Jennings Showcases Biden’s Tantrum Doubting Wolfowitz’s Honesty --7/30/2003-- Media Research Center

1. Jennings Showcases Biden’s Tantrum Doubting Wolfowitz’s Honesty Peter Jennings decided to highlight on Tuesday night Democratic Senator, and potential presidential candidate, Joe Biden getting on his high-horse at a hearing in which he had a little tantrum about the Bush administration not coming up with a new cost number for operations in Iraq. Biden impugned the integrity of the Bush administration officials, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and OMB Director Josh Bolten: “When are you guys starting to be honest with us?”

2. Public “Soured” on “Right-Wing” and “Too Hawkish” Bob Hope Some prominent media obituaries and tributes to Bob Hope characterized him as more than just conservative, as “deeply conservative” or a “right-winger,” and/or treated his personal political views as damaging his career. In the Washington Post, Tom Shales maintained: “Some of the public affection for Hope soured during the Vietnam era, when he came across as partisan and hawkish.” Arthur Spiegelman of Reuters delivered this particularly opinionated charge: “His support of the Vietnam war played a major part in eroding his national reputation with many Americans questioning whether he was funny any more.” NBC’s Katie Couric followed that theme, asking a guest to confirm that when he entertained the troops during Vietnam, “some comics were upset because they perceived him to be too hawkish about the war.”

3. Brian Williams Contends NBC’s “Traps and Filters” Kill All Bias At NBC News, Brian Williams seriously argued, “traps and filters” eliminate all the liberal bias. Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart on Tuesday asked Williams about the presence of liberal media bias. Williams asserted that he’s “a registered independent” and doesn’t even tell his family for whom he votes in order to “give them all plausible deniability.” Williams also insisted that he can report the news “down the middle like an umpire" because everything he says on the air first “goes through...checks and balances” as “we have an inordinate number of editors. Every word I write, before it goes on air, goes through all kinds of traps and filters and it's read by all kinds of different people who point out bias."

4. Senior Calls ABC “Misleading” for Not Noting Her Activist Role Even the woman whom ABC News portrayed last Friday as just a typically overburdened senior, in a story about high prescription drug costs driving her to buy drugs from Canada, thinks the network was “misleading” when it failed to identify her role as an official with an advocacy group, Marc Morano of the MRC’s CNSNews.com learned when he tracked her down. And CBS News, which last Friday, for at least the fourth time showcased another senior, Viola Quirion, as if she were just an average senior when she too is an activist for a liberal group, told Morano that if someone is “deeply involved in a political organization” then “we should identify them as such." But CBS News refused to acknowledge they did anything wrong in this case.

5. NY Times Food Column Uses Monkfish to Castigate Cap Gains Tax Cut Not even the food articles in the New York Times are a safe haven from liberal potshots. In a New York Times Magazine story this past Sunday, Jonathan Reynolds recounted his trip to Norway to learn how to prepare scallops and other fish. But in the midst of his piece, he took a shot at President Bush’s capital gains tax cut. Referring to monkfish, Reynolds opined: “Apparently it sits on the bottom of the ocean, opens its Godzilla jaws and waits for poor unsuspecting fishies to swim right into it, not unlike the latest recipients of W's capital-gains cuts.”

Corrections: The July 29 CyberAlert credited the wrong MRC intern for transcribing a Today show interview. Nicole Casey deserves the credit. The same item referred to a retired General who appeared on Today as both Wayne “Downing” and “Dowling.” His last name is Downing.

Jennings Showcases Biden’s Tantrum Doubting
Wolfowitz’s Honesty

Peter Jennings decided to highlight on Tuesday night Democratic Senator, and potential presidential candidate, Joe Biden getting on his high-horse at a hearing in which he had a little tantrum about the Bush administration not coming up with a new cost number for operations in Iraq. Biden impugned the integrity of the Bush administration officials, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and OMD Director Josh Bolten: “When are you guys starting to be honest with us?”

Though Jennings insisted that Wolfowitz “was under fire from both Republicans and Democrats,” he only showed Biden. Indeed, Dick Lugar, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee questioned Wolfowitz and OMB Director Josh Bolton about estimating Iraqi costs, but he wasn’t as rude as Biden, as so didn’t provide video exciting enough for ABC.

     Jennings set up the video clip on the July 29 World News Tonight, as taken down by MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth:
     “Iraq being debated on Capitol Hill today. The Deputy Defense Secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, was under fire from both Republicans and Democrats for what they perceive as the administration’s failure to provide an estimate on the cost of keeping U.S. troops in Iraq. Some Senators were, at least publicly, angry.”
     Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE): “Give me a break, will you? When are you guys starting to be honest with us? Come on, I mean this is ridiculous. You’re not even-”
     Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Defense Secretary: “Senator, to suggest that this is an issue of honesty really is very disingenuous-”
     Biden: “It is a suggestion of candor, of candor, of candor. You know there’s going to be at least 100,000 American forces there for the next calendar year. And you’re not asking us for any money?”
     Wolfowitz: “Senator, I don’t know, I don’t know what we’re going to have there-“
     Biden: “Let me finish, please! Let me finish!”
     Wolfowitz: “Okay.”
     Biden: “And you are not asking us for any money?”
     Wolfowitz: “Senator, there will be a supplemental request. There is no question about that. And there will be a supplemental request when we think we can make a reasonably good estimate of what will get us through the whole year.”
     Jennings: “The administration’s public position is they cannot give a projection because the situation is changing so much.”

Public “Soured” on “Right-Wing” and “Too
Hawkish” Bob Hope

Some prominent media obituaries and tributes to Bob Hope, who passed away on Sunday at age 100, characterized Hope as more than just conservative, as “deeply conservative” or a “right-winger,” and/or treated his personal conservative political views as unfavorable or even damaging to his career.

The New York Times obituary by the late Vincent Canby referred to how “only during the Vietnam War did he let his guard down a bit and permit his audiences to see his deep conservatism.”

In the Washington Post, Tom Shales maintained: “Some of the public affection for Hope soured during the Vietnam era, when he came across as partisan and hawkish.” But Shales trumpeted how “though he'd been a supporter of Richard Nixon and had a reputation as a right-winger, Hope was so shocked by the assassination attempt on his friend Ronald Reagan in 1981 that he came out, at least briefly, in favor of gun control, a gesture that brought an inevitable condemnation from the National Rifle Association.”

Arthur Spiegelman of Reuters delivered this particularly opinionated charge: “His support of the Vietnam war played a major part in eroding his national reputation with many Americans questioning whether he was funny any more.”

NBC’s Katie Couric followed that theme, asking a guest to confirm that when he entertained the troops during Vietnam, “some comics were upset because they perceived him to be too hawkish about the war, isn't that right?"

MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens caught Couric’s loaded question during a July 29 Today segment with Ward Grant, Bob Hope’s publicist, actor/TV producer Carl Reiner, and Ed McMahon.

Couric proposed to the liberal Reiner: "I know you, you mention how he wasn't only a verbal comedian but a physical one as well, but Carl when he did entertain troops during Vietnam some comics were upset because they perceived him to be too hawkish about the war, isn't that right?"
Reiner agreed: "Yes, well he always said he hated war and we believed that. He entertained the troops because he wanted to help them and we, we had another view. We wanted to help the troops by getting them back to America and have him entertain them here. So we didn't see eye-to-eye about the Vietnam War but we understood what he was doing, we were all supporting our troops but we wanted to support them by getting them back here and stopping the war."

For a bio and picture of Reiner, the creator of the Dick Van Dyke Show, check his Internet Movie Database page: us.imdb.com

Now, more complete rundowns on the print stories quoted above:

-- The July 29 New York Times carried a front page obit, “Bob Hope, Master of One-Liners and Friend to G.I.'s, Dies at 100,” by Vincent Canby, who asserted:
“Although Mr. Hope was among the first to make fun of Senator Joseph McCarthy and his crusades against Communists, he was careful that his political jabs did not cause genuine pain to either Democrats or Republicans. Only during the Vietnam War did he let his guard down a bit and permit his audiences to see his deep conservatism.”

That’s online at: www.nytimes.com

The New York Post had some fun with the fact that Hope outlived Canby, who died in 2000: www.nypost.com

-- In a July 29 “Style” section tribute, the Washington Post’s Tom Shales insisted “public affection for Hope soured during the Vietnam era, when he came across as partisan and hawkish,” but then Shales found something to admire: Hope coming out in favor of a liberal position -- tighter gun control.

     The MRC’s Rich Noyes caught this display of Shales measuring Hope against Shales’ own political liberalism:
     “Hope's most celebrated TV specials, of course, were those in which he ventured to foreign lands to entertain Americans serving in the armed forces. He logged millions of flying miles with his traveling vaudeville revues, always including glamorous sex symbols among the ensemble -- from Rita Hayworth to Brooke Shields as the years, and the wars, wore on.
     “Some of the public affection for Hope soured during the Vietnam era, when he came across as partisan and hawkish, but politically he was full of surprises. Though he'd been a supporter of Richard Nixon and had a reputation as a right-winger, Hope was so shocked by the assassination attempt on his friend Ronald Reagan in 1981 that he came out, at least briefly, in favor of gun control, a gesture that brought an inevitable condemnation from the National Rifle Association.
     “Hope said he would speak personally to Reagan about the president's own views on the matter. 'Yeah, because they tell me he's against gun control, and I want to talk to him about that. I want to get his reasoning on it, because I'm for gun registration. I don't think any jerk that's coked up or anything should be allowed to walk into a store and buy a gun and turn around and shoot 19 people, you know?’"

For the Shales piece in full: www.washingtonpost.com

-- Arthur Spiegelman of Reuters served up a look at Hope from the left in a Monday morning dispatch highlighted by OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” column.

In the July 28 story datelined Los Angeles, “Bob Hope: Comedian Who Made One-Liner an Art Form,” Spiegelman charged:
“During the Vietnam war he was criticized for being a 'hawk’ who supported the conflict. But Hope said he was really a middle-of-the-road supporter who wanted the war ended and even tried twice to visit Hanoi and arrange prisoner releases. His support of the Vietnam war played a major part in eroding his national reputation with many Americans questioning whether he was funny any more.”

The Reuters “news” story, as posted by Yahoo: story.news.yahoo.com

Brian Williams Contends NBC’s “Traps
and Filters” Kill All Bias

At NBC News, Brian Williams seriously argued, “traps and filters” eliminate all the liberal bias. Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart on Tuesday asked Williams about the presence of liberal media bias. Williams asserted that he’s “a registered independent” and doesn’t even tell his family for whom he votes in order to “give them all plausible deniability.” Williams also insisted that he can report the news “down the middle like an umpire" because everything he says on the air first “goes through...checks and balances” as “we have an inordinate number of editors. Every word I write, before it goes on air, goes through all kinds of traps and filters and it's read by all kinds of different people who point out bias."

So they find bias, but apparently those traps and filters must be clogged with liberal editors who don’t recognize any of the liberal bias and let it pass through.

MRC analyst Brian Boyd took down the exchange, on the July 29 Daily Show with John Stewart on the Comedy Central cable channel, between Stewart and Williams, anchor of CNBC’s The News with Brian Williams and heir apparent to Tom Brokaw as anchor of the NBC Nightly News:

     Stewart: "Do you have any sense, you know there's the criticism that the news media is liberal or the mainstream news media. Is there a sense of that on a day to day basis in the more mainstream places?"
     Williams: "I didn't come on here to get whacked."
     Stewart: "I'm not whacking, I'm just asking. Is there, like for instance are you a Democrat, registered Democrat, who votes Democratic?"
     Williams: "I am a registered independent and I, it drives my family nuts, I don't even tell them for whom I vote for President to give them all plausible deniability. Because my kids get asked at school 'who does you father like,' my wife gets asked-"
     Stewart: "Really?"
     Williams: "-I don't tell them. The editor of the Washington Post doesn't believe his reporters should vote, doesn't believe they should discuss it. This is very deeply held among a lot of us."
     Stewart: "Really?"
     Williams: "My politics are my politics."
     Stewart quipped: "I am, and I think this is well known, I'm a Whig."
     Williams: "Yeah."
     Stewart: "The old Whig party."
     Williams: "I am, I am wearing one."
     Stewart: "Are you wearing one, bringing it back. Don't you think though that is in some respects purely protocol, purely facade, because the truth is how ever deeply held your political believes are whether or not you vote or for which party, you can't change the system of beliefs that you have. That's the part that seems surprising."
     Williams: "No, it's true, but you can call them down the middle like an umpire."
     Stewart: "OK."
     Williams: "Now, when you see these correspondents on various Sunday shows who have an opinion Sunday morning and then go back to covering the news Monday, that can be a little dicey. I'm not going to judge anybody else in the business, but our work, I can speak for NBC News and our newsroom, it goes through, talk about checks and balances. We have an inordinate number of editors. Every word I write, before it goes on air, goes through all kinds of traps and filters and it's read by all kinds of different people who point out bias."
     Stewart: "People check what you guys do?"
     Williams: "It is hard to believe, yup."
     Stewart: "We've got to get one of them."
     Williams: "Yeah, we have a whole slew of people."

Stewart later took a shot at MSNBC’s low viewership, asking Williams: “I heard that MSNBC now has more letters in its name than viewers. Is that true?”

The Daily Show’s Web page: www.comedycentral.com

Tonight’s guest: Dick Morris.

Senior Calls ABC “Misleading” for Not
Noting Her Activist Role

Even the woman whom ABC News portrayed last Friday as just a typically overburdened senior, in a story about high prescription drug costs driving her to buy drugs from Canada, thinks the network was “misleading” when it failed to identify her role as an official with an advocacy group, Marc Morano of the MRC’s CNSNews.com learned when he tracked her down. And CBS News, which last Friday, for at least the fourth time showcased another senior, Viola Quirion, as if she were just an average senior when she too is an activist for a liberal group, told Morano that if someone is “deeply involved in a political organization” then “we should identify them as such." But CBS News refused to acknowledge they did anything wrong in this case.

Before getting to the new CNSNews.com story, some background. An excerpt from the July 28 CyberAlert:

In the wake of the House passing a bill on Friday to allow the re-importation of prescription drugs from other nations, CBS and ABC once again showcased liberal, big government spending senior activists, but cast them as just average seniors struggling to afford their prescriptions.

On the July 25 CBS Evening News, over video of a border agent taking small boxes out of a bag and then of video looking out of a bus window, Joie Chen began a story: “It’s scenes like these that pushed lawmakers to act, seniors crossing the borders into Canada and Mexico in search of cheaper drugs.”

Viola Quirion, identified on screen only s “Maine senior citizen”: “We go to Canada to get our drugs because it’s a big, big, big saving. I save, every time I go I save over a thousand dollars.” Chen: “The savings can be significant...”

Over on ABC’s World News Tonight, Lisa Stark announced, over video of Barbara Kaufman loading her dishwasher: “Barbara Kaufman has high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis. She takes ten bills a day. Kaufman orders them online from Canada to save money.” Barbara Kaufman, no other screen ID other than name: “At this point I spend about $300 a month on prescriptions. I was spending closer to $600 a month on prescriptions.”

But who are Quirion and Kaufman? As recounted in the July 15 CyberAlert, a story on CNSNews.com detailed how she’s an activist from Maine who has testified on Capitol Hill on behalf of a left-wing group.

And via Google, I found a page with a photo that matches Kaufman and identified her as a “spokesperson” for the Medicare Justice Coalition, “a grassroots, senior consumer coalition, founded by the Minnesota Senior Federation.” See: www.mnseniors.net

It turns out, Kaufman is President of the Metropolitan Region for the Minnesota Senior Coalition. See: www.mnseniors.net

END of Excerpt of previous CyberAlert

For the CyberAlert article in full, with pictures of Kaufman and Quirion: www.mediaresearch.org

Now an excerpt from Morano’s July 30 CNSNews.com story, “Elderly Activist Faults News Network for 'Misleading' Audience”

The latest complaint regarding the habit of television news networks describing liberal political lobbyists as typical retirees complaining about the cost of prescription drugs comes from one of the lobbyists herself.

Barbara Kaufman, president of the senior citizen lobbying group, the Minnesota Senior Federation, was featured on ABC World News Tonight Friday, complaining about the high cost of prescription drugs. But there was no mention about her affiliation with organizations currently advocating a federal prescription drug entitlement, according to a Media Research Center transcript of the program.

Kaufman calls ABC's decision "misleading."

"I would have preferred it if [ABC News] had...identified me as the president of the Minnesota Senior Federation because I think that lends more credibility," Kaufman told CNSNews.com....

Kaufman was asked what she thought about the networks leaving out information about the lobbying activities of senior citizens like herself.

"That's kind of misleading, I think," Kaufman responded.

She was also adamant that the ABC News staff had been aware of her title and affiliation with the Minnesota senior group when they interviewed her.

"Oh, they knew. Yes, I know they knew," she said.

ABC News publicist Cathie Levine told CNSNews.com that she would look into the matter but did not comment before the publication of this story.

Another elderly political activist who had already been portrayed several times by CBS News as a typical victim of the high cost of prescription drugs was once again featured on the CBS Evening News Friday, July 25, without any mention of her extensive political and lobbying background.

Viola Quirion, an activist with the Alliance for Retired Persons, was identified as a "Maine senior citizen" during Friday's broadcast. It was at least the fourth time Quirion has appeared on CBS News since 1999 without reference to her background.

Quirion has testified on Capitol Hill in favor of the Medicare reforms that would provide elderly Americans like herself with a federally subsidized prescription drug plan. The Alliance for Retired Americans has as its stated goal to "ensure social and economic justice" by "enroll[ing] and mobiliz[ing] retired union members and other senior and community activists into a nationwide grassroots movement advocating a progressive political and social agenda."

Quirion, who is a member of the Maine Council of Senior Citizens, also participated in the state of Maine's successful legal defense of its drug price control plan.

When asked by CNSNews.com earlier this month whether CBS News should have identified her as a political activist for reasons of fairness and accuracy, Quirion responded: "Well, probably."...

CBS News Monday issued a statement in response to questions about Quirion's unlabeled appearances on the network's newscasts.

"If we know that someone is deeply involved in a political organization, then we should identify them as such," CBS News spokeswoman Andie Silvers told CNSNews.com. Silvers refused to respond to any specific questions regarding Quirion.

Tim Graham, director of media analysis for the Media Research Center (MRC), the parent organization of CNSNews.com, said the CBS News statement should not be taken "seriously."

"It's hard to misinterpret that. [CBS News] seems to be saying we should have identified Quirion, and we didn't," Graham said. "I don't take the statement seriously since this is at least the fourth time they have [featured Quirion without revealing her background]," he added....

In June, the MRC exposed the practice of network news programs recycling senior citizen activists for health care policy debates. The MRC revealed that both the CBS Evening News and ABC World News Tonight featured senior citizen Eva Baer-Schenkein in two separate broadcasts, two years apart, complaining about different ailments and why the Republican prescription drug plan was inadequate.

Another senior citizen activist who has been prominently featured on network newscasts is Pat Roussos, an AARP "Connecticut Community Coordinator" who "oversees the state's 72 chapters," according to an AARP Newsletter.

NBC correspondent Norah O'Donnell featured Roussos in a June 23, 2003, segment of NBC Nightly News. O'Donnell made reference to "...77-year-old Pat Roussos of Connecticut, who suffers from arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure." O'Donnell went on to mention that Roussos' "out-of-pocket drug costs now are as much as $6,500 a year."

The MRC was quick to criticize NBC News for being "sneaky" in not identifying Roussos and her activist affiliation. The MRC called Roussos "part of a political lobbying campaign by a liberal group, the AARP, which consistently pushes for ever bigger government and more spending."

NBC News spokeswoman Barbara Levin acknowledged that CNSNews.com's July 14 article on the subject raised "a good point."...

END of Excerpt

For the CNSNews.com article in full: www.cnsnews.com

For previous CyberAlert items on the networks portraying liberal activists as typical seniors, items referenced in Morano’s story above:

-- What a coincidence. Two years apart CBS News and ABC News featured the same elderly woman, in news stories about the need for a new prescription drug coverage program in Medicare and the shortcomings of Republican-pushed alternatives, as the poster victim of high prescription prices. See: www.mediaresearch.org

-- More evidence that the supposedly typical victims of high prescription costs featured by the networks are hardly average seniors. They are really political activists who are part of a political lobbying campaign by a liberal group, the AARP, which consistently pushes for ever bigger government and more spending. NBC's Norah O'Donnell highlighted this victim: "77-year-old Pat Roussos of Connecticut, who suffers from arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure. Her out-of-pocket drug costs now, as much as $6,500 a year." But, Roussos is really a top dog in an AARP state chapter. See: www.mediaresearch.org

NY Times Food Column Uses Monkfish to
Castigate Cap Gains Tax Cut

Not even the food articles in the New York Times are a safe haven from liberal potshots. In a New York Times Magazine story this past Sunday, Jonathan Reynolds ostensibly recounted his trip to Norway to learn how to prepare scallops and other fish. But in the midst of his piece, he took a shot at President Bush’s capital gains tax cut.

Reynolds described the monkfish as “the poor man's lobster” and asserted: “If you see a whole monkfish at the market, you'll find its massive mouth scarier than a shark's. Apparently it sits on the bottom of the ocean, opens its Godzilla jaws and waits for poor unsuspecting fishies to swim right into it, not unlike the latest recipients of W's capital-gains cuts.”

“This is a food column, for crying out loud,” exclaimed James Taranto in his “Best of the Web” column on Monday for OpinionJournal.com (www.opinionjournal.com ). Taranto tried to dissect the analogy: “Aside from the inappropriateness of the political commentary, this is really bad writing. We had to puzzle over it for several minutes before we realized that in Reynolds's metaphor, both the tax cut and those who benefit from it are fish.”

Here’s the paragraph in full with the monkfish leading to a remark about the capital gains tax cut:
“In the kitchen, Nina sauteed fresh, fat scallops in a little butter, removed them and made a simple but exquisite saffron sauce by adding a little stock, cream and a few pink peppercorns for color. Eystein dipped monkfish chunks into an elemental flour batter for quick sauteeing. I've never subscribed to the marketers' description of monkfish as the 'poor man's lobster’ -- it's like the Chicken Liver Council claiming its product is Gonzo's rib-eye for those who can't afford it. I usually find it combative in texture and only mildly toothsome. If you see a whole monkfish at the market, you'll find its massive mouth scarier than a shark's. Apparently it sits on the bottom of the ocean, opens its Godzilla jaws and waits for poor unsuspecting fishies to swim right into it, not unlike the latest recipients of W's capital-gains cuts. So it has in common with lobster only reprehensibility of character.”

For the July 27 New York Times Magazine piece: www.nytimes.com

There’s no where to hide from the bias in the New York Times.

-- Brent Baker

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