Our Wayward Press

Drudge links to a WorldNetDaily article headlined “Rumsfeld says 9-11 plane ‘shot down’ in Pennsylvania.”

Here’s what Rumsfeld actually said:

“I think all of us have a sense if we imagine the kind of world we would face if the people who bombed the mess hall in Mosul, or the people who did the bombing in Spain, or the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon, the people who cut off peoples’ heads on television to intimidate, to frighten – indeed the word ‘terrorized’ is just that. Its purpose is to terrorize, to alter behavior, to make people be something other than that which they want to be.”

The implication of the headline, and the thrust of the article, is that Rumsfeld might have been confirming a long-standing rumor that a USAF fighter actually shot United Airlines Flight 93 down on 9/11.

But is that what Rumsfeld said? Not even close. Clearly he was referring to the terrorists who hijacked the airliner, not to any external force or agency that may or may not have been involved in bringing it down.

If George W. Bush gave a speech that contained the phrase “my fault” in one sentence and “9/11” in another sentence, the responsible journalists at WorldNetDaily would probably publish a screaming headline claiming “Bush admits responsibility for 9/11 attacks.”

And Matt Drudge would pass it on. It’s all about hits. It’s all about whoring.