Advice for Bush on the election

World Net Daily ^ | June 4, 2004 | Bob Kohn

[Luis Gonzalez]

In his re-election campaign, Bush is fighting a two front war: one against the Democrats and one against the false perceptions being created by the mainstream media – lead by the New York Times, which has turned its newsroom into the journalistic party of opposition. Let me explain with a true story which I'm afraid to say is not altogether uncommon.

A retired friend of mine – an elderly gentlemen who I see at the health club every day – gets nearly all his news from the New York Times. He has been a longtime Republican, but lately he is having grave doubts about President Bush's foreign and economic policies. I asked him how he can think that, and he tried to explain to me – entirely unarmed with specifics – how poorly things are going in Iraq and how poorly the economy is doing.

I took a few moments to inform him about some of the more important accomplishments over the past 18 months:

• The elimination of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and its replacement by a democratic government.

• The removal of Saddam Hussein, one of the world's worst tyrants and mass murderers since Hitler and Stalin, and the threat he posed to Israel, its Arab neighbors in the Middle East, and more directly to us through his weapons of mass destruction programs (yes, we found – in Iraq – the strains of viral agents, sarin gas, the laboratories that produced them, and the long-range missiles to deliver them!)

• The ongoing reconstruction of a country which 35 years of brutal dictatorship had left in ruins, including the creation and dissemination of a new Iraqi currency, the establishment of a central bank, the $10 billion in oil exported by Iraq in the past year, the schools built, the hospitals repaired, all leading up to this week's selection of a new Iraqi government and the imminent sovereignty of a nation naturally impatient to shake loose the occupation, but grateful for what we've done for them.

I reminded him that he is old enough to remember the grief Harry Truman was getting over the reconstruction of Germany in the aftermath of World War II. He didn't remember the headlines, but Mark Levin, writing for National Review, dug out some beauties from the pages of the New York Times: "Germans Reveal Hate of Americans" (Oct. 31, 1945), "Loss of Victory In Germany Through U.S. Policy Feared" (Nov. 18, 1945), and "Germans Declare Americans Hated" (Dec. 3, 1945). The second of those New York Times articles lead with the following paragraph:

Grave concern was express today by informed officials that the United States might soon lose the fruits of victory in Germany through failure to prepare adequately for carrying out its long-term commitment under the Potsdam Declaration.

Sound familiar?

I then told my friend some facts about the economy that I'm sure he hadn't read on the front page of the New York Times lately:

• The economy has created 1.1 million jobs since last August. In the manufacturing sector alone, new factory hiring has jumped to a 31-year high. Unemployment has fallen to 5.6 percent, a rate that has been bested in only two of the last 22 years, and is lower than the average rate of employment during the Clinton years.

• During the last 12 months, the nation's Gross Domestic Product grew at its highest rate in two decades.

• Home ownership has reached a record high of 68.6 percent, 5 percent above a decade ago.

My friend, who reads the New York Times religiously, was aware of none of this, though he was quite aware that the price of gasoline is at a 20-year high – which, adjusting for inflation, is just not true. My friend, it seems, is hopelessly misinformed – yet, because what I was telling him was so inconsistent with the sense he was getting from the "newspaper of record," he actually had trouble believing me.

What we have here, folks, is a failure to communicate. As far as the Times is concerned, it's a failure to communicate the truth.

In a piece I wrote for the Weekly Standard last week, I pointed out how the Augusta National Golf Club managed to successfully beat back an attempt by the New York Times to bully the club into changing its tradition of all-male membership. Early on, the club made a crucial decision: to win the battle, they had to take the press head on, making criticism of the media itself part of the story. "Stopping the New York Times dead in its tracks," said the club's publicity manager "was critical to the overall effort, because the Times sets the agenda for the broader media world."

The club was right, and eventually succeeded in shifting the story from how the Times wanted it positioned – sex discrimination – to something the Times had long thought it was immune from – questions about the paper's journalistic integrity.

There is a lesson here: The New York Times is mounting a relentless campaign to defeat President Bush this fall. Concealing reality, they are creating in their news pages the perception of a failing economy and the collapse of our foreign policy. If the New York Times provided its readers with reality, giving our victories their due and putting our setbacks in perspective, Bush would be looking forward to a landslide this fall.

Quite simply, what the Bush campaign must do to win re-election is follow its own prescription for winning the war on terror: adopt an uncompromising resolve, an aggressive battle plan, and an enlightened understanding of who the enemy is. In other words, it's time for Carl Rove to take off the gloves by making the press – and the false perceptions they are striving to create – the issue. In that way, the debate will shift from a false premise (e.g., bad economy and how to fix it) to a premise that favors Bush: the truth (i.e., the economy is doing well).

It is going to take a loud voice to cause such a monumental shift in the debate, but who else could better make the case than a president who already believes that so-called straight news articles are laced with opinion?

[Luis Gonzalez]

---

Bob Kohn is the author of "Journalistic Fraud: How The New York Times Distorts the News and Why It Can No Longer Be Trusted." Available from ShopNetDaily.

[Luis Gonzalez]

*PING*

[Luis Gonzalez]

PING!

[Southack]

Good advice. We're simply keeping our powder dry at the moment. Our counter-attack ads after the Dems' covnention in July are going to stun the news media with their effectiveness.

[thoughtomator]

I think we should run a parallel anti-NYTimes/WashPost/CNN/ABC/NBC/CBS campaign, and sink as many dollars as possible into getting the word out about their perfidy and lies and illegal contributions to the Democrats. Such a campaign would not be subject to campaign finance law, but could be brutally effective in countering the enemy propoganda campaign.

[Mister Baredog]

My friend, it seems, is hopelessly misinformed – yet, because what I was telling him was so inconsistent with the sense he was getting from the "newspaper of record," he actually had trouble believing me.

Is he misinformed, or does his hatred trump everything else?

The groundwork is in place to deploy the secret weapon: Missunderestimation 103. 101 was in Nov 2000, 102 was in Nov 2002. LOL!

[Jumper]

Freedom of the Press, in America, was once based upon the precept that the Truth would be printed, beyond objection. However, today, we have politically motivated News from the "Paper of Record".... On record with me as not worthy as a backup to Charman.

[p. henry]

I had a similar conversation with a friend who relies on the Times. After I had related a few facts to my friend, he actually said: "If that is true, why isn't it reported in the Times." When I told him of my belief that the Times has become a propaganda arm of the DNC, he did not reply but simply looked incredulous.

On a side note, I was called by a telemarketer for the Times yesterday. It was a very short conversation.

[POA2]

You are 100% right - the national media is nothing but another arm of the DNC - They are daily lying and spinning to the American public.

I am not over stating what is happening either - this is 100% the truth - They lie nightly about the economy (I have even had conversations with Aaron Brown from CNN where he openly admits this to me and then tries to justify it).

What we need to do is keep getting facts out there - Develop email lists (family) (Co-workers) (those long chain letter emails) use all these as a way of getting good economic news out -

Make sure the "Subject" line says most of what needs saying - U.S. Economy Booming!!ONE MILLION NEW JOBS CREATED IN PAST 3 MONTHS (this would be one example). Then inside the email obviously post the detailed information.

We must all be doing what we can to get the facts out - the media are lying nightly with regard to anything they think will hurt GWB.

[Southack]

"I think we should run a parallel anti-NYTimes/WashPost/CNN/ABC/NBC/CBS campaign, and sink as many dollars as possible into getting the word out about their perfidy and lies and illegal contributions to the Democrats. Such a campaign would not be subject to campaign finance law, but could be brutally effective in countering the enemy propoganda campaign."

Yes, we are fast approaching a point in time where we need a fully funded organization that is dedicated to professionally debunking the credibility of the major news outlets.

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

bump.
The old gray lady ain't what she used to be...

[SQUID]

...and they say the media gives people objective analysis. Paah!! The journalists these days are simply following a formula handed down from on high. There is no such thing as objective journalism much less independent journalism. They are overpaid readers and copiers.

[NYTexan]

(I have even had conversations with Aaron Brown from CNN where he openly admits this to me and then tries to justify it).

What does he say to justify it?

[xzins]

A 527 focused specifically on taking on the NYT, WP, ABC/NBC/CBS would be an extremely positive thing to do.

I'd love to see well done ads about the dishonesty of the media.

[POA2]

How Aaron Brown tries to "justify" not showing good economic news...he does with a number of excuses -

Either he couldn't find time to fit it in -considering the other "news-worthy" stories of the day -

Or the added jobs is not a significant story by itself, which in case the topic is usually touched on within another story (which, mind you is usually a story taking a "negative" tone on the economy as a whole).

His other big line is that he doesn't have the "luxury" that I have to be "biased" - with his esteemed job (he doesn't used the word "esteemed" but he wants to) he says he is "above" being "biased" ....Which is such a load of BS it is mindboggling -

Lastly he will blame things on how the "editor" cut news pieces up - and that maybe he'd do it different next time - (yet next time, it is still the same slanted BS).

I find his reasoning in some of our back and forth emails to be mind-numbing -

[POA2]

GREAT IDEA! on 527's to take on the news media (while at the same time putting together effective positive news from GWB).

This is the type of "creative thinking" I have said is lacking from the GWB reelection team as well as the RNC now for over a year!

[NYTexan]

Thanks for the reply!

Sounds like just another (not in control) news reader.

[SierraWasp]

"Yes, we are fast approaching a point in time..."

Ahhhhhh... I would say the time is RIPE!!! (actually... OVER-RIPE!!!)

A little off subject, but I heard someone on KSFO's Lee Rodgers and Melanie Morgan show, discussing how the President left the word "Crusade" out of his D-Day quote of Ike's radio message to the world... They read General Patton's final words to his troops on that same historic day and I want a copy of those most powerful and passionate words I've ever heard in public from an AMERICAN!!!

[speedy]

Thanks for posting, Looey, and I agree. The Administration should start calling out the Times and the other Dem media outlets by name -- get specific -- cite distortions, hold them accountable. Make it clear that we are at war with them as they are with us. I think this strategy would work very well -- make the Sheeple see what is going on, make the Times's coverage the issue instead of always playing defense. I am SICK of our side always playing defense.

[Dan from Michigan]

I can't stand the Slimes.

Our local rag which is as bad as the Slimes is all in a snit because Mike Rogers(Congressman) and Valde Garcia(State senator) rightly took the media to task for their poor anti-American Iraq coverage.

It was great to see the reps finally going on offense against these jokers.