...the media is biased?!!! NO!! Getouttatown!!!
This story is no surprise to news junkies and bloggers as the main stream media savages Bush in degrading, personal terms, denigrates African-Americans, women and Jews in the Bush administration, inflates the veracity of a self-serving cast of dubious characters and scoundrels to heroic status, refuses to report on the economic recovery and distorts war coverage in an unparalled attempt to effect the outcome of the election and insure defeat in Iraq.
The media has been so successful in driving Bush's numbers down that they've become careless, barely covering their animus with a thin veneer of reportage or as this story in the LA Times demonstrates, they make simply it up:
A July 4 Times "news analysis" said: "L. Paul Bremer III, the civilian administrator for Iraq, left without even giving a final speech to the country--almost as if he were afraid to look in the eye the people he had ruled for more than a year."
Sure of their position, the media now openly flaunts their bias and boasts of their power.
Media: "Want Kerry to Win,”On Inside Washington, a weekend discussion show taped at and run by the Gannett-owned CBS affiliate in Washington, DC, WUSA-TV, and carried by many PBS stations across the country, Evan Thomas, the Assistant Managing Editor of Newsweek, pointed out the boost to the Kerry/Edwards ticket provided by the press corps:
“There’s one other base here: the media. Let’s talk a little media bias here. The media, I think, wants Kerry to win. And I think they’re going to portray Kerry and Edwards -- I’m talking about the establishment media, not Fox, but -- they’re going to portray Kerry and Edwards as being young and dynamic and optimistic and all, there’s going to be this glow about them that some, is going to be worth, collectively, the two of them, that’s going to be worth maybe 15 points.”
The week’s Newsweek, dated July 19, certainly backs up Thomas’ contention. Over a smiling picture on the cover of Kerry and Edwards, Newsweek ever hopefully asks: “The Sunshine Boys?”
Inside, at least in the Web-posted version, the headline reads: “Warming Up Kerry.” The subhead: “Blue skies: Their energy was infectious, but their numbers barely moved. Can Kerry-Edwards convert smiles into votes against Team Bush? Game on.” Howard Fineman and Richard Wolffe asserted at one point:
“Indeed, Edwards's ingratiating incandescence has already brightened Kerry. The two became a buddy-buddy act, hugging and whispering like Starsky and Hutch after consuming the evidence.”
Jeebus, the sad fact is that while most Americans view news with a certain level of scepticism, many are simply too busy to realize that they are being manipulated to this degree. The media will issue obscure back-page and middle-of-the-night mea-culpas for the most egregious distortions when outed and continue with business-as-usual.
To paraphrase Margo Channing "fasten your seatbelts, we're in for a bumpy night on Nov. 2nd."
Posted by Zozo at July 13, 2004 01:31 PM | TrackBackHey...just popping over. Great points. I noticed that you see a lot of free kerry/edwards moments and a few grudging Bush (where the hell is cheney) moments.
The regular networks do not even carry president Bush's speeches. You can only see them on daytme cabel. Even then, MSNBC doesn't replay them at night for the regular folks to here.
I think the prez is going to have to play his "I'm the president, let's give some primetime speeches" card. Of course, then the left will accuse him of abusing his postion.
What a twist!
Posted by: kat-missouri at July 13, 2004 03:17 PM