Posted on 10/15/2003 10:36:13 PM PDT by ShuShu
Yep, they're now whining because President Bush is going around them since they can't manage to tell the truth about the situation in Iraq. Poor Babies!!!!
"Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2003 10:23 a.m. EDT Big Media: Bush Has Declared War on Us
Now that President Bush has finally called the big media's bluff on its bad-news-only Iraq war coverage, mainstream reporters are squealing like stuck pigs.
CBS's John Roberts sounded particularly overwrought the other night, complaining that Bush's decision to circumvent the networks and tell the Iraq story to local TV affiliates amounted to a declaration of "war."
"It was the public relations equivalent of a declaration of war aimed at the national media, President Bush claiming the American people aren't getting the truth about Iraq," Roberts announced, according to quotes picked up by the Media Research Center.
The CBS'er griped that Bush chose local reporters because "the White House feels [they] will go easier on the president."
Perhaps. But maybe if the big media stopped ignoring important stories that don't comport with their political agenda, the president wouldn't be compelled to do an end run around their reporters. And we're not just talking about news of the U.S.'s successful rebuilding effort in Iraq.
Remember how furious the press was when a Washington Post poll found that 69 percent of Americans believed that Iraq played a role in 9/11? Journalists spent weeks insisting that the great unwashed had fallen for a full-blown White House con job seeking to foster the 9/11 "myth."
But rather than tell the whole story, the big media kept its lip zipped about Iraqi defectors who described an airplane-hijacking training facility in South Baghdad that offered instruction to radical Islamists on how to overcome flight crews using techniques that bore an eerie resemblance to those employed on 9/11.
And when, based in part on that testimony, Manhattan U.S. District Judge Harold Baer ruled last May that Iraq had indeed play a role in 9/11, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather remained equally silent.
Two months later, when U.S. weapons inspectors found a significant contingent of the Iraqi air force buried beneath the sand near Baghdad, the press sat on that story, too.
"Now that President Bush has finally shown that he's got the big media's number, here's hoping he sticks to his guns and continues to favor press outlets where his administration - and America - have a reasonable chance of getting a fair shake."
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