Media Meltdown

Media Meltdown
by Jennifer King, Managing Editor

October 21, 2004

"The Heretical Housewife"

Managing Editor Jennifer King The Mainstream Media is pulling out all the stops in the attempt to influence this year's election. Predictably, they are pulling for John Kerry. Amazingly, however, they are no longer even trying to cover their bias. Recently, Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings joined the beleaguered Dan Rather onstage at the New Yorker Festival for a connubial whine fest. Decrying Rather's recent woes, the alphabet anchors agreed that internet journalists and bloggers were the real problem. Brokaw accused the New Media of conducting a "political jihad" against poor Dan. What's a few forged documents among friends? Jennings further asserted that "you don't judge a man by one event in his career." Unfortunately for Peter, ole Dan has "Rather" a habit of airing lightly screened fictions such as his 1988 "documentary" "The Walls Within" which purported to tell the grisly stories of six Vietnam veterans who admitted to murderous atrocities. Problem was, only one of the men had actually served in combat and none of the alleged events could be impartially substantiated. Nevertheless, the goal of smearing and besmirching Vietnam veterans had been attained. Jennings further slipped up when he admitted that "it was not a natural instinct for any of us in the so-called establishment media to cheer the country on." Really, you don't say! There must be some reason for the success of Fox.

Next up was the first debate between President Bush and John Kerry. It was not Bush's finest hour, to say the least, but it surely didn't help that moderator Jim Lehrer's line of questioning could be neatly summarized as: 'Mr. Bush, what did you do wrong?' and 'Mr. Kerry, what did Mr. Bush do wrong?' Not to mention the odd footage of Kerry surreptitiously pulling what appeared to be a square, white piece of paper out of his lapel and carefully smoothing it down on the podium - in clear violation of the agreed upon standards for the debate. The Kerry campaign insisted that this item was 'a black pen'; however the standards clearly prohibited either candidate from bringing in any of their own materials. Moderator Lehrer, after the debate, was also seen giving Candidate Kerry a friendly wink along with a hearty handshake. Mission Accomplished?

The indispensable Media Research Center has published amusing accounts of the MSM's increasingly shrill and blatant bias. Following the Vice-Presidential debate, See B/S made a gallant effort in pushing their flawed poll which showed that "Edwards won". Instead of focusing on Dick Cheney's allegation that John Edwards was "Senator Gone", all the networks focused instead on Cheney's statement that he had never met Edwards until the night of the debate. A photograph quickly surfaced of Edwards and Cheney together at a 2001 prayer breakfast. The media spin then became aimed on the "Cheney lied" slant, not the broader point of Edward's absenteeism. The more humorous aspect - that apparently Cheney had met Edwards, "twice, once at the prayer breakfast and once at Elizabeth Dole's inauguration" - belies the truth of Cheney's assertion. Why wasn't Edwards meeting Cheney on the Senate floor where he belonged?

This election promises to be a doozy, and no doubt the media cheerleaders will continue to do their best to prod Kerry along, while at the same time obscuring inconvenient facts such as Kerry's 1971 Winter Soldier slanderous testimony (www.wintersoldier.com) and his twenty year record of voting down weapons systems used by the military today in order to secure victory in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The on the street leftists seem to be veering off into even greater depths of rage and insanity, egged on by loonies like Michael Moore and their own sense of moral superiority. No action is too extreme, when it comes to defeating the evil Republicans. Numerous examples exist of political signs being stolen, property being defaced and cars being "keyed" (including, today, mine). In a series of coordinated attacks this week, union thugs burst into a group of GOP Headquarters. In Orlando, a Bush staffer had his wrist broken. In West Virginia and Tennessee, shots were actually fired into Republican Headquarters. Vandals also recently used grass killer in order to burn an 8 foot by 8 foot swastika on a Bush supporter's lawn. Rampant voter fraud has been reported in Pennsylvania, Florida, Wisconsin and Ohio.

Leftists appear to have been driven mad by a combination of their incoherent loathing for Bush and their own sense of impotence. They're losing but they can't seem to recognize why - that it's their September 10th outlook in a September 11th world. Let's hope the electorate remembers. ***

Photo of Jennifer King courtesy of staff files