Media bias (ABC's reporting of candidate backers)

From: XXXX
To: XXXX
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 5:47 AM
Subject: FW: Media bias
From my uncle in Minnesota!!
Begin forwarded message:
Rec'd this from a friend who's niece is stationed in Iraq
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:42:19 +0000
Just in case you happened to see the ABC News piece (if you watch ABC News) with interviews of 5 military folks in Iraq 3 planned to vote for Obama and 2 for Hillary; no mention of any McCain supporters. Well, here's the 'Rest:
My niece, Katelyn, stationed at Baluud , Iraq was assigned, with others of her detachment, to be escort/guard/ watcher for Martha Raddatz of ABC News as she covered John McCain's recent trip to Iraq . Katelyn and her Captain stood directly behind Raddatz as she queried GI's walking past. They kept count of the GI's and you should remember these numbers. She asked 60 GI's who they planned to vote for in November. 54 said John McCain, 4 for Obama and 2 for Hillary. Katelyn called home and told her Mom and Dad to watch ABC news the next night because she was standing directly behind Raddatz and maybe they'd see her on TV. Mom and Dad of course, called and emailed all the kinfolk to watch the newscast and maybe see Katelyn. Well, of course, we all watched and what we saw wasn't a glimpse of Katelyn, but got a hell'uva view of skewed news. After a dissertation on McCain's trip and speech, ABC showed 5 GI's being asked by Raddatz how they were going to vote in November; 3 for Obama and 2 for Clinton . No mention of the 54 for McCain.
Think about this:
If you don't want to forward this for fear of offending someone...
YOU'RE PART OF THE
PROBLEM! It is Time for America to Speak up
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Interesting, but not surprising...

Freaaaaking me out. The media isn’t even trying to look objective.

Hehe.. not sure if you were trying to be sarcastic (didn’t include the /s tag)... but you are correct ;)

It’s what we would expect from them.... :P

Seen that email.

Some are saying it is not true, and Snopes is reporting it as untrue.

However. . .

Raddatz came to ABC News from NPR-—that is enough to make any report she makes a left-wing hit piece.

Here is what the email is based on-—http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Story?id=4244798—

Snopes is wrong, it is true—though the general officer part is suspect as I can't find anything on him.

Regardless, Raddatz submitted a totally biased report that painted a majority of warriors as supporting an empty suit, a guy that walks upright without a spine, a person with no character, a poser, a physical anomoly--two ears being held apart by a vaccuum.

The segment included six brief interviews with soldiers, three that wanted Barack Obama, two wanted shrillary, and one for John McCain.

Don't know if she actually interviewed 60 people, no way to tell unless you were in the editing room.

Nonetheless, it is fair to say that a random sampling of military personnel in Iraq would have more than one McCain supporter, as the military is generally conservative in its ethos and approach to life and politics.

Personally, I think ABC News deliberately misrepresented the military mind-set when it comes to the candidates, that ABC News tried to convey that the military has new-found loyalty with the dems.

Radatz showed only one military guy with a McCain reference (prefaced by a Raddatz voice-over saying, “there were some McCain backers ...”). Like that was supposed to demonstrate balance?

Calling the piece “Whom Are Our Troops Endorsing?” and “Surprising Political Endorsements by U.S. Troops” is a deliberate misrepresentation of the partisan demographics of the military.

ABC News reported the interviews within the context of a representative sample, a cross-section of the average military guy and their possible candidate.

Found a reference of Raddatz sending an email in defense of the news report: “Martha Raddatz’ own email response to this situation, I am frankly surprised at the lax standards applied by the editors of ABC News in assessing whether the facts supported the essence of the story. ‘. . . I did not talk to many more than a dozen service members. I . . . had no time. . . This was not a poll.’ These facts as openly admitted by Raddatz in her attempt to defend her “integrity” actually do more harm than good. It reveals how shallow and vulnerable the basis for the “truth” in our news has become. This is not about some fabrication of a relative in the military category of email chain. . . you [ABC News] are doing a shameful disservice by allowing a reporter representing your network to portray as popular opinion something as anecdotal and isolated as Raddatz’ ‘surprise’ in the number of solders expressing support for Obama.”

FYI. . .

Snopes report

http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/raddatz.asp

Here is the link to the Snopes report.

The Snopes report begins with a bold red "False". But the text below largely substantiates the claim. Snopes is showing a little preference here. They want the story to be false, but the facts show that it really isn't.

Poor job on this one Snopes.

Not only the text, but the actual news report itself.

It was a biased and slanted report. . .I am stunned /sarc

"ISLAM ISN'T IN AMERICA TO BE EQUAL TO ANY OTHER FAITH, BUT TO BECOME DOMINANT. The Koran ... should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth. Everthing we need to know is in the Koran. We don't need to look somewhere else." OMAR M. AHMAD, CHAIRMAN OF CAIR_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ From ‘The Audacity Of Hope, "I WILL STAND WITH THEM (MUSLIMS) should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." .

Thank you for the link!
It’s ironic that you mentioned snopes.... since I was wondering if this would make it there on the drive to work this morning.. And, like I imagined, it is very slanted to the left (as always).

I like what you wrote, and I agree wholeheartedly. When I was in the USAF, I swore that if Clinton was elected, I would NOT stay in because I wouldn’t want him as my boss (CIC). Well, he was elected... I remember sitting in the NCO club watching the election wind down on the TV... and as soon as the results were out, I made the decision to hold to what I had told myself before.. and get out. I did.

Missed being in so much though, that I wanted to get back in.... but the USAF wasn’t taking prior elisted at the time.... I took the other option and went Army NG.... closest I could get at the time.

Thank you for your good reporting about the issue that I posted ;)