Within the space of just a few days, we had a former President call for tax-payer funding of a known terrorist organization, a former Vice-President offer aid and comfort to our enemies while giving a speech in a foreign country, and a sitting Vice-President accidentally shoot a friend while quail hunting. Of these three events, the one with the least importance to our national security became the fixation of a self-indulgent media for well over a week.
Given what we already know about the selective memories of many in the mainstream media, it should come as no surprise that they also seem to suffer from a case of selective attention span. On issues that don’t present liberals in a favorable light, the press suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder. When it comes to similar situations involving conservatives however, they become obsessive-compulsives. Perhaps a dose of Ritalin is in order.
In the first of these events, we had former President Jimmy Carter call for the continuation of American aid for the Palestinian Authority which, given their recent election results, is tantamount to direct funding of Hamas, a terrorist organization with the avowed goal of the destruction of Israel. Note that in the aftermath of this comment there was no constant hounding by the press as to whether or not the former President would retract, reconsider, or revise his remarks. Nor were there any stakeouts of his home attempting to catch him leaving for the office each morning to grill him as to why he refused to do so, or to demand an apology on behalf of the Jewish people.
The second example saw former Vice-President Al Gore, while speaking at a conference in Saudi Arabia, accusing his own country of “terrible abuses” of captured terrorists and “indiscriminately round(ing) up” Arabs after 9/11 on minor charges and holding them “in conditions that were just unforgivable.” He went even further and referred to the facilities where we hold captured terrorists as Bush gulags. He made these statements to an Arab audience on foreign soil, in reference to a country where he once campaigned to be President.
Article comments
1 - Nancy
The media wonders why their credibility is sinking with the public...perhaps not as fast as Dubya's, but pretty fast. Maybe it's because they divide their time between obsessing about everything including the pissant as well as the justified, and self-aggrandizement & doing their best to become part of the social circles of the Powerful they're supposed to be keeping an eye on. They forget you're not supposed to play with your food.
2 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
They forget you're not supposed to play with your food.
Nancy, that is a line I will most assuredly steal. I've not seen a better definition of a well fed, overstuffed, swollen ego'd ignorant national journalist than that.
That would have been a good line to describe Peter Jennings when he was banging Hanan Ashrawi.
3 - Baronius
Well, you're assuming that the press has some familiarity with hunting. If you've been hunting, you know that accidents can happen, and you know that you DO NOT sneak up on a fellow hunter! The press doesn't seem to have that bank of knowledge, so they use a rural stereotype instead: the drunken hick. No matter that both men involved in the accident have more education than the average reporter; the press hears "hunting" and assumes that one of the guys must be drunk and have eleven toes.
The White House press corps is probably the worst group of reporters around. They could be good journalists in a different situation; most of them were, I'd bet. But there's nothing to do but sit around and wait for leaks, disasters, or those boring, boring press conferences. So they get squirrely.
I used to find it hilarious that Bush would go to Texas in July. I suspect Bush went south just to torment the reporters, who were obliged to follow him. But the press corps finally got their payback. They took the most "dog bites man" story imaginable - Protestor Opposes War - and turned Sheehan into a celebrity. They sent the message to Bush that there's nowhere to hide.
And how lazy are reporters when they consider "not in Washington" to be hiding? This is another rant entirely, but since I'm already foaming at the mouth, here goes. The President is constantly criticized for being unilateral, for not understanding other countries. But the moment he goes abroad, and forces reporters to risk wrinkling their dry cleaning in overnight bags, they get upset. Bush is accused of fleeing the country, trying to distract people from the difficulties he's facing at home. Sing it with me, you know the words: "But some experts are questioning the timing of the trip, which coincides with recent criticism of the President's policies, even from within his own party. (Cue picture of John McCain stabbing Bush in the back and laughing) ..."
4 - Fred Evil
Jeez, you're right, one shouldn't sneak up on a fellow hunter, especially when he's swinging wildly trying to track birds that are specially-grown and raised to be a rich man's target practice......Of course accidents happen when you mix guns and....anything....I still can't believe that that poor SOB who got shot actually APOLOGIZED for Cheney shooting him....Repubs have no sense of self-worth..."anything for the cause of ignorance" they cry, lemmings fleeing into Cheney's range......sad really....
5 - Nancy
Cheney's victim apologizing to Cheney was a sorry spectacle; only someone with the towering arrogance of a neonazi like Cheney would expect or even accept such a craven display of sucking up, but this is typical of the BushCo mindset.
6 - Jon
Baronius, I am guessing the reason everyone speculated that Cheney was drunk is due to his previous inability to drink in a responsible fashion, two dui's, two.