|
| |
The
Liberal-Left’s All-Access Media Pass
EDITORIAL
Frank Salvato
July 1, 2004 |
Something has been eating at
me for quite a while. Actually, it has been eating at me ever since I heard
John Kerry say that some of the verbiage he used during his congressional
appearance was a bit "over the top.” What has been eating at me is the fact
the mainstream media was quick to give Kerry a pass on some pretty damning
accusations about his own comrades in arms while they went out of there way
to insist that President Bush’s only case for removing Saddam Hussein from
power was the existence of weapons of mass destruction. The fact that
Kerry’s accusations were for the most part false and Bush’s assertions were
for the lesser part correct didn’t seem to matter. And they say their isn’t
a liberal bias in the mainstream media.
Whether the Anti-War Bush-Haters Club wants to admit it or not, the
existence of even one 155mm artillery shell loaded with sarin nerve agent is
a rebuke. It is a rebuke to those who have been dancing in the streets
insisting, even believing, that weapons of mass destruction, banned
substances Saddam Hussein said he had destroyed, weren’t found. The fact the
Iraqi Survey Group’s chief inspector, Charles Duelfer, has publicly stated
more of the same had been found is downright frightening in its prospects.
Yet we don’t hear the mainstream media’s mouthpieces sharing this with the
American public. They would rather talk women’s panties on the heads of
suspected terrorists at Abu Ghraib. I suppose sex sells, right?
David Kay testified that banned weapons components had been moved to Syria,
a known state sponsor of terrorism, before and during the beginning of
Operation Iraqi Freedom. Now top UN weapons inspector Demetrius Perricos
states as a matter of record that inspectors have discovered Iraqi missiles
or missile parts banned by the UN in junkyards in Jordan and in the
Netherlands. They have also uncovered equipment from Iraqi plants in like
junkyards that could have produced chemical or biological weapons. Still the
American people and the people of the world are not afforded these
incredible revelations by the mainstream media. Did I mention the panties
that were placed on the heads of suspected insurgents at Abu Ghraib?
With these little known facts stated for the public record one
would think the members of the AWBHC would be walking up the drive at 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue, hat in hand to apologize to President Bush for calling
him a liar. Of course the thought is rhetorical for two reasons, the first
of which is that I don’t think I have ever heard a liberal-leftist apologize
for being wrong – given how often they are one would think that it would
have happened at least once – the second, no one is walking up the drive at
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue these days without an invitation and not getting
swarmed.
In times past the revelations of Duelfer, Kay and Perricos would have
warranted Walter Cronkite breaking into the primetime line-up whether he was
a closeted liberal or not. Of course in days past journalists actually had
ethics. Reporters weren’t making up stories and being rewarded with book
deals and network talk show interviews back then. And a suggestion that a
news story be editorialized would have been greeted with the back of the
publication’s front door hitting the one who proposed it in relatively close
proximity to the part of the body Bill Clinton’s cigar and Monica Lewinski’s
body had in common.
Which leads me to my point.
Given the pass the mainstream media gave John Kerry for his gross
misstatements of the facts during his congressional testimony about war
atrocities in Vietnam a legitimate question is posed. Had the media’s
wonder-boy Kerry been in the same position as President Bush, asserting that
Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction while laying out a plethora
of legitimate other reasoning for removing the tyrannical dictator, would
the mainstream media have misrepresented Kerry’s intentions and words the
way they have misrepresented President Bush’s? Yet another question posed is
whether the mainstream media would have afforded a Republican presidential
candidate and his or her team the same leeway to propagate falsehoods,
innuendo, rumor, half-truths and outright distortions of the truth that the
Kerry team has received this election cycle?
The answer to the first question has already been given with the quote
below. The second question has yet to be answered:
"The Iraqi regime’s record over the decade leaves little doubt that
Saddam Hussein wants to retain his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction
and to expand it to include nuclear weapons. We cannot allow him to prevail
in that quest. The weapons are an unacceptable threat.” – Remarks of Sen.
John Kerry on Iraq, US Senate, October 9, 2002.
 |
|
