More blatant pro-Bush campaign coverage.
Reported by Chrish - October 13, 2004 -
No matter how you measured it, the pro-Bush agenda was in clear view on Special Report with Brit Hume today, 10/12. Near the top of the hour, Jim Angle covered the Bush campaign and Creative Carl Cameron "covered" Kerry. Let's look at soe of the more noticeable discrepancies:
First Brit introduced the segment quoting the campaigner-in-chief as calling Kerry "neither consistent nor credible".
Jim Angle devoted about 2:45 to his report, including three (3) clips of video of Bush speeches denigrating Kerry (including the simplistic soundbites preferred by black-and-white voters: "he can run but he can't hide", "can't have it both ways" , and the "most liberal record" title. They also had a clip of Bush getting a laugh when he said, on hearing Kerry say he had only one position on Iraq, that he (Bush) "could barely contain myself." (Comment: This line was scripted to counter criticisms that Bush was losing his composure during the second debate. Of course they knew it would find play on FOX and elsewhere.)
About 10 seconds of a Bush/Cheney ad were shown, which also denigrated Kerry, specifically his health care proposal. Jim Angle pointed out that Kerry's plan would cover more people (presumably than Bush's plan) but would cost more and most beneficiaries would go into government healthcare programs.
They showed a 15-second clip of a Kerry commercial, and Jim Angle gave the Bush rebuttal point, and then said Kerry criticized that, as well.
On the other hand, Carl spoke of the Kerry campaign's high expectations of success in tomorrow night's debate. Pointing out that Kerry had stayed in New Mexico, a "battleground" state, rather than going on to Phoenix, he got in that "in Arizona, of course, the president has opened up a lead in the polls." And when he acknowledged that Al Gore won New Mexico in 2000, he reminded us it was the narrowest margin in the country.
No Kerry footage or speeches were shown in the roughly 1:15 allotted him today.
Comment: Supporters might say that Bush got coverage because he was out campaigning, but this was nothing new. It's old Kerry-bashing, with no positive message of his own. The piece on Bush ran like an RNC dream machine, edited and overdubbed like a high-dollar ad - except it was all free, thanks to FOX "News".
