Great Moments in Journalism (Post Rather)

Someone named Betsy to John Kerry: "Prime Minister Allawi told Congress today that democracy was taking hold in Iraq and that the terrorists there were on the defensive. Is he living in the same fantasyland as the president?"

Where I come from that's improper direct examination. It would have earned a warning from any fair judge, although Erwin Chemerinsky probably would have allowed it.

Apparently Kerry is living in the same fantasyland as this reporter hatchetperson. He took the bait and called Allawi a puppet of the Bush Administration. This is the guy who claims he would be better at diplomacy than the president. At least the president knows how to stay on message and to finesse stupid questions.

Mark Steyn:

What a small, graceless man Kerry is. The nature of adversarial politics in a democratic society makes George W. Bush his opponent. But it was entirely Kerry's choice to expand the field, to put himself on the other side of Allawi and the Iraqi people. Given his frequent boasts that he knows how to reach out to America's allies, it's remarkable how often he feels the need to insult them: Britain, Australia, and now free Iraq.. . .

[Referring to Bush and Allawi's press conference] 'Mr. President, John Kerry is accusing you of colossal failures of judgment in Iraq . . .''

NBC guy: ''A central theme of your campaign is that America is safer because of the invasion of Iraq. Can you understand why Americans may not believe you?''

CNN: ''Sir, I'd like you to answer Senator Kerry and other critics who accuse you of hypocrisy or opportunism . . .''

They're six feet from Iraq's head of government and they've got not a question for him. They've got no interest in Iraq except insofar as they can use the issue to depress sufficient numbers of swing voters in Florida and Ohio.. . .

This new crowd -- Democrats and media alike -- are stunted and parochial, their horizons shriveling more every day.

That's the kindest thing you could say about them. If I were Bush, I'd start revoking credentials for reporters who ask questions like that. Now we know why Jesse Ventura called them "jackals." That's an insult to canines everywhere.

Bush'd go up in my estimation in he refused to appear in any debate with Kerry, until Kerry apologizes for his insults of our allies.

Help, I'm being brainwashed by Google!

Oh, yeah, that's a real danger, "news portals" with a conservative bias. I guess that's why they worry so much that bloggers don't have editors. We wouldn't want the public to be misled.

Shades of LBJ and Carter!

John Kerry is a micromanager, and, it sounds like, a lousy boss to work for. When he is so tonedeaf with the voters, it's pretty difficult to imagine him being anything else.

Mr. Kerry is a meticulous, deliberative decision maker, always demanding more information, calling around for advice, reading another document - acting, in short, as if he were still the Massachusetts prosecutor boning up for a case.

So, can we expect him to prosecute war like a warrior or like a lawyer?

He stayed up late Sunday night with aides at his home in Beacon Hill, rewriting - and rearguing

Sounds like a decisive guy all right.

"He attacks the material, he questions things, he tries to get it right," said Richard C. Holbrooke . . .. During a recent conversation about Iraq, he recounted, Mr. Kerry "interrupts me and he says, 'Have you read Peter Galbraith's article in The New York Review of Books? You've got to read that, it's very important.' "

That's supposed to impress the rubes, I guess. But we've had a technocrat as president before, in fact several, and they haven't been great shakes. Remember the last "policy wonk?"

This sounds like the sort of thing that journalists, lawyers and academics think makes a good leader, but it probably has the terrorists salivating.

And if he's so detail oriented and focused, how come he thinks it's Lambert Field in Green Bay? Watch for him to do the Lambert Leap if he wins. "Uncommonly bright, informed and curious" sounds ominously like how reporters describe Bill Clinton.

When Don Rumsfeld issues one of his "snowflakes" reporters treat it like proof that the administration has been lying to the American people. When Kerry does it, it's called "Socratic."

So will he be revising military strategy fifteen times a day and insisting on personally approving every bombing target? Scheduling the White House tennis court? Oops, "Aides were eager to attest that Mr. Kerry is not a micromanager." My bad.

Forever learning and never coming to a knowledge of the truth.

I wonder how much a treacly piece like this would be worth if they had hired a PR firm to place it? 15 points in the polls?

Now I know what rad means

Its' short for Radioblogger.com, the blog of Generalissimo Duane, Hugh Hewitt's producer, the hand inside the puppet.

The strategic importance of Iraq

Paul Wolfowitz on the Hugh Hewitt show:

[W]e also need to be about the business of persuading people, especially in the Muslim world where most of these terrorists are recruited from, that that's not the right alternative, that there's a better future for them, that there's a bright future here on earth. It is kind of sickening to read things like Zarqawi's letter or other publications by the terrorists where they express enormous contempt for people who love life and fear death. We have plenty of brave young men and women who are facing the prospect of death in Iraq but it is because they love life, not because they think there is some paradise afterwards that they want to rush their way to.

That is precisely what we're doing in Iraq, building hope for the rising generations of the Arab World. Europe doesn't want that. Their economic growth depends on immigration from Muslim countries of young people looking for a future. If they had one at home, who would Europe have in its labor force.

Aw, come on!

Calling Rather's and 60 Minutes' use of forged documents a mistake is like calling murder an error in judgment. This is not something a careful and good faith reporter is likely to do. Recklessness is not negligence; it's a disregard of what anybody knows or should know given Rather's and Mapes' backgrounds.

New vs. Old Media

Compare the handling of this mistake with Dan Rather's. Then read this.

Point to Kerryspot.

John Kerry is attacking P.M. Allawi

Is this his secret plan for winning the war on terrorism? To paraphrase an old bumper sticker, ff this is the answer, it must be a really dumb-ass question. Kerry is shedding his moderate skin and saying what he really thinks now. His media support has been revealed to be a hollow sham.

It occurs that Kerry has made it clear that his support for democracy in Iraq is non-existent. He's going to abandon the Iraqis as badly as Bush-I did. That's what the U.N. fetish does for you. I think Bush-I knows now what a terrible mistake that was, Kerry is too dense.

Cue the theremin

It's getting downright spooky. You could almost swear that there's a conspiracy for Kerry to lose this election, not that I'm complaining. All one has to do is play a 10 secound clip of him speaking and ask whether you want to hear that for the next four years.

Generalissimo, actually his wife, has the best explanation: Kerry is living his own version of Groundhog Day. Each day he tries a different position. Unfortunately, the rest of us remember the previous tries too.

Ralph Peters:

Is there nothing Kerry won't say to win the election? Is there no position he won't change? Doesn't he care anything for the sacrifices of our troops in Iraq?

And if he does care about our soldiers and Marines, why is he broadcasting remarks that insist � against all hard evidence � that the terrorists are winning?

It's not technically "Checkbook Journalism," but . . .

Mary Mapes has given news sources go-between favors in the past, in this case helping a federal prisoner to violate the prison rule against communicating with other prisoners.

Kerry turns to his base

He is now repeating internet hoaxes that the fever swamp left have been promoting. When will he announce that Michael Moore is writing his speeches?

William Saletan has a conservative side?

His analysis of Iraq is as facile as it is shallow. Bush may be selling it as a humanitarian measure, which it is, but that's not why he's doing it. It's a strategic move in the war against terror, and the other authoritarian regimes in the Arab world must surely be hoping it fails and financing the dead-enders and terrorists operating in Iraq. Saletan's discussion of it as folly understates the real stakes.

He says, "'Coalition' is Bush's euphemism for the United States." Not only is that an insult to Great Britain and Australia, but it would also be true if the U.N. had authorized this war. Does anyone really think that the U.S. wouldn't still be carrying the main load if France, Germany, Belgium and Russia were on board? How much did they contribute to The Gulf War?

When we can move on from Rathergate

Amen and Amen!

Check, balance, checkmate.

Jonathan Klein on bloggers:

Well, to hear them tell it, they hold themselves responsible. And, you know, that's fine as far as it goes; it's just not any kind of a third-party or any kind of a reliable check or balance against them.

I guess he's never heard of caveat emptor. If he were the least bit gracious about how bloggers nailed Dan Rather, I might believe that people like him are adequate checks and balances. Once an entire industry becomes so predictably biased that there is a huge audience for Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, they should at least acknowledge that Limbaugh, O'Reilly, and the rest are acting as a check and balance on them.

If you can't question your own assumptions, you have no business lecturing anybody else about checks and balances.

The death spiral

AV Westin, Former ABC News Vice-president: "We are in the midst of what I would call the death spiral of broadcast journalism," on CNN tonight. Then he goes on to blame it on cost cutting.

There's an elephant in this room than none of these old pros is willing to say what everybody else sees, CBS's producer and its news anchor were intent on bringing down a president. Dan Rather wanted another notch on his belt. They would never have pursued a story like this that would make Kerry look bad.

Last night on Hannity and Colmes a former head of one of the broadcast networks news division said there's nothing you can do about it. People in these fields are just liberal.

Sorry, that's not good enough. What should be pointed out is that the reason this is so is that these people all come up through liberal journalism schools where they're indoctrinated in the leftist attitudes that dominate Academia. They would deny this vehemently, but the answer is to ask what they think of Fox News. Until they face up to this directly and go out of their way to build diversity of opinion among their reporters, producers and anchors. Journalists will all tell you there's supposed to be an adversarial relationship with officials. In practice, however, they assume that the right thing to do is always to nudge us toward the Democrats.

Brit Hume is an example of a reporter who is smart and tries to tell both sides of every story, but he leans right. The problem was that the news organizations don't seek out more like him to provide balance to their coverage. Nobody can be completely free of bias, with the possible exception of Brian Lamb.

Other guests on Debra Norville's program is Marvin Kalb and Morton Dean. Kalb especially is the height of arrogance, as he mentions blogs and talk radio with distaste, as if he were being forced to say dirty words. The problem is that you can count all the conservatives in the news business on two hands. There's this attitude of superiority that is breathed out especially by the old CBS horses like Kalb and Dean, as if they were monks in some kind of priesthood who are better, wiser and more ethical than the rest of us.

This complaint about how the "bottom line" is driving the slide of the three B networks strikes me as code for saying the people want more conservative viewpoints, which is anathema to them, that serving the market is somehow beneath their dignity. They snort at the mention of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News whom they view as unprofessional, yet talk radio is built around news reporting. It just offers alternative interpretations to those that form the subtext of traditional broadcast news.

Rather pathetic

Dan Rather's apology is pretty pitiful. "I was misled" is what a john tells the judge when he gets arrested for soliciting prostitution. It's pathetic.

Yeah, that's the ticket!

John Lovitz's Tommy Flannagan has been the archetypal bad liar, but Terry McAuliffe must be overtaking him.

Time still gets it wrong.

Even if it does give well-deserved attention to the Power Line Bloggers.

Coordination

I wasn't in favor of holding congressional hearings on Rathergate, but coordination between CBS and the Kerry Campaign to attack the President's service in the National Guard makes me wonder if the money value of the media's liberal slant shouldn't be taken into account in campaign finance regulation. It would be a bad and unconstitutional idea to pass any laws, because the Equal Time Rule was a disaster, but I'd like to see the discussion that such hearings would generate.

Temples

I'm watching a program on The History Channel International called The Lost Temple of Java at Borabudur in Indonesia. I find it fascinating how these really old temples were focused on process, the journey of life, often requiring temple goers to move from stage to stage as some important knowledge is delivered.

Here's a quote from John Micksic, a professor of archaeology at the National University of Singapore, studying the temple:

We are in the first of Borabudur's main galleries, of narrative reliefs, on my left two series one above the other, each of which goes all the way around this square monument, on my right two more series stacked up each of which also goes completely around this edifice. And above it three more vertically arranged terraces each going all the way around this hill. To see them all in sequence, like an ancient pilgrim, you'd have to walk five kilometers. The reward for this journey by an ancient pilgrim would have been the promise of untold supernatural power.

The whole thing is a pyramid which turns into concentric circles of stupas after a series of four walled terraces. There are 1,460 relief stone panels in the temple, which were considered stepping stones, so to speak, for the progress of pilgrims and priests to the temple. They had to understand each of them before they were allowed to enter upper area consisting open terraces containing 72 bell-shaped perforated stupas which covered statues of the Buddha. The successive terraces and the panels along them apparently represented sequential stages of enlightenment, each accessible by smaller and smaller groups of monks which center on a single large stupa. Each stupa was built with holes in a checkerboard pattern which allowed those who were close to it to see the Buddha inside. What was the "untold supernatural power"? Perhaps godhood or oneness with God? Nirvana?

The sophistication of the carvings and artistry impressed the first Europeans who saw them in the midst of jungle where they lay hidden, as they realized that these people would have had such skills and culture while their own ancestors were still wearing skins and battling the Romans. They couldn't believe that the Indonesians could have built them. However, they are quite distinct from any found in India or China. The temple was abandoned, apparently due to volcanic activity which destroyed the civilization which built it, before it was rediscovered by Raffles, the man who helped build Singapore.

The Egyptians used temples in which the Pharaoh was led through an annual ritual, proceeding from stage to stage, at the end of which he emerged as a god. The wall paintings depict the pharaoh giving hand grips or providing answers to priests along the course of the temple. The pharoah was given a papyrus which gave him the words to say at each step.

Some of this sounds reminiscent of what I've heard about Freemasonry, which is said to trace its roots to ancient temples. The progress from degree to degree seems to be a common pattern.

Will the media learn?

Instapundit is still the best roundup of the news:

I want to know where the documents came from, and I want to know why Rather isn't more interested in getting to the bottom of all that -- and in telling us what happened. If he's not willing to do that, he should resign. Or be fired.

Shouldn't CBS just register as a 527 and have done with it?

And he's being kind compared to what others are blogging. I don't think that CBS could qualify for 527 status. There's too much evidence of coordination with the Kerry Campaign.

On another note, I think we should all be thankful that CBS has delivered the most powerful proof of media bias any of us could have asked for, not that it will convince any of the Hate-Bush left. I suspect that this is only the beginning of contention and a deep devision among the American people. We would do well to view this as a warning about the corruption that comes with power. Instead of being dismissive and resentful of the voice of the people that bloggers represent, CBS should have welcomed them as a check on its own echo chamber. Of course, the success of Rush Limbaugh, et al., and Fox News Channel should have tipped them off, but pride goeth . . ., well, you know. Democracy, freedom of speech and markets really are the secret. Too bad CBS didn't understand that.

Bush, for all of the accusations against him, has continued to act like a gentleman, without conceding any ground. That's probably what really drives the left nuts. I am constantly reminded by his actions that he is a Christian and a humble man. Consider the viciousness with which he has been attacked for the past four years, without reviling in return. Nixon let his enemies get to him and it destroyed him. Reagan, and now Bush, have shown that rising above such attacks accomplishes more and wins in the end.

Will the media learn?

Instapundit is still the best roundup of the news:

I want to know where the documents came from, and I want to know why Rather isn't more interested in getting to the bottom of all that -- and in telling us what happened. If he's not willing to do that, he should resign. Or be fired.

Shouldn't CBS just register as a 527 and have done with it?

And he's being kind compared to what others are blogging. I don't think that CBS could qualify for 527 status. There's too much evidence of coordination with the Kerry Campaign.

On another note, I think we should all be thankful that CBS has delivered the most powerful proof of media bias any of use could have asked for, not that it will convince any of the Hate Bush left. I suspect that this is only the beginning of contention and a deep devision among the American people. We would do well to view this as a warning about the corruption that comes with power. Instead of being dismissive and resentful of the voice of the people that bloggers represent, CBS should have welcomed them as a check on its own echo chamber. Of course, the success of Rush Limbaugh, et al., and Fox News Channel should have tipped them off, but pride goeth . . ., well, you know.

Bush, for all of the accusations against him, has continued to act like a gentleman, without conceding any ground. That's probably what really drives the left nuts. I am constantly reminded by his actions that he is a Christian and a humble man. Consider the viciousness with which he has been attacked for the past four years, without reviling in return. Nixon let his enemies get to him and it destroyed him. Reagan, and now Bush, have shown that rising above such attacks accomplishes more and wins in the end.

Why I use email to write to the editor

The Deseret News published this letter today. Boy, that 60 minute news cycle can really make you look absurd.

Michael Moore, the left's answer to Rush Limbaugh

Unfortunately, he doesn't have the chops. I'm no Dittohead, but Moore is definitely an amateur and schlub, compared to Limbaugh.

The Wilderness Act is 40 years old

And the environmentalists are celebrating, appropriately, in Washington, D. C. Those of us who see the future of our communities being dried up by the effects of "environmental" laws, are not celebrating.

Terry Tempest Williams is the poster girl for the pseudo-religious nature of the greens. She loves to wax poetic over wilderness, probably because she's never been stuck out in it without water or a horse. She says things like, "Without wilderness we will lose our humanity." Of course, she's a child of privilege who never had to worry about the price of beef. Anybody who believes that America's or Utah's economic base is making rock climbing gear, has no understanding of what really drives an economy. Ask the people in Utah County how their economy has been since Geneva Steel closed.

I realized 20 some years ago that these red rock vistas are still wilderness because that is their essence. They are harsh dry desert that no one was able to homestead. Everytime I see an old John Ford movie with settlers whose farms are set in Monument Valley, I have to laugh. They wouldn't last 10 days down there. There's no water.
There isn't anything else but scenery to speak of. Where I live the economy is based on coal mining, and that wouldn't be much good if it weren't for the fact that we have a number of power generating plants which add value to the coal by converting it to electricity before it leaves the area.

John Kerry is constantly moaning about the loss of jobs in this country. Why doesn't he support the repeal of idiotic laws that prevent our use of our own natural resources? The Escalante-Grand Staircase Monument created by Bill Clinton in Southern Utah sits on billions of tons of low sulfur coal which are now off limits to mining. These aren't strip mining opportunities. They can be developed without harming the scenery, but that isn't what the environmentalist care about. They don't want any more growth in this country. How can a candidate who supports laws that prevent economic growth keep attacking Bush for now creating enough jobs?

Cut and Run?

Robert Novak claims:

nside the Bush administration policymaking apparatus, there is strong feeling that U.S. troops must leave Iraq next year. This determination is not predicated on success in implanting Iraqi democracy and internal stability. Rather, the officials are saying: Ready or not, here we go.

That had better be baloney.

How not to do journalism

Howard Kurtz, Michael Dobbs and James V. Grimaldi detail gotcha reporting run amuck.

CBS regrets

I'll bet it does!

The Jig is Up

Dan Rather just reported that Bill Burkett provided CBS with the phoney documents and that he did so at the request of CBS. In other words, they were not engaged in a search for truth but a prosecution. They had already decided that Bush's NG service was dishonorable, and that it was a big story and they pressed Burkett for evidence. No thought about Burkett's obvious bias against Bush, no concern about the other side of the story. The story was written, they just needed some exhibits.

This really resembles is entrapment. The cops pressure some schmo into committing a crime and then charge him. If the pressure was such that it would cause an average innocent person to do something illegal, it gets bounced. Of course, if Burkett is charged with falsifying documents, entrapment by CBS is no defense.

Update: Ken Mehlman on Hugh Hewitt hadn't heard that CBS had admitted getting the documents from Burkett and having sought him out, but he is interested in the timing of the story and whether the Kerry Campaign is involved. Kerry wouldn't have wondered. He'd just go ahead and accuse Bush of being behind the story, another reason why Kerry is losing.

modified limited hangout

Now that's a term I haven't heard for a long time. Funny how Kerry and Rather keep dragging us back to Vietnam and Watergate.

Ichabod Kerry?

Another in a long line of bad photos.

Darth Ranter and Con Kerry

Mark Steyn:

Instead, Dan keeps demanding Bush respond to the ''serious questions'' raised by his fake memos. "With respect, Mr. President," he droned the other day, "answer the questions." The president would love to, but he's doubled up with laughter.

This is an attempt to repeat the famous press conference when Richard Nixon asked him if he were running for something and Dan replied, "No, Mr. President. Are you?" In fact he was running for something, Walter Cronkite's spot, and he got that job when Cronkite retired.

Sorry, Dan. George Bush is not Richard Nixon and the country is not behind you on this one. This dramatic tough guy language might have worked back in the '70s because Nixon was definitely guilty, but people are more media savvy today, and your posing is looks pretty silly coming from a guy who makes more than the president. You've become a joke. You were a lot more believable when you shed tears on David Letterman after 9/11. Now you just look like a pathetic partisan who doesn't deserve his job.

Rather and John Kerry share a tin ear for what impresses people today. Kerry's attempts to look like a man of the people fall flat, not just because he gets details wrong, but because he just isn't one. Four months on a swift boat doesn't make you one of the boys. And throwing around a few sports terms doesn't make you a fan. Nobody would hold it agains him if he didn't know sports, but when they spot you as a phoney, the game is up.

Druthergate goes on

I keep thinking about the reckless pursuit of George Bush that has led Darth Ranter to this impasse. I can only assume that Dan shares the rage over the Florida electoral votes and has bought into the "We wuz robbed!" meme, which anyone but a radical partisan would see as a justification for using phoney documents, and then continuing to push the story even after the fraud is found out. It comes from a "they did it to us, so this is payback" logic. Not only is there no basis for revenge, it is also totally incompatible with the role of honest broker CBS has assumed. Rather may think he's serving a patriotic purpose, but he has all but delivered George Bush a second term.