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Woodward Book: Lauer Interprets For The Liberal Hearing-Impaired
Today Show/NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

Posted on 10/02/2006 5:07:51 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest

by Mark Finkelstein

October 2, 2006 - 07:54

If Matt Lauer ever decides to leave 'Today,' he has a promising career ahead of him interpreting for the hearing-impaired at meetings of Moveon.org and like-minded groups.

Interviewing Bob Woodward on this morning's 'Today' on his Bush-bashing State of Denial, Lauer served as a cheerleader worthy of Katie at her perkiest.

At one point, Lauer summarized matters thusly:

"You paint a picture of a White House and administration that is not tone deaf in some cases but that literally in some cases puts their hands over their ears and said we don't want to hear the information if the information is not going to bolster our company line."

That's when, in the screen capture shown here, Lauer 'helpfully' mimed the White House's 'hear no evil' attitude that Woodward alleges.

Lauer's only criticism was that Woodward didn't come out sooner with his unflattering portrait of the Bush administration:

"As you uncover all of this stuff, some of this stuff is vitally important as this nation is at war and people are dying. Didn't you have a responsibility to go to a mountain top and scream this out and not hold it for the release of a book a month before the mid-term elections? . . . If it's a case of not listening to key military advice when Americans are dying, people could say it's disingenuous to wait for a splash with a book?"

Woodward made a telling admission in response:

"The publisher Simon & Schuster and my bosses at the Washington Post said the real obligation here, to use your analogy to get up on top of the mountain and tell the full story, is to tell it before the election. That's what we are doing."

With two big helping hands from Matt.

Aside: In her interview of White House spokesman Tony Snow that preceded the Woodward-Lauer love-in, Meredith Vieira might have scored the most inane question of the still-young month with this pearl: "Is there anything in the book you agree with?"

Note: NewsBusters is looking for a few good men - or women. NB is seeking: 1. military, ex-military and former intelligence community members to write about the media's coverage of military and intelligence issues; and 2. an experienced MySQL and PHP programmer (especially those who know about Drupal.org's software) who wants to help out the conservative cause. If interested, contact newsbusters@mediaresearch.org

Finkelstein lives in the liberal haven of Ithaca, NY. View webcasts of Mark's award-winning TV show 'Right Angle' here. Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bush; katiecouric; lauer; rumsfeld; stateofdenial; tonysnow; vieira; woodward
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
"The publisher Simon & Schuster and my bosses at the Washington Post said the real obligation here, to use your analogy to get up on top of the mountain and tell the full story, is to tell it before the election. That's what we are doing."

I've been looking for your post this a.m. I thougt I had misheard Woodward. But no..here it is. The *obligation* was not to be certain he had FACTS. Not to be certain he wasn't putting words into dead men's mouths. The *obligation* was to tell this before the election. We knew this. But it's still shocking to actually see/hear it being admitted to.

21 posted on 10/02/2006 5:53:33 AM PDT by small voice in the wilderness (The dems. can't have a fool-proof plan. There would be no one left in their base.)
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To: Laverne
Woodward has now acknowledged that the WAPO is colluding with the DNC. Isn't that against the law? Isn't there something in law somewhere that says a free and fair press cannot collude with one of the parties? I don't know, just asking the question.

You make a good point, but may I add?

The government IS the media. If "the powers that be" did not want the media to be so biased, these things would not happen nearly so often.

This country is dying fast as long as the old media continues to be anti-American. The Marxists have controlled the old media for around 100 years. They will most likely succeed in killing America. They have succeeded in keeping enough people ignorant and disinterested!

22 posted on 10/02/2006 5:56:09 AM PDT by beyond the sea ( The Shadow of Your Smile --- Anthony Dominick Benedetto)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

Sounds like that "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" pic of Clinton and cronies, that has been posted here so frequently, has left a mark, to me.


23 posted on 10/02/2006 5:57:50 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: beyond the sea
I love the dumb media.

1st they laud the pre Iraq war intelligence. <2> Now the new Iraq war intelligence is gospel . Which is it?

24 posted on 10/02/2006 5:58:56 AM PDT by scooby321
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To: cibco

Yeah, there's no sense getting worked up about it. I am happy to not be in the day to day thick of it. I pretty much just vote. Tony Snow had a great line the other day. He said the subtitle of ex-bureaucrat books should be 'If Only They'd Listened To Me'. That's pretty funny. He's very good at his job.


25 posted on 10/02/2006 6:08:41 AM PDT by Huck (There is a $2.00 service charge for this tagline---do you still wish to proceed?)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

Bulletin to Woodward: Your alcoholic induced wet dream on impeaching and harming GW will not work this time thanks to the internet.

26 posted on 10/02/2006 6:10:56 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (There's a dwindling market for Marxist Homosexual Lunatic lies/wet dreams posing as news.)
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To: Grampa Dave

27 posted on 10/02/2006 6:15:55 AM PDT by philman_36
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To: philman_36

Great pictures of elite rats reacting to news about their bad guys in politics.


28 posted on 10/02/2006 6:18:18 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (There's a dwindling market for Marxist Homosexual Lunatic lies/wet dreams posing as news.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

I demand an investigation into the timing of this.... (so the investigation of the timing will cover-up the disclosed events.)

Oops, that only works for demonrats. Never mind.


29 posted on 10/02/2006 6:22:22 AM PDT by CPOSharky (Methinks the demonrats doth protest too much.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

So Woodyward painted a pic that the Bush administration "Literally", that's "Literally", put their hands over there ears, according to Lauer? Don't media folks know that words have meaning? I'm suprised he didn't claim they "Literally" went "la, la, la, la, la. I can't hear you, la, la, la, la."

Anyway, it's too early to affect the elections and this will backfire on the dems.


30 posted on 10/02/2006 6:30:47 AM PDT by subterfuge (Do your part to educate a Democrat and keep on FReeping!!)
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To: subterfuge

Woodward did an interview with Reagan's CIA director Casey some years ago. Casey was hospitalized, in a coma, but Woodward said he sat right up and answered questions...


31 posted on 10/02/2006 6:37:38 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (BTUs are my Beat.)
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To: Russ

This book will have absolutely no effect on the election. It joins the other 15000 Bush bashing books. You can only cry wolf so many times. People have decided about this issue long ago.

The Foley stuff will hurt however.


32 posted on 10/02/2006 6:56:14 AM PDT by fschmieg
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

The people who read these books are those who are already politically committed. Nobody is going to actually CHANGE their vote because of something Bob Woodward says. The Beltway culture cannot conceive of a broader American culture that doesn't spend their days breathlessly discussing the latest Washington rumor.


33 posted on 10/02/2006 6:59:15 AM PDT by Taliesan
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To: fschmieg

It only hurts Foley. Not even the dumbest swing voter is going to suddenly start thinking of the GOP as the party of gay middle-aged perverts. There are too many examples of sybaritic stupidity in the Democrat fold for one event to change the big picture.


34 posted on 10/02/2006 7:02:19 AM PDT by Taliesan
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To: Laverne
Well, at least they know admit their bias and their goal: affect an election. I didn't think this was the job of the media, but apparently I was wrong. Woodward admits openly, he is publishing this book to affect the 06 elections.

Dan Rather and CBS tried this in 04 .. it didn't work to well for them

35 posted on 10/02/2006 7:09:58 AM PDT by Mo1 (Hey McCain and Graham .... our soldiers signed up to dodge bullets not lawsuits)
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To: Taliesan

No kidding. Remember when not a single beltway TV personality knew anyone who had voted for Ronnie ? Let them stew in their own juices.


36 posted on 10/02/2006 7:12:17 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (BTUs are my Beat.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
Mark, by any chance did you see Bob Beckel on Fox just now?

Jon Scott was introducing him, and used the phrase, "people who live in glass houses", referring to Democrats in general, then said, "here's Bob Beckel".

Old Bob bristled, and informed Jon that he didn't appreciate being intro'd in that manner. Guess that embarrassing little incident a few years ago with paying a hooker with a check still bothers him!

37 posted on 10/02/2006 7:28:56 AM PDT by Inspectorette
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To: Inspectorette

Darn - missed it!


38 posted on 10/02/2006 7:46:34 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest (Watching the Today Show since 2002 so you don't have to.)
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To: kittymyrib; All

What you said was so good .. it deserves to be said again:

"Talk about a "smoking gun"! Hear Bob Wormwood admits that the Washington Post wanted to sway the election toward the Democrats by having his book come out a month before the elections. I was a reluctant voter in the upcoming election, but all this piling on, on the part of the President's enemies, makes it necessary that all GOP voters go to the polls Nov. 7.

Otherwise, we will have nothing but Democrat investigations and the President's impeachment to look forward to in the next two years."

NOW ALL OF YOU - GET OUT THERE AND VOTE IN NOVEMBER!!


39 posted on 10/02/2006 7:46:57 AM PDT by CyberAnt (Drive-By Media: Fake news, fake documents, fake polls)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

That was CIA Director Woolsey, who was in a confirmed brain-dead state when professional liar and dim media whore woodward had his supposed interview with him (while Woolsey lay dying in an Intensive Care unit)!

LLS


40 posted on 10/02/2006 7:58:31 AM PDT by LibLieSlayer (Preserve America... kill terrorists... destroy dims!)
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