Posted on 05/18/2005 8:44:04 AM PDT by areafiftyone
Mainline reporters moved into battle mode today during a White House press briefing -- as one of their own outlets continued to hemorrhage over a now retracted story!
Afghanistan's government said Tuesday that NEWSWEEK should be held responsible for damages caused by deadly anti-American demonstrations after the magazine alleged U.S. desecration of the Quran.
The White House said the United States' image abroad had suffered irreparable damage by the story.
But it was the press's turn to fight back as Bush spokesman Scott McClellan opened his briefing to questions.
[Joined in progess]
Q With respect, who made you the editor of Newsweek? Do you think it's appropriate for you, at that podium, speaking with the authority of the President of the United States, to tell an American magazine what they should print?
MR. McCLELLAN: I'm not telling them. I'm saying that we would encourage them to help --
Q You're pressuring them.
MR. McCLELLAN: No, I'm saying that we would encourage them --
Q It's not pressure?
MR. McCLELLAN: Look, this report caused serious damage to the image of the United States abroad. And Newsweek has said that they got it wrong. I think Newsweek recognizes the responsibility they have. We appreciate the step that they took by retracting the story. Now we would encourage them to move forward and do all that they can to help repair the damage that has been done by this report. And that's all I'm saying. But, no, you're absolutely right, it's not my position to get into telling people what they can and cannot report....
Q Are you asking them to write a story about how great the American military is; is that what you're saying here?
MR. McCLELLAN: Elisabeth, let me finish my sentence. Our military --
Q You've already said what you're -- I know what -- how it ends.
MR. McCLELLAN: No, I'm coming to your question, and you're not letting me have a chance to respond. But our military goes out of their way to handle the Koran with care and respect. There are policies and practices that are in place. This report was wrong. Newsweek, itself, stated that it was wrong. And so now I think it's incumbent and -- incumbent upon Newsweek to do their part to help repair the damage. And they can do that through ways that they see best, but one way that would be good would be to point out what the policies and practices are in that part of the world, because it's in that region where this report has been exploited and used to cause lasting damage to the image of the United States of America. It has had serious consequences. And so that's all I'm saying, is that we would encourage them to take steps to help repair the damage. And I think that they recognize the importance of doing that. That's all I'm saying.
Q As far as the Newsweek article is concerned, first, how and where the story came from? And do you think somebody can investigate if it really happened at the base, and who told Newsweek? Because somebody wrote a story.
MR. McCLELLAN: I think Newsweek has talked about it. They took it --
Developing...
Previously posted: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1405122/posts
Wow I did a search and it didn't come up. Thanks. Admin moderator please delete - this is a duplicate!
Isn't this amazing. They blame the administration for not editing NewsWeak's article and now they're screeching at the thought of the administration editing NewsWeak's future article.
How dare the white house denouce a story already admitted to be false! HOW DARE THEY!!!
Libtard press is lacking in the braincell department.
They are running scared. First their fear of Bloggers and now they are scared because they are making huge blunders! Typical liberal press - whenever they do something wrong they blame it on Republicans!
The MSM are nothing more thaan rats deserting a sinking ship. Their time is over,AND THEY KNOW IT.
HA HA HA! They tell a lie....and blame it on Bush! What have we got here? THE MSM POLITICAL PARTY
Elisabeth who? Perish the thought that any American journalist praise our military.
"Ladies & gentleman, children, on this Smithsonian walking tour of former American propaganda institutions. The exhibit on your right is the American main-stream media, gutted circa 2005. Next, to your left, IRS 501 (c) organizations ostensibly set up for educational, scientific or literary purpose, but actually partisan political organs. Yes, it was called the NAACP, and next to it the now defunct National Public Radio & PBS.
Please, no dawdling, let's move along briskly. Next, in the UK exhibit, the BBC . . . "
Who is Elisabeth? What paper does she represent?
As ususal the left believes in rights without responsibility.
I have no idea. I never saw the press conference. And of course Drudge likes to leave you guessing.
I often watch the white house press conferences. The press is amazing in it's stupidity.
They ask questions based on their own agenda, not on what the public needs to know.
They will also ask the same question over and over again - and usually those are not the questions requiring a factual answer. Those are the ones where they seek to emotionally humiliate the administration and Bush.
The president will give a whole interview on some important international subject, and the press will get up and ask 20 questions about Bush's national guard service, or some such twaddle.
Elisabeth Bumiller, poison-pen WH correspondent for the New York Times. Now THERE's a surprise for ya!!! /sarcasm off/
The left-biased Media, often times traitorous in aiding and abetting the enemy and feeding antiAmerican sentiment, take a last desperate defensive stand! The media falls on its own lack of merit. It's a shame that American citizens have inadvertently made millionaires out of the disloyal opposition among media pundits and media mogols.
As Drudge, NewsMax, Fox and other alternative news sources emerged to the public forefront, the phony "liberals" exposed the true nature of their nazi/soviet attributes.
"Liberal" cannot tolerate free speech and diverse opinion.
Barbara Boxer Tells News Editors to Back Democrats in Filibuster Fight
National Ledger, 4/13/05
Senator Barbara Boxer attended the opening session of the American Society of Newspaper Editors conference in Washington on Tuesday. In remarks to those newspaper editors the California liberal pleaded with the editors to "explain why a vocal minority in the Congress is essential for a democracy and why it is essential for you."
She explained to the trade magazine Editor & Publisher that she believes that Americans don't understand the term filibuster and believes that "editorials would be very helpful."
Barbara Boxer made it clear that she wants the press to favor the Democrats in those editorials in remarks at the conference. "You have a dog in that fight. Your whole basis of what you do is exercising that freedom of speech. These checks and balances are crucial for all of us. We exercise them.”
In other words, liberals are for freedom of speech, conservatives are not.
She wasn't finished. "There is a big story to be told out there, and I hope you will tell it as you see it. ...They are going to change the rules of the Senate that have been around for 200 years. These rights are important, this leverage is important. And your rights to tell stories the way you want are in many ways tied to this. You are in this battle."
Liberals love to play the victim and spread the misery. Here's Barbara Boxer telling hundreds of newspaper editors in Washington DC that unless they help Democrats stop judicial nominees from getting an up or down vote in front of the full Senate, those newspapers will no longer get to practice freedom of speech.
That's a bit frightening, but pretty far fetched. These aren't the usual moonbats that Boxer usually tries to frighten. These are news pros. And while its likely a majority are probably liberal, I doubt that many buy Boxer's argument that their free speech rights are about to be taken away by "evil" conservatives through ten judicial nominees.
And Boxer's biggest mistake is trying to tell the liberal press how to do its collective job. Boxer and her left-wing cohorts in the US Senate have tried to convince the American voter that they are practicing this brand of obstructionism because they want an "independent judiciary." But they have proven they only want judges that agree with them, and a news media that spreads their version of events.
It’s a bad strategy. An independent media is just as important as an independent judiciary.
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