Posted on 02/04/2002 6:17:06 PM PST by Lockbox
The notable absence of a late-breaking news story from mainstream media Web sites Tuesday afternoon spoke volumes about the blatant liberal bias that saturates most of the nation’s newsrooms. As details surfaced about another major corporation filing Enron-style Chapter 11 bankruptcy, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC and CBS never saw fit to give the pivotal news story any place in cyberspace, much less on their TelePrompTers. The reason: This latest bankruptcy filing links a prominent Democratic figurehead to possible insider trading. That’s reason enough for the liberal press to ignore it.
Reminiscent of Dan Rather’s 36-day refusal to report on the Chandra Levy case, none of the liberal media Web sites covered Democratic National Convention chief Terry McAuliffe’s connection to Global Crossing, the newly collapsed company that reportedly netted him $18 million worth of stock from an initial $100,000 investment he made in the late 1990s.
Global Crossing, headquartered in Bermuda, is an undersea fiber-optic cable owner and operator.
According to published reports, Global Crossing CEO Gary Winnick gave McAuliffe a chance to invest in the start-up company in 1997. When the stock soared to $18 million in value, McAuliffe got out and cashed in, leaving thousands of employees not only pink-slipped, but holding worthless company stock.
Equally, shareholders’ suffered the same fate as Global Crossing Stock plunged from $61 in value to 51 cents a share.
Now McAuliffe, who’s been crying foul over the Bush administration’s alleged financial ties to Enron, is the one eating crow.
In fact, on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes” Wednesday night, Sean Hannity confronted McAuliffe four times about whether he would “honor the same demands for documents that he and other Democrats have been making of Vice President Dick Cheney in regard to Cheney’s meeting with Enron officials.”
All four times, McAuliffe stonewalled Hannity’s questions by sophomorically diverting the attention back to the Bush administration’s alleged ties to Enron.
Washington Times reporter Ralph Hallow spoke with Republican consultant Craig Shirley, who suggested that the Global Crossing fallout might temporarily diffuse the Democrats’ relentless haranguing of Republicans over the Enron probe—especially if impending Global Crossing investigations start with the DNC head.
“Before [Senate Majority Leader] Tom Daschle starts asking questions about Enron, he had better ask about Terry McAuliffe and his relations with Global Crossing,” Shirley said.
A prominent D.C.-based attorney agreed.
“Here are the questions I want to see asked,” said Cleta Mitchell, a Washington, D.C. lawyer specializing in elections law. “Are there shareholders who lost money? Employees whose 401(k) went into the ditch? If so, is Jesse Jackson planning to organize a motorcade to Washington of those folks who lost money on Global Crossing’s bankruptcy?”
And, as with Enron, Clinton’s handiwork is all over this one, too.
The Washington Times reported that the former president received a sizable political gratuity from McAuliffe’s Global Crossing windfall.
In the current issue of Worth magazine, reporter Richard Blow wrote that “two years later (after his windfall), McAuliffe arranged for Winnick to play golf with President Clinton, and Winnick then gave a million dollars to help build Clinton’s presidential library.”
The General Accounting Office’s next lawsuit should involve McAuliffe; they should ask him to cough up his Global Crossing documents the same way they’re asking Cheney to provide documents concerning the Enron fallout.
Let McAuliffe explain to Global Crossing employees and shareholders how he could unashamedly—and suspiciously—get $18 million in company stock, while many employees are left financially destitute. Let’s hear him tell them to go to Cuba, where he’s been telling everyone else to go whenever he's confronted with the issue.
So where were the mainstream media when all of this was going down? Were they asleep at their keyboards?
Well, not exactly.
With 89 percent admitting to being registered Democrats according to a 1996 Freedom Forum survey, they’ve proven where their loyalties lie and how much partisan biases taint their news judgment.
The Media Research Center’s Brent Bozell said of the liberal media establishment:
“With the political preferences of the press no longer secret, members of the media argued while personally liberal, they are professionally neutral. They argued their opinions do not matter because as professional journalists, they report what they observe without letting their opinions affect their judgment.
“But being a journalist is not like being a surveillance camera at an ATM, faithfully recording every scene for future playback. Journalists make subjective decisions every minute of their professional lives. They choose what to cover and what not to cover, which sources are credible and which are not, which quotes to use in a story and which to toss out.”
Consequently, on Tuesday, the liberal press definitely had an agenda—and it was no accident.
Rather than give air time or Web space to a late-breaking story implicating a Democrat in another Enron-like scandal—one that could have widespread ramifications, the liberal press decided the late-breaking story about President Bush’s niece took precedence.
Coincidence? No way.
Tuesday night was President Bush’s State of the Union address. Always on the lookout for salacious news that could possibly hurt Bush’s soaring job-approval ratings, the liberal press wasted no time slapping up the latest Web text about his niece’s recent arrest.
When the story broke, that’s all the political fodder the liberal press needed to add insult to injury. But the question now is: Would they have done the same thing if Gore or Clinton were president?
Not likely.
In fact, when allegations surfaced about Chelsea Clinton’s public intoxication last year, few, if any, liberal media outlets bothered to carry the story.
However, when President Bush’s twin daughters were in trouble with the law last year, every morning and evening news talkinghead was all over it—with non-stop coverage.
That’s the paradox of the freedom of the press. The mainstream media are free to express themselves, no matter how jaded the reporting. But when it comes down to brass tacks, most really aren’t responsible enough to deserve the privilege of press freedom. Because with freedom comes responsibility.
The mainstream media should spend more time reporting the facts instead of playing politics. People are sick and tired of the liberal, one-sided slant that pervades the majority of our newsrooms.
Perhaps that’s why media bellwether Fox News Channel recently knocked CNN off its left-leaning perch to become the nation’s number one-rated cable news network.
For years, people have hungered to hear both sides of an issue from a fair, balanced, and objective viewpoint. After all, that should be a news organization’s mandate.
The Katie Courics of the liberal media shouldn’t receive huge paychecks to editorialize the news to suit their personal biases. Their pay rate should be based on how fairly and accurately they report the news, despite the individual’s celebrity status or income demand. Moreover, anything that would taint or distort the way they disseminate the news should be left at home.
In turn, if McAuliffe and fellow Democrats are guilty of wrongdoing with Global Crossing, the liberal press should hold them just as accountable as they’ve held the Bush administration concerning Enron; they should objectively report the details, regulate themselves, and not personally cater to their own set of journalistic rules.
As with the important news stories of the day, these are also important facts that shouldn’t be ignored.
© Copyright 2002 by Doug Schmitz
Keep emailing the press about this. It has to creep out eventually. I hope. Everything McAuliffe has had his hands on has become corrupted or tainted in some way. Just more Clinton filth!
I specifically loved this statement. It is so true. And ... what the press doesn't realize is this - if they continue to mess with the freedom of the press (and do not become responsible for its content), they could reap the reward of losing their freedom.
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