Utterly Discredited, Media Circus Edition

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I can’t think of any topic I’d rather talk about less than Terry Schiavo. The whole ordeal was sick beyond belief and deeply offensive. But now that they’ve released the results of her autopsy, it’s important to go back and emphasize that the Republicans who engineered the whole fiasco—Bill Frist, Tom DeLay, Jeb Bush, others—were wholly, utterly wrong about everything. They were liars. Frauds. Slanderers. Here’s Andrew Sullivan:

In her final days, Terri Schiavo was blind and her brain was about half its expected size. She wasn’t in a PVS? Please. Bill Frist needs to acknowledge his reckless political opportunism at the time. The attempts of the fringe, theocon right to allege that her husband abused her have also been exposed as malicious falsehoods. Remember the lies that were told, the junk science that the theocons came up with, the endless slanders and misrepresentations? It’s rare that we get an objective resolution of a fiercely disputed matter. We have now. And it ain’t pretty.

Well, it’s a bit quaint for Sullivan to think that Frist is going to “acknowledge his reckless political opportunism,” but the rest is absolutely right. The party of junk science does not deserve to have its claims taken seriously by the media, not now, not ever.

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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