The Cable Gamer doesn't know too much about David Frum, although she always thought that he was a good enough conservative, albeit one who had odd views, for a conservative, on gay rights and global warming.
But that's OK, TCG figured, because conservatism is a big tent. Plenty of room for diverging opinions. But still, of course, no room for allegations that diverge from any factual basis.
And that's what happened this morning, when Frum started parroting Debbie Schlussel's rants against Sean Hannity.
Frum posted one at 9:12 am. And then he announced at 5:09 that, "We’ve spent the day exhaustively investigating the Hannity/Freedom Alliance story. Reporting shortly…"
And then at 7:29 pm, Frum posts this, below, in which he declares Hannity to be innocent of any wrongdoing, but then criticizes the conservative media for not airing Schlessel's charges. Excuse me, Mr. Frum, but maybe the reason nobody was reporting on them because they didn't think that they were true. Or knew that they were not true. That's a perfect reason for not touching a story--BECAUSE IT'S FALSE!
But here's Frum explaining himself away, and throwing mud at the conservative media, in a piece headlined, "Where Were You Guys?":
So at the end of a day of reporting, we have good news and bad news. Sean Hannity has not billed a charity for his planes or hotel suites or other extravagant expenses. He is not helping himself out of money intended for wounded soldiers. That’s the good news.
Now the bad news: As we investigated the charges this morning, it became evident that almost nobody except us and American Spectator’s John Tabin was working this beat. Granted: it’s a busy day, with the great battle raging over healthcare reform. Yet Schlussel’s charges were important, they were facially credible, and they got wide pickup on the left-hand side of the blogosphere. You’d think the conservative world would want them investigated, if only to be debunked.
Check out that last quote: "You’d think the conservative world would want them investigated, if only to be debunked." In other words, somebody can make a charge, it gets knocked down within hours, and Frum is critical of everybody but himself.
If said that Frum drowned puppies for fun, that would not be a true statement; indeed, it might be absurd on its face, but doesn't the conservative media have an obligation to investigate it? Where were you guys?
