Angry over on-air remark, adviser threatens a ban

Boston Globe ^ | October 31, 2004 | Patrick Healy

[Cableguy]

DES MOINES -- John Sasso, a senior adviser to John F. Kerry's presidential campaign, threatened to ban Fox News staff from the candidate's plane Friday night when Fox initially refused to apologize for a talk show host's comment that a new videotape showed Osama bin Laden with a Kerry button.

ADVERTISEMENT Kerry advisers quickly backtracked, however, concluding that an escalating conflict with a major cable channel just days before the election would do nothing to help the Democratic nominee. Kerry senior adviser Mike McCurry spoke to Fox executives Friday and yesterday and was told that the Fox News host, Neil Cavuto, may address the remark on Monday's show, officials from Fox and the Kerry campaign said.

The furor was a rare moment of visible frustration inside the Kerry camp: Kicking a major cable outlet off of the candidate's plane would almost certainly spark a run of negative stories in the media about Kerry lieutenants lashing out and their preelection confidence vanishing.

After the videotape of bin Laden was widely broadcast Friday afternoon, a Republican guest on Cavuto's show said the Al Qaeda leader's criticisms of President Bush amounted to ''an endorsement" of Kerry. A second guest objected, saying, ''I don't think he's going to have a Kerry-Edwards sticker in the cave."

Chimed in Cavuto: ''He's all but doing that. I thought I saw a button."

[alrea]

a new videotape showed Osama bin Laden with a Kerry button.

Bin Laden's dijon mustard skin color and his DNC Diversity Uniform was further evidence of his support for Global Test Kerry.

[vampire2191]

At the time of the WTC, Pentagon and Shanksville incidents, nuclear-armed Pakistan was allied with Afghanistan's Taliban and any direct retaliation by the United States seemed unworkable. Bin Laden is 48 years old and he now has white hair and fewer followers than he had every right to anticipate. He needs John Kerry to win, in order to have time to rebuild his organization and shake the will of those who are now hunting him. With John Kerry, Osama bin Laden at least has some hope; with GWB, he can expect "more of the same."

[alrea]

Bush should retaliate by banning CBS/NBC/ABC/PBS/NYTimes/WashPost.... from Air Force One.

NPR is the worst. They do a better job of pretending for 24 hours to show massive Kerry leads in key battlkeground states. A Government funded network this biased should long ago have been banned.

[ErnBatavia]

Kerry ought to know by now that if you can't take it, you shouldn't dish it out.

Why the hell he ever bellowed "Bring it on!" is still beyond me....did he not thing it wouldn't therefore get brung??

[TheDon]

A side by side comparison of UBL and JOhn KErry's propaganda would be most amusing, if it weren't so serious.

[Snapple]

The Lying King?

[mississippi red-neck]

I don't remember this kind of bitterness since Arthur Godfrey fired Julius LaRosa on the air...

Man that was a long time ago. I remember when it happened. I was eight in 1953.

[cgk]

You're exactly right... see I mostly think of things logically. I keep forgetting liberals/Dems don't ;)

[cgk]

You're exactly right... see I mostly think of things logically. I keep forgetting liberals/Dems don't ;)

[cgk]

That picture of her Drudge had last week said legions. 3 Beers in one arm and a flailing gesture. I must've missed the caption thread for that shot but I bet it was a doozy. (no pun intended).

[cgk]

I may need to break my Marlowe books out of storage.

I'll save you the trouble of physical labor and a dusty mess :)

Selected writings of Raymond Chandler

Chandlerisms

[cgk]

This home determined one major outing that they were losing was Lawrence O.D.'s national meltdown on MSNBC :)

[cgk]

Make sure you write (from a FReeper fan) somewhere on the return address just in case they're still concerned about hard mail. (anthrax) I don't even know if they're accepting mail again. ;)

[mhking]

[mississippi red-neck]

"Let's all email Cavuto "

It's done.

[Lancey Howard]

The latest Swiftee ad is devastating.

[cgk]

Haven't seen it yet - I believe you. :) Can't wait.

[Rastus]

Thanks! I imagine I'll be making some use of these. :)

[Oreo Kookey]

I apologize for the assumption as to your sharing my age. But I get even more joy from knowing there is a 36 year old out there that gets it; who enjoys real music. You said "My taste in music runs from the 1920s through the 1970s - I haven't been able to turn on broadcast radio for music in over 20 years!" I agree 100% with that. I'm amazed how the noise has taken over and drowned out the real music.

"I credit my dad (born 1927 and still kicking!) with introducing me to great music, great television, great fiction, great comedians, great movies, and fine culture like opera and theater, etc." Your are a very fortunate man to have grown up with the influence of your dad. It's really nice to hear someone my daughter's junior by one year who thrives on the goodness of the past and brings it into today's environment. You are our living legacy of the former "good stuff."

Keep it coming. Your audience awaits.

[alwaysconservative]

This "medical advice" from Mama T is particularly funny in light of the story that interpreters now believe that the "72 virgins" that Islamofascist "martyrs" receive in Paradise are actually "72 white raisins of clarity", and that the term has been mis-interpreted for years. LOLOLOLOL!