A Piece on the True Victim of the Election

[Guest MikeSC]

November 1, 2004 --  If President Bush is re-elected tomor row, the victory will have come de spite the best efforts of two erstwhile American journalistic icons — the Grey Lady of Times Square and Edward R. Murrow's Tiffany Network: The New York Times and CBS News.

 

If nothing else, the notion that "objectivity" animates America's media elite has been exposed this year for what it truly is — at best, a quaint myth; at worst, a pernicious lie.

 

Meanwhile, a new element has been injected into American politics: the Web-based truth-squadders who exposed Dan Rather for the sad partisan hack that he has become while deconstructing one elite-media hit after another throughout an agonizingly long election season.

 

Both the Times and CBS News have been chortling over the effect that their October Surprise story about "missing explosives" in Iraq — which "60 Minutes" had originally planned to air last night, but yielded to the Times — has had on Bush's campaign.

 

"A bad week for President Bush has gotten only worse," declared correspondent Jim Axelrod. As for Kerry, a CBS graphic proclaimed that his campaign was "on a roll," while correspondent Byron Pitts rejoiced over how Kerry has been "buoyed by the momentum that the weapons controversy has given him."

 

Meanwhile, the Times boasted about how the story has "roiled the campaign."

 

No one at either outlet seems to be concerned with the curious timing of the story which CBS had planned to broadcast just 36 hours before the election.

 

As it turned out, the story has been almost wholly discredited by the Army and by further reporting — but that took time, which CBS and the Times fully intended to deny to the White House.

 

To make up the slack — and provide yet another late hit against the president — "60 Minutes" recycled another story last night, this one alleging that U.S. troops went into battle in Iraq without adequate armor.

 

This happens to be true, up to a point, which the Army long ago admitted.

 

But it is also true that included in the $87-billion defense appropriation bill that John Kerry so infamously voted against was funds for the armor that CBS was so breathlessly complaining about last night.

 

To be sure, CBS and the Times are hardly alone in skewing their coverage for Kerry and against Bush. As The Hotline, the widely read online campaign newsletter, reported Friday: "By any measure, the free media is overwhelmingly in Kerry's favor today."

 

But those two news outlets have stood out as the worst offenders.

 

Dan Rather's bias, of course, was obvious long before he and producer Mary Mapes used forgeries to impeach President Bush's National Guard service.

 

Now CBS News remains the most persistently anti-Bush, growing more intense as Election Day draws near.

 

Consider: On Thursday, the CBS Evening News reported, "U.S. researchers reported the war has directly or indirectly caused the deaths of about 100,000 Iraqi civilians."

 

That's more than six times the highest estimates made even by antiwar groups like Human Rights Watch — and, as with the Rather-Mapes forged documents, the assertion failed to stand up to independent Internet analysis.

 

Moreover, as the Media Research Center notes, CBS didn't mention that the author of the study — who said he "was opposed to the war" and remains so — admitted to the Associated Press that he'd released the story "under the condition that it came out before the election."

 

In other words, what CBS billed as a scientific study was in fact yet another politically timed hatchet job from a blatantly partisan source.

 

And so it goes.

 

Bush may or may not win tomorrow.

 

But both CBS News and The New York Times come out of this election with their self-proclaimed "reputation for fairness" thoroughly in tatters.

http://nypost.com/postopinion/editorial/33097.htm

-=Mike

[2GOLD 0]

CBS: Cause fact checking is for pussies!

[Guest MikeSC]

CBS: Cause fact checking is for pussies!

CBS: We Re-define Reality!

-=Mike

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

cBS: Murrow -- he's a bitch...

[Guest BDC]

CBS: We made this up, love us!

[Guest MikeSC]

CBS: Remember Murrow? Yeah, We Don't Either.

-=Mike

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

CBS: You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!!!

[Guest MikeSC]

CBS: So Bernie Goldberg was right. Fuck him!

-=Mike

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Oh man, an editorial bitching about the integrity of the media from the in-print sister of Fox News.

[Guest MikeSC]

And, in some really relevant news, ABCNews Online has decided to post a somewhat lengthy article --- on groups who think we were behind 9/11.

 

Amazing what constitutes "news".

-=Mike

[NoCalMike 0]

True victim(s) of the election, I figured this article would be about the citizens of america.

[Guest MikeSC]

True victim(s) of the election, I figured this article would be about the citizens of america.

Americans get what we deserve.

 

And, Bush was the best possible President for these times.

-=Mike

[CheesalaIsGood 0]

True victim(s) of the election, I figured this article would be about the citizens of america.

Americans get what we deserve.

 

And, Bush was the best possible President for these times.

-=Mike

Why does that NOT sound like an endorsement?

[2GOLD 0]

CBS and Dan Rather would like to announce the ELECTION IS OVER.

 

CBS is the first station to bring you the results and with one vote cast, General Zod has won.

 

Congratulations to our new President, General Zod

 

KNEEL BEFORE PRESIDENT ZOD!

[TheBigSwigg 0]

I have a question, Mike. Besides Fox, what major television news would you watch?

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

True victim(s) of the election, I figured this article would be about the citizens of america.

I was all ready to say "I already saw this..it was last Wednesday's episode of South Park."

 

I hope Kerry gets elected, if only because of the MASSIVE role reversal of gov't apologists/whiners on this board. It would be HI-larious.

[The Czech Republic 0]

Why DO major news bureaus lean liberal, anyway? Nobody's given me a good answer because they all say "Liberal? They're conservative, like Fox News! HAHA!"

[Guest Brian]

I don't say they lean conservative, it's more like leaning corporate. News companies can cover what they want, and they often choose to either eliminate or minimize a scope of news, some moreso than others. It's not really good business practice to do otherwise.

[Guest MikeSC]

I have a question, Mike. Besides Fox, what major television news would you watch?

I seldom watch TV news. I can read what I want elsewhere and actually get info and not some interesting editing choices by the editor.

 

And the press leans liberal because the reporters are stricken, in a major way, with some serious groupthink.

-=Mike

[Guest MikeSC]

Beat this:

The critical moment came at 12:41 a.m. Wednesday, when, shortly after Florida had been painted red for Mr. Bush, Fox News declared that Ohio - and, very likely, the presidency - was in Republican hands.

 

Howard Wolfson, a strategist, burst into the "boiler room" in Washington where the brain trust was huddled and said, "we have 30 seconds" to stop the other networks from following suit.

 

The campaign's pollster, Mark Mellman, and the renowned organizer Michael Whouley quickly dialed ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC - and all but the last refrained from calling the race through the night. Then Mr. Wolfson banged out a simple, two-line statement expressing confidence that Mr. Kerry would win Ohio once the remaining ballots were counted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/politics...gn/04kerry.html

So, the networks didn't call OH --- because the Kerry campaign ASKED THEM NOT TO DO SO.

 

Thank God the press isn't biased or anything.

-=Mike

[bob_barron 0]

The press leans liberal because most journalists are liberal. Simple as that. I'm one of only two-three people who don't hate Bush in my programme

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Many reporters and editors are left-wing because they want to make the world a "better place" and it's easier to do that by writing a story about some crackhead welfare mom without healthcare than it is by explaining the benefits of reducing capital gains tax rates...

[2GOLD 0]

Many reporters and editors are left-wing because they want to make the world a "better place" and it's easier to do that by writing a story about some crackhead welfare mom without healthcare than it is by explaining the benefits of reducing capital gains tax rates...

 

Not to mention more fun.

Capital Gains tax rates are soooo boring. Give me a story I can make up for 50% of the article and then toss in a fact here and there with my personal spin.

[Dr. Tom 0]

(Election Night...)

 

And now, to Ohio, where President Bush is leading by 4 trillion votes, with 99.99999999% of presincts reporting. CBS News has determined this race is still "too close to call."

 

Yes! They're falling into my trap! Finally, I have a plan that works!

 

CBS News joins Fidel Castro in awarding Ohio to Senator Jesu... er, John Kerry!

 

This is a great day to have the media in your back pocket! Now where's my crazy bitch of a wife?

 

Right here, dahling. I have just finished sucking the blood of another conservative journalist, Muahahaha~!

 

You commies better get outta here and stop buying off the media! I got silver bullets in my gun for that bloodsucking bitch! NOW LET'S THROW DOWN, HIPPIE~!

 

Oh, shit! I must now fly away using technology I got from the Vietnamese in exchange for letting them torture more American POWs! Up, up, and away!

 

(Later, his political career ruined after the 2004 election, John Kerry turns to his buddies in Hollywood, who immediately cast him in the starring role of an expected blockbuster...)

 

[bob_barron 0]

Many reporters and editors are left-wing because they want to make the world a "better place" and it's easier to do that by writing a story about some crackhead welfare mom without healthcare than it is by explaining the benefits of reducing capital gains tax rates...

Everytime we go around the room and say why want to be journalists we always get a bunch of liberal answers and then I say:

 

I want to go to hockey games and write about them. That sounds cool

[Guest MikeSC]

Many reporters and editors are left-wing because they want to make the world a "better place" and it's easier to do that by writing a story about some crackhead welfare mom without healthcare than it is by explaining the benefits of reducing capital gains tax rates...

Everytime we go around the room and say why want to be journalists we always get a bunch of liberal answers and then I say:

 

I want to go to hockey games and write about them. That sounds cool

Say journalists get the best poon.

 

That'll either piss off the ladies --- or make them want to bang the snot out of you.

-=Mike

[bob_barron 0]

Given all the headlines I can come up with for copy editing class I pretty much am Mr. Sexist