More Berger Innuendos than Facts
Reported by Ellen - July 21, 2004 -
The Sandy Berger story is all over Fox News. You'd think this was the biggest breach of security since FBI agent Robert Hanssen was arrested as a spy. The only problem is, the facts are not in. No problem for Fox reporters "Campaign" Carl Cameron or Liza Porteus who found plenty of room for speculations.
Reporting that it's the Republicans who are demanding to know "whether Berger shared secrets illegally with the Kerry camp for policitcal advantage," Cameron places the idea in viewers' minds without any facts behind the supposition.
Meanwhile, Proteus tosses out some innuendos of her own on FOXNews.com's Berger Steps Down From Kerry Campaign. She reports, without any facts, that the situation has "already started to impact the Massachusetts senator's presidential pursuit."
Then, using a typical Fox tactic of placing their spin in the mouths of unnamed others, she adds that "although Capitol Hill lawmakers said they didn't want to make a judgment call on Berger's fate until all the facts were known, several told FOX News that the situation didn't look good for Berger, or even for Kerry."
Maybe so but that assessment is contradicted later in the same piece when she reports that Republican Senator Kit Bond of Missouri says, "The case shouldn't yet be put in a bright spotlight.
"I really don't see that this is going to be a major issue ... while it indicates some sloppiness, I don't think this is a big deal that would be should be the focus of national attention," Bond said.
"Unfortunately, there are a lot more serious [security] breaches every day I wish we could get a better handle on the leaks that come from the members of Congress themselves because they have been harmful and they happen every day."
Nevertheless, Cameron stated that despite Berger's withdrawal from the Kerry campaign, "Few believe this will go away anytime soon." Obviously not if Fox News has any say about it.
Comment: While Fox focuses on this story, let's look at all the other stories about national security it ignores: Bush's very close relationship to the Saudi royals and his business dealings with the Bin Laden family; Why Bush allowed members of the Bin Laden family to leave the country without being questioned right after 9/11; Cheney's secret meetings about our national energy policy; the outing by a White House staffer of CIA operative Valerie Plame; the absence of weapons of mass destruction Rumsfeld said he knew existed; Rumsfeld's hand-shake with Saddam Hussein during the Reagan administration.
