WaPo Notes, Correctly, That YearlyKos Was Whiter Than An Antarctic Albino Klansman With Mono; Claims, Quite Incorrectly, That Kos Is A "Gulf War Vet"

The reporter claims, in the hed, "A Diversity of Opinions, but not of Opinionators.

With all due respect, I find the idea that the YearlyKos featured a "diversity of opinion" to be laughable. But there's no doubt about the second part:

"It's mostly white. More male than female," says the former high school math and science teacher turned activist. "It's not very diverse."

There goes the open secret of the netroots, or those who make up the community of the Internet grass-roots movement.

...

Walking around McCormick Place during the weekend, it became clear that only a handful of the 1,500 conventioneers -- bloggers, policy experts, party activists -- are African American, Latino or Asian. Of about 100 scheduled panels and workshops, less than a half-dozen dealt directly with women or minority issues.

A panel called "Blogging While Female," held Saturday morning, was an aberration -- an overflow room of about 75, mostly women, a few of them minorities.

"How many of the women in the audience blog?" asked a panelist.

Nearly three-fourths of those present raised their hands.

"How many of you get harassed?"

The hands stayed up. They complain of being harassed online for their views on issues such as abortion rights.

By "harrassed" they mean trolled by people who disagree. Good God All Mighty.

Stoller half-jokingly says that the netroots community is full of "white liberal men," then quickly points out that Moulitsas is part Latino. (The other half is Greek.)

A simple declarative and true statement is spoken "half-jokingly"? So I can say "the sun is up" "half-jokingly"?

Whatever. This is the idiot who think there's a "Republican Economy" which prospers entirely on killing brown people, killing trees, and killing dreams.

Now, let's examine the curiously enhanced military career of Markos:

Build a liberal site such as Daily Kos, as the Persian Gulf War veteran and former Republican Markos "Kos" Moulitsas Zuniga did five years ago, and bloggers either join the discussion or not. For two years now, Moulitsas has lent his name to the conference. But on Saturday, Cooper announced that next year the event will be called "Netroots Nation."

Gulf War Veteran? This should come as a surprise, especially to Kos himself.

Kos' Official bio:

After high school, Moulitsas served in the U.S. Army (1989-92) as a 13P -- Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) Fire Direction Specialist. He trained at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma and served the remainder of his three-year enlistment in Bamberg, Germany. While he entered the Army as a Republican, he abandoned the GOP soon after his enlistment.

Is Bamberg, Germany in Saudi Arabia? Kuwait? Iraq? Diego Garcia? Somewhere within the USS Enterprise carrier group? Maybe it's a nickname for the Enterprise's flight deck.

I'm not Mr. Geography but I don't think it is. Using the power of "context clues" I was taught in third grade, I'm going to go out on a limb and infer that Bamberg, Germany is located in Bamberg, Germany.

Where did the WaPo reporter get the idea he was a Gulf War veteran? Did Kos, like Jim McDermott claiming to be a Vietnam vet when in fact he was only a Vietnam-era vet serving stateside the whole of the war, mislead the reporter by telling him he was a Gulf War era vet?

And if so, was this reporter not quite smart enough to realize the word "era" in that description actually does carry meaning and is not there simply for mere ornamentation or a felicitious effect on scansion?

Has Kos contacted this reporter about correcting his gross error? Or is he happy to let the error lie? Happy to get a big of "Stolen Valor," as it's sometimes called?

If he has -- and we know Kos reads his own press -- why is the error still in the article?

Thanks to RichardMc for the sharp eyes.

Kos Has Done This Before: Thanks to a commenter for noting that Kos has been caught previously attempting to mislead the media into reporting he was a Gulf War veteran.

It seems his favorite way to summarize his military service is having served "during" the Gulf War.

Well, yes, during. But not in. Another way to summarize his service is "he served during a period of peace in idyllic Germany."

Funny he choses to stress the other events that happened during his service, eh?

posted by Ace at 01:39 PM

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