Iraq
Rather
Smirks at Bush’s UN Resolution
CBS anchor Dan Rather had a cynical view of the UN Security
Council’s backing of the U.S.-British resolution that set guidelines
for the Iraqi elections.
(CyberAlert, June
9, 2004)
CBS
Newsman Wallace Denounces Iraq War
CBS News veteran Mike Wallace, at a Smithsonian Institution
“National World War II Reunion” shown by C-SPAN, denounced the war
in Iraq. “This is not, in my estimation, a good war,” Wallace
declared. “I don’t know how we got into a position where our present
Commander-in-Chief and the people around him,” the 60 Minutes
correspondent lamented, “had the guts to take our kids and send them
on what seems to be -- it sure is not a noble enterprise.”
(CyberAlerts, June
1, 2004)
Koppel
Lists Those Killed Beyond Iraq
On May 28, the Friday before Memorial Day, Ted Koppel added the
servicemen killed in the war on terror outside of Iraq, names he ignored
during his Friday, April 30 “The Fallen” edition of Nightline
in which he dedicated his entire program to the names and pictures of
those killed in Iraq.
(CyberAlert, June
1, 2004)
Chicago Tribune Highlights Girls Who Had “More Fun” Under Hussein
The Chicago Tribune profiled some victims of Saddam Hussein’s ouster from power: Two teenage girls and an 11-year-old who had a life of privilege. “Imprisoned by Iraq's new freedom,” read the headline. A subhead explained how the girls “say they had more fun and felt safer when Saddam Hussein was in power.” Without any indication of the lives of oppression, deprivation and horror endured by Iraqis not in Saddam Hussein’s favor, Horan managed to cite only one shortcoming of the Hussein years: “Hussein limited access to the Web.” But now the girls can ‘surf the Internet.’”
(CyberAlert, May
26, 2004)
CBS
Misconstrues Report, Claims Bush is Failing in Terror War
Adding an anti-Bush edge to a think tank’s report on al-Qaeda’s
strength, a report which avoided inserting such a blatant political
tone, Dan Rather on Tuesday night intoned: “The war in Iraq is, as
President Bush sees it, part of the overall war on terror, a war the
President insists is being won, citing, for example, the capture of many
of al-Qaeda’s leaders, though still not the man at the very top, Osama
bin Laden. But, as CBS’s Mark Phillips tell us, a new report raises
some questions about the President’s claim.” But the Bush
administration never claimed that going to war in Iraq would destroy al-Qaeda,
just that it would eliminate a source of potential WMD they could use
against us. And, as Phillips noted in his story, “the report warns
[al-Qaeda] is again planning attacks using, if it can get hold of them,
weapons of mass destruction.”
(CyberAlert, May
26, 2004)
Jennings
Spikes Confirmation of Nerve Agent
ABC’s World News Tonight had time for stories on how the
turn over of authority in Iraq is not as “simple” as President Bush
claims, how Iraqis are skeptical about Bush’s promise to tear down the
Abu Ghraib prison, with one man wanting to know if there’s a guarantee
that Bush “will not torture prisoners in the new prison?”, how U.S.
forces in Najaf had damaged “one of the most important Moslem
shrines” and how Israeli bulldozing of a Gaza neighborhood had left an
old Palestinian woman searching the rubble for her medicine. But, while
the cable networks and CBS and NBC picked up on late afternoon word that
a laboratory had confirmed sarin was in a shell in a roadside bomb
detonated by U.S. forces on May 15, ABC didn’t utter a syllable about
it.
(CyberAlert, May
26, 2004)
Jennings Implies That Army Military Admits it Bombed Wedding
Following the distribution of a wedding video which supposedly showed celebration hours before the U.S. bombed a site killing 40 Iraqis, U.S. Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt showed pictures of weapons, explosives and drugs found at the scene. Kimmitt observed that “the activities that we saw happening on the ground were somewhat inconsistent with a wedding party.” While CBS, CNN and NBC accurately conveyed what was found on scene and what Kimmitt meant by “inconsistent,” ABC’s Peter Jennings didn’t mention the weapons found and implied that Kimmitt admitted that the video undermined the Army’s claims.
(CyberAlert, May
25, 2004)
ABC
Claims Wedding Video Was “Public Relations Disaster”
ABC’s Good Morning America presumed the military was wrong
and that the U.S. had mistakenly killed 40 Iraqis. It was “a public
relations disaster” for Bush and the U.S. co-host Charles Gibson
claimed. Reporter Dave Marash admitted there were questions about the
authenticity of the wedding tape but still repeated the “public
relations disaster” phrase in his follow-on story.
(CyberAlert, May
25, 2004)
Jennings
Cites Bush’s Low Approval, Not That He’s Even with Kerry
ABC’s Peter Jennings highlighted how a new ABC News/Washington
Post poll found that most of the public thinks America is bogged
down in Iraq, that the administration lacks a clear plan for Iraq and
how, “for the first time, fewer than half of the Americans we talked
to, 47 percent, approve of Mr. Bush's overall job as President.” But
Jennings didn’t mention how John Kerry is still unable to capitalize
on Bush’s troubles as Bush is still trusted more on honesty, strong
leadership and consistency and to handle Iraq and terrorism. Plus, with
Ralph Nader in the race Bush and Kerry are tied at 46 percent each.
(CyberAlert, May
25, 2004)
CBS
Spikes Poll Findings Showing Most Think Prison Abuse Overcovered
The CBS Evening News relayed seven findings in a new CBS News
poll, including how John Kerry has an eight-point lead over President
Bush and how most think a President can change the price of gas. But
though four different stories cited numbers from the poll, CBS ignored
how ten times more of those surveyed feel the prisoner abuse story has
been over-covered as under-covered.
(CyberAlert, May
25, 2004)
CNN
and NBC Show Iraqis Maimed by Hussein
In the midst of another night of network focus on the prisoner abuse
matter, NBC and CNN found some time to show how Saddam Hussein’s
abuses were far more hideous. Both the NBC Nightly News and
CNN’s NewsNight ran stories on some Iraqi men, whose right
hands were cut off by Hussein, who were brought to Houston in order to
get fitted for prosthetic hands.
(CyberAlert, May
24, 2004)
Networks
Use Supposed Wedding Massacre to Depict Iraqi Morass
The supposed U.S. killing of 40 Iraqis at a “wedding party” in
Western Iraq led the ABC, CBS and CNN evening newscasts and each
portrayed the event as symbolic of why the U.S. is losing support in the
region. “CNN’s Aaron Brown opened his NewsNight program by
citing a dour newspaper story: “A headline in today's Washington
Post says a lot about the state of play in Iraq these days: 'U.S.
faces growing fear of failure.’”
(CyberAlert, May
20, 2004)
Attacks on Bush Making Seymour Hersh Respectable
Crusading liberal journalist Seymour Hersh fueled a scandal that hurt a President the media largely dislike, writing stories about how the responsibility for prisoner abuse in Iraq goes right up to the office of the Secretary of Defense. This effort made Hersh a media darling. This reception was far different that the one the journalists received after writing Camelot, a book that tarnished JFK’s image.
(CyberAlert, May
19, 2004)
CBS
News and New York Times Execs Deny Anti-War Agenda
Jim Murphy, Executive Producer of the CBS Evening News,
denied his program reflects any political agenda. The idea that
“there’s some agenda here,” in the focus on the prisoner abuse
story, is “ridiculous,” he told Howard Kurtz on CNN’s Reliable
Sources. New York Times Washington Bureau Chief Philip
Taubman insisted: “We don't have an agenda about the Bush
administration.”
(CyberAlert, May
19, 2004)
CBS & NBC Tie Assassination to al-Qaeda Terrorist, But Not ABC
Now entering its second week: Peter Jennings’ refusal to link Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to al-Qaeda. In the wake of the assassination of Iraqi Governing Council chief Izzadine Saleem, ABC’s
World News Tonight ran two stories which named al-Zarqawi, but neither made any mention of al-Qaeda.
(CyberAlert, May
18, 2004)
Rooney
Wants “Smart Board” of Professors to Promote Liberal Ideas
CBS’s Andy Rooney recommended the creation of a “new government
agency called The Smart Board” which “would be an advisory group
comprising a body of 100 college professors, all with PhDs” who would
advise the Congress and President on the best policies to follow. But as
60 Minutes viewers soon learned, Rooney really just wants another
way to undermine conservative views since the two examples he cited
matched exactly what liberals want.
(CyberAlert, May
18, 2004)
U.S. Reporter Wants More Iraqis to Die So that Bush Will Lose
Toby Harnden of London’s Daily Telegraph recounted in the latest edition of
The Spectator magazine: “I was accosted by an American magazine journalist of serious accomplishment and impeccable liberal credentials.” Harnden related how she told him that “not only had she 'known’ the Iraq war would fail but she considered it essential that it did so because this would ensure that the 'evil’ George W. Bush would no longer be running her country. Her editors back on the East Coast were giggling, she said, over what a disaster Iraq had turned out to be.” Asked whether thousands more dead Iraqis would be a good thing, the American reporter nodded and mumbled something about Bush needing to go.”
(CyberAlert, May
17, 2004)
Jennings Refuses to Link al-Zarqawi to al-Qaeda or bin Laden
ABC’s Peter Jennings continued to refuse to link Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist in Iraq believed to have decapitated Nick Berg, to al-Qaeda or Osama bin Laden. Other network anchors weren’t so reluctant. CBS’s Dan Rather noted how Berg’s life “intersected” with the “notorious al-Qaeda figure.” Tom Brokaw asserted on NBC that “al-Zarqawi is considered to be a close ally of Osama bin Laden.”
(CyberAlert, May
14, 2004)
Lauer
Fails to Press Ted Kennedy About His Outlandish Claims
NBC’s Today interviewed Senator Ted Kennedy on May 13 about
the Iraq war, but Matt Lauer failed to press him to defend his Tuesday
comments on the Senate floor about Abu Ghraib prison: “We now learn
that Saddam's torture chambers reopened under new management -- U.S.
management." On CNN’s American Morning, however, Soledad
O’Brien did ask Kennedy about that allegation, suggesting some thought
he was “way over the line on that.” He replied: “That’s a part
of the Republican attack machine, and I reject it.”
(CyberAlert, May
14, 2004)
ABC’s Sawyer Picks Up on England’s Claim Tactics Saved Lives
Update. On the May 13 Good Morning America, ABC’s Diane Sawyer raised how Private Lynndie England claimed that prisoner treatment tactics led to information which saved lives. The May 13
CyberAlert pointed out how, buried in a clip aired on CBS Evening News from England, one of the soldiers charged with mistreating Iraqi prisoners (she’s the one in the photo smiling and pointing at a man’s genitals), was her claim that their tactics “got the information, and some of it was reliable, some of it was future attacks on coalition forces.” But, the
CyberAlert noted, others had not picked up on her claim.
(CyberAlert, May
14, 2004)
Jennings
Spikes Beheading Culprit al-Zarqawi’s Ties to al-Qaeda
Is Peter Jennings spiking any al-Qaeda/bin Laden tie to the
beheading of Nick Berg? On May 11, ABC’s World News Tonight ran
a story about the terrorist for whom the videotape of the murder claims
responsibility, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but ABC neglected to make any
mention of his role in al-Qaeda. In focusing on al-Zarqawi, ABC was just
catching up with CBS and NBC. But earlier those two networks had
explicitly linked him to al-Qaeda and/or bin Laden. Jennings, however,
described al-Zarqawi simply as “one of the most wanted men in Iraq --
at least by the United States.”
(CyberAlert, May
13, 2004)
CBS
Skips Own Poll on Prison Photo Over-Coverage, NBC Takes Up
After one night of leading with the beheading of Nick Berg, on
Wednesday night the broadcast network evening newscasts returned to
leading with multiple stories on the prisoner abuse topic, starting with
Senators and Congressmen viewing more pictures and videos.
(CyberAlert, May
13, 2004)
CNN’s
Brown Worries Media Haven’t Been Negative Enough on Iraq
CNN’s Aaron Brown worried on May 11 that the media have been too
favorable to the Bush administration and too inclined toward good news
in covering the war in Iraq. Without posing an equivalent question from
the right about over-coverage of prisoner-abuse or how Iraq war coverage
has been too negative, he asked former CBS and NBC correspondent Marvin
Kalb: “Do you think, I mean this is a criticism that we get a lot
particularly from the Left, that we in the media generally have not been
aggressive enough in reporting on bad news and that we have been too
willing to accept the administration's message on good news?”
(CyberAlert, May
13, 2004)
NBC
Gave 10 Times More Coverage to Prison Images than Saddam’s Mass Graves
NBC News aired 58 stories on the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal
from April 29 through May 11 but only five stories in all of 2003 and
2004 on Saddam Hussein’s murder of 300,000 people and their burial in
mass graves.
(Media Reality Check,
May 12, 2004)
ABC & CNN Ignore Beheading’s Ties to al Qaeda
The May 11 ABC World News Tonight discounted any connection to al-Qaeda by those who beheaded American Nick Berg in Iraq. Anchor Peter Jennings cited “several questions about why it was done and by whom” before Brian Ross noted how “the men on the tape claim they are part of an al-Qaeda-connected cell,” but that “U.S. officials tell ABC News tonight they cannot confirm that.”
(CyberAlert, May
12, 2004)
Beheading
Reaction: ABC Labels Conservatives But Not Liberals
In a piece on domestic reaction to the beheading of American Nick
Berg in Iraq, ABC’s Linda Douglass featured a man in Manhattan who
blamed the U.S. for it since “our presence in Iraq is just, you know,
driving people into the arms of al-Qaeda.” Douglass didn’t label his
ideology, but made sure viewers realized the ideology of Sean Hannity
and a caller to his radio show: “That was not the view on talk radio
where conservatives argued that the beheading puts the abuse of
prisoners into context.”
(CyberAlert, May
12, 2004)
CBS
Stunned that Bush Support Not Hurt by Disillusionment with War
To CBS’s astonishment, President Bush’s support has not fallen
along with declining support for the war in Iraq. From Allentown,
Pennsylvania, Jim Axelrod marveled: “In the last month here in the
Lehigh Valley, support for the war has plummeted. Support for the
President has not.” Axelrod talked to a wounded Marine back from Iraq
who is tired of seeing his colleagues die day after day. Axelrod
wondered: “So why don’t you blame the Commander-in-Chief?” The
Marine shot back: “I blame the Commander-in-Chief of every Iraqi, not
the Commander-in-Chief of the Americans.”
(CyberAlert, May
12, 2004)
ABC’s
Gibson Forces First Lady to Discuss Prison Abuse
First Lady Laura Bush agreed to a live interview on the May 10 Good
Morning America so she could promote her announcement of the 2004
grant recipients from her Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries,
but ABC’s Charles Gibson focused on the prison abuse scandal and her
husband’s view of it.
(CyberAlert, May
11, 2004)
Networks Insist Rumsfeld Must Go, Shields Slams Limbaugh
On the weekend shows, star media figures Eleanor Clift, Nina Totenberg and Al Hunt all made clear that they think that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld should go. Both Hunt and Mark Shields yearned for a McCain presidency. “If John McCain were President, no one questions he would have accepted personal responsibility, and high-level heads would roll,” Hunt insisted. Shields, apparently unable to recognize humor, derisively tagged Rush Limbaugh an “armchair commando” and quoted how Limbaugh “dismissively compares the sadism to a college fraternity hazing at Yale.”
(CyberAlert, May
10, 2004)
MSNBC’s Olbermann Longs for U.S. to Leave Iraq
MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann suggested on his May 7 program that the prisoner abuse scandal “may be the proverbial tipping point, either way, for what has been up until now a largely ineffective anti-war movement.” Olbermann opened his Friday night program by touting how on Nightline the night before retired Lieutenant General William Odom called “for a phased-out U.S. withdrawal from Iraq” as did “the journalist Raghida Dergham” and “today a columnist with the trade publication,
Editor & Publisher, asked, 'When will the first major newspaper editorial call for a pullout?'”
(CyberAlert, May
10, 2004)
Fox
Airs “What We’ve Accomplished in Iraq” Segment
Host Chris Wallace provided a “What We’ve Accomplished in
Iraq” segment on Fox News Sunday. The list included listed
ending the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein, the systematic torture and
murder of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, ending the theft of billions
of dollars from the Iraqi people and ending the threat that weapons of
mass destruction will be developed and used. Wallace also listed
“quality of life” issues that the U.S. media don’t bother with
such as the renovation of 2,500 schools have been renovated and health
care progress. A third area was “human rights” with “a fully
functioning legal and judicial system” and freedom of speech. Plus,
Iraqis now have satellite dishes, are flocking to Internet cafes, are
enthralled with having private conversations on cell phones and the U.S.
has done a lot to improve electricity service and clean up sewage.
(CyberAlert, May
10, 2004)
CNN:
British Appalled That Bush Has Not Attended Military Funerals
CNN ran a story that noted the British were “appalled” that the
U.S. does not allow television coverage of returning war dead and that
President Bush has yet to attend a funeral of anyone killed in Iraq.
(CyberAlert, May 7,
2004)
Bush
Apologizes, But Will He Fire Rumsfeld
After a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah, President Bush
apologized for the “humiliation” of the Iraqi prisoners. The
networks all reported that news, but then got on to the real agenda:
Will he fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld?
(CyberAlert, May 7,
2004)
Networks Stress That Bush Didn’t Apologize
In interviews with two Arab-language TV networks, President Bush did not apologize for the treatment of some Iraqi prisoners and it drove network reporters into a tizzy. “But while the President denounced the abuse of Iraqi prisoners,” ABC’s Terry Moran noted, “he pointedly did not apologize for it.” CBS’s Bill Plante complained that President Bush deplored the abuses, but stopped short of an outright apology.”
(CyberAlert, May 6,
2004)
CNN
Compares Mistreatment of Iraqi POWs with My Lai Massacre
CNN’s Bruce Morton, over footage of murdered Vietnamese civilians,
seemed to suggest that the criminal mistreatment of Iraqi POWs by some
U.S. soldiers was similar to the My Lai massacre that took place in
Vietnam in 1968.
(CyberAlert, May 5,
2004)
Johnson Phone Call Reminds Williams of Iraq
NBC’s Brian Williams sat it for Tom Brokaw and highlighted a newly-released phone conversation about the Vietnam War between President Lyndon Johnson and his Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. The conversation “may remind some of the current situation in Vietnam,” Williams claimed.
(CyberAlert, May 3,
2004)
ABC’s Wright: Peace Process Tougher Because of Clinched Fist
ABC’s David Wright insisted that the U.S. gun ship attacks at Fallujah would make negotiations a “much tougher sell” because it’s “hard to hold out the hand of friendship when last night…showed just how quickly it can become a clinched fist.”
(CyberAlert, April 29,
2004)
Fired Contractor’s Sister Blames Patriot Act
The sister of the military contractor who was fired for taking pictures of flag-draped coffins leaving Iraq blamed the firing on “the Patriot Act that Bush has enacted.”
(CyberAlert, April
26, 2004)
CNN’s Brown Emotionally Moved by Anti-Iraq War Comic Strip Plot
Taking the left-wing Doonesbury comic strip seriously CNN anchor Aaron Brown asserted “the war has crossed another kind of line back home” since in the comic strip this week a character, serving in the military in Iraq, lost his leg. Brown deplored how “we used to be able to make it through the funny pages unmoved, but not anymore.”
(CyberAlert, April
23, 2004)
Stahl Regrets Not Trusting Saddam on WMD as She Did on
al-Qaeda
Citing two 60 Minutes stories which cast doubt on Iraq’s claim to have gotten rid of weapons of mass destruction, CBS’s Lesley Stahl described the pieces as “journalistic mistakes,” according to a story in the
Virginian-Pilot.
(CyberAlert, April
22, 2004)
Parting Shot at Bush, Leave “Liberating Iraq to Someone Else”
ABC’s David Wright concluded a story by remarking about how the family of a soldier taken hostage in Iraq “must be wishing the President had left the job of liberating Iraq to someone else."
(CyberAlert, April
20, 2004)
Newsweek and Today Ask: “Is Iraq Turning Into Another Vietnam?”
More suggestions that Iraq is another Vietnam from CBS’s Hannah Storm, NBC
Today co-host Lester Holt and Newsweek’s Evan Thomas.
(CyberAlert, April
13, 2004)
Rooney in Column: Soldiers Forced to Iraq by Bad U.S. Economy
“Our soldiers in Iraq aren't heroes,” read the Buffalo News headline over a syndicated column by CBS’s Andy Rooney carried in the paper on Monday. “We should not bestow the mantle of heroism on all of them for simply being where we sent them,” Rooney argued.”
(CyberAlert, April
13, 2004)
Peter Jennings, Voice of al-Jazeera? Relays Anti-U.S. Complaints
On a day of continued anti-U.S. fighting by extremist elements in Iraq, Jennings opened
World News Tonight by stressing how “the U.S. is being hammered editorially all over the Arab media. On one of the Arab television channels today people are heard to ask, 'is this the freedom which the U.S. promised?’”
(CyberAlert, April 8,
2004)
Rather Treats as Newsworthy Enemy’s Claim Iraq “Another Vietnam”
CBS’s Dan Rather and ABC’s Peter Jennings did their best on Wednesday night to advance Senator Ted Kennedy’s notion that Iraq is “Bush’s Vietnam,” though neither mentioned the Senator as they raised the comparison to the earlier quagmire. Rather treated the allegation of the enemy as newsworthy as he announced at the top of the
CBS Evening News: “In Najaf, the militant Shiite cleric Al-Sadr echoed the refrain Iraq could become quote, 'another Vietnam’ for America.”
(CyberAlert, April 8,
2004)
Retired General Sets Gibson Straight on His Dour View of Iraq
Channeling the narrow view of Iraq seen via television’s focus on violent scenes,
Good Morning America co-host Charles Gibson proposed to retired General Jack Keane that the military situation is going badly, that the U.S. is losing control of the country and that U.S. attacks on the followers of the extremist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr are making him more popular. In each case, Keane rejected Gibson’s dour perspective.
(CyberAlert, April 8,
2004)
Couric: Saddam was “Ultimate Referee”
As violence escalated in Iraq, NBC’s Katie Couric and CBS’s Dan Rather worried that it was “spinning” out of control. Couric also found an upside to Saddam Hussein’s tyrannical rule, contending that “no matter how deplorable Saddam Hussein was considered he was the ultimate referee who kept the Sunnis and the Shiites apart from killing each other."
(CyberAlert, April 6,
2004)
CBS Trumpets Returning Soldier Who Supports Kerry
CBS trumpeted the cause of a disillusioned soldier returning from Iraq who now supports John Kerry over George Bush for President. Byron Pitts focused on Captain Tom McGowan who declared: “If the election was today, I would vote for Senator Kerry.”
(CyberAlert, April 5,
2004)
Rather: Job Slump Driving People to Iraq
“The long job slump has left many Americans desperate enough to risk everything for a decent paycheck," CBS’s Dan Rather suggested, meaning that some end up paying “the ultimate price.” Rather asked: “What drives American civilians to risk death in Iraq? In this economy, it may be, for some, the only job they can find.” Rather’s example belied his claim, however, since the man in question came from Delaware, where unemployment was at 3.4 percent.
(CyberAlert, April 2,
2004)
Jennings Admits that TV’s Focus on Violence Overshadows Gains
ABC’s Peter Jennings conceded that the media’s “focus on the loss of American soldiers and now civilians on a sometimes almost daily basis...overshadows” how “life is improving for people in Iraq in many, many ways.”
(CyberAlert, April 2,
2004)
Lack of Media Interest in Kerry’s “Voted For and Against” Gaffe
The networks and pundits were decidedly disinterested in Sen. John Kerry’s verbal gaffe on the $87 billion spending supplement for Iraq and Afghanistan.
(CyberAlert, March
24, 2004)
CBS Skips Hard Left Agenda of Peace Protest
CBS News highlighted an anti-war protest that drew only 200 people but ignored its left-wing political agenda.
(CyberAlert, March
16, 2004)
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