The American Spectator

Special Report

In the Tank for President Kerry

By Jeffrey Lord on 10.7.08 @ 12:08AM

(Page 5 of 5)

November 4, 2004

Headline: A BLUE CITY (DISCONSOLATE, EVEN) BEWILDERED BY A RED AMERICA
Reporter: Joseph Berger
Message. A voter in Manhattan says, "New York is an island off the coast of Europe." "Some New Yorkers said...they didn't even know any people who voted for President Bush." What is happening to our world! This makes no sense!

Ahhhhh. But fear not. The Times was already thinking ahead when it ran this story on October 27:

Headline: WHERE TO CATCH A RISING POLITICAL STAR? TRY ILLINOIS
Reporter: Monica Davey
Message: There's this hot black guy named Barack Obama and he's raised all this money that he's giving out to U.S. Senate candidates all over America. But why? Why would a mere Illinois State Senator be doing this in the middle of his own campaign to get elected to the U.S. Senate? He says he can't wait to get to Washington and work with Hillary Clinton!

THERE'S MORE, much more. But you get the picture of the 2004 candidates per the New York Times. George Bush is a racist thug and a coward with a paranoid nut for a running mate. John Kerry is a jovial athletic war hero who loves demanding sports and would make a superb Commander in Chief. The economy has fallen apart, the Pentagon is spending like a drunken sailor, but all of this is ignored by Fox News which is a right-wing "duvet of rage." Not to worry, though, because Dan Rather is aggressively getting The Truth out in spite of these idiots. The polls are great, blacks are swaying with delight in the pews, and women are streaming into Kerry's camp because they are terrified of the idiots Bush might put on the Supreme Court. The Pope actually loves Kerry and is trying quietly to get the message out to Catholics with the help of the Times.

And when the results are actually in? The news of a Bush victory is stunning because the voters the Times spoke with "didn't know anybody who voted for Bush."

So. This is the game. This is how it's done day in and day out. Story by story by story. From the Times to the networks. Listen to this quote from Washington Post reporter Howard Kurtz on his CNN show Reliable Sources the other day. Kurtz was showing clips of Governor Sarah Palin speaking of her position in opposition to the Bridge to Nowhere. Implying she was lying, and that various mainstream media outlets had called her out on this issue to no effect, Kurtz lamented: "It seems like we can't influence this campaign."

Notice he didn't say they weren't trying. Again.

Jeffrey Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, Mainstream Media, Sports, Abortion, Law, Supreme Court, Military, Iraq, NATO