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Tommy Duncan
09-07-2004, 05:51 PM
www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2...0712.asp#1 (http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040712.asp#1)



Mag Editor: Media “Want Kerry to Win,”
Cover: “Sunshine Boys”

Recognition of the obvious. The media “wants Kerry to win” and so “they’re going to portray Kerry and Edwards as being young and dynamic and optimistic” and “there’s going to be this glow about” them, Evan Thomas, the Assistant Managing Editor of Newsweek, admitted on Inside Washington over the weekend. He should know. His magazine this week sports a smiling Kerry and Edwards on its cover with the yearning headline, “The Sunshine Boys?” Inside, an article carrying Thomas’ byline contrasted how “Dick Cheney projects the bleakness of a Wyoming winter, while John Edwards always appears to be strolling in the Carolina sunshine.” The cover story touted how Kerry and Edwards “became a buddy-buddy act, hugging and whispering like Starsky and Hutch after consuming the evidence.”

Newsweek’s competitor, Time, also gushed about the Democratic ticket, dubbing them, in the headline over their story, “The Gleam Team.”

Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz also realized the media’s championing of the Democratic ticket and made it a focus of his Sunday Reliable Sources show on CNN. The on screen topic cues: “Edwards Lovefest?” and “Media’s Dream Team.”

Kurtz’s Washington Post on Sunday well illustrated the media’s infatuation with Kerry and Edwards. “Kerry Vows to Restore 'Truth' to Presidency,” announced a July 11 front page headline. Inside, on page A-8, a headline declared: “Kerry, Edwards Revel in Brotherhood of Campaign.” The subhead: “Energy, Enthusiasm Infectious as Democrats Take Message to Battleground States.”

For the front page story by Jim VandeHei and Dan Balz: www.washingtonpost.com

For the inside article by the same two reporters, but with their names flipped: www.washingtonpost.com

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, Thomas 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?” To see the cover: www.msnbc.msn.com

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.”

Whatever that means.

For the article in full: www.msnbc.msn.com

“The Boyish Wonder” is the headline over a story on which Thomas shared a byline with Susannah Meadows and Arian Campo-Flores. The subhead: “Happy warrior: He was no superstar. But John Edwards's determination and ability to read the defense took him to the top.” The trio began the laudatory piece:
“In politics, self-made men seem to fall into two categories: sunny and dark. Both Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon began as farm boys, but while Ike radiated corn-fed smiles, Nixon seemed to be constantly brooding over some slight. In the 2004 election, Dick Cheney projects the bleakness of a Wyoming winter, while John Edwards always appears to be strolling in the Carolina sunshine...”

For the second Newsweek story in full: www.msnbc.msn.com

Ruby Ridge
09-07-2004, 09:49 PM
I don't buy it. Liberal bias in media is dead.....if it were ever alive.

Liberal bias is a canard propagated by the right wing since I can remember. This president has benefited from a friendly media moreso than any other politico in the last 35 years.

Take the National Guard story....a couple of passing stories and it fades away despite the administration not releasing all the documents.

Take the Swift Boat Vets for Rent, some of the print media made quick work of them, rightfully so, but yet cable and radio continue to give these boobs air time.

Distortions by the Bush campaign are left unchallenged by the so-called liberal media. Take for instance Kerry's voting record. Zell Miller spoke about the Kerry opposing specific weapon systems enumerating them for the jeering throng at the RNC and what does the media focus on? The fact that the weapon systems he cited were part of an omnibus defense bill in 1990 that he opposed upon budget grounds citing the peace dividend from the ending of the cold war. That Dick Cheney, then Secretary of Defense specifically called for an end to those programs because of the same peace dividend. Nah, the media, the so-called liberal media was more concerned about Miller looking angry. Perish the thought that Dan Rather or Peter Jennings might actually do a story on the misrepresentations or distortions in the various speeches at the convention.

No folks, the liberal media is a myth. Too afraid of being accused by conservatives of having a bias, they let story after story go under reported or unreported lest they incur the wrath of Ann Coulter or Sean Hannity.

The liberal media doesn't exist. If it did, we would be wondering how President Gore was going to in November.

Tommy Duncan
09-07-2004, 10:17 PM
The media has been all over Bush's national guard service at least 3 times now. First in the 2000 election, again earlier this year, and then now.

The press reluctantly started to look into the Swift Vets charges after it had been all over the cable news shows for a couple of weeks.

Beyond that, all one has to do is actually read the NY Times or watch one of the network news programs to get a taste of their great objectivity.

afe7FATMAN
09-23-2004, 05:07 AM
Can Anybody say "Dan Rather"

Nbadan
09-23-2004, 05:36 AM
The media has been all over Bush's national guard service at least 3 times now. First in the 2000 election, again earlier this year, and then now.

That's no conspiracy by the media against W. It's the media investigating a news story that they feel hasn't been answered adequately by the candidate. W. has constantly refused to answer whether or not he actually completed his National Guard Service personally, always instead using surrogates to answer the question in round-about ways. Mighty convenient given that any records than prove whether or not W. ever showed in Alabama are either missing or have been destroyed.

Nbadan
09-23-2004, 05:38 AM
The press reluctantly started to look into the Swift Vets charges after it had been all over the cable news shows for a couple of weeks.

The Navy investigated some of the Swifties allegations against Kerry and found them to be completely and unquestionably bogus.

ClintSquint
09-23-2004, 05:40 AM
The media is making Bush look like God.

Stop whining about the liberal media. It just ain't so.

Nbadan
09-23-2004, 05:42 AM
Beyond that, all one has to do is actually read the NY Times or watch one of the network news programs to get a taste of their great objectivity

Yeah, by objectivity I guess you mean they don't distort and deceive stories the way FOX news does. NBC is owned by the biggest defense contractor in the world - G.E.. Now why would NBC not want to be objective about war mongering?

Tommy Duncan
09-23-2004, 10:29 AM
:lol

I rest my case. Keep spinning guys.

Yonivore
09-24-2004, 02:44 PM
My favorite opinion piece from today:


Ghosting for Les (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/668bjlln.asp)

The speech CBS's president Les Moonves needs to give.

by Hugh Hewitt - 09/23/2004 12:00:00 AM

ON TUESDAY, CBS president Les Moonves told the Los Angeles Times that it was "clear that something went seriously wrong with the process" that produced DanScam. That's like The Zepplin Company announcing that the Hindenburg (http://www.unmuseum.org/hindenburg.htm) had a little trouble landing in New Jersey.

Moonves is the boss of an organization under siege, one whose brand is being gutted. He might find the Harvard Business School case study (http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=583043) of Johnson & Johnson's reaction to the Tylenol poisonings of October 1982 useful, but he would find Khrushchev's "secret speech" (http://www.uwm.edu/Course/448-343/index12.html) even more compelling. Moonves needs to gather everyone employed by CBS News in one place or via video link, and deliver a speech.

I suggest this text:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alright everyone. This won't take long.

You'll notice that I have invited C-SPAN and a couple of folks from the blogosphere to join us. This is my way of trying to tell you it is a new world--a transparent, hypercritical world--and you'd better get used to it. Over there is Glenn Reynolds, a law professor, and the Instapundit (http://www.instapundit.com/). Lots of people visit his site every day. Smart people. Opinion makers. News-hungry people we used to serve. I have also asked John Hinderaker from Power Line (http://www.powerlineblog.com/) to be here to tape this and post it on his website. Power Line kicked our butt. Reynolds helped spread the word. We are done with denial at CBS News. Welcome gentlemen.

I am not firing Andrew Heyward, Dan Rather, or Mary Mapes, though Heyward is no longer CBS News president and Dan's not our anchor anymore. These three, and a few others involved in this meltdown, have been given an assignment to produce a one-hour special detailing what happened. It is scheduled to run in two weeks. I will review it before it airs. If it doesn't answer every question, then that will be the end of some fine CBS careers. I am not interested in retribution. I am interested in reputation. Ours is toast, and it deserves to be. Dan's in charge of the first step in the rebuilding process. I have confidence in him.

I am up here with [NAME]. He has accepted the enormous challenge of running this place. He's not a journalist. But he's been in and around Washington, D.C. for three decades, and is widely regarded as fair and smart. Yes, he's a Republican. Guess what. That doesn't matter. We can't pretend that journalists are "independent" anymore, above the fray, disinterested. Everyone single person in this room brings an agenda to work with them every day. Part of that agenda is advancement, fame fortune, the usual stuff. And part of that agenda is a preference for every side in every conflict. Even if you are fooling yourself, you aren't fooling the country and you aren't fooling me. We are lousy with liberals. You know it, I know it, and the world knows it. I am not firing anyone because of their politics, but I will fire people who refuse to admit what has been going on here for the last 30 years, and not just here, in the networks and the big papers as well.

Will hiring [NAME] turn us into Fox News? Fox News is a fine news organization, and if you haven't figured that out yet, you are in denial. They owned the Swift Boat story because we were sniffing about the fact that this or that didn't seem appropriate to us. They owned the Republican convention because people trust Hume. I'd hire him tomorrow to anchor but he won't come. So get over this "Fox News is a right-wing carnival" crap.

Get over everything in fact. Start following the news again instead of filtering it. If you aren't fair, pretend to be. We are all out of business if we don't stop the bleeding. Have you seen the numbers? The leader, ABC, Jennings--has gone from 13.6 million every night in 1991 to 9 million today. No other business in the world could see that trend and conclude that everything is fine. We aren't losing the audience--we are driving the audience away!

Ask yourself why, and don't tell me it is because we don't have a bureau in Vienna. It's because we don't have a clue. We aren't the news anymore. We are the echo chamber of the center-left establishment of America. We are seminar material for j-schools. We are well-paid, well-educated yes-men to Manhattan and Beltway elitism, and guess what, America hates us.

They should. You couldn't get more arrogance in one room at a World Affairs Council meeting.

So here is what we are going to do.

First, I've asked [NAME] to plunder the other networks. I want the best correspondents and producers.

Next, Bob Schieffer will hold down the fort until I can bribe Hume or find someone else--someone else not from within this group, period. But that anchor isn't the news director. I will be bringing in two partisans--one from the left and one from the right--and a businessman or woman to make up an internal editing board which will advise [NAME]. From now on there will be accountability in the story process. We aren't out of the ambush business, but we are not going to have another disaster on my watch.

And we are going to figure out the blogs, and we are going to get faster and quicker and more committed to staying ahead of news curves, even if that means we make mistakes and we apologize all over ourselves on a much more frequent basis. The audience will buy that if we screw up on both sides of the political aisle.

That's it. You are on notice. Knock off the agenda journalism. Change your habits or change your employer. There are plenty of people who can do this. It isn't hard. It isn't a profession. It is a craft, and right now, we are at its bottom."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is yours. Les. Run with it. I spent 18 months ghosting for Richard Nixon in his retirement, so trust me on this. Rehabilitation is possible if begun with good writing."

Hugh Hewitt is the host of a nationally syndicated radio show, and author most recently of If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends Upon It (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0785263195/hughhewittcom%22%3EIf%20It/102-8093702-8387319). His daily blog can be found at HughHewitt.com (http://www.hughhewitt.com/).