Free Republic

A Politically Correct Sniper: Feel the Joy!10/14/2002 The residents of the Washington D.C. area have plenty to worry about here lately. The so-called "Beltway Sniper" has murdered citizens as they go about the most mundane errands. Yet there is one thing they don't have to worry about: at least this sniper is not motivated by racial prejudice. This warm-fuzziness is brought to us by the Washington Post. On October 4, after the first five victims had been gunned down in Montgomery County, Maryland, the they ran a story with the following headline: "Arbitrary Victims, Identical Fate" with the subhead, "County's...

George Stephanopoulos Shows His True Colors10/07/2002 When George Stephanopoulos was made anchor of ABC's This Week, a Sunday morning news program, media bias activists were quick to express contempt for ABC's decision. The idea that Clinton's former spinmeister could morph from liberal propagandist to balanced journalist seemed both laughable and sinister. Last weekend, Stephanopoulos put on such a vivid display of his true colors as to leave no doubt even to the "give-the-lad-a-chance" protagonists. The September 29 edition of This Week opened with Stephanopoulos' pre-taped interview with Congressmen Bonior (D-MI) and McDermott (D-WA) in Baghdad. After they had ranted about...

Bringing Iraqi Propaganda to American TV Viewers 09/23/2002 When reporters go to Baghdad, are they required to leave their brains behind? Judging from a story featured on NBC Nightly News, this seems to be the case. On September 17, Ron Allen shared what he had learned about Iraqi public opinion: "Many Iraqis believe America's true motive is to remove Saddam Hussein from power, install a puppet government and seize Iraq's vast oil wealth. On the streets, many see Hussein's offer to allow the inspectors back as a wise, brave decision showing strength." An Iraqi man-on-the-street: "This will stop America's intent...

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Hoping for Neutrality06/24/2002 This week ABC News President David Westin put an end to the worst kept secret in broadcast news and officially declared that George Stephanopoulos would take over as the host of ABC's This Week in September. Media bias activists don't buy the magical metamorphosis from Clinton's spin doctor to unbiased newsman, but most had been reading the smoke signals and were not at all surprised. What was disturbing was some absurd commentary from people who ought to know better. Consider the comments of Eric Burns, host of Fox News Watch, who advises us to wait and see...

Self-obsessed Aaron Brown06/17/2002 It comes as no surprise to media bias observers that CNN's Aaron Brown reports every story as if it is all about him. Last Monday night, 6/10/2002, he went over the top. "Good evening again. I'm Aaron Brown. So here's a nice day at the office. The administration says the half-century-old doctrine of containment in matters military is outdated and the United States in the future will exercise, if it so chooses, a first strike option against terrorists in those countries that harbor them. We've always said we are not a country that starts wars -- and...

Rather Obsessed06/10/2002 If you take Dan Rather's word for it, the most important thing about the proposed Department of Homeland Security is the timing of President Bush's brief prime time announcement speech! Certainly, the question of timing is legitimate, but such a huge reorganization of government raises multiple important issues. Prior to the speech, during the CBS Evening News, Rather charged: "President Bush moved to take the spotlight away from the hearing and capture the headlines by suddenly asking for national television time tonight." Later, as he began his networks coverage of the 8pm speech, he again focused on possible...

Strangeness is nothing new at ABC, but since when is the name of Jesus a dirty word? Bare butts are okay, foul language of all types is tolerated, but let a talk show host say, "Thank you, Jesus," and its time for the censors to step in! On May 23, this exchange occurred on The View, a daytime talk show: Meredith Vieira: "So yesterday, yesterday if you say this show, you know it was the last day of the weigh-in, the scale is gone." Joy Behar: "Yes, and thank you, thank you, Jesus, is all I have to say! Goodbye...

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Dan Rather, Rumor-Monger Dan Rather's behavior of late would cause most reasonable folks to guess that he's gone off his medication. Long considered the Great Satan of media bias, he still managed to touch our hearts and rally our spirits with his declaration of patriotic love of our country and support for our president in the difficult time after September 11. (1) Then last week, in a schizophrenic twist, he expressed a fear that patriotism was getting in the way of asking the tough questions and that a reporter might be "necklaced" for failing to be patriotic enough. He added,...

Fundraising Outrage 05/20/2002 This has been a week full of truly outrageous media bias. We went from former President Carter's trip to Cuba to Democratic Party irritability over the fund-raising photo of President Bush to the hysterical pack howl of "cover-up". In an environment like this, the only healthy choice has got to be the silliest. And what could be sillier than Al Gore and fellow Clintonista, Joe Lockhart, criticizing Republican fundraising methods? Only ABC news taking seriously the criticisms of these two ethical "giants"! Admit it - you feel more lighthearted already! On Wednesday, 05/15/2002, on Good Morning...

ABC's Terry Moran: Character Assassin 05/06/2002 Here is the ultimate example of twisting words! ABC's Terry Moran has made House Majority Leader Dick Armey into the equivalent of Slobodan Milosevic! Wednesday evening, 05/01/2002, on MSNBC's Hardball, Rep. Armey made the statement that "there are many Arab nations that have many hundreds of thousands of acres of land and soil and property and opportunity to create a Palestinian state." He further explained: "I am content to have Israel occupy that land that it now occupies and to have those people who have been aggressors against Israel retire to some other...

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Murderous Victims 04/29/2002 Three Palestinian teenage boys, carrying bombs and knives for the purpose of killing Israelis, were themselves killed by Israeli forces as they ran toward an Israeli settlement. Undoubtedly the residents of Netzarim, in central Gaza, were relieved that the attack was stopped. Yet as Dan Rather and Peter Jennings tell it, these boys are victims. Rather led into the April 25 story on CBS Evening News this way: "Israeli soldiers killed seven Palestinians today in Gaza and the West Bank, but many on both sides are stilled stunned by the deaths Tuesday of three victims too...

Peter Jennings, Palestinian Propagandist 04/22/2002 Peter Jennings has chosen to view the Middle East turmoil from strictly the Palestinian perspective. This week he gave us another example of his anti-Israel bias. Here is how he described, on ABC's World News Tonight April 15, the capture of a Palestinian terrorist by the Israeli Defense Force: "Today in Ramallah the Israelis arrested a Palestinian who's been central to the Palestinian uprising against the occupation. His name is Marwan Barghouti. He was in favor of the peace process until, as he told an Israeli newspaper, the Israelis didn't withdraw from the territories...

Been Dreamin' 'Bout Bin Laden 03/18/2002 Last Monday morning, President Bush gave a somber speech on the South Lawn. He explained that the war on terrorism was far from over and warned of the serious consequences of nuclear weapons getting into the hands of terrorists and terrorist states. He told the nation that more sacrifice lay ahead. The networks reported the story just that way with one exception - ABC. On World News Tonight, March 11, Claire Shipman focused her report on what didn't come up in the speech - Osama bin Laden: "The President offered a progress report...

Unnatural 03/11/2002 Joe Klein, formerly of Newsweek and now with The New Yorker, has been making the rounds of the talk shows to promote his new book, The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton. This has given him occasion to put his liberal belief system on front window display. His visit to Tim Russert's CNBC show on Saturday night was the occasion for the following outrageous statements: quot;The '90s will be remembered more for the ferocity of their prosecutions than for the severity of their crimes. I think we all went a little bit berserk during that time....

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ABC News Wants You to Feel Sorry For These People 03/04/2002 Demonstrating their spectacular failure to understand the concerns of the American people, ABC News ran a story on Wednesday, 02/27/2002, about FBI "mistreatment" of a Pakistani couple living in New Jersey. They were living there without the proper visas, but ABC apparently saw that as beside the point. Peter Jennings introduction to the story: "The Justice Department told us again today that since September 11th the U.S. has detained more than 700 non-U.S. citizens, and 327 of these people are still in custody without charges as far as we ...

ABC's Diversity Plan 02/25/2002 David Westin, President of ABC News, has demanded diversity of guests on his network's news programs - diversity measured by skin color and ethnicity. According to Peter Johnson of USA Today, "ABC News has compiled a database of 480 people - all minorities - to turn to for on-air or taped comments". To make sure that these select individuals are used, "employees have been told evaluations will be based in part on how many of these sources they call." "The goal here is to make sure that when we are seeking experts outside the news division ...