Striking Back

The Bush administration strikes back against the deceptive media. I hope you were watching The Factor last night, when we established beyond a reasonable doubt that there were indeed ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq, and that newspaper headlines denying that were misleading and/or downright wrong.

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What "The New York Times" did today was outrageous. They do a lot of outrageous things, but the headline, "Panel Finds No Al Qaeda-Iraq Tie," the press wants to run out and say there's a fundamental split here now between what the president said and what the commission said. Jim Thompson, who's a member of the commission, has since been on the air. I saw him with my own eyes, and there's no conflict.

O'REILLY: Cheney has a right to be angry, and so does every American who wants a truthful media. "The Wall Street Journal" editorialized the situation this way: "The 'no Saddam link' story is getting so much play because it fits the broader anti-war, anti-Bush narrative that Iraq was a 'distraction' from the broader war on terror. So once again the 9/11 Commission is being used to tarnish the the Iraqi effort and damage President Bush's credibility in fighting terror."

And that's the importance of this matter, ladies and gentlemen. Anti-Bush zealots are hurting the fight against terror by misleading Americans about what's actually happening. That puts all of our lives in danger.

Sent this to my local paper - they called today and they are printing it. I should have demanded they apologize to the President:

The June 17th headline story in the Press turned out to be completely inaccurate and should be corrected. It was an Associated Press article claiming the 9/11 Commission contradicted the President’s claims regarding Iraq, Al Qaeda, and 9/11. The commission found no proof that Saddam collaborated with Al Qaeda in the 9/11 attacks. The President and his administration have said that all along. The commission also found that Saddam and Al Qaeda were linked in other areas, just as the President claimed.

In response to the controversy, Commission Chairmen Kean and Hamilton confirmed their findings agree with the administration. The AP follow-up story buried this fact, leaving the original impression intact.

A simple check of the actual text of the report against the administration’s rhetoric would have caught this error. Instead the AP rushed a story that was “too good to check”. How long can we attribute such shoddy work to mere incompetence? At some point we need to question the AP’s motives for such slanted, inaccurate reporting. I urge the Press & Sun Bulletin to drop the AP or at least fact check their stories before using them.

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