Miller #12/Major Garrett's Partisanship
Reported by Ellen - September 3, 2004 -
Last night on Fox News Live with Alan Colmes, Alan replayed his interview with "Zig Zag" (as AC called him) Zell Miller aired on Hannity & Colmes. Alan asked Miller a number of hard-hitting questions around Miller's earlier support for John Kerry's record on defense.
While Miller tried to zig his way out by saying that things had changed since 9/11, Colmes pressed the point by asking whether that meant Miller now disapproved of the record he had previously praised. Miller then zagged by saying that he had not read the research thoroughly when he had made that earlier speech but he had done so before the Republican Convention speech.
Major Garrett was in the booth (or whatever it was where they were broadcasting from at Madison Square Garden) with Alan while this interview was being replayed. You'd think that a political reporter on a Real Journalism, Fair and Balanced network would have found this inconsistency rather noteworthy but Major Garrett immediately began making excuses for Miller. That was at a fundraising event, Garrett pointed out, where candidates don't take the same care researching their speeches as they do at a national convention. A convention speech is more important.
Oh, really? So in other words, there's a hierarchy of truthfulness we can expect from candidates depending on where and when the speech is made? And that's why Zig-Zag didn't technically flip-flop on that issue?
Major Garrett also spoke admiringly about Bush building "a platform around liberty."
"You mean like the Patriot Act?" Colmes asked, using my second-favorite line of the night. First favorite: You guys (meaning conservatives) have to get over Bill Clinton. He's no longer president.
Note to readers: I intend to report more on Major Garrett. I followed him rather closely for the movie Outfoxed
and let's just say he deserves a lot more scrutiny.
