An Hour of Unabashed Venom for Kerry & Edwards
Reported by Melanie - July 6, 2004 -
Today's Your World w/Neil Cavuto (July 6, 2004, 4:00 p.m. ET) was one long, hate filled, exaggerated, partisan anti-Kerry/Edwards rant. It was nearly impossible to watch. If this doesn't violate Federal Communications Commission rules on what's defined as a "news" program, I don't know what would.
The only way to convey the intensity and singlemindedness of the message is to report the show in one post. Breaking incidents into separate posts would dilute the horror of what happened.
Here it is:
4:00 p.m. ET Cavuto opens saying Kerry picked Edwards as his VP and "well, he just might be the ticket but some" CEOs say he's their "worst nightmare." Edwards is a "slick, smart, solid, seasoned trial lawyer" which is why CEOs do not like him. It's "the paring from hell."
4:0l p.m. ET To Dagen McDowell who says Edwards is "corporate enemy number one," and that the US "Chamber of Commerce is ready to wage war" against him. She reports on "frivilous lawsuits" and the increase in tort cases, making "corporate chiefs worry." McDowell says Edwards is a "friend to labor," and "bad for business."
End at 4:02. This is the first two minutes folks.
4:03. Cavuto introduces Jack Welsh (on phone from Nantucket), Fmr. CEO of General Electric, and Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of the Yale School of Management. Comparing presidents and VPs to CEOs, Cavuto asks whether or not it's important they "get along."
Welsh said: "Neither John Edwards or John Kerry ever managed anything," and, "every CEO in America should be shuttering and every employee should be shuttering." They'll "sap competitiveness...if the trial lawyers continue to gain here."
To Sonnenfeld, who said it was critical that they be "on the same page."
Welsh: "You do want to have constructive conflict, but "these guys are trying to figure out how to get enough electoral votes!" (Said with alarm and as if that were the crime of the century.)
End 4:08 p.m. ET Eight minutes have passed.
Cavuto heading to a break: "What is [sic] the Kerry Edwards ticket mean for your money?" To Fox's Terry Keenan: "These guys want to take a lotta money," it's about taxes, "it's as simple as that."
4:12 p.m. ET After the break, Cavuto: "What should investors expect with Kerry and Edwards in office?"
Keenan: Edwards is a tax and spend liberal on par with Kerry. He wants to raise taxes rather than reform them. He's a populist and wants to hike capital gains taxes.
All this in the first 15 minutes.
4:15 p.m. ET To Mark Racicot, Republican Nat'l Cmte. Chair, and Tad Devine, Kerry/Edwards campaign advisor.
Cavuto: Would the Kerry/Edwards ticket be good for the economy?
Racicot: It'll be a "close contest" and "after McCain declined his [Kerry's] offer to run" Kerry had to "turn to the polls." And it was "plain and evident that Senator Kerry set about to invite Senator McCain on the ticket."
Devine: Kerry/Edwards "complement each other," there's a lot of "enthusiasm and excitement" like he has "never seen before," it's "unprecedented."
Cavuto: Why's everyone so excited? Edwards has the "enthusiasm lacking in Kerry?"
Devine, again, they "complement each other" and are generating enthusiasm.
Cavuto asks Racicot how a Cheney/Edwards debate might go and Racicot begins talking about the "optimistic agenda for America" that Cheney will talk about.
Raicoct then reminds us that that "only four US senators voted for the war" but against funding for equipment for the troops. Two of those four senators were Kerry and Edwards.
Devine finally gets a word in edge wise and says "John Kerry and John Edwards wanted the President to pay for it [not borrow from our kids]."
4:19 p.m. ET Heading to a break Cavuto says: "The party of power, the party of privilege, the party of money. No, I'm not talking about the Republicans. I'm talking about the Democrats." Stayed tuned.
4:22 p.m. ET Returning from the break, a list of the four presidential and VP candidates flashes on screen with figures after their names (allegedly their net worth). Cavuto says: "According to this...Bush is the poorest of the candidates."
Cavuto introduces Greg Hymowitz, Entrust Capital Management, to talk about funding campaigns. Hymowitz says labor was behind Dick Gephardt but John Edwards "brings the Plaintiffs' bar" with him.
Cavuto: (Hymowitz seems to be a Democrat) "Well, they've got you. They don't need the trial attorneys."
Enter Ben Stein who said, "they [Democrats] always say it's the most zeal" they've ever seen, we've been "hearing that for years." And Edwards is "a guy who was in diapers when Kerry was in Vietnam."
Hymowitz said he thinks Edwards is a "very nice guy, a good guy."
Cavuto: Don't you think "these trial lawyers hurt Democrats?"
Stein: Edwards is a "slick trial lawyer who's" courtroom tactics "are suspect" and "that's going to be hung on him like crepe paper."
End at 4:27 p.m. ET This is only half the show!
4:32 (I guess this is the "fair and balanced" segment.)
Cavuto introduces Geraldine Ferraro, Fox analyst and former vice presidential candidate (Walter Mondale), and Jerry Brown, Mayor of Oakland, CA and former California governor.
Cavuto: "A lotta people say it was a safe choice," not "historic."
Ferraro says it's "a very, very exciting ticket...Edwards spent six years in the US Senate." Cavuto interrupts saying, "And half of that was running for office."
Ferraro says Edwards is "wonderful on the campaign" trail.
Brown pipes up saying "this guy's old enough, eloquent," he's "going to look a lot more vibrant" against Cheney in a debate.
Cavuto: Does a VP really make a difference?
Brown: Edwards will be a "good contrast" to Cheney.
Then a few more minutes about how Kennedy and Johnson didn't really like each other but Johnson helped Kennedy win the south.
4:35 p.m. ET Cavuto does a short segment on which stocks will go down (utilities and defense) with a Kerry/Edwards win and which will go up. Cavuto reports that one analyst said pawn shops will do booming business because people will be so poor if Kerry/Edwards win, that they'll be pawning all their belongings.
Next, a round table discussion.
Financial analyst Charles Payne: This nomination puts "another cloud" over Wall Street; it makes for "another reason not to participate."
Fox's Brenda Buttner: "Wall Street does not want a Kerry ticket to win." Americans "hate lawyers and they hate this kind of lawyer in particular," because all Americans "basically don't like lawyers."
Analyst Jonas Ferris said Edwards has a "Robin Hood quality" which is "not good for corporate profits;" it's like a "labor leader running."
Payne said Edwards "adds a new dynamic" to the mix and Ferris said "they're gonna have to get rid" of Cheney, to which most very one booed.
Buttner: It's reall tough to sell this "populous stance" to people. "He's made millions of dollars for himself and people just don't like that."
Muriel Siebert of the fiancial firm Siebert & Co., said a "lot of people" on Wall Street are "very disturbed" he's thinking of taking away taxes "from wealthier people." And that "they're really concerned that he is a trial lawyer."
Then Payne again, saying "Kerry's the one who's really dyed in the wool,' and he's "the one we have to be afraid of."
At 4:5l p.m. ET Cavuto went to a two minute segment about a man in Portland, Oregon who sued the Catholic church because he was sexually abused as a child. A judgment was rendered and now the dioceses is broke. (This dovetailed nicely with "trial lawyers.")
4:56 p.m. ET Cavuto reads five emails, four against Edwards, one for. One of those against Edwards said "Bullwinkle picks Rocky."
4:58 p.m. ET "Common Sense," the segment of the show designated as the editorial section. Cavuto proceeds to tell us how he botched it last spring when he said Edwards would never be Kerry's running mate because he was just "too smarmy." Cavuto said then that he thought Gephardt would be the VP pick, but he guessed that Gephardt, "by the way, did not suck up enough" to be chosen.
COMMENT: This is Fox doing what it does best. Campaigning for George W. Bush and Richard Cheney, and against John Kerry and John Edwards. They're going to be doing this 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until November 2, with a few other topics thrown in so it doesn't look quite so obvious.
