Free Republic

"Outraged 9-11 Victims" Tied to Kerry Campaign "September 11 Families Say Bush Campaign Treading on the Dead . . ." So reads the headline. It makes one think that Bush has enraged every member of every family who lost someone on September 11. It gives the idea that Bush has crossed the line and disrespected the victims of our nation's tragedy. . . . . . . then you read "the rest of the story." The article has quotes from some women like Rita Lasar, who lost her brother. Rita says, "Ground Zero is a sacred site . ....

Call it "three green suitcase" journalism. Let's say a feature writer thinks green luggage is becoming popular. So the reporter taps out a story citing three people in different states who have given up black suitcases and bought green ones. The second paragraph begins: "All across America, people are switching to green suitcases." This creates a media trend that might be real but is probably bogus and certainly isn't established by three sales. The uproar over President Bush's 9/11 ads was a classic three-green-suitcase story. The New York Daily News broke the story on March 4, with a huge headline...

<p>Your allegation ["(Mrs.) Kerry's Cash Connection," Editorial, March 9] that an organization called Peaceful Tomorrows has received funding from foundations directed by Teresa Heinz Kerry is flat-out wrong.</p> <p>The allegation rests on a false assumption - that Heinz Endowments funding of the Tides Center for projects in western Pennsylvania is "fungible," as you state in your editorial, and so can be redirected to other causes.</p>

<p>Every time this newspaper runs a commentary exploring a possible uncomfortable nexus between Heinz Endowments disbursements and the presidential campaign of John Kerry (or some wild-eyed liberal, socialist or Marxist cause du jour), a nasty gram from the Pittsburgh-based endowments can't be far behind.</p>

Peace activists, left-wing flacks, and compliant reporters produced the flap over Bush's 9/11 ads. IT WAS THE WEEK of March 4, and the Bush reelection campaign was ready to go on the offensive. One campaign official told the New York Times that the president was "eager" to start the debate with Massachusetts senator John Kerry, the Democratic nominee. Another, Matthew Dowd, the president's pollster, said, "We have a whole series of things we're going to correct that have been said over the last six months." And the day before the ads premiered, Ken Mehlman, Bush's campaign manager, put it this...

"March 9, 2004 -- To hear some folks tell it, families of the 9/11 victims have risen en masse to denounce President Bush for using brief images from Ground Zero in his campaign commercials. " "But now it turns out that this whole furor is driven by a tiny group that's motivated by a far-left agenda and a festering hatred of the president - and has some quite dubious financial ties. "

The outrageous attack on President Bush's television commercials was the work of an extreme left-wing group that has been in the forefront of the battle against the War on Terrorism for years, but you'd never know it from the coverage it has received in the establishment news media. By picking up the charge, rather than reporting on its dubious source, the media have done major damage to the President's campaign, which compounded the problem by "defending" the ads, rather than exposing the hateful anti-Americanism of those who attacked them. The President's actions in the immediate wake of 9/11 were nothing...

<p>March 12, 2004 -- IN a letter in the opposite column, the president of the Heinz Endowments - chaired by Sen. John Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry - takes issue with our Tuesday editorial on the hard-left anti-war group Peaceful Tomorrows, which is spearheading criticism of President Bush's campaign ads. Peaceful Tomorrows - which has opposed the entire War on Terror, including the toppling of Afghanistan's Taliban regime - is heavily funded by the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation.</p>

It didn’t take long to figure out someone from the Democratic camp was behind crying foul and protesting the ad showing some of the tragic events of 9/11. Never mind President Bush, along with Mayor Rudy Giuliani, were a "consoling" driving force during one of the darkest periods in America’s history. It’s okay for Hillary Clinton to construct a demagogue for her few listeners and espouse untruths about how her husband Bill Clinton built up the military and how the current president should give him the credit for the military action in Iraq, but don’t anybody praise or give any...

Have you ever wondered how far will the far-left Democratic establishment will go to undermine the President and advance the political interests of John Kerry Heinz? Today's recommended reading choices will give you an idea. First up is a New York Post editorial look at the machinations of Theresa Kerry and company that generated what turns out to be a very unspontaneous burst of outrage from a minority of 9/11 families over the latest campaign ads for George W. Bush. Of course, the mainstream liberal media were more than happy to magnify this "wide public outrage" way out of proportion...

"Furor" over Bush's 9/11 ads was entirely manufactured: We have no doubt that the use of the images is appropriate - given that the president's leadership in the wake of 9/11, and his conduct of the War on Terror, are under drumbeat assault by John Kerry and the Democrats. But now it turns out that this whole furor is driven by a tiny group that's motivated by a far-left agenda and a festering hatred of the president - and has some quite dubious financial ties. Leading the rhetorical charge has been an outfit called September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows...

Has anyone else out there begun to wonder just who these 9/11 "families" are that have been interviewed without end the past week about their "outrage" over President Bush's TV ads with a quick clip of September 11? Are they all neutral innocents, as depicted, or are they part of an organized anti-Bush opposition? It seems to us that the media that gives these folks so much free face time and column inches might push the story a bit further to help viewers and readers put this dispute in context. Alas, what a little pushing of our own unearths is...

The RAT setup and phony outrage of the Bush ads is not going to stand. The ball has started to roll. Rush has been on the story. Hannity has been on the story. Hewitt has been on the story. Boortz has been on the story. Now, we have seen coverage in the New York Post and Wall Street Journal. USA TODAY told a FReeper that they are investigating and wish they had the info about the Heinz connection before they did the story. We raised hell with the NY TIMES over the weekend. On this thread, please chronicle all of...

<p>March 9, 2004 -- To hear some folks tell it, families of the 9/11 victims have risen en masse to denounce President Bush for using brief images from Ground Zero in his campaign commercials.</p> <p>We have no doubt that the use of the images is appropriate - given that the president's leadership in the wake of 9/11, and his conduct of the War on Terror, are under drumbeat assault by John Kerry and the Democrats.</p>

John Kerry’s Super Tuesday wins on March 2 marked the formal start of this year’s presidential campaign. This might explain why the liberal media silliness began with the first Bush-Cheney ad buy on March 4. The Bush ads were positive, promotional, piano-plunking, the type that usually bore reporters to death. But this time, they were quickly slammed by the press. The Democrats thought they had an angle to trip up the Bush campaign, and they pushed it. Say, didn’t those ads flash about a second of pictures of September 11? Well, yes, and so what? After being attacked unmercifully by...

USA TODAY: 703.854.3400 Gwenn Foster - political editor. Mark Memmott - Judy Keen, writers Here we go again, FReepers. Finally, the NY POST did the story about the funding of PEACEFUL TOMORROWS. The POST told its readers about the funding which was ultimately tied to Teresa Heinz. I'm still waiting for the WASHINGTON POST and NY TIMES to set the record straight. Perhaps I shouldn't hold my breath. And now, we come to USA TODAY. Are they a wholly owned subsidiary of the DemocRATic Party? No. Do they do the bidding of the DemocRATic Party? It seems so. I spoke...

<p>March 9, 2004 -- To hear some folks tell it, families of the 9/11 victims have risen en masse to denounce President Bush for using brief images from Ground Zero in his campaign commercials. We have no doubt that the use of the images is appropriate - given that the president's leadership in the wake of 9/11, and his conduct of the War on Terror, are under drumbeat assault by John Kerry and the Democrats.</p>

Bush Ads in HeinzSightby Daniel Sargis08 March 2004Is President Bush really in a pickle over his recently released campaign advertisements?  The media would have you believing the issue has some traction.  As Reuters reported, “Families who lost relatives in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks pressed President Bush's re-election campaign on Friday to stop running political ads that use images of the devastated World Trade Center....”  Of course, there are “57 Varieties” of truth to this story. Almost without exception, the family members quoted in this and other similar stories are associated with pro-Kerry and/or, ipso facto, anti-Bush causes.  And, God forbid,...

9/11 Victims' Kin Angered by Bush Ads 12 minutes ago Add Top Stories - AP to My Yahoo! By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Relatives of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and a firefighters union said Thursday they're angry that President Bush (news - web sites)'s new campaign ads include images of the destroyed World Trade Center and firefighters carrying a flag-draped stretcher through the rubble. They say the ads are in poor taste and accuse Bush of exploiting the attacks. Bush's campaign defended the commercials as appropriate for an election about public policy and...

Ladies and gentlemen, it is breaking hard right before our eyes. Sean Hannity is talking now about the phony outrage story regarding the President Bush ads. We are going to find that the RATS contacted family members who are anti-war, anti-Bush and who lost relatives on 9-11. We will find they were given the phone numbers of newsrooms. We will find they were given talking points. Although some who called got out of hand, we got the NY TIMES to take notice of the story. They were deluged with phone calls. I understand Neal Boortz was on the story as...