Posted on 10/01/2004 1:32:24 PM PDT by twas
Fraudulent Prime Ministers, Documents and Polls
by Michael I. Niman, ArtVoice (etc.) 9/30/04
Forgery-Gate & Forgotten Truths
This is par for the course. Earlier in the week, the corporate media was abuzz with allegations that CBS News’ story about Bush’s National Guard service (or lack thereof) was based on forged documents. In the ensuing frenzy, the media spun the AWOL Bush as a victim of a nasty slander campaign. In reality, however, the CBS story only echoed earlier reports broken, without relying on questionable documents, by The Boston Globe and The Nation. Their stories, based on recently released government documents and interviews with people who would have been Bush’s fellow guardsman, had Bush been there, detail evidence of Bush being grounded, being AWOL, and failing to complete his Guard duty.
These earlier reports, which verified years of speculation, should have been national news – but they were trumped by the scandal over CBS’ faulty handling of the story. Hence, the reality that the essential facts of the CBS story were correct, despite CBS’ failure to properly report the story themselves, was lost on a media-dazed public. At the end of the day the echo-chamber spin framed Bush as a victim of the “liberal media.” Damage control doesn’t get any better than this.
The real question is who launched those tainted documents in CBS’ direction? One clue has emerged: Hours after the CBS report, a post on the ultra right wing Free Republic website meticulously detailed the flaws in the documents cited by CBS. According to an investigation by The Los Angeles Times, the poster, who used the online handle “Bankhead,” was actually Republican party operative Harry MacDougald, who led the fight to disbar President Clinton during the Monica Lewinski scandal.
It gets thicker. CBS originally planned to air an investigation exposing the fabrication of evidence linking Iraq with weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the U.S. invasion. That story, featuring correspondent Ed Bradley, was bumped so that CBS could run its tainted report on Bush’s National Guard service. Had CBS not bumped this report, Bush would have been smarting from a one-two punch of reality with the W.M.D. story appearing hot on the tail of the Boston Globe and Nation reports about an AWOL Bush. CBS now refuses to air the W.M.D., lamely arguing that it’s too close to election time and the story might taint the outcome – as if truth was something the American people need to be protected against.
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Ha ha ha! "Bankhead"!
Oh ...my...God. "Bankhead" has been outed.
“Bankhead,”
I am Bankhead!
Except I doubt he has one. Or at least one that pays anything.
What an incompetent idiot.
Tallulah is a Freeper?
Man, how to I get to be an "operative"? That sounds so cool.
You beat me by 12 seconds, but I got the pic up first.
I'm Bankhead!
YEAH, BABY! ULTRA Right-Wing right here!
I guess "ultra right-wing" means common sense people saying common sense things...and I'm fine with that.
Heheheh. You realize, don't you, that we're BOTH showing our age?
Everytime I read something like this it reminds of the movie Dirty Work. At one point some homeless guy says "the CIA put a chip in my brain", too funny.
Faulty handling?
Seriesly, this guy is completely detached.
What kook this guy is....
(Plus he can't even get the 'operative's' screen name correct....)
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