I see where this whole Dan Rather mess is going -- CBS, the station that refused to air "The Reagans" after conservative pressure is going to be painted as a beacon of the "great liberal conspiracy."
Before any dramatic leaps of logic are made, let's consider the collective failure of the entire news media since 9/11 to effectivley use ample scrutiny on both sides of the fence.
Conservatives may have a right to cry "foul" in this instance, but they shouldn't cry too loudly. The failure of the press in the last several years has overwhelmingly played out in the rights favor, as the NY Times suggests, "After 9/11 when the entire news media began relaying unchallenged administration propaganda."
Here's a couple points to consider that emphasize the malaise of the general media:
A Newsweek poll conducted just two weeks ago shows that 42% of Americans still believe Saddam was "directly involved" in 9/11. A responsible media would be able to hammer down fact over fiction. Half of America has been misled and conservative media isn't doing anything to rightfully inform their viewers. This is a more significant and glaring indicator than Dan Rather's memo. This is the background for our enitre foreign policy and subsequnet loss of international credibility.
What's more important? What issue has the "mainstream" media had more time to right?
Another thought: Teresa Heinz Kerry's now infamous "Shove It" comment got
major news play for several days, meanwhile Afghanistan is literally off the media newscreen even though all indicators show that nation is still a hotbed of terror and military struggle. When Pat Tillman died there many people, myself included, had almost forgotten we still had soldiers fighting there on a daily basis.
Why is it the media collectively knocked Iraq off the top of the news hour the day we handed "pseudo sovereignty" over to that nation? Nothing has changed except the fury of the insurgency.
Then there's the best-selling author of "Unfit for Command." It took the general media weeks to expose his dirty SBVFT underbelly, yet Kitty Kelly's sleaze tirades about Bush cocaine orgies was discredited before publication, rightfully so, but why the expediancy?
It seems to this liberal mind, that the biggest journalistic blunders have worked out in the Bush camp's favor. If you get the entire media to stop asking tough questions about a bogus war, then the media bias isn't working against you.
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