Posted on 03/13/2004 11:37:31 PM PST by Jenya
;O)
It continues to amaze me that the "intellectual" Kerry and his crew haven't got anything original to say about almost anything: imitative aircraft carrier photo ops, stolen "bring it on" slogan, recycled 6/7 year old conspiracy theories, etc.
This is all they have to offer and we've already beaten that whole theme.
This time they should get a thrashing that will last them for twenty years.
Good article, although the above assertion cuts the media too much slack. The media KNEW who it was presenting as a "represenative sample" of 9/11 victims. The media was not manipulated into giving Peaceful Tomorrows airtime, nor was it manipulated into giving airtime to the Fireman's Union Chief that has campaigned alongside Kerry. The media knew, and deliberately withheld material information so as to manipulate public opinion.
While the story needs to come out, this article is relatively soft, because it doesn't take the mask of the propaganda ministry.
One can hope.
Cool graphic, BTW.
They didn't have to ask the question. They knew exactly who they were dealing with. This is not a case of the media being manipulated by the IPA (which they know to slanted left), or by Peaceful Tomorrow's, or by the IAFF. The media knew, and made a conscious decision to engage in deceptive reporting, with the goal of manipulating public opinion.
The article is full of facts that support my assertion. The media has dealt with the IPA, PT and the IAFF in the past. The media has recently reported the activities of PT regarding protesting US action in Iraq and Afghanistan. It made the news. The faux 9/11 commercial outrage is far from the first time the reporters have encountered this group.
Even if they didn't know PT (which means the media is morons, too stupid to remember their own lead stories) to "run" full bore based on a press release from IPA, without reviewing the nature of the sources, is courting ridicule at best, and being outed as a propaganda ministy at worst.
Omitting mention of IAFF's leanings is similarly tainted. So, no, I don't believe for one second that the media was manipulated. I believe that the media acted, and continues to act as a propaganda ministry, for the benefit of liberal ideology -- this time in the form of manipulating public opinion away from George Bush.
much of the controversy can be traced directly to a press release issued by the Institute for Public Accuracy, or IPA, at a little after 2:00 P.M. on March 4.
But the IPA's facts are often questionable (mass starvation in Afghanistan, a massacre at the Jenin refugee camp in April 2002, and so on), and their opinions are always hard-left. After the Clinton administration began its bombing of Kosovo in March 1999, the IPA promoted the antiwar punditry of Howard Zinn, the radical historian, who claimed Clinton had "deceived" the United States into war against Slobodan Milosevic. And when the Bush administration invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, the IPA turned reporters onto similar radical ideologues who opposed the war. Ditto with the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Two email addresses were listed, as well as two contact numbers for Schaitberger, both in Washington, D.C., where the IAFF has its headquarters. Second, the IPA press release directed reporters interested in the Bush campaign ads to Adele Welty, David Potorti, and Colleen Kelly, members of a group called September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. All three had lost relatives in the September 11 attacks. All were promoting Adele's upcoming peace mission to Afghanistan.
It is worth noting that Harold Schaitberger and other members of the International Association of Fire Fighters never said their criticism transcended partisan politics. This makes sense. Last fall, the union was one of the first to endorse John Kerry's presidential bid.
Peaceful Tomorrows' activism took many forms. They sent representatives to Afghanistan to visit with survivors of U.S. bombing raids. They lobbied Congress for an Afghan Victims compensation fund. In the fall of 2002, they organized a "No More Victims Tour," in which members of the group traveled the country to protest U.S. military action abroad, accompanied by "Victims of terrorism and war--from Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, and the
Indeed, Peaceful Tomorrows never pretended to shrink from involvement in politics. On September 25, 2002, group members held a joint press conference with congressman--and future Democratic presidential candidate--Dennis Kucinich.
In January 2003, members visited Iraq. On a tour of Baghdad sponsored by Saddam Hussein's government, the group from Peaceful Tomorrows was taken to a shelter where Baathists claimed 200 civilians were killed during the 1991 Gulf War.
I think this tells us everything we need to know about these people. In this job market, who in their right mind would ever pursuit this career path. Might as well have been "medieval history".
WHAT WAS SURPRISING, however, was the Bush campaign's haphazard response to this orchestrated media firestorm. It's true that Karen Hughes and Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, defended the ads. And both former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and Bernard Kerik, New York City's former police chief, went on the air to defend Bush. But the message coming from the campaign was mired in confusion, aides say. They were no longer playing offense. They were playing defense. And they had little idea how to make the case to the public that Bush had not "exploited" the terrorist attacks.
Strange, I don't remember this objection ever having been raised when peacenik groups have used the Hiroshima bomb as the centerpiece of their political movement...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.