The Media, Still A Fifth Column
Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com
Thursday, Sept.12, 2002
Even after the horrific events of 9/11, America’s elitist media continued to bash President Bush, a man they are convinced shamefully wrested the White House away from their chosen candidate, Al Gore.
It began with criticism of the president’s activities on 9/11, when the Secret Service, to assure his safety, kept him flying around the nation and out of Washington. Oddball filmmaker Michael Moore sniped: "Keep crying, Mr. Bush. Keep running to Omaha or wherever it is you go while others die, just as you ran during Vietnam while claiming to be ‘on duty’ in the Air National Guard."
Said PBS’s Mark Shields: "Whether subsequent events indicate that there was a real threat or whatever, the fact [is] that he didn't return to the White House, didn't return to Washington."
Then the media came at Bush with charges that the president was simply not up to the job of facing the terrorist threat. Another Mark Shields pearl: "I don't think the President has seized the moment. … He hasn't made a connection with the people. He hasn't established a sense of command."
Los Angeles Times TV critic Howard Rosenberg whined that "Bush has lacked size in front of the camera when he should have been commanding and filling the screen with a formidable presence as the leader of a nation standing tall under extreme duress. Even his body language is troubling, as when TV cameras captured him returning to the White House [on 9/11]. … The Bush we saw walking alone, appeared almost to be slinking guiltily across the lawn."
Before the president addressed the nation after 9/11 with one of the most stirring speeches ever made by an American president, Dan Rather introduced him to CBS viewers by warning, "No matter how you feel about him, he is still our president."
After 9/11, the media became embroiled in a dispute over whether any displays of patriotism by reporters or news anchors was appropriate. Should reporters be seen wearing patriotic symbols such as U.S. flag pins in their lapels? Ultra-liberal Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting senior analyst Steve Rendall said: "At a time when many see the media as beating the drums for war, imposing the U.S. flag over what should be balanced reporting doesn't help. It reinforces the view that the media are not independent."
Criticism of President Bush and the way he won the presidency continue, but have taken on a new character.
In the early days after 9/11 the media insisted that Bush had led the U.S. into a "quagmire" in Afghanistan - that the war was going nowhere. That ended with the lightning-fast destruction of the Taliban.
A report that the president had been given a CIA briefing based on an old report lacking any specifics that al-Qaeda might be planning an attack on the U.S. caused a media firestorm in which it was charged that Bush failed to act on the "warning" to prevent 9/11.
Major media outlets, ignoring (1) the strong connection between the Clinton administration and Enron and (2) DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe’s ties to bankrupt Global Crossing, sought to tie the Bush administration to corporate corruption. This has gotten them nowhere, although they continue to harp on the subject.
From the day he took office, the liberal media has targeted President Bush, seeking every opportunity to damage him politically. The fact that the U.S. is at war has done little to mute the media’s attacks on our commander in chief.
The latest media spin is over the president's desire to stop Saddam Hussein from possessing and using weapons of mass destruction.
The New York Times in August ran a Page One article claiming that a majority of Americans, including Democrats, Republicans and Independents, oppose any war with Iraq. Did the Times use a scientific poll for its claims?
No. The paper simply sent out one of its liberal reporters to question people around town. It printed the opinions of those who fit its view.
Fortunately, America isn’t buying the obvious spin - and President Bush's poll numbers remain sky high.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
George W. Bush
Media Bias
War on Terrorism
