Monday, May 19, 2008

Bush Upset Over Media Bias (Fox News Agrees)

Awwwwww. The poor old Bush administration just hasn't been able to catch a break these past 8 years. From winning the war in Iraq, to saving the environment, to fixing the US economy, every major Bush accomplishment has been under-reported or distorted by the liberal media. Today, President Dorkwad W. Dicksmack has taken the fight right to the doorstep of the enemy - NBC News.

The White House issued a terse statement condemning NBC for demonstrating bias after it edited out a portion of Dubbya's evasive non-answer to Richard Engel's question about whether or not Bush's recent "appeasement" comment was directed at Barack Obama. In answer to Engel's question, Bush replied:
"You know, my policies haven't changed, but evidently the political calendar has. People need to read the speech. You didn't get it exactly right, either. What I said is that we need to take the words of people seriously."

Only the first sentence was used in the network broadcast, although the entire interview was available on the website. Frankly, NBC could have edited out Bush's entire response, and it wouldn't have made a difference. The President never answered Engel's question, and no amount of culling of his rhetorical talking points could alter that fact.

Of course, for George W Bush to accuse anyone of misrepresentation is laughable. His administration has been unconscionably deceitful, and has been enthusiastically supported by Fox News, which acts as a de facto media extension of the Republican Party. Curiously, we never heard the White House complain about shoddy journalistic standards when mass media stalwarts were slavishly beating the drum for war in Iraq. Nor have we ever heard condemnation of Fox for their ongoing assault on honest reporting.

The White House has issues with Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews setting an agenda at NBC, but gives Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity a free pass at Faux News. In typical right wing fashion, what's good for the goose isn't necessarily good for the gander. Congratulations to NBC on their response to the White House (although personally, I would have used more four-letter words in telling Bush to go fuck himself).
"Just as the White House does not participate in the editorial process at the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal or USA Today, NBC News, as part of a free press in a free society, makes its own editorial decisions," NBC said in a statement.

2 comments:

Red Tory said...

I saw Brian Williams make a remark about this on the news last night, but wasn't sure what it was in reference to. Pretty funny considering the highly creative editing that goes on over at Faux News as a matter of routine.

Red Canuck said...

RT - The wierdest aspect of the White House's indignation is that the portion which was edited out didn't alter Bush's message in any significant way. It's not as though he made some astounding revelation or some compelling argument. Hell, he didn't even answer the original question. So I'm not sure why the administration has its' panties in such a knot over it.