Saturday, March 19, 2005
See if you can spot the editorial voice in this AP report (through CNN) on the President's weekly radio address:
Bush: Toppling Saddam inspired democracy in MIddle East
"These are landmark events in the history of freedom," he said.
With his primary rationale for the war -- Saddam's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction -- discredited, Bush has turned to the argument that the war in Iraq was justified because it freed the Iraqi people from a brutal dictator and now gives the Middle East a model for democracy.
Bush said "the Iraqi people are taking charge of their own destiny," citing the country's first free and fair elections in its modern history, this week's first meeting of the Transitional National Assembly and the upcoming drafting of a constitution for a "free and democratic Iraq."
Against that progress, insurgents have carried on a relentless campaign of suicide bombings, kidnappings and beheadings while rampant crime, power outages, unemployment over 50 percent and a fuel crisis in one of the world's prime oil-exporting countries continues.
Even as the Iraqi legislators convened, they did not set a new date to meet reconvene, elect a speaker or nominate a president and vice president.
Some have questioned Bush's repeated claims that recent democratic developments in several global hotspots are due to both the Iraq war and his second-term drive to push for reforms in friend and foe.
Still, the president has pointed to democratic gains in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, as well as the relatively peaceful elections in Iraq...
Oh yeah, that.
Update: Speaking of the Democratic response, take note of how CNN reports it in this story - utterly uncritically, simply passing on the story of the speech (as they should). What liberal media?
They don't call it the Commie News Network for nothing.
...which is why I watch Fox News.
I dunno mate, it seems to me that if the AP/CNN didn't point out both sides of the issues, then it wouldn't be an objective news story -- it would be groveling propaganda. And that's exactly what lovers of Fox News adore -- a non-objective opinion pandering to the conservative cause.
The story you've posted above does not condemn the president, and it does let him have his say. It simply balances his statements with (a) some recent historical facts that put the president's words into context and (b) past and present opinions of both supporters and detractors. God forbid they report that "Some have questioned Bush's repeated claims" or remind people about the WMD fiasco, eh? During wartime, Fox News was little more than a 24-hour Leni Riefenstahl epic supporting Bush's cause, and Republicans loved it. But because CNN actually allows the occasional liberal to speak out, it’s "liberally biased." Yeah, right. Let's just ignore the many conservative talking heads that CNN also puts on the air, lest that confuse the issue....