By Ankush
After Wayne Barrett's (latest) takedown of Rudy Giuliani came out a few weeks ago, there was some talk about how the piece might have had a greater impact if it had run somewhere besides The Village Voice.
This week Time runs its version of the Giuliani bubble-burster,and the results, while not nearly as impressive as Barrett's article,are still pretty decent. It's not as thorough or meticulous as the Voicepiece, and the conclusions aren't as direct or damning, but many of theimportant pieces are there: Giuliani's lies (not "exaggerations," as Time callsthem) about his work "studying Islamic terrorism" for 30 years; hissubstantively counterproductive use of fear mongering as a campaignstrategy; his shameless ignorance of even the most basic foreign policyissues; even a line on Iran-crazed superhawk and maniac Norman Podhoretz, adviser to the campaign.
Consideringthis comes from a national news magazine, it may be a sign thatGiuliani's campaign rhetoric will start to be treated with theskepticism it deserves, and that some people in the national presscorps will stop fawning over "America's Mayor" simply because he hadthe dubious distinction of being present on 9/11. It's one thing to note thatthe man is an egomaniac with a tawdry personal life -- which is true --but the more serious problem is that the entire Giuliani campaign isbuilt on a fraud about his competence, which, by and large, the mediahas been aiding and abetting.
