Yesterday, @JoshTPM said he had seen Zero Dark Thirty, denied it was pro-torture, and said he felt "immense pride" over what he watched (http://is.gd/yV345U). After he was criticized by numerous people on Twitter, he began spouting attakcs on "the left" that sounded like they were written by Dick Cheney, including calling his critics the "pro-OBL set" and the "tin foil sectarian left" (http://is.gd/CGjFaR - http://is.gd/CTvKkO).

Just now, @JoshTPM very courageously published - without comment - an anonymous email claiming I "flat out lied" when I argued that the film was pro-torture and that I caused lots of liberals to refuse to see the film (http://is.gd/YugvpG).

Leaving aside whether it's possible to "flat out lie" about such a matter, what Josh and his anonymous friend conceal is that huge numbers of torture experts, journalists, activists, government officials, filmmakers, academics, film critics and military and intelligence officers all said the same thing as I did about the film - including Jane Mayer, Steve Coll, Chris Hayes, Dianne Feinstein, Karen Greenberg, Alex Gibney and many, many others:

http://ggsidedocs.blogspot.com.br/2012/12/frank-bruni-new-york-times-its-hard-not.html

Did all of those people also "flat out lie"? Or were they all brainwashed by me?

It's pretty scummy - just from a journalistic and ethical perspective - to publish an anonymous email accusing someone of "flat out lying" on a matter of opinion where lying is not even possible. But it's even worse to do it when all of these vital facts are concealed from the reader about the huge numbers of others - including leading experts in the field - who said the same thing.

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