Posted on 01/17/2005 6:04:19 PM PST by CHARLITE
Embattled television news network CBS is again at the center of controversy after snubbing a White House request to allow a Republican to appear with one of President George W. Bush's greatest adversaries, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), on "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
Kennedy was allowed to fire away at Bush on Social Security and Iraq without any rebuttal during his appearance on the Sunday morning talk show.
Maintaining that Bush and the Republicans are making up a crisis with Social Security in order "to make a crisis on any political problem," Kennedy said there is not a funding issue with the government retirement program that was started by Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Declaring the crisis in Social Security as "nonexistent" because it will provide 80 percent of current benefits through 2075, Kennedy said the Republicans are fabricating a sudden crisis so they can pass their private investment account program for younger taxpayers.
But there was no Republican reaction to these charges made by Kennedy because CBS denied a White House request to have a representative on the show.
Brit Hume reported on "Fox News Sunday" that the White House was "happy to put [White House Communications Director] Dan Bartlett or somebody else on that program and CBS said, 'Thank you, No.'"
Bartlett had been assured by CBS News President Andrew Heyward just one week prior to this incident that "neither CBS News nor [Dan] Rather had a vendetta against the White House" and that CBS "would do everything it could to be fair and balanced."
However, despite the firing of four CBS News employees last week over the forged document scandal regarding the airing of a "60 Minutes" episode during the height of the 2004 presidential election calling into question President George W. Bush's service in the National Guard, CBS has once again stepped into a controversy which seems to go against their promise to treat the White House more fairly.
Bartlett responded to Kennedy's criticism of Social Security crisis by stating it is "a matter of math, not ideology."
Speaking on Iraq, Kennedy said it "clearly is George Bush's Vietnam" that is the "result of blunder after blunder after blunder."
"Until Iraqis are going to fight for their own country, we are going to have a very, very dangerous situation," Kennedy declared.
Kennedy warned, "[I]s the face of the United States part of the liberation and security and the stability in that country, or are we a force that is perceived to be expanding the kind of uncertainty and savagery and revolution that's taking place there?"/i>
Bartlett again responded to Kennedy on "Fox News Sunday" rather than on CBS that regarding the concerns over Iraq there were "two very different, competing versions or visions of what was happening."
"The American people agreed with [Bush's] assessment," Bartlett commented, reminding Kennedy and others that Bush's decision to go to war was vindicated by his reelection in November. "It was heard by the American people, and they embraced President Bush's vision."
Au contraire - Teddy boy is a "never was"!!
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't lead a horticulture.
I loved the Ahab/Rather analogy,too!
Can CBS be putting on Kennedy to show how right they were to go after Bush?..
Are they so far left that they cannot see what a pathetic/extremist symbol he is for the dems?
If you want to see the destruction of the Democratic Party as a national party, then you got to love Teddy Kennedy. He got his homey Kerry nominated, he then saddled him with his losing staff members. Is it any surprise that he would show up on another sinking ship or sinking Oldsmobile to help them find the bottom as he did Mary Jo. Kennedy can be Senator of Massachusetts as long as his liver holds out, but he sure is taking some down liberal ideologues who still think the name Kennedy is a political force to be accommodated.
New word?
I just want to keep up with current lingo, thats all.
LVM
You know, is it possible that Massachusetts Fats demanded no counter-guest on the program, as the "price" of he himself waddling in?
Is it possible that Massachusetts Fats demanded the whole program?
I do not know; I get the impression half the time the news media does not "make deals" to get a guest, but then the other half the time, I see something else.
Why can't the White House just be done with it and revoke the press pass for CBS? That would say something. This whole thing is going too far, they need to do something. They're starting to look cowardly, like Chamberlain appeasing Hitler.
bttt
And just wait until Katie Korsive gets the anchor chair at the Communist BS network.... OY! Such a Lib-Fest!
bttt
Have you ever noticed that Teddy Kennedy and Hillary Clinton always get a free pass? They are never placed in a face to face rebuttal situation with anybody but a cream puff. Either one of those cowards would never appear on O'Reilly without a guarantee of cream puff questions and limits to what could be asked.
Considering very few people watch Face the Nation,I'd say Brit Hume was more than effective in his characterization of CBS refusal to allow a republican to speak.
Very old word. It means he has a hard on for CBS.
On Special Report tonight Mort and Fred got to dig into CDS too. Mort in particular, which surprise me. Mort practically demanded an apology to GWB.
Sometimes I almost feel sorry for him.
Sorry, I don't know how to "cut and Paste" but I can tell you that Eileen MacNamara of the Boston Glob was dissing Teddy in Sunday's column and encouraging him to lead the Dems to Howard Dean as DNC Chair!
Does it get any better than this?
How nice to be Bay Stater and watch my own implode!
Like being drawn to a fire, you can't stop watching it burn!
This is GREAT!
CDS=CBS
Many more of these CBS episodes and someone MIGHT think there is evidence of bias. Not me though, because Dan Rather has assured us that there is no bias. /sarcasm
Basically, Clinton said there was a Social Security crisis in 1998. After Bush took office, the crisis was averted and now the Democrats are quick to say there is no longer a crisis. It sounds like Bush saved Social Security.
Amen to that. And despite the thinly veiled white wash of the commission - the proof is there to use for a criminal proceeding - IMO - that mapes contacted the sKerry Campaign - and the K campaign had a 'sister' ad campaign ready and waiting to air at the same time with the BlatherGate "expose" -
Time to show these criminals that they are not, as they have been allowed to be for years, above the law. Else, we shall see more and more of it.
If a few of these criminal acts are punished, there will less of these creeps ready to put their necks on the line.
And let's not forget the monster in the closet who controls Kenn'y and the ruling dems now - sorry-os. Kenn'y is but a bloated puppet...bought and own by sorry-os
Martha S gets railroaded into jail - mapes and co, get a free ride on trying to take down a sitting pres during an election???
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