Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Insert Head Directly Into Sand

Ross Douthat on the Victory Caucus web site version 2.0:

The relaunched page for the Victory Caucus is intended to be "a one-stop-shop for anyone interested in learning about what's really going on in the war." To this end, it boasts two columns of links: One is headlined "Official US Sources," and includes releases from Centcom and DoD touting progress in Iraq; the other is headlined "Blogs and New Media," and includes links to military bloggers and freelancers like Michael Totten. There are exactly zero links to any of the media organizations that do the vast majority of on-the-ground reporting from the Middle East.


MORE: Oh, man, does this just get better. Here's Daniel Larison on same:

Eschewing their former role as advocates for and enforcers of GOP political suicide (as leading champions of anti-fundraising efforts and promoters of primary challenges against moderate “surge” dissidents), the Victory Caucus is reborn as the pure propaganda outfit that it was always meant to be. The great imitators of MoveOn have settled for their much more natural role of water-carriers for the Pentagon and the White House.


And Dave Weigel (via Yglesias),

As someone who snarked at the Victory Caucus and predicted its demise, I must note that the site has re-launched.
With this new design, we hope to come closer to our goal of being a one-stop-shop for anyone interested in learning about what's really going on in the war.
That wasn't exactly the goal of the old VC: This looks a bit like the old Command Post blog, except limited to war news. And it is a better business model than "drubbing anti-war Republicans," but I'm skeptical that it'll find a niche. If it does, I'll be the first to say so.


Yikes. Not exactly a vote of confidence.

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