Bulletin from Time: Cain not a prophet!

Remember Time magazine?

I'm told it was once a vaunted journalistic institution. Now it sends pimps for extremist organizations to attack Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain because … he can't foretell the future.

What am I talking about?

I'm talking about this. And I would like you to notice that, unlike Time's hit piece, which is based on WND columns, I am actually hotlinking to the original source so you can reference the material for yourself.

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Mark Benjamin, who is described in his Time biography as an accomplished investigative reporter, has strewn together a critique of Herman Cain's commentaries in WND over the years – columns he claims stopped running in January of this year. Of course, all Benjamin had to do was actually visit WND to see the weekly columns by Herman Cain continue to this day. Maybe Benjamin's researcher was out the day he filed this one. That's some real super-sleuthing there, buddy.

What is Benjamin's beef with Cain's columns? That he could not predict the future. The headline tells the story: "In Herman Cain's Writings, a Startling Lack of Foresight."

Read the story before it unfolds! Herman Cain's latest book is now available: "This is Herman Cain! My Journey to the White House"

He also doesn't like that Cain has changed his mind on some issues since he began writing the column in August 2009.

Then, disingenuously, Benjamin explains why all this is newsworthy for Time magazine: "… with Cain surging in the polls, his rivals for the Republican nomination may seek to use his past statements against him." Having been in this business considerably longer than Benjamin, I can translate that statement from newsroomese into English: "Hey, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, here's some free opposition research on an uppity, Southern black man who has wandered off the Democratic Party dependency plantation and is putting out ideas that could pose a real challenge for you establishment types. He's even speaking ill about the Big Media – where I make my comfortable living. Here's some ammo. Take him down."

If you think I am exaggerating in my analysis, here's Benjamin's own words in the conclusion of his piece: "Cain, who has never held elected office, is now running for president on his signature 9-9-9 tax plan and CEO economic know-how. And though he's never cast a vote in Congress, there's still a substantial paper trail for his rivals to follow if they want to impede his ascent in the polls. It's right there in his columns."

"It's right here, folks!" he's saying. "This is the way to stop Cain. Trip him up with his own words."

Benjamin may think he has a big scoop here, but that's only his perception – the kind of news judgment that won him a big award from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a group that would be more accurately named, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Criticism. He also graduated to Time from the uber-progressive and ever-so-hip Salon.com. And he was widely hailed within his profession for suggesting some of the worst atrocities in the history of man occurred at Abu Ghraib.

Just imagine what we would find if someone had the time and inclination to rifle through the archives of Mark Benjamin. Do you think we'd find any errors? For heaven's sake, he made one in his lead paragraph in this story – suggesting Cain had stopped writing last January. Do you think we'd find any contradictions? Do you think we'd find any biases?

Before his latest, Benjamin's last six dispatches have been hit pieces on, in order, Rick Perry, Rick Perry, again, er, Rick Perry, again, one more on Rick Perry, another uppity Southern black man challenging the Democratic Party dependency planation in Allen West and, lastly, Michele Bachmann.

Do you see a pattern here?

In fact, I looked over dozens of recent reports written by Mark Benjamin, and they all have one thing in common. They all bear long knives for prominent Republicans. Yet, his beat is supposed to be Washington – a town still dominated by Democrats occupying the presidency and the U.S. Senate. Can he find no fault or blame by any members of the Democratic Party whatsoever? No scandals there? No previous writings contradicted? No flip-flops in positions? No corruption? No waste, fraud or abuse? No Solyndras? No Fast and Furious? No injustice?

Despite having witnessed Time magazine's fall from respectability and responsibility over many decades, it's still difficult for me to believe how standards at once-great news agencies have plummeted so low.