Posted on 05/17/2005 4:34:22 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
With its Alice-in-Wonderland treatment of the Koran flushing story, the Today Show demonstrated this morning that it is capable of making a Bush-bashing silk purse out of a false MSM sow's ear of a story.
Given the universal attention that the false story and Newsweek's retraction have garnered, there was no way that Today, much as it might have liked to, could have ignored the story.
Forced to deal with it, they managed to put its own ugly spin on the matter. Again and again, Today floated the notion that Newsweek retracted the story due to pressure from the Bush administration, and went so far as to suggest the story might be true.
The focus was at least as much on possibly sinister motives at the "White House," as it was on any transgression by Newsweek.
Thus the story was introduced with this question: "Will Newsweek's retraction end the flurry of White House criticism?"
And again: "Did pressure from the White House impact Newsweek's decision to retract the story?"
Matt Lauer stuck to the marching orders in his interview of Dan Klaidman Newsweek DC Bureau Chief.
Lauer: "Did you get pressure from the White House?"
Klaidman flatly denied it: "The only pressure was our own sense of responsibility."
That wasn't good enough for Lauer. He was apparently more willing to believe the enemies of the US than he was the Bush administration or even Newsweek.
Lauer: "There is suspicion in the Muslim world. They say they've heard similar reports from released detainees. Why shouldn't we believe it and think that Newsweek retracted the story only because it was forced to do so by the White House to protect its image?" And just in case anyone missed the MSM message, Lauer sympathetically asked: "Is there piling on by the administration?"
Given that the propagation of a false story led to riots and deaths, you'd think the last thing Today would do would be to air other rumors. Yet incredibly, incredibly!, that's exactly what it devoted virtually the entirety of its next segment to.
NBC reporter Richard Engel reported from Baghdad, and his report consisted of retelling a variety of additional rumors:
1. "There are many rumors in Iraq and across Muslim world that this kind of thing happens regularly."
2. "There are rumors that US Marines while raiding a mosque abused a Koran and spray-painted it."
3. "Another one - during a search of woman, a search dog pulled a Koran out of the woman's handbag and Marines started laughing."
Engel claimed: "People believe this is not a war on terrorism but a war on Islam."
Lauer 'helpfully' filled in the blanks: "You're telling me people in that part of the world expect the worst from the US.?"
Engel somberly observed: "I'm not sure we're winning the battle for hearts and minds. There is still fallout from Abu Ghraib."
And just to pour the last measure of gasoline on the fire, Engel ended with this explosive allegation: "There are rumors women were raped at Abu Ghraib. One women claimed she was raped six times every night."
Just when you thought the MSM couldn't sink any lower . . .
Thank you for agreeing not to pursue the flame war on this thread.
On the upside, though, your thread got the bumping of a lifetime. :o)
Least I can do. Yer one of the good ones. :o)
Any need to go back farther?
Again, apologies. I'm really going to start ignoring the clowns. To parahphrase an old quote, "Those who mind [Laz posts] don't matter, and those that matter don't mind."
Thank you.
My apologies. I repeatedly asked Lazamataz to discuss this in private reply. He repeatedly refused. But then Laz is just Laz and having the last word in private is no victory for him. Feel free to wipe my posts too.
See post above. Thanks.
That was quite an exchange.
Thanks for watching the trash TV that I can't stomach!!
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