By Matt Hurley for the TIB Network:
The gang at CBS News is charging a conservative bias in the very few news agencies that are taking on the Swift Boat controversy. Compare and contrast these two paragraphs and note who has bias and just what flavor it is:
And the larger story here is clear: John Kerry volunteered for the Navy, volunteered to go to Vietnam, and then, when he was sitting around Cam Ranh Bay bored with nothing to do, requested the most dangerous duty a Naval officer could be given. He saved a man's life. He risked his own every time he went up into the Mekong Delta. He did more than his country asked. In fact he didn't even wait for his country to ask.These are the same people who rolled John Kerry out to defend Bill Clinton saying it didn't matter whether or not you served in the military.
George W. Bush spent those same years in a state of dissolution at Yale, and would go on, as we know, to plot how to get out of going to Southeast Asia. On that subject, here's a choice quote. "I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a shotgun in order to get a deferment," Bush told the Dallas Morning News in 1990. "Nor was I willing to go to Canada. So I chose to better myself by learning how to fly airplanes."
Conservative bias? Heh. That's a good one CBS.
Is that the stench of foul death I smell coming from Old Media? Just asking...
8/26 Update
A commenter (thanks Rodger) notes that this isn't "really" CBS News talking, but rather The American Prospect. Which is technically true, but CBS News decided to run it on their site without any additional commentary and was reprinted with the permission of The American Prospect which implies that CBS News asked for the piece. CBS News is notorious for giving us their opinion when they don't agree with something, so we're left to assume that they liked this piece. Of course, I'm assuming...here is my email to the CBS News website folks:
Hello there CBS News Website Folks!Let's see what happens...
I write a blog (www.massdiscussion.blogspot.com) on which recently I covered a story which appeared on your site by was actually written by Michael Tomasky of The American Prospect.
I had assumed that CBS News approved of the "message" of this piece because there was no other commentary accompanying the piece. Is that an accurate. Is it the view of CBS News that there is a conservative bias in the media in regards to the coverage of the Swift Boat Vets vs. Kerry controversy?
Thanks,
MATT HURLEY
www.massdiscussion.blogspot.com
P. S. I will post your response (if any) as this has become an "issue" of sorts on my site.
Another Update
I just took a trip over to Rodger's site. He asks a couple of really good questions:
The swiftboat controversy has resulted in a great deal of media scrutiny of John Kerry's youth.It gets a little snarky from there...
In fairness, shouldn't they also be asking about the President's youth?
And perhaps about Dick Cheney's youth?
Let me answer the question for you Rodger. The media has been pounding this administration on these "scandals" since before taking office. If there was something there, they'd have printed it by now. Afterall, there IS a liberal (read Democrat) bias in the media contrary to what anybody at The American Spectator thinks.
Both of these gentlemen have come to terms about what they have and have not done. John Kerry has not. That is the big difference between Kerry/Edwards and Bush/Cheney.
The President released all of his military records. Why won't John Kerry? That is the surest way to silence the Swiftees. What does the Senator have to hide? He has already retracted the "Christmas in Cambodia" story. The "Magic Hat" story has some holes in it too. And now there is "VC the Wonder Dog" story just coming to light that nobody seems to remember.
I strongly believe that John Kerry is a hero for having served his country. I do not question his patriotism. I question his ability to tell the truth about his actions in Vietnam. I question his integrity when it comes to his sworn testimony to the Senate in 1971. And I question the timing of the sudden shift from "We should not question whether or how a man served" (1996) to "I should be president because I fought in Vietnam."
I'd rather be talking about REAL issues. John Kerry didn't allow that. He had to make a 30 year old conflict the central focus of his campaign. Who's running from whose record?
In the end, the ball is in John Kerry's court. He can choose to do the right thing and release his records. Or he can prolong the beating he has been taking in the polls...
