims Murtha said in her first paragraph.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-ctownhall25jun25,0,7119684.story

Shortly after reading the Sun Sentinel story, I googlenews'ed "Murtha Miami Iran Nuclear"
Among the dozens of hits quoting Ms. Baier indexed within a few hours of the Sun Sentinel's earth shaking expose' of Murtha's talk, I found another article published by the Miami Herald.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/14896189.htm

You will notice, this writer totally missed Murtha's "shot heard around the world" (technorati now has 400+ hits for what Ms. Baier claims Murtha said.)

On the unlikely chance Ms. Baier did *not* quote Murtha from a recording she made at the event ... I've written the Florida International University Public Relations folks asking them to preserve their audio/video recording of this event they sponsored for Murtha to speak at.

I've sent inquiries to the entire editorial boards of the Sun Sentinel, Wall Street Journal, Arizona Sun Star and Miami Herald, as well as Knight Ridder, asking them to pursue any recording of this event, in pursuit of the real news story, Elizabeth Baier.

It shouldn't take more than a day, or three, for Ms Baier to experience personally, that the world of journalism is flat. Whether you like or despise John Murtha is no longer the story. The real story is ... just how far has mainstream media sunk? Is Jerry Springer Journalism the new standard for reporters?

Here's what should strike every blogger as truly shocking... If Murtha never said anything like this ... If America's Conservative Talking Heads plastering this "Murtha fiction" all over the internet, including Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, then who's to blame for this story achieving such prominence that our enemies will have no trouble finding it, and get the comfort these stories provide them?

Hold your breath and hope that all this aid to our enemies really does have to do with what Murtha said in Miami. Until this gets cleared up by audio/video recordings verifying what was said, it's America's media "dittoheads", including bloggers that are the ones providing comfort our enemies.

Let's hope Fox News, Wall Street Journal, and of course, bloggers ain't the real culprits giving comfort to our enemies.

Keep in mind there are only two stories written by reporters who were actually in Miami last Saturday, where Murtha spoke. One used Mutha's outrageous comments as her opening paragraph, and the other, at a competing Newspaper in Miami, never mentioned them at all.

I spent a few hours on the phone with a friend of mine who is editor for a news site. I'm letting him run with this ball. You can follow how this story develops at:

http://theinfozone.net/

chancuff

chancuff;

Two points:

1. If that really wasn't what Murtha said / meant, why hasn't he issued a correction?
2. Note that no one seems to find such a statement by Murtha implausible. Even you aren't arguing that. This story wouldn't have taken off without that background, so one might wonder how Murtha got himself in to that state.

For those of you who haven't seen Murtha's press release, here's the link.

http://www.house.gov/list/press/pa12_murtha/pr062706.html

If you use technorati.net to do a search using the terms "murtha iran miami nuclear" you can follow my footsteps as I worked my way through the blogsphere waging my private battle against "Jerry Springer Journalism", the term I used in dozens of my responses to bloggers citing the Sun-Sentinel story.

Murtha's press release is a non-denial.

chancuff:

Here's why he issued a non-denial:

wizbangblog.com/2006/07/06/what-murtha-really-said.php