Slovakia leader hits media on Bush slant

The Washington Times ^ | February 25, 2005 | Bill Sammon

[neverdem]

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The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com

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Slovakia leader hits media on Bush slant

By Bill Sammon
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published February 25, 2005

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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia -- The prime minister of Slovakia yesterday blamed the media for unfairly turning the European public against President Bush by negatively slanting coverage on Iraq.

    After meeting with Mr. Bush twice in less than a week, Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda told reporters that the president also blamed the press for portraying him as eager to invade Iran to eradicate its nuclear program.

    "President Bush told me in Brussels: 'I am so unhappy that media creates the picture that Bush wants war in Iran. This is crazy,' " Mr. Dzurinda told a small group of reporters over lunch.

    The prime minister was reminded that while the governments of Central and Eastern Europe supported Operation Iraqi Freedom, the populace was much more skeptical, according to polls.

    Mr. Dzurinda responded by telling the journalists, including one from CNN, that he was "shocked" to see media outlets like CNN and the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) showing "only American soldiers killing people. But nobody was able to show Saddam Hussein, who killed many, many thousands of Iraqi people."

    "It was impossible to see a real picture of this regime," he lamented. "And the result is the public is one day strongly against Bush. 'Bush loves war,' he's 'new terrorist,' and so on and so on."

    The prime minister predicted that it is "only a question of time when people in Slovakia, in Germany, in European countries, will understand more that this activity were necessary. And the world, without Saddam Hussein, is much more democratic..."

[austinaero]

Wonder if any dems are listening....?

[patriciaruth]

bump...

[JesseJane]

Mr. Dzurinda responded by telling the journalists, including one from CNN, that he was "shocked" to see media outlets like CNN and the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) showing "only American soldiers killing people. But nobody was able to show Saddam Hussein, who killed many, many thousands of Iraqi people."

EASON JORDAN & CNN have BLOOD on their hands.

[Coop]

Pretty much sums it up, huh?

[BenLurkin]

Media anti-Bush Slant? What media anti-Bush slant?

[Darkwolf377]

I guess they'll be looking into his sexlife to see if there are any gay antics in his past.

[McGavin999]

I just love eastern europeans. I hope they know that when we're talking about euroweenies, we certainly don't mean them.

[neverdem]

It must be something in the water up there.

I'm in NYC, and the water's very good because of one of the few smart things they did almost 2 centuries ago when they obtained the land for its reservoir system.

The politics is almost the same in all large cities, socialist pandering. When they hit a wall in crime or fiscal reality, they'll elect a pubbie for awhile.

[Sender]

Pretty kewl. But the left will just say that Slovakia is a small country, just like they marginalized all the smaller countries who joined the coalition in Iraq. If I lived in one of the smaller coalition countries, or most anywhere in Eastern Europe, I'd be furious at the attitude of the left.

[bd476]

Ping.

[RockAgainsttheLeft04]

I guess we can add PM Dzurinda to the ever-shrinking list of intelligent, strong world leaders for President Bush to deal with, right alongside Britain's Blair, Italy's Berlusconi, the Polish PM, Ariel Sharon (though the West Bank pullout was pretty stupid), Australia's Howard, Japan's Koizumi, and Colombia's Uribe.

[nutmeg]

ping

[texasflower]

It sounds like this guy is a pretty straight talker also. I would imagine he and President Bush got along very well.

[Grzegorz 246]

Dzurinda is probably the best PM in Central/Eastern Europe.

[bd476]

That is very good to hear, Grzegorz246.

[Grzegorz 246]

Eastern European ping list

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FRmail me to be added or removed from this Eastern European ping list

[Grzegorz 246]

Slovaks in Iraq:

[bd476]

Grzegorz, thank you for posting these great on the scene photos of Slovakian troops with their weapons in Iraq. It is very good for the USA to have Polish and Slovakian friends.