NBC Trumps Rice With Anti-Bush Widows

MRC ^ | 4.09.04 | Tim Graham

[fight_truth_decay]

NBC and MSNBC Allowed No Pro-Bush Mourners to Express Their Feelings About Condi Testimony

Who are the most important judges of the investigation of what went wrong before September 11? The media elite have provided one consistent answer on who is in the political driver’s seat: the relatives of the victims. But not all of them.

In recent weeks, the networks have interviewed a selected set of 9-11 widows and other relatives, and most have focused the lion’s share of their outrage at the Bush administration. Viewers at home might assume that a poll of 9-11 families would find they almost uniformly blame Bush more than the terrorists and want him to lose in November.

Minutes after National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice finished testifying, Tim Russert told Tom Brokaw live on NBC: “But the real issue will be, how did the families of the victims of 9-11 respond to this testimony? They have been the driving force for the commission, for information from the White House, for Dr. Rice to testify under oath.”

On this morning’s Today and for multiple segments in a 90-minute post-Condi Hardball special on MSNBC, only four widows were singled out as judges of Rice’s testimony. The four were celebrated in the April 1 New York Times as “nonpolitical.” NBC has emphasized Kristen Breitweiser, who has appeared in four Today interviews in four weeks.

Mrs. Breitweiser insists that she voted for Bush in 2000, but has wildly declared that “Three thousand people were murdered on Bush's watch.” Times arts editor Frank Rich also noted how she tartly complained that a Showtime 9-11 docudrama failed to display President Bush reading to school children “while people like my husband were burning alive inside the World Trade Center towers” because it would have been contrary to “Karl Rove’s art direction and grand vision.” She’s hardly “nonpolitical.”

In fact, these widows are liberal lobbyists against the Bush team, even as they claim to speak for all 9-11 victim families. Even Tim Russert linked the widows and John Kerry as two forces who will now press the White House for a complete declassification of the much-discussed August 6 presidential daily briefing. (One weblog even urges Kerry to pick Breitweiser for veep.)

In their front-page widow story, the New York Times noted that liberal Senators Ted Kennedy and Charles Schumer were advising the widows to demand Bush and Cheney also answer commissioner questions (and speeches) on live TV. Print accounts have also noted these widows tried to get the 9-11 commission’s director, Philip Zelikow, fired for being too close to Condi Rice.

(NBC wasn’t all alone today in the anti-Bush widow department. On ABC’s Good Morning America, widow Beverly Eckert was charging “Everybody’s basically been covering up, I think, for the administration, this whole Washington scene.”)

In March, 9-11 relative Ernest Strada sounded a different note, telling Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball that “anybody can be a Monday morning quarterback.” Strada says he told Bush at a memorial event: “Mr. President, you are on the right side of the issues. We’re with you 100 percent. Forget what the media says, the country believes in you.” Is it any wonder he didn’t get to debate the Kristen Breitweiser crew on this important occasion?

[nutmeg]

Admittedly, this is not a thread about Fox News, but I didn't want you to miss this report on the biased garbage that spewed out of NBC and MSNBC last night...

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my FoxFan list. *Warning: This can be a high-volume ping list at times.

[MrB]

: “But the real issue will be, how did the families of the victims of 9-11 respond to this testimony? "

No, it won't be.

This commission was supposed to find out how to prevent another 9/11, not a Bush admin witch hunt.

Now, if they'd prefer to rename the commission more truthfully, we can go on from there.

[EllaMinnow]

The widows have a website...I think it's 911families.org, but I might be mistaken.
If you google Kristin Britweiser, you should be able to find it.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

ALL the big 5 media tv and cable news rooms are fronts for the dim party.
"Fair and balanced" FOX NEWS???
Yeah, right.
When was the last time they ran a pro military story
on the good deeds of the military in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Which of the big 5 liberal media tell the REAL truth about Kerry's past?
Insraed they fill the air waves with him on the campaign trail.

[afz400]

"Tell these hate mongers to give back the money that they accepted for the deaths of their husbands."
It's interesting that these women aren't protesting the architect and builder of the World Trade Center. Shouldn't they be complaining that they didn't have the forsight to protect the building from two planes fully loaded with fuel crashing into it? Why they're at it, why don't they criticize their husbands for chosing jobs in such a dangerous building?

[firebrand]

Why don't these nice ladies go out and accomplish some good in life? I understand their desire to blame someone, but they really need a good shrink or at least a self-help book to get themselves off this media-nourished obsession.

Can you imagine this happening in 1941? All those widows extending their moment of anguish into their life's work? We have become sharply divided politically in a partisan way since then, to the point where nothing is debated on its merits any more. We have also slowly become convinced that television is reality and our own daily lives a pale wanna-be in comparison. Thus this absurd situation where the pimple on the tail is wagging the dog.

[golforacle]

This is an outrage. This picture just makes me sick:

[M Kehoe]

Where's Gabriel? Interesting connection to the Heinz foundation and the DNC.

5.56mm

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Guide to Local Media
Locate media in your zip code, gives you links to YOUR local media with phone, e-mail etc info.

[JMS]

Frankly, I'm a little bit sick of these 9/11 families who have gone on these shows. They have hijacked re-development of the World Trade Center area and now they're trying to hijack the Presidency. I was in the area during the attack as I live across the street from NY Police Plaza. My building shook when the planes hit the building and I lived through months of smoke and dust from the site. I still have to show ID at the police checkpoints when I drive into my parking lot so they're not the only victims.

After the attacks, we had NO resources other than water electricity and cable television. We had to walk to midtown Manhattan to carry food to our families as there were no deliveries allowed. Yes, they suffered the loss of loved ones and I sympathise with them but I believe that this will happen again and I'll have to live in an armed camp unless we get rid of the Islamofascists and the only way to do this is to win the war.

[golforacle]

I think we should all boycott NBC/MSNBC. If you have a Nielson box, please do not watch either of these channels for news.

[firebrand]

While I can't equate your hardships with that of losing a husband, I couldn't agree more with your last sentence. If they want to avenge their husbands' deaths, they should not let the Democrat Party wind them up like macabre wind-up toys and march them through the Dem agenda. They should go for the people who DID this, which means supporting those who are in favor of following through on all aspects of the War on Terror.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Texagirl4W]

Admittedly, I don't usually watch anything but Fox, but I'm on vacation and don't control the remote here.

I watch Chris Matthews and 4 ladies (I think these same ones) who said Mr. Bush (They don't call him Mr. President) knew the day before what was going to happen. They said a lot of other things but this is what I have issue with and would have loved to jump in the TV and slap all of them.

1. 9/10, President Bush flew to Florida.
2. 9/11, President Bush (the father) and Mrs. Bush got on a plane from Washington to Canada (I think) and their plane was grounded as all the others in the air that morning.
3. 9/11, Barbara Olson, wife of the Solicitor General Ted Olson, was on the plane headed for California that went down in the field.
4. 9/11, Laura Bush was headed for Capitol Hill to give a speech. It is said now that Capitol Hill was a target.

I would like for these 4 ladies to explain these 4 points if they think President Bush knew on 9/10 that something like this was eminent. And while I'm on my soapbox, I also believe these women were well coached. The democrats picked the best and trained them well. They were like puppets. Well, I'll be in control of the remote again Tuesday. In the meantime, I'm having a good vacation.

[JMS]

Thanks Firebrand, but I wasn't really comparing. I'm just saying that while they are entitled to sympathy, that sympathy doesn't give them any more insight or moral authority to put the rest of us in danger. Still, I appreciate your kind words and I'm sure that we'll prevail.

[SevenofNine]

As a woman those ladies are start get on my damn nerves Nutmeg

HELLO
Hey girlfriend you not only one that lost loved one in 9/11 we lost our innocence

SHUT F*** UP

I rather have nice Strong Texan in People crib than Chowd Snow boarder in WH

[golforacle]

I sent emails to the GOP, Bush campaign, and my senator. I recommend that everyone to do the same.

[EllaMinnow]

We should also be mailing sponsors of MSNBC, specifically HARDBALL.
I'm going to focus first on Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Merck.

[marbren]

I prefer Lisa Beamer's example.

[Libertina]

Ah, another little piece of the puzzle! Thank you for posting this.