Sunday Morning Talk Show Thread 13 July 2003

Various big media television networks ^ | 13 July 2003 | Various Self-Serving Politicians and Big Media Screaming Faces

[Alas Babylon!]

The Talk Shows

Sunday, July 13th, 2003

Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows:

FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and, Rep. Darrell Issa, (R-CA).

FACE THE NATION (CBS): National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice

MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Senator Bob Graham (D-FL).

THIS WEEK (ABC): Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and retired General Wesley Clark.

LATE EDITION (CNN) : Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah; National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice; Sens. John F. Kerry (D-MA), Richard C. Shelby (R-AL) and Carl M. Levin (D-MI); former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger; former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski; and authors A. Jay Cristol and James Bamford.

[Hacksaw]

I watch those shows when I can in the morning. The Dick Van Dyke show is my favorite show ever made and certainly more relaxing than all this made-up "scandal".

If you get the sci-fi channel, Star Trek is on now.

[Dane]

The liberal mantra is keep repeating our agenda and people will believe it.

Page 1 from the Goebbel's playbook.

[Dave S]

So talk to Britian. Bush didn't say "The U.S. intelligence has.... " Sheesh! What has Bush got to do with all this? All he did was read what he had. Britian has even more evidence of Saddam and Africa. They were right! He was a threat. Who can argue that?

So your argument is "Clintonspeak" (It depends on the meaning of is). Bush was right because he was attempting to convey that the British thought there might be a threat rather than he was trying to warn us that Saddam tried to buy uranium for his nuclear program from Africa. Gosh, I wonder what a typical listener and not a lawyer would take out of those 16 words. I think Bush is digging a hole with that type of defense.

[EllaMinnow]

Bob Graham continues to be one of the biggest liars in politics.

He only gets away with it because he looks so stupidly harmless.

[Alas Babylon!]

Why doesn't someone question Clark about the 100,000+ Kosovans who were APPARENTLY killed by the Serbians and why we just HAD to go to war over that. Later, of course, the numbers turned out to be in the low 1,000's, and even then they were mostly casualties of war rather than genocide. However, that was just fine by Clark and the Lyin' King. Where was big media on THAT deception?

To sit there and nod sagely when Clark explains this new requirement for justifying the war on Saddam while never mentioning the charade that was the Kosovo War is pathetic. Well, maybe it's not the media's stupidity but rather their support for Democrats and hatred for Dubya.

[cyncooper]

think the administration would've been better off if they defended the claim - especially since Bush prefaced the claim by saying it came from British intelligence reports, and because Blair & Straw are standing by their intel assesment. It just seems odd to say 'this is true, but shouldn't have been in the President's speech'.

I happen to agree with you. Condi Rice said it as simply as you (and I on other threads yesterday) laid out. I agree the choice of phrases at the beginning of the week, starting with Ari, who I very much admire, confused the issue.

In addition, the media did resort to out right lies to pump the story up, which always whips things up beyond what should have been.

Today Rumsfeld and Rice are firmly explaining the facts as should have been done up front. I think they were trying to avoid getting into U.S. intelligence discussions.

[concerned about politics]

...when they had refused 3 Offers to extradite OSAMAM bin LADEN from the Sudan to a U.S. Trial that would have stopped the Sept. 11th Attacks from coming down on us all in advance..?

A kattracks find from another thread.....JUDGE FINDS OSAMA-SADDAM LINK
"He said an Iraqi lawyer recently brought him a Nov. 14, 2002, edition of a newspaper controlled by Saddam's sadistic son Uday that included photos of Saddam, bin Laden, and a "List of Honor" - 600 names of "regime persons," including all 55 of the wanted deck-of-card Iraqis. "

[Peach]

Good points about Kosovo. FR really needs to start its own news channel since we APPARENTLY can't count on Fox to do a good job anymore. Thanks for the reminder about Clark - I'll make sure I don't forget those little facts again.

[Semper Paratus]

Rummy is simply awesome.

What I like best about him is his refusal to discuss from their premise and to consistently challange and refute it.

[cyncooper]

The President said it as if it were the truth, not a theory which may or may not be verified. It is nothing less than Clintonesque to say that the statement was technically correct when the assertion contained within it was false.

Wrong.

The assertion contained within it has not been shown to be false.

In fact Britain stands by their intelligence to this very day, and Rice said this morning on tv for all to hear that we, the U.S., also believe Iraq was trying to obtain uranium from Africa.

[cyncooper]

Mara is wrong when she says it is "new" that Condi Rice stated today that the intelligence is based on several sources.

[cyncooper]

Rumsfeld treated poor little Steffie like a spoiled kindergartner......

I have never watched Steffie's show. I might just tune in today.

[MEG33]

I know it upsets you that the Bush administration is taking slings and arrows.Paul Gigot calls this much ado about nothing.Of course Dems are having a hey day.I wouldn't want to be an American hoping we fail in Iraq.

[Dave S]

As others have pointed out, the statement was 100% accurate. We had sources that have since been discredited (and were very questionable at the time the SOTU address was being written) that tended to corroborate the Niger incident.

Our sources were discredited by Sept 2002 which by my count is 3-4 months prior to the State of the Union address. Doesnt intelligence that the CIA admits is a forgery make you suspicious of the other intelligence or are you basing your whole argument on the fact that even a broken clock is right twice a day.

One thing that Condi Rice could have made more clear was the fact that in the earlier Cincinatti speech incident, the information might not have been pulled because it was inaccurate. It could have been pulled because it was too specific and might have endangered the source.

So now the defense is that based on "might have been." Is this your idea of a high standard? You may be right but I can say Bill Clinton might have been the greatest President of the 20th century but that doesnt make it true.

[SwatTeam]

I have e-mailed Fox over and over. Have you noticed that every Britt Hume goes on vacation the entire FNC goes to hell? It gets plumb CNNABCNBCCBSesque.

[cyncooper]

Fred Barnes has been terrific all week, but he agrees that the WH did handle some of their responses clumsily.

I happen to agree and I think it is because it involves intelligence gathering.

Idiotic Mara tries to say this sounds like clinton's "I did not have..." NO way. Barnes jumps in to correct THAT absurd statement.

[Peach]

Britt must be the brains behind the entire operation because you're right - when he's gone the news reporting is as bad as any of the alphabet channels.

[TomGuy]

Oh GAG

Mara on FNS: Bill Clinton was held to a higher standard against lying.

[Peach]

I agree the White House and Tenet could have handled the explanation better OR stood by their original statements. They should have explained much more clearly that British intelligence sources stand 100% behind their sources but that the CIA could not independently and personally verify the source information and thus it should not have been in a state of the union address.

The fact that one source proved to be a forged document is unfortunate, but the British said they have several sources that have proven valid and still stand behind the information provided the president and stated in the state of the union address.

[MEG33]

It isn't the same without Brit.Juan managed to give the dim talking points without the slapdown!