[wagglebee]

For once, McCain is right. The American media has been reporting fake news for decades, all we are doing in Iraq is insuring that accurate news is reported.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

we are trying to teach democracy and freedom of the press

What Russert really means is, "We're trying to teach the Iraqi press to be as anti-American as the American press is."

[bnelson44]

Good for McCain!

[Txsleuth]

Yeah...McCain surprised me here...but, he may not have spoken with Warner and his little buddy Lindsay yet...

I won't be surprised if they agree to some kind of "investigation".

[mountainlyons]

CNN is the champ of fake news when they said nothing bad about Iraq so they could stay there. I am almost starting to like McCain.

[HawaiianGecko]

The humor behind this entire story is the false premise that a "free press" is by itself a good thing and is all a people need for a good and fair democracy.

Is the free press in America doing a service to the American public? A very good argument can be made that the press is in fact in collusion with each other to tell only the bad news about Iraq, the economy and the President. They systematically avoid telling the good news, especially about the economy.

So the real question isn't about the merits of a free press, the argument is whether or not a free press actually exists or functions.

 

[sono]

Russert and the MSM are way off base here. One of AQ's most powerful weapons to date has been their use of the media. Up until now, our media have not only ceded this to AQ, they have been at best useful idiots and at worst a fifth column. It is imperative that we reclaim our advantage in the media war and I applaud Mc Cain as well as our military for recognizing this.

[goresalooza]

How much has moveon and the dnc donated to the media over all these decades to push REALLY FAKE STORIES upon readers? Didn't cnn "pay" Iraq off by covering up the scandal of torture and what really went on during the Saddam regime of terror?

The libnuts are dead wrong on this as they are on everything else. I wish Mcvain hadn't used the term "fake news". It's not fake if it's the truth. "Fake news" is the leftwing catch-phrase of the week now.

[AndyTheBear]

"But in principle you have no problem paying the Iraqis?"

Is Russel himself refusing a salary based on this principle?

[manwiththehands]

This is troubling ... McCain has been on our side too many times over the last few weeks. What's up with that?

[Gumlegs]

Russert's opinion would appear to be that fake news is okay as long as the government isn't paying for it, but real news is tainted if the government has to put it out. (Did he object to Dan Ra^ther's fake memo story)? Does he object to PBS?

[Brad from Tennessee]

I re-watched the National Geographic Channel's four-hour documentary Friday night on 9/11. One journalist said FBI agents had commented to him that it "will take another 9/11" to wake up the government and the public to the fact that we are in a real and dangerous war. A CIA analyst said people had no idea "what a long and bloody road" we must travel to defeat a global enemy.
With silly, partisan call girls like Tim Russert representing the top tier of American journalism, no wonder the masses remain uninformed and vulnerable.

[Polybius]

Tim Russert, who asked incredulously: "But here we are trying to teach democracy and freedom of the press and the lack of state-sponsored censorship, if you will, and we're paying Iraqis to print articles?"

That's right.

In the U.S., you can't even pay the liberal news media to print the truth about Iraq.

[FlingWingFlyer]

The real scandal here is that the DemocRATS and their toadies in the Liberal MSM are so "outraged" about the Iraqi newspapers printing good news stories. Any DemocRAT will tell you that, if it isn't doom and gloom, it has no place being printed in a newspaper.

[shrinkermd]

McCain is redeeming himself--at least in my eyes.

[hsalaw]

McCain shot back: "If these are accurate stories then we should make every effort to get them out. We are in a propaganda war. This is a war for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people as well."

Very sensible comment. And here's a thought: the MSM presently prints their liberal, lying garbage for free and they're all going broke. Maybe the government could pay them a modest fee to actually publish the TRUTH, and they wouldn't have to layoff all their "reporters" and be attacked by Moveon.ugh.

[FlingWingFlyer]

At that, an irked Russert interrupted: "But in principle you have no problem paying the Iraqis?"

I'll bet the "irked" Tim Russert has no problem with NBC taking money from DemocRATS and Georgie Soros' 5/27 groups to air their mudslinging ads full of lies about President Bush and the Republicans. The Liberal MSM press doesn't seem to have any problem with accepting money from Leftist maggots to publish their "full page ads" attacking President Bush and the Republicans. Hypocrites!

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

"If these are accurate stories written by legitimate people then I don't think there's anything wrong with that," McCain told NBC's "Meet the Press."

Even if these were false stories written by intelligence assets in the Iraq theatre to disinform and harrass the enemy, I don't have a problem with that.

[Cautor]

Even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while. McLame found one this time.

[citizencon]

Russert and Co. in the MSM conveniently and arrogantly interpret freedom of the press as freedom of the press to have a political bias. Freedom if it suits their agenda, self-censorship if it doesn't

[p23185]

For once, McCain is right. The American media has been reporting fake news for decades, all we are doing in Iraq is insuring that accurate news is reported.

And exactly what were Mapes and Rather engaged in immediately before the 2004 Presidential election? REPORTING FAKE NEWS IN ORDER TO PUSH ELECTION RESULTS TO THEIR FAVORED JOHN EFFING KERRY.