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You GottaBeKidding
Rear Admiral
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
Posts: 692
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 Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2004 12:16 pm Post subject: No surprise: AWOL stories beat Swifties' stories over 8 to 1 |
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I got this e-mail from the Media Research Center. No surprises here:
| Quote: | ***Media Research Center CyberAlert Special***
6:45am EDT, Thursday August 19, 2004
Media Reality Check. "TV Gives No Respect to Swift Boat Vets for
Truth: ABC, CBS & NBC Gave 75 Stories to Bush 'AWOL' Charge, 9 to
Claims Kerry Embellished War Record"
Below is the text of a Media Reality Check study put together
by Rich Noyes, the MRC's Research Director, and distributed by fax
on Wednesday afternoon.
For the Adobe Acrobat PDF version:
http://www.mediaresearch.org/realitycheck/2004/pdf/fax0818.pdf
Now the text of the August 18 Media Reality Check, enhanced,
in brackets, with links to past CyberAlerts with further details
and/or illustrative quotes:
Back in February, the three broadcast networks were obsessed with
the story of President Bush's National Guard service. But in May,
when John Kerry's former Navy colleagues from Vietnam went to the
National Press Club to charge that Kerry's tales of heroism as a
Swift Boat commander were highly exaggerated, those same networks
acted as if their job was to bury the news, not report it.
Back on May 4, ABC and NBC ignored the Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth's press conference, while CBS's Byron Pitts claimed the
veterans had merely "unleashed decades of bitterness." His Evening
News story ignored Kerry's record, but challenged his critics: "If
you think this is just a concerned group of veterans, think
again."
[For how the CBS Evening News smeared the swifties:
http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040505.asp#1 ]
Even though the Swift Vets have now published a book, Unfit for
Command, and sponsored a TV ad, the networks still aren't
investigating their charges. MRC analysts examined ABC, CBS and
NBC's morning and evening news shows. They found 75 stories this
year questioning Bush's National Guard service, but only nine
detailing any of the Swift Vets' anti-Kerry charges, an
eight-to-one disparity. But the networks' double standard runs far
deeper than the amount of coverage:
>> Partisanship: The "AWOL" story got its legs February 1 when
Democratic boss Terry McAuliffe appeared on ABC's This Week to
declare how he wanted a debate in which "John Kerry, a war hero
with a chest full of medals, is standing next to George Bush, a
man who was AWOL in the Alabama National Guard," and reporters
began badgering the White House to prove McAuliffe's charges
false.
[See: http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040204.asp#3 ]
But the hint of a GOP connection to the Swift Vets had reporters
holding their noses. The first mention of the Swift Vets on NBC
Nightly News came on August 6 when Andrea Mitchell complained the
groups' anti-Kerry "ad is paid for by Bush contributors using a
loophole in the McCain-Feingold law." Mitchell's story did not
examine the vets' charges against Kerry, just complained about the
fact that they could get them on TV.
[For how NBC denounced the ad and rued how it got onto the
air: http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040807.asp#1 ]
>> Evidence: Reporters put the onus on Bush to prove the critics
wrong. "Given the absence of any witnesses who could fill in those
gaps and corroborate the President's recollection," ABC's Terry
Moran insisted on February 10, "the issue is not going to go
away." CBS was even more demanding (see box).
[For February 10 coverage:
http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040211.asp#1 ]
SUSPEND Reprint for the three CBS quotes in the box:
CBS Strained to Keep "AWOL" Alive
"The White House did release some of what it called newly
discovered documents today. But as CBS's John Roberts reports, it
did not put the issue to rest." -- Dan Rather on the February 10
CBS Evening News.
"Officials hoped the release of Mr. Bush's dental records would
end the matter, but the dentist who treated him has no specific
recollection of seeing the future President." -- John Roberts,
Feb. 12.
"Even with these new records, which describe Mr. Bush as an
exceptionally fine young pilot and officer, there are still some
gaps the White House has yet to fill in." -- Roberts, February 13.
RESUME Reprint of Media Reality Check:
But holes in Kerry's record aren't treated as suspicious. On the
issue of Kerry's first wound in 1968, then-Coastal Division 14
Commander Grant Hibbard says Kerry came to his office asking for a
Purple Heart for what amounted to a scratch. As recounted in Unfit
for Command (page 38), "I told Kerry to 'forget it.' There was no
hostile fire, the injury was self-inflicted for all I knew,
besides it was nothing more than a scratch. Kerry wasn't getting a
Purple Heart recommendation from me." But when the issue became
news in April, the networks made it a one-day story, even though
the records Kerry released failed to include the paperwork
supporting the Purple Heart award.
[For evening newscast coverage:
http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040423.asp#1
For morning show coverage:
http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040423.asp#2 ]
>> Enthusiasm. On February 10, White House reporters badgered Press
Secretary Scott McClellan for 30 minutes, demanding detailed proof
that everything Bush said in the past was true. But the networks
now call the Swift Vets' ad "ugly," and reporters' demand is for
Bush to condemn it, not Kerry to factually rebut it.
[For August 5 evening show coverage denouncing the ad:
http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040806.asp#2
For August 6 morning show coverage, including the "ugly"
assessment on NBC's Today show:
http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040806.asp#2 ]
END Reprint of August 18 Media Reality Check
For a full rundown on how the networks have failed to cover
the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, see the August 12 CyberAlert:
http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040812.asp#4
-- Brent Baker |
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Son Of The Godfather
Captain
Joined: 29 Jul 2004
Posts: 540
Location: Camarillo, CA
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| Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2004 12:46 pm Post subject: |
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You GottaBeKidding,
Why did ya have to print that when I have to eat breakfast in a bit!
Sheeesh, what happened to journalistic integrity?... Oh, it's all over on the FOX station now. I think I'll just leave it there and ditch my remote.
SOTG
_________________
"Which candidate would enemies of the United States prefer to see in the White House?" |
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Dimsdale
Captain
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 527
Location: Massachusetts: the belly of the beast
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| Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2004 12:59 pm Post subject: |
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"Democratic boss Terry McAuliffe appeared on ABC's This Week to
declare how he wanted a debate in which "John Kerry, a war hero
with a chest full of medals, is standing next to George Bush, a
man who was AWOL in the Alabama National Guard," and reporters
began badgering the White House to prove McAuliffe's charges
false.
But the hint of a GOP connection to the Swift Vets had reporters
holding their noses. The first mention of the Swift Vets on NBC
Nightly News came on August 6 when Andrea Mitchell complained the
groups' anti-Kerry "ad is paid for by Bush contributors using a
loophole in the McCain-Feingold law." Mitchell's story did not
examine the vets' charges against Kerry, just complained about the
fact that they could get them on TV."
Naturally, there is no connection between McAuliffe and the DNC, right? And Mitchell will rightly condemn Moore's Fantasy 911 movie as "misleading and untruthful" yet not call for it to be pulled or complain about it's play and Moore being honored by the DNC.
That the networks and newspapers can simply blackball a story from a legitimate group of honorable and decorated veterans on a partisan whim is, in the words of John McCain, "dishonest and dishonorable."
That anyone can argue that there is no liberal bias in the press after the way these brave men have been treated and attacked is ludicrous. It is not like the SBVT is afraid of scrutiny; quite the opposite. They are begging for it!! The story is just sitting there, big as life, practically written for the lazy "reporters" and they ignore it. Suppression is censorship, even if it isn't being done by the governmet.
We all have to get out and make the average citizen realize how they are being mislead and lied to (by omission) in the press and electronic media.
This could be a fight for both the SBVT being heard, and making the media treat all stories fairly, or at least admit their bias, like Rush and Hannity do. |
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The Ghost
Seaman
Joined: 09 Aug 2004
Posts: 160
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| Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2004 3:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Dimsdale wrote: | "Democratic boss Terry McAuliffe appeared on ABC's This Week to
declare how he wanted a debate in which "John Kerry, a war hero
with a chest full of medals, is standing next to George Bush, a
man who was AWOL in the Alabama National Guard," and reporters
began badgering the White House to prove McAuliffe's charges
false..". |
wasn't kerry AWOL before he was a hero ?? if i remember right he showed up 15 days late |
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