FOX News Trots Out Laura Bush To Bash Newsweek But Ignores Red Cross Reports Of Koran Abuse
Reported by Ellen - May 20, 2005
While FOXNews.com killed two birds with one stone yesterday by featuring Laura Bush in a Newsweek-bashing story, it has so far ignored the news in The New York Times that indicates the Newsweek story may well have been true. The Times says, "The International Committee of the Red Cross said yesterday that it gave the Pentagon 'multiple' reports from detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that American personnel had mishandled the Koran."
Instead, FOX gave us Laura's "first public comments on the story" (as if we were waiting with baited breath for them) as follows:
Well, I am glad that they retracted it, but I think it's really important for America to be able to get over to people in the Middle East what we are really like, and that freedom of religion and respect for other people's religion is a very, very important part of our country, in the history of our country.
I'm sure it's just a coincidence that FOX News would be showcasing Laura Bush at the same time the White House is raising her visibility and I'm sure there's no connetion to the fact that Laura Bush's approval rating is almost double that of her husband's - 85% vs. 48%, according to the LA Times.
I'm also sure that focusing on Newsweek's mistake is in no way an attempt to divert public attention from the "ongoing daily bloodshed" in Iraq as described in another, less prominent FOXNews.com article. Come to think of it, wasn't the whole war started on the basis of "faulty intelligence?"
Don't hold your breath for that perspective from "fair and balanced" FOX News.
