Slash & Burn Politics
Reported by Eleanor - September 15, 2004 -
Fox & Friends (Sept. 15, 7:00 a.m.) spent about half the program on the CBS memo story with totally one-sided coverage. The questions kept the attention on one side of the issue.
The story began with a note that Bush spoke before the National Guard yesterday with a warm reception. The Friends passed along a quote that Kerry will appear before the same group with a "luke cool reception."
About ten minutes were spent on repeating the claims that the documents are false, adding that CBS is not going to investigate, and claiming that the content is backed up. Some people have called for Rather to resign; a boycott of CBS; and a federal investigation since it's within 60 days of the election.
This was followed by a long interview in two parts of Brent Bozell, President of Media Research Center, who says that CBS should apologize and expose the people behind the memos. Bozell said this "gets uglier and uglier." No doubt it's a fraud. CBS knew it was fraudulent, or at least questionable, so they are complicit. E.D. noted that CBS had two people authenticate the documents. Bozell said that CBS won't say who they are. It's bad to worse. They need to "apologize to the American people, and the President, and conduct an independent investigation." No one will believe a word Dan Rather says. When other media scandals were exposed, they took their medicine. E.D. again: "Are you saying that CBS intentionally put something bogus on the air to get rid of the president?" Bozell: They were bogus. At the snap of a finger, people have been able to destroy the story.
At this point, locally, a swift boat ad was aired during the break, and then this interview continued. E.D. Hill: Should CBS put out a report with the other side, and let viewers decide? Bozell: They can't go with that. Nothing in the story is true. Reporters protect confidentiality of sources, but if the story is false, there is no obligation. CBS has the responsibility to reveal who is behind this.
At 7:33, Kelly Wright continued with the "memo mess." He said the story is "unfolding," and CBS is making a statement today. Wright cited a number of experts calling the memos false, and quoted supporters of the other side as saying Bush got special favors and didn't fulfill his obligations.
Wright's report was followed by a short report on Sean Penn, comparing Bush to Osama bin Laden, with E.D. expressing her lack of understanding of Penn's comment that the president is oppressing the American people and taking away their dreams and hopes.
Comment: This entire episode was as far from complete coverage of the issues as one gets. Bush's service or lack thereof; his riding out the Viet Nam war with no one shooting at him; and his missing records weren't even on the radar screen. It seems that less than 50 days before the election, it's time to drop any pretense of balance, and go for the jugular. Not only that, this characterization of CBS amounts to warfare against a competitor. One of the Friends said that Dan Rather must be saying "please make it stop." This sort of deliberate slash and burn character assassination, with round-the-clock coverage, forbodes an end to investigative journalism such as CBS 60 Minutes has provided so effectively for so many years. The American media is seriously flawed when it sees its role as "gotcha" politics, rather than thoughtful investigation and commentary on both sides of issues. Ideally, they would just report the news, but that's reaching into the stratosphere of impossibility, when the goal is to spin the news with a huge tilt to the right; and to make the news, and not report it.
