MacCallum: Terrorists Dancing in Streets After Dems Win
Reported by Judy - November 9, 2006 -
Guess Fox News doesn't realize that the campaign is over. Martha MacCallum on Thursday (Nov. 9, 2006) kept up the news channel's attacks on Democrats, claiming terrorists are dancing in the streets over Democratic congressional victories and wrongly accusing Democrats of being against all wiretapping for national security purposes.
On the "Live Desk," MacCallum also presented guests who claimed, without any Democratic rebuttal, that Democrats have no legislative agenda. And in a sign of disrespect, MacCallum also avoided referring to House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi with any title, calling her only "Nancy Pelosi," rather than even current House Minority Leader. In a word, MacCallum and the "Live Desk" was less gracious than George Bush was to the leaders of the majority party.
Throughout her show, MacCallum aired three clips from a documentary called "Obsession: The Threat of Radical Islam," but failed to provide any information as to who produced it, forgetting even to mention that it aired on Fox News. The clips were designed to scare viewers, including one of people shouting "Bomb, Bomb, USA."
And MacCallum asked several times: "What does a Democratic victory mean for the war on terror?” Without providing any details or any sources, MacCallum claimed that Al Qaeda is planning new attacks on the United States and that there are "some reports of cheering in the streets on the behalf of the supporters of the insurgency in Iraq, that they’re very pleased with the way things are going here and also with the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld."
Her lone guest for this segment, a "terrorism analyst" for CBN News Erick Stakelbeck, claimed that the Democratic victories "sent a negative signal. I think it appears that the U.S. is in disarray to our enemies right now."
Yeah, that's right. According to Stakelbeck, having peaceful elections, with power transferred without bloodshed, is a mighty negative signal to be sending to a part of the world where the U.S. hopes to instill democracy.
In another segment, MacCallum went to Rick Tyler, a spokesman for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Again, there was no Democratic guest. Tyler was allowed to claim, unrebutted by a Democrat and unchallenged by MacCallum herself, that Democrats, "have not laid out an agenda that the American people can buy into. They have some marginal things that probably will get done, like the minimum wage, but we don’t actually know other than their past record and what they’ve said what they’re actually going to get done in this next legislative session.”
Well, if they do nothing other than lock the doors of the pages' dorm, they will accomplish more than the last bunch did. Democrats, however, did lay out an agenda, and had MacCallum bothered to read The New York Times, she might have found this information with which she could have challenged Tyler's statement:
"In the Capitol, Ms. Pelosi vowed to use the first 100 hours of the new Congress to push through what Democrats dubbed their 'Six for ’06' agenda.
"That program includes calls to raise the minimum wage, repeal subsidies for oil companies and incentives for companies to send jobs overseas, cut interest rates on student loans, give the government the authority to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for lower prescription drug prices, and expand opportunities for embryonic stem cell research. On one of those issues, the minimum wage, Mr. Bush signaled there was room for a deal, as he also did on immigration.
"But Democrats made it clear that their first order of business, even before taking over in January, would be pressing the Bush White House to change course in Iraq."
But MacCallum was at her worst during the "A-List" segment when she claimed that Democrats don't want the U.S. government to be able to listen to terrorists' phone calls.
"Nobody said that," said Jamal Simmons, a Democratic strategist.
"Absolutely, they've said they're not in favor of the Terrorist Surveillanace Act," insisted MacCallum.
Simmons corrected MacCallum that Democrats only oppose listening to American citizens' phone calls without warrants. And Simmons said Bush himself was responsible for any confusion in the minds of terrorists about Democrats' intentions because of his campaign rhetoric that if Democrats took control of Congress, the terrorists would win.
There seemed to be a disconnect between the White House and Fox News Thursday. Bush was having lunch with Pelosi and stressing that Democrats love America as much as he does. MacCallum, however, didn't get the memo and remained stuck in campaign mode.
