Up is Down: Another Unlikey Promotion:

Update 02.23: As FAIR issues a comprehensive rundown of mainstream media's omissions on Negroponte's record, "Dr. Fallon" writes in to correct my typo below: it's JOHN Negroponte, not Nicholas, Wired columnist, author, and director of MIT's excellent Media Lab. Deepest apologies.

Bush again dazzles with this morning's nomination of Nicholas Negroponte as director of national intelligence. Dazzle in a bad way. As Andres Conteris of Nonviolence International said when Negroponte was up for the UN ambassadorship in Iraq in 2004, a "man who we considered to be a state terrorist is about to be confirmed to the largest diplomatic post in U.S. history." Harsh words, yes, but fitting Negroponte's track record. A key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal, he was credited with "carrying out the covert strategy of the Reagan administration to crush the Sandinista government in Nicaragua," according to the New York Times--that is, his hands were likely as dirty as Oliver North's and Elliot Abrams'. As US ambassador to Honduras in the early '80s, Negroponte was nicknamed "the ostrich ambassador" for either willfully or through ignorance remaining blind to killings being done under his nose by the CIA-trained Battalion 316 death squad lead by Gen. Gustavo Alvarez Martines. Of course, this is all history you'd never know if you tuned into Fox News' coverage of the nomination. As Media Matters reports, this exchange took place 45 minutes after Bush's announcement today:

BRIGITTE QUINN (FOX News Live anchor): I really haven't heard anything negative about John Negroponte for the hour that I've been sitting here.

MORTIMER ZUCKERMAN (editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Report): Well, I doubt if you will ...

Meanwhile, Negroponte's sordid past got sucked down the memory hold by other rightwing pundits. Rush says, " He's a good guy, he's been in government service for 40 years." Rev. Moon's Washington Times in 2004 only hinted at Negroponte's dark side by calling him, A man with renowned taste and rumored connections with key CIA operatives. " In its brief post, rightwing blog Power Line only says that Negroponte "seems like a good choice." If anyone finds a rightwing voice that's critical of Negroponte, please let me know.