Ted Koppel speaks out aganist the War

[Stephen Joseph 0]

When exactly do we get our oil anyway?  Because I'm still paying $1.78 a gallon for regular and I really want the conspiracy for oil to work.

The Oil prices won't be lowered. The American companies which have the contracts (and in some cases have ties to actual members of the US government, such as Haliburton/Cheney) will be/are keeping the same prices in order to reap maximum profit.

That's completely erroneous. The DOJ Anti-trust Department is not politically influenced...probably in fact its leanings are quite different from the current admins. Why?

...Because I work there. That is my job. Our job. If an American company attempts to keep a price high...ugh.

 

Cartels DON'T work. They always break down, except for Major League Baseball. High prices induce others to raise their production, which then lowers price.

 

Christ I swear, pick up an economics textbook and read it.

 

And last I heard, we take people to court when they try to collude.

 

Now of course, you can tell me that doesn't happen.

 

But as I said...THAT is my job.

[Guest Astro]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Bush's approval rating is at an all-time low and fewer than half of Americans now believe invading Iraq was the right thing to do, according to a CBS/New York Times poll released on Wednesday.

The poll found that if the presidential election due in November was held today, 46 percent of Americans would vote for Democrat John Kerry and 44 percent would vote for Bush -- if independent Ralph Nader stayed out of the race.

 

The poll, with a sampling error of 3 percentage points, was conducted among 1,042 adults nationwide from Friday to Tuesday during a spate of fierce fighting in Iraq. More than 115 U.S. soldiers have been killed in combat this month.

 

"Just 32 percent, the lowest number ever, say Iraq was a threat that required immediate military action a year ago," the poll reported.

 

"Less than half, 47 percent, now say the United States did the right thing taking military action in Iraq, the lowest support recorded in CBS News/New York Times polls since the war began."

 

The poll said the Iraq war appeared to have hurt assessments of Bush -- his overall approval rating (46 percent), his rating on handling Iraq (41 percent) and his rating on handling foreign policy (40 percent) "are at the lowest points ever in this administration."

 

"His approval rating has dropped five points from early March, before the start of intense new fighting in Iraq. Immediately after the fall of Baghdad a year ago, 67 percent of Americans approved of the job Bush was doing as president," the poll said.

 

In March last year, at the time of the invasion, nearly seven in 10 Americans thought it was the right thing to do.

 

The poll said 56 percent of Americans thought Bush was "mostly telling the truth but still hiding something" when he spoke to them about Iraq.

 

It said 61 percent of respondents now believed the administration did not try hard enough to reach a diplomatic solution before going to war in Iraq -- a reversal of the public's belief last year during the war.

 

The poll said six in 10 Americans approved of Bush's handling of the threat of terrorism and 39 percent approved of his handling of the economy.

 

It said the economy and jobs were at the top of the list of issues voters wanted to hear the candidates discuss ahead of the Nov. 2 election.

 

"But the war in Iraq, although still in second place, is now mentioned by one-in-five voters, a 10-point jump from 11 percent six weeks ago, and the highest it has ever been since the CBS News/ New York Times Poll began asking this question last December."

 

The poll said three-quarters of respondents had already decided who to vote for in November.

 

"If ... Nader is included on the ballot in November and the election were held today, 41 percent of voters would vote for Kerry; 43 percent would vote for Bush. Nader would draw 5 percent of the vote, mostly at the expense of Kerry, who holds a two-point edge in the two-way contest."

[Guest MikeSC]

If the election were held today, turn-out would be terrible as most people expect it to happen in November.

 

That is all, Astro.

-=Mike

...Annoyed that the media has to use pointless polling to try and create news to justify their existence

[Stephen Joseph 0]

And Yet Bush's approval rating on his total job is at a high, and Nader IS running, so that counterfactual means shizzie.

 

If you're going to quote something Astro, quote something with real world applicability. Counterfactual models that can't exist do nothing but say "Gee, that's nice"

 

And here's why Bush wins people. I've said this enough times.

No Incumbent President in the history of the USA has lost when the economy has been on the uptick.

 

Never.

 

So Unless current trends change direction (Today 1st quarter growth GDP came out strong) Bush wins.

 

I never said I liked everything about Bush though...Delude yourselves all that you want.

 

What's in your *potential, expected* wallet...or pocketbook matters more than anything else.

[Guest MikeSC]

And Yet Bush's approval rating on his total job is at a high, and Nader IS running, so that counterfactual means shizzie.

 

If you're going to quote something Astro, quote something with real world applicability. Counterfactual models that can't exist do nothing but say "Gee, that's nice"

 

And here's why Bush wins people. I've said this enough times.

No Incumbent President in the history of the USA has lost when the economy has been on the uptick.

 

Never.

 

So Unless current trends change direction (Today 1st quarter growth GDP came out strong) Bush wins.

 

I never said I liked everything about Bush though...Delude yourselves all that you want.

 

What's in your *potential, expected* wallet...or pocketbook matters more than anything else.

Kerry is running the same campaign Dole ran.

 

And he'll be every inch as effective with it.

-=Mike

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Sorry, but any candidate, no matter how ineffective he or she may be, that has CA, NY and NJ's electoral votes in the bag has to be feared...

[Guest MikeSC]

Sorry, but any candidate, no matter how ineffective he or she may be, that has CA, NY and NJ's electoral votes in the bag has to be feared...

I disagree. Kerry has little traction nationally and Bush will simply do to him what he did to Gore --- and likely pick up a few states in the process.

 

BTW, nice to see Arlen Specter distancing himself from Bush already --- ungrateful prick.

-=Mike

[Vern Gagne 0]

BTW, nice to see Arlen Specter distancing himself from Bush already --- ungrateful prick.

-=Mike

Serves Bush right. Specter hasn't done jackshit for the Republicans. Yet he endorses him. In some way I hope it comes back and bites Bush in the ass.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Being from PA, I can understand why Bush was behind Wacky Arlen in the primary.

 

If Toomey would have won, there's no way he would have beat the guy from the Democrat Party. Arlen is going to have a tough enough time.

 

And regarding electoral votes, Kerry will probably take at LEAST one of the three states: PA, MI, FL or OH. That's at least another 20+ in his corner.

 

I hope I'm wrong with all this, but you all know how infrequent I make mistakes...

[Guest MikeSC]

Being from PA, I can understand why Bush was behind Wacky Arlen in the primary.

 

If Toomey would have won, there's no way he would have beat the guy from the Democrat Party. Arlen is going to have a tough enough time.

 

And regarding electoral votes, Kerry will probably take at LEAST one of the three states: PA, MI, FL or OH. That's at least another 20+ in his corner.

 

I hope I'm wrong with all this, but you all know how infrequent I make mistakes...

I still think the more the people see and hear of Kerry --- the more he'll drop.

-=Mike

[Guest thebigjig]

well... looks like the episode of Night Line has been ordered OFF the air by the Sinclair broadcasting corp.

 

it should be noted, that Sinclair executives have donated more than $16,000 in hard money to Bush and $120,000 in soft money to Republicans... and $0 to the Democrats

 

damn LIBERAL media

[Guest Cerebus]

well... looks like the episode of Night Line has been ordered OFF the air by the Sinclair broadcasting corp.

 

it should be noted, that Sinclair executives have donated more than $16,000 in hard money to Bush and $120,000 in soft money to Republicans... and $0 to the Democrats

 

damn LIBERAL media

Care to link us?

[Guest MikeSC]

well... looks like the episode of Night Line has been ordered OFF the air by the Sinclair broadcasting corp.

 

it should be noted, that Sinclair executives have donated more than $16,000 in hard money to Bush and $120,000 in soft money to Republicans... and $0 to the Democrats

 

damn LIBERAL media

Yeah.

 

That darned conservative media.

-=Mike

...Funny that Koppel thought it important to do this during sweeps, rather than during, you know, Memorial Day

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

But if he did it during Memorial Day, the body count might be so high that he'll need three hours to read all the names...

[tommytomlin 0]

'We thought about doing this on Memorial Day, but that’s a time when most media outlets do stories about the military, and they are generally lost in the holiday crush of picnics and all. We didn’t want this broadcast to get lost. '

 

Did you even read the first post?

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

I did, and I'm calling bullshit.

 

So Koppel doesn't want to spend a half hour reading names because he's afraid people will be attending picnics (at 11:30 p.m. ET, when Nightline is usually on) instead of watching his attempt to exploit the deaths of hundreds of soldiers for profit.

 

I'll believe the Single Bullet Theory before I believe this...

[Stephen Joseph 0]

Sinclair took it off the air because they felt it was politically motiviated and not a tribute to the soldiers.

 

So what they contribute to the Republicans...Big deal. They made a very good and sound case for doing so.

 

-I read this today in the Washington Post Express, if anyone wants the source~!

[Guest Cerebus]

'We thought about doing this on Memorial Day, but that’s a time when most media outlets do stories about the military, and they are generally lost in the holiday crush of picnics and all. We didn’t want this broadcast to get lost. '

 

Did you even read the first post?

Ha ha ha, you crack me up. Did you even read my post on the first page.

 

Koppel, also in the announcement, acknowledged that Memorial Day might have been "the most logical occasion" to do the program. Ya think?

 

"But we felt that the impact would actually be greater on a day when the entire nation is not focused on war dead," he said.

 

Ah yes, and, of course, Memorial Day falls outside the May sweeps, when viewer levels are used by the networks to set advertising rates. Memorial Day is also traditionally a day of very low television viewing. He forgot to mention that stuff.

 

Sievers and others we spoke with at ABC News insisted they did not realize that the May sweeps start tomorrow.

[Ripper 0]

'We thought about doing this on Memorial Day, but that’s a time when most media outlets do stories about the military, and they are generally lost in the holiday crush of picnics and all. We didn’t want this broadcast to get lost. '

 

Did you even read the first post?

Ha ha ha, you crack me up. Did you even read my post on the first page.

 

Koppel, also in the announcement, acknowledged that Memorial Day might have been "the most logical occasion" to do the program. Ya think?

 

"But we felt that the impact would actually be greater on a day when the entire nation is not focused on war dead," he said.

 

Ah yes, and, of course, Memorial Day falls outside the May sweeps, when viewer levels are used by the networks to set advertising rates. Memorial Day is also traditionally a day of very low television viewing. He forgot to mention that stuff.

 

Sievers and others we spoke with at ABC News insisted they did not realize that the May sweeps start tomorrow.

WHOOOSH?

[Guest MikeSC]

'We thought about doing this on Memorial Day, but that’s a time when most media outlets do stories about the military, and they are generally lost in the holiday crush of picnics and all. We didn’t want this broadcast to get lost. '

 

Did you even read the first post?

You hear that noise, Tommy?

 

It's the point --- sailing WAY over your head.

-=Mike

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Now this is interesting. While working out I had everybody's favorite cable news channel on and a reporter told John Gibson that he tried to get an interview with Koppel, but Ted said he was too busy to grant one.

 

He then went to Air America and got interviewed by someone there (I think it was Franken.)

 

Odd...

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Good lord. One can't even recognize the men who died for this country's cause without a bunch conspiracy nuts bitching about it.

 

May I never be as skeptical as some of you are.

[Guest MikeSC]

Good lord. One can't even recognize the men who died for this country's cause without a bunch conspiracy nuts bitching about it.

 

May I never be as skeptical as some of you are.

We just find it bizarre that it didn't happen on Memorial Day, when it might make sense --- but during sweeps week.

-=Mike

[Jobber of the Week 0]

You think this is going to be ratings gold? Someone just sitting at a desk and reading off a list of names?

 

This is ratings death, if anything.

[Guest MikeSC]

You think this is going to be ratings gold? Someone just sitting at a desk and reading off a list of names?

 

This is ratings death, if anything.

It's gotten a TON of attention.

 

It will do quite well in the ratings.

 

On Memorial Day? Nobody would care.

-=Mike

[Hogan Made Wrestling 0]

So, we can agree that Koppel might have a financial/self-promotional motive to do this. But how on earth does sweeps translate into a politically charged motive as Sinclair Media contends? If Koppel is doing this strictly for sweeps and for the attention, then sure that's somewhat exploitative, although probably not much more than SI having Pat Tillman on the cover of this week's issue. But I don't see the political motivation, given that this can be interpreted in so many varying ways.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

You think this is going to be ratings gold? Someone just sitting at a desk and reading off a list of names?

That's no more exciting than any other Nightline broadcast.

 

It's gotten a TON of attention.

 

It will do quite well in the ratings.

 

On Memorial Day? Nobody would care.

 

Exactly, everybody would be too busy cooking BBQ and having picnics...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

at 11:35 p.m ET...

[Guest Cerebus]

So, we can agree that Koppel might have a financial/self-promotional motive to do this. But how on earth does sweeps translate into a politically charged motive as Sinclair Media contends? If Koppel is doing this strictly for sweeps and for the attention, then sure that's somewhat exploitative, although probably not much more than SI having Pat Tillman on the cover of this week's issue. But I don't see the political motivation, given that this can be interpreted in so many varying ways.

Honestly, neither do I. I think this is more a ratings stunt than anything else myself and Sinclair needs a good backfist for this.

[Guest hunger4unger]

Of course it's a ratings stunt. Doesn't mean that the message won't get through to some ignorant people - troops are dying, on an almost daily basis, for NOTHING.

[Guest MikeSC]

Of course it's a ratings stunt. Doesn't mean that the message won't get through to some ignorant people - troops are dying, on an almost daily basis, for NOTHING.

Because the deaths in Iraq have been SO ignored. *snicker*

-=Mike