Posted on 10/09/2004 1:04:02 AM PDT by Cableguy
ABC News was under fire last night after an internal memo surfaced suggesting President Bush should be held more accountable for his statements than John Kerry.
The memo to staffers from the network's powerful political director, Marc Halperin, noted that while both campaigns are distorting the truth, Kerry's bending of the facts shouldn't be hit as hard.
"Kerry distorts, takes out of context, and mistakes all the time, but these are not central to his efforts to win," Halperin wrote.
But "the current Bush attacks on Kerry involve distortions and taking things out of context in a way that goes beyond what Kerry has done," Halperin added.
Halperin further advised the ABC staff to keep that in mind when reporting.
"We have a responsibility to hold both sides accountable to the public interest, but that doesn't mean we reflexively and artificially hold both sides 'equally' accountable when the facts don't warrant that," the memo continued.
"It's up to Kerry to defend himself, of course. But as one of the few news organizations with the skill and strength to help voters evaluate what the candidates are saying to serve the public interest, now is the time for all of us to step up and do that right."
A spokesman for ABC news insisted "we are not interested in taking sides, we are only interested in getting at the truth."
Halperin plays a mostly behind-the-scenes role at ABC, and is known as the father of "The Note," a daily political memo that is read by thousands of D.C. insiders, political players and journalists.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I was betwixt and between right and left at that time. Bush 41's nomination of Clarence Thomas and Thomas' subsequent vilification was my first major experience seeing the way black people who weren't Democrats weren't really thought of having earned the right to call themselves black. Leon Higginbotham acted as though the late Thurgood Marshall's slot on the court was his birthright, and Cornel West said that he wanted a black man to replace Marshall, but not "the wrong black man." That made me think.
Weeks earlier, I had read a Jack Anderson column in which he said that the National Organization for Women had hired staffers to call everyone that had ever worked with Thomas, digging for something to "Bork" him with. I took it with a grain of salt, but between the Friday that was supposed to be the last day of the Senate hearings on Thomas and his vote the following week, Anita Hill was dragged kicking and screaming into the open by Nina Totenberg and Cokie Roberts (then working for NPR).
The way that the news coverage painted Thomas as guilty until proven innocent disgusted me. Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, and Howard Metzenbaum were treated as heroes, while John Danforth and Orrin Hatch were portrayed at grasping for straws to protect Thomas. For NBC News, Tom Brokaw actually had Catherine MacKinnon beside him as a expert commentator. She believed Anita Hill, and made no attempt to be objective.
By the way, while everyone was hot and bothered about Thomas, Antonin Scalia, every modern liberal's least favorite Supreme, just barely squeaked through the confirmation process with a UNANIMOUS vote. You don't hear many of those tenured Demos remind you that they voted to confirm Scalia, do you?
I remember back in '91 at the time of the first Gulf War. Numerous people were saying that the MSM was liberal and bias, but people didn't want to hear it, or didn't want to believe it, including Rush Limbaugh. It took some time for even Rush to realize just how left and bias they are and have been for years. I was convinced of it, on my own, without anyone having to tell me, back in the 80's one day. I listened to President Reagan give a speech. Then the pundits came on to tell me what he had just said. I told my father in law...what I just heard President Reagan say is not what these guys are saying he said. Am I stupid or what??? My father-in-law just grinned, said figure it out sweetie pie. I did....and I have not paid any attention to those mouth pieces since.
We have such a wonderful opportunity here to provide accurate, meaningful information. It is very exciting.
And if while we are at it, we can put those jokers out of business.....all the more fun:)
Oh Jesus - Could you imagine if President Bush used THAT statement in the next debate? LOL - Ladies and gentlemen, even ABC, a liberal new organization if EVER there was one says that John Kerry "distorts, takes out of context, and makes mistakes all the time..." And what a GREAT ad that would be for the Republican Party (Or a 527 group!)
MSPO: Main Stream Propaganda Organ
It was Reagan's first term that did it for me.
The hatred these guys have for Bush has just made them stupid. They want him out so bad, they actually put their bias in writing for the whole world to see. If it weren't so dangerous, it would be funny.
This election isn't just about getting Bush elected. This election is about defeating the MSM.
Exactly. If we win, one day we can look back on this and laugh and laugh...
That was my final straw as well.
William F. Buckley, and the National Review, was my primer in conservative politics. I went from political egnostic in College, to a die-hard conservative after my first year in the Navy.
SFS
Kudos to the NT Post,to FreeRepublic and possibly to the Washington Times. The MSM has been cookin' the news, surprize, surprize. The astonihing arrogance that they think they must help the LITTLE people understand. These frauds need a good butt kickin'. Wakeup America this is nothing less than Pravda. The friendly Communist are living right next door and appear on your TV screens everyday. ps: did anyone notice that Peter Jennings looked like death warmed over last night or maybe I just haven't seen his ugly mug for some time.
It's about the time I bailed, too. Keep in mind, I was a major liberal. I supported Jesse Jackson in a presidential primary. I was a big Al Gore fan. I was in college. I was taught liberal ideals. But as I started watching those confirmation hearings, and the way Biden presided over them, my eyes suddenly opened. I finally saw the hypocrisy they shovel out on a daily basis. And to hear the MSMs take on what I was watching was unbelievable. It was 180 degrees out of whack. It was frightening. I found a Rush a year later, and I felt total relief that there was somebody in the media who saw what I saw.
The monumental distortions of the left wing television networks is not only a litany of lies, it has deeply divided our nation. If there is another civil war or dividing up of the U.S. into two or more nations, it will be the fault of the mass media who have spoon-fed communist propaganda. I know people who still rely upon the network news and they have an irrational hatred of Republicans and of Bush in particular.
Yes. It was during the Reagan years, when I saw how they treated President Reagan that I first became leery of the media. It's been downhill all the way since then and they still think they are Democrat kingmakers to this day. They put the lie to their claim of unbiased "journalism", and cynically think not many people are as smart as they are so they have to tell them.
The dim candidates make exaggerated claims and statements because they know the MSM is not going to call them on it. The MSM distorts the News not by what they say but by what the OMIT.
Iraq is a classic example.
Our soldiers, aside from security, are working like dogs helping to rebuild the infrastructure in Iraq.
There are literally hundreds if not thousands of stories of our soldiers building water plants, sewage plants, electric power, pipelines, passing out food, rebuilding homes, and on and on.
I have not seen one, not one, 'good' story from the MSM.
That was when Dan Rather and I parted company.
Mr. Rather was very critical of a Reagan speech before the Pres. had delivered it!
The speech was a day or two prior to our rescue mission in Greneda.(the speech had nothing to do with the rescue)
I thought that was pretty chickensh__.
ping
They just keep shooting themselves in the feet...good for them! :-D Keep it up, guys, let the world see what you're really all about and we might just be back to the America our brave founders intended. I'm tired of seeing this country hijacked.
Ask Joe McCarthy how biased the media is. He was right, but they did such a job on him that they made his name mud for fifty years. Liberal media created the "McCarthy monster," not Joe McCarthy. It's time to put the papers 'to bed.'
I grew up in Chicago under the first mayor Daley. It settled in me a deep-ingrained distaste for everything democrat. I had to register as a democrat while living there. Everyone knew that if you called the Alderman about a problem and they checked your registration and found out that you were a republican you would never even hear from them. Democrat machines are one of the most destructive entities on earth.
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