July 02, 2004

News story of great embarrassment to Bush disappears? This was one of the top stories about Fahrenheit 9/11 in Google News yesterday:

Military, 9/11 families call on Bush to see Michael Moore movie
Newsday, NY - 10 hours ago
By DEEPTI HAJELA. NEW YORK -- President Bush and everyone in Washington should screen Michael Moore's controversial anti-Bush film ...

When I clicked the link, I got a blank Newsday page (everything there but the story). I tried it in multiple browsers and got nothing. Does anybody see a story at that URL? I also did a search on Newsday.com for the story (by author and the word "Fahrenheit" but came up empty). So why was the story taken down? Three guesses and the first two don't count? Actually, I'm no conspiracy theorist. There are multiple possibilities. Perhaps the story turned out to be a hoax. But I'd love to hear it from the author, if anybody has his email address.

  • Pardon me. HER email address.
  • Odd, odd, it didn't show me for me, either.
  • It's on Yahoo News. I remember seeing it on the front page yesterday or today. I doubt there's a conspiracy going on, but it wasn't just Newsday that was airing that article. Maybe a site problem?
  • For the sake of argument, make the tinfoil-hat assumptions that: a) there is such a conspiracy to quell negative media attention on Bush; and b) the Administration has the capacity to influence media which would normally be biased against it. If these two things were true, it's safe to say they're doing a terrible job at suppressing neagtive media attention. And they'd have much, much bigger fish to proverbially fry. Just a thought.
  • It's just written in invisible pixels. Throw some warm water on your monitor and the article will appear.
  • freethought - I tried that and it did not work. Luckily, there was no damage to my monitor as I long ago installed windshield wipers on it to help me when I am viewing some of my favorite sites in private.
  • Thanks for the links, HamburgerHelper. The question remains as to why Newsday "dist-appear-ed" it.
  • I'm not sure how much I would put past a White House that publicly outs an American C.I.A. operative as payback for media quotes unflattering to the administration. Tin-foil hats are no longer your only tip-off to nutty thinking (perhaps never have been inside the Beltway). Now, watch this drive...
  • mecurious - it is an AP story, so I think that Newsday made an editorial decision not to keep the story up. Further, it is possible that all AP stories stream onto the webpage, a la Yahoo, but not in print and this one they objected to and removed. No conspiracy, just the way things work.
  • Daily Show on Michael Moore ambushing Hannah Storm on her show.
  • Sullivan, That was quite funny. Go go power Moore.