American Media: I'll Give You A Good Sound Bite

August 10 2004
Counterbias.com
Scott C. Smith

        When the American media is discussed, more often than not, the discussion is about bias, whether a particular news outlet has liberal bias or conservative bias.  Frankly, I could care less if one network has a liberal bias and another has a conservative bias.  The problem with our media is not bias, but reporting.  How come reporters are not asking the tough questions of our leaders? 

        There have been plenty of opportunities to do so: in the months leading to the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom, officials from the Bush administration presented the Bush line on Iraq: Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of deadly weapons, and he was ready to use them either against us directly, or indirectly by providing those weapons to terrorists.

        The top players in the administration made the rounds on shows like Meet The Press, each time explaining just how dangerous Saddam Hussein was to the United States.  Vice President Dick Cheney presented the case to the American public, as did Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice, and of course President Bush in various speeches he gave around the country.

        Our case for weapons was so airtight that Secretary of State Colin Powell was sent to the United Nations Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003, to present our case to the world.  In that speech, accompanied by photographs and audio, Powell painted a chilling picture of Iraq’s stockpiles of weapons.  Powell used the word “facts” a lot in his speech:

•     “Indeed, the facts and Iraq’s behavior show that Saddam Hussein and his regime are concealing their efforts to produce more weapons of mass destruction.”

•     “My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we are giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence. I will cite some examples, and these are from human sources.”

•    “Ladies and gentlemen, these are not assertions.  These are facts corroborated by many sources…”

        Powell certainly was not ambiguous in his claims.  Iraq had weapons!  Lots of weapons. 

        None of it was true.

        On March 30, 2003, Rumsfeld told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week that we knew where the weapons were:  “We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."  Rumsfeld later retracted his remarks, stating he should have qualified the remarks with “I believe the weapons are in that area.”

        Through all of this, the so-called liberal media dutifully reported on the WMD “developments” without really questioning what they were being told.  And as the Bush administration changed its position, from Iraq possessing weapons to Iraq having the capability to make the weapons, the media did nothing. 

        Are journalists just lazy?  Why are they afraid to ask for clarification?  In the world of spin the sound bite is king, and pundits from both sides will push a particular theme or concept, knowing they will not be challenged.

        Right now, the conservative pundits, like Sean Hannity, state that John Kerry is the “most liberal” member of the Senate, and that John Edwards is the “fourth most liberal.”  The end result is disinformation that is repeated over and over and over until it is accepted as fact.

To his credit, Alan Colmes of Hannity and Colmes attempted to set the record straight on the July 8 Hannity and Colmes, to Republican Congressman Dan Burton:  “Congressman Burton, I've heard that talking points for the last few days if I hear one more time John Edwards is the fourth most liberal senator and John Kerry the most.

        Doing a little research on this, I discovered that the National Journal, which rates these things, actually Edwards' average liberal rating for five years he served is 75.7 percent, which is 20 points lower than the 2003 rating.”

        In fact, as conservative after conservative have spread the “most liberal” and “fourth most liberal” line, one of the few people to challenge this claim was Jon Stewart, the host of Comedy Central’s Daily Show.  Stewart, by the way, is not a journalist.  On the August 3 Daily Show, Stewart’s guest was Texas Congressman Henry Bonilla, and Stewart attempted to clarify the record on the “most liberal” line:

STEWART: “But, you know that the – but Edwards over his career is actually more to the right than the median Democrat, and actually Kerry is more to the right of Kennedy.  So I just, you know, like you say…you just want people to have an honest discussion.  That’s all I want…”

        Now, if we could just get Jon Stewart into the Washington Press Corps, maybe we’ll get an answer as to why we haven’t found WMDs, or Osama Bin Laden, or why Iraq hasn’t paid for its reconstruction through oil revenues, as was promised by the Bush administration at the start of the war.

        Either that, or maybe journalists will actually do what Jon Stewart wasn’t afraid to do: demand the truth.