Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Here's a Headscratcher
On Monday, the "Wall Street Journal" ran a story on the final week of the race. In it, the authors, Shailagh Murray and Greg Hitt had this to say:
Mr. Bush believes the key to victory lies in his party's conservative core. He gave a rare interview over the weekend to Fox News, a network sympathetic to the Bush cause and popular with Republicans. Among other things, Mr. Bush voiced doubts about whether the country can be fully protected from future terror attacks. "Whether or not we can be ever fully safe is up -- you know, up in the air," he said.
See anything that might raise an eyebrow? I didn't.
Then how is it in today's "Wall Street Journal "Corrections" section, you read this:
NEWS CORP.'S Fox News was incorrectly described in a page-one article Monday as being sympathetic to the Bush cause.
Just for a hint at how the WSJ might have came to this conclusion, here is Salon's selection of the questions that interviewers from Fox News have asked President Bush recently:
# "I've got 15 questions for you. If they're dumb, tell me they're dumb."
# "Do you think that when he says these things, John Kerry, your opponent, you were in these three debates with him, do you think he knows he's not telling the truth?"
# "In light of the CBS document fiasco, do you think you get a fair shake from the network news and the elite media like the New York Times?"
# "A guy over at Newsweek said 80 percent in the elite media favors Kerry. That doesn't surprise you, does it?"
# "And you're healthy?"
# "What's Chirac's problem? He hasn't been a great ally to the U.S. since 9/11. He doesn't want NATO forces to protect elections in Afghanistan. Come on."
# "Do you have any theory on why college professors, pinhead press people why they go into the liberal realm?"
# "Has the press given [Kerry] a pass?"
*"Is it a reality that we could turn on our television sets one day -- Fox News Channel, I hope -- and find out that a nuclear weapon has gone off here?"
# "You've said one of the things you were most unhappy about is this issue of the tone in Washington. Let me just run down a list of prominent Democrats for a second here, because I can't remember a time in my life where it's been this bad."
# "You're the president of the United States. You're also leading troops in harm's way. This is the leader of the opposition party [criticizing you]. Does that bother you?"
# "John Kerry has flipped-flopped his way into a dangerous position [regarding Iraq]. So my question is, If John Kerry were president would he make this country more vulnerable and more susceptible to terror attacks?"
# "Now, all this was propaganda. All of this that you didn't ... They say you didn't register in Massachusetts [with the National Guard in 1973]. Is that bogus?"
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Mr. Bush believes the key to victory lies in his party's conservative core. He gave a rare interview over the weekend to Fox News, a network sympathetic to the Bush cause and popular with Republicans. Among other things, Mr. Bush voiced doubts about whether the country can be fully protected from future terror attacks. "Whether or not we can be ever fully safe is up -- you know, up in the air," he said.
See anything that might raise an eyebrow? I didn't.
Then how is it in today's "Wall Street Journal "Corrections" section, you read this:
NEWS CORP.'S Fox News was incorrectly described in a page-one article Monday as being sympathetic to the Bush cause.
Just for a hint at how the WSJ might have came to this conclusion, here is Salon's selection of the questions that interviewers from Fox News have asked President Bush recently:
# "I've got 15 questions for you. If they're dumb, tell me they're dumb."
# "Do you think that when he says these things, John Kerry, your opponent, you were in these three debates with him, do you think he knows he's not telling the truth?"
# "In light of the CBS document fiasco, do you think you get a fair shake from the network news and the elite media like the New York Times?"
# "A guy over at Newsweek said 80 percent in the elite media favors Kerry. That doesn't surprise you, does it?"
# "And you're healthy?"
# "What's Chirac's problem? He hasn't been a great ally to the U.S. since 9/11. He doesn't want NATO forces to protect elections in Afghanistan. Come on."
# "Do you have any theory on why college professors, pinhead press people why they go into the liberal realm?"
# "Has the press given [Kerry] a pass?"
*"Is it a reality that we could turn on our television sets one day -- Fox News Channel, I hope -- and find out that a nuclear weapon has gone off here?"
# "You've said one of the things you were most unhappy about is this issue of the tone in Washington. Let me just run down a list of prominent Democrats for a second here, because I can't remember a time in my life where it's been this bad."
# "You're the president of the United States. You're also leading troops in harm's way. This is the leader of the opposition party [criticizing you]. Does that bother you?"
# "John Kerry has flipped-flopped his way into a dangerous position [regarding Iraq]. So my question is, If John Kerry were president would he make this country more vulnerable and more susceptible to terror attacks?"
# "Now, all this was propaganda. All of this that you didn't ... They say you didn't register in Massachusetts [with the National Guard in 1973]. Is that bogus?"
