BIAS

Refreshing news from the UK, for those of you who've noted a little too much rampant patriotism in the American media. From The Telegraph (registration required):

Dyke Accuses US News Of 'Banging Drum On Iraq'

Greg Dyke, the BBC director general, attacked American reporting of the war in Iraq and derided news organisations that were prepared to "bang the drum for one side or the other".

The BBC has been accused of allowing its perceived hostility to the conflict to colour coverage of the war and its aftermath, including the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction dossier story that led to the death of David Kelly, the weapons expert.

Mr Dyke, who was speaking after collecting an honorary award at the International Emmys in New York on Monday night, said the Iraq coverage illustrated the difference between the BBC and US networks.

"For any news organisation to act as a cheerleader for government is to undermine your credibility," he said.

"They should be balancing their coverage, not banging the drum for one side or the other." He cited research showing that of 840 experts interviewed on US news outlets during the war only four opposed the conflict.

"If that were true in Britain, the BBC would have failed in its duty," he said.

I always thought the duty of a news organization was to report the facts, free from opinion. But who am I to say?

Here then, is a look at some of that overwhelming pro-US, pro-Bush bias in the American media. The following quotes are from this past Thanksgiving weekend's network and cable news programs.

We'll start with the coverage of the Samara firefight, by all known facts an overwhelming American victory. From ABC (What does the "A" stand for?):

ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT NOVEMBER 30, 2003 JEFFREY KOFMAN: Elizabeth, what is being called the fiercest, bloodiest firefight of this war since the end of major combat was declared, was fought this afternoon against insurgents.

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While this afternoon’s battle in Samara is clearly going to be seen as a victory for U.S. forces, it also raises disturbing questions about the power of the insurgents. This is the first time there has been any indication that the insurgents are capable of something of this size and are this well organized.

If the reports we are receiving from the area tonight are accurate they suggest that the opposition is much better organized than previously thought.

Elizabeth?

ELIZABETH VARGAS: All right. Jeffrey Kofman in Baghdad. Thank you.

The intensifying attacks on allied forces raise serious questions about the future of the U.S.-led coalition.

Wow. Guess maybe we won the battle but lost the war. Maybe it was NBC the BBC guy was talking about:

NBC NIGHTLY NEWS NOVEMBER 30, 2003

JOHN SEIGENTHALER: The news this weekend that Spanish and Japanese operatives were killed in Iraq raises new challenges for the White House as President Bush tries to hold together a coalition to provide security and rebuild Iraq. NBC's Rosiland Jordan joins us now from the White House with more on that.

Good evening, Rosiland.

ROSILAND JORDAN: Good evening, John.

The Bush administration devoted a lot of time to building a coalition that was willing to go to war against Iraq. Today, officials said that coalition knew of the risks going in.

The bodies of seven Spanish intelligence officers were brought home tonight. The killings proof, said their Prime Minister, of the dangers facing all countries that believe in liberty and confirmation, Jose Maria Aznar said, the war in Iraq is key to fighting terror and Spain must be involved.

"We are where we have to be," he told his nation. Spain is one of 20 countries with troops in Iraq. They include Britain, Italy, Poland, and Australia. Japan, which lost two diplomats in a separate ambush yesterday, said today, it’s also committed to a peaceful Iraq. But it already has put plans to deploy some non-combat troops on hold because of other recent attacks on foreign soldiers.

Today’s images provided a sharp contrast to the scene at the Baghdad airport on Thanksgiving Day.

Analysts say the challenge for President Bush now is to convince other coalition members to ignore the editorials and protests against the Iraq policy.

MICHAEL O’HANLON [Foreign Policy Analyst]: This could make it harder to recruit new coalition members and could lead some people to look for a convenient excuse a few months down the road to bring their boys and girls home.

JORDAN: That and the extraordinary security measures used on the President’s trip highlight a fact of life in Iraq, according to a key Senate Republican...

Wow. Even the Prime Minister of Spain has been brainwashed by the pro-American bias. Even as Bush struggles to keep the coalition together he's saying his country is resolved to press on!

He must be watching too much CNN.

CNN SUNDAY CNN TV NOVEMBER 30, 2003

MARTIN SAVIDGE: We begin in Iraq, where Iraqi rebels dressed in Fedayin uniforms tried to ambush U.S. convoys in Samara today. But in an extremely deadly firefight, U.S. forces got the upper hand. Our Walt Rodgers is in Baghdad with the details.

Walter?

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WALTER RODGERS: Once again, it shows that while the United States claims it controls the battlefield, it's actually the guerrillas who generally tend to dictate where the battles will be fought and that battlefield is constantly shifting.

Martin?

Okay, now watch them turn the "pro America" dial up to 11, because CNN too has some coverage of the Presidents Thanksgiving with the troops.

SAVIDGE: After faking out much of the press corps and just about everybody else and spending the Thanksgiving holiday with U.S. troops in Iraq, President Bush is now back at the White House and settling down to his next big project – re-election. Here's our White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX: President Bush is back in Washington, following a weekend at his Crawford ranch and his dramatic top-secret trip to Baghdad to share Thanksgiving with the troops. The trip, while widely seen as a successful morale booster, also opened up the president to criticism from those vying for his job.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK, RET.: The photo-op or whatever it was to Baghdad does not make up for a failed strategy.

MALVEAUX: And the president is readying himself for 11 months of aggressive campaigning. And these pictures of Mr. Bush and the troops are bound to help, but the White House also realizes that the situation in Iraq on the ground is also critical to a Bush win.

Martin?

SAVIDGE: Suzanne Malveaux at the White House, thank you very much.

By now most of you are probably tiring of all this hyperactive American flag waving. Too bad. Here's more turkey and stuffing from NBC.

NBC NIGHTLY NEWS, NOVEMBER 29, 2003

JOHN SEIGENTHALER: The enduring image this holiday weekend is President Bush serving Turkey to American soldiers in Iraq on Thanksgiving. NBC's David Gregory joins us now from Crawford, Texas, with more on the impact of the president's surprise visit to the troops.

DAVID GREGORY: Well, John, with White House aides still celebrating that surprise successful trip to U.S. soldiers in Iraq, the debate is just beginning over its long-term political effects.

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GREGORY: Unlike Mr. Bush's Top Gun landing on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln last May, Democrats have largely refrained from criticizing the President’s trip as a political stunt.

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GREGORY: But others see the president trying to overcome criticism that he has remained distant from the sacrifices of U.S. troops by for instance avoiding funerals for fallen soldiers.

JOE LOCKHART [Fmr. Pres. Clinton Press Secretary]: This president has been conspicuously absent in dealing with the negative part of this story, the casualties and those families who have had to grieve the loss of their sons and daughters.

GREGORY: The Bush presidency has come to be defined by made-for-TV images, particularly since September 11.

GREGORY: For example, critics charge that the president's appearance below a mission accomplished banner onboard the aircraft carrier last spring backfired, proving premature. For now however, White House aides believe this trip was a success, giving the president as much of a lift as his visit gave the troops.

John?

SEIGENTHALER: NBC's David Gregory, thanks.

You know, the fact that the Democrats aren't attacking the President for his Thanksgiving trip makes me think they're brainwashed too! And have you noticed how the network news folks never remind us that the President declared that no one anywhere would ever die again on that carrier last May? And wasn't there a banner?

Now watch in horror as CNN's Marty Savidge lets presidential historian Douglas Brinkley help cover up the "lying to the American people" angle of the trip.

CNN SATURDAY CNN TV NOVEMBER 29, 2003

MARTIN SAVIDGE: It was a Thanksgiving Day surprise with all the trimmings. We're talking about President Bush and his visit to Baghdad. The top secret flight into Baghdad made history, because of the visitor and the destination, but it was certainly not the first time a U.S. president has slipped out of the country on a covert mission.

Joining us with some context and some insight is one of our favorites, presidential historian Douglas Brinkley of the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans. Good to have you with us again.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY [Presidential Historian]: Oh, thanks for having me.

SAVIDGE: Well, let's talk about this. Historically, what are some other great hoodwink jobs that have been done by presidents on the move?

BRINKLEY: (Discusses numerous similar events in history)

SAVIDGE: Well, should we be bothered? Obviously it was a big success. Went over tremendously well with the troops. But should Americans be bothered by the fact that they were basically lied to about the whereabouts of the president?

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BRINKLEY: ...Instead, he's able to make the history books. Even if it's only for a day, for a very historic secret mission. And certainly for those troops who are stationed, the men and women in Iraq, it had to wonderful to be able email home and get on the telephone and say, hey mom, hey dad, guess who I got to meet today? George Bush.

SAVIDGE: Absolutely. But will this be remembered as one of the great hijinks of history? At least for a president?

Let's move on...

CBS EVENING NEWS CBS TV, NOVEMBER 28, 2003

JOHN ROBERTS: One day after President Bush’s surprise visit to Baghdad there was more of what we have come to expect in Iraq. Guerrilla mortar fire killed one U.S. soldier at a 101st Airborne Division base in the northern city of Mosul.

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But Allen Pizzey reports the president’s Thanksgiving visit still had U.S. troops buzzing today and many Iraqis grumbling.

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ALLEN PIZZEY: As upbeat as the soldiers were about the presidential drop-in, out on the street today there were more people than usual eager to explain the realities Mr. Bush did not see or hear.

"I don’t think most Iraqis are overwhelmed by Mr. Bush," [phonetic] Najim Tamimi says. "The Americans are an occupation force."

And many doubt the motives of the surprise two-hour visit that didn’t extend beyond the mess hall.

DR. SAMIR MOHADDIN [surgeon]: I think this is good for him for re-election in the next year.

RA’AD AHMED [engineer]: Nothing for say in Iraq, and is only something for him and the Army, that’s all.

PIZZEY: Most agree the U.S. effort here has made things better, but they are quick to point out that more is needed.

"We want safety and security," this girl says. "We need a leader."

The recently opened upscale C'est Si Bon Restaurant is an indication that at least some of the population are doing well. But even here, they dismiss the Bush visit, albeit with typical Arab grace.

BATA TAHA [Baghdad resident]: Bush came for just two hours and a half; no one see him here. But, you know, he’s welcome.

PIZZEY: It’s not an invitation Mr. Bush is expected to take up anytime soon, which means his view of the country will likely remain a warm one.

Allen Pizzey, CBS News, Baghdad.

I don't know about you, but that whole segment reminds me of how we never stop to consider what the Iraqis think. In fact, no sooner had they finished that story then the mind-control folks at CBS turned to covering how the Democrats loved the Bush visit.

ROBERTS: The president’s Baghdad visit made history and the front page of just about every newspaper in America today.

As for the reaction here, CBS News correspondent Sharyl Atkisson has that part of the story tonight.

SHARYL ATKISSON: As President Bush landed back home in Texas with a spring in his step, he might have been giving thanks for how well his surprise trip to Iraq was playing on the home front. It even drew praise from his political opponents, like Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

U.S. SEN. JOHN KERRY [Democratic presidential candidate]: I thought it was terrific. I’m pleased the president did that. I think it’s the right thing for a president to do.

ATKISSON: Donna Brazile is a Democratic strategist.

Is there anything bad you can say about the president making that trip?

DONNA BRAZILE [Democratic strategist]: I don’t think so. I think that his critics will also agree it was the right thing for him to do on Thanksgiving.

ATKISSON: Those positive images of the commander in chief, arms around the troops he’d sent off to war, may help cancel out the last enduring image of Mr. Bush on an aircraft carrier last May when he boasted of success in Iraq. That’s been called into doubt by rising casualties.

Image building always brings a risk. Some view Iraq as the president’s greatest vulnerability in the upcoming election. His Thanksgiving Day visit ties in inextricably to the war and, ultimately, to its outcome.

BRAZILE: I think this will make his critics even more daring and outline some of the failures of this administration in terms of the war on terrorism, the way we’ve conducted it, and they will remind people that this is Bush’s war on Iraq.

ATKISSON: For better or for worse, in the end, if most Americans conclude the Iraq war was a disaster, the president’s visit there could be parody. If that turns out well, it could serve as an enduring image of his presidency’s strength.

Sharyl Atkisson, CBS News, the White House.

When will someone report the truth about the carrier landing? Aren't there any Democrats brave enough to point out the pure political motivation of the president's trip? The absolute failure in Iraq that led to the need for total secrecy?

JOHN ROBERTS: Today, U.S. troops in Iraq had another prominent but not so secret visitor, New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. The former first lady spent about 10 hours in Baghdad sharing a post-Thanksgiving meal with soldiers and meeting privately with American military commanders and civilian administrators.

In case you missed the contrast in secrecy and duration of the visits, NBC will provide more detail.

NBC NIGHTLY NEWS NOVEMBER 28, 2003

President Bush Visits Baghdad

BRIAN WILLIAMS: Good evening. We are fairly certain the president is spending this evening at his Texas ranch. But, then again, that's where the whole world thought he was yesterday, right up until we learned of an elaborate and top secret trip to Baghdad for Thanksgiving dinner. Details of the stealthy voyage are just now coming to light. Reporters on the trip, who had their cell phone batteries taken away so they could tell no one, are free now to talk about it.

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WILLIAMS: When it was all over the White House proudly pointed out the president was right there in the cockpit of Air Force One for the rather harrowing nighttime landing at Baghdad Airport.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on a previously planned trip of her own to Baghdad visited with U.S. troops there today and praised the president's lightning fast journey as a morale booster. She did criticize the president's overall war strategy while touring with Rhode Island Democratic Senator Jack Reid by saying there were not enough soldiers presently in Iraq to do the job.

See the bias? They're slamming Hillary for not being in the cockpit. And I guess we've either got to credit the Dems for not attacking the CinC's visit with the troops or wonder why the networks refuse to report negative aspects of the news.

LOU DOBBS MONEYLINE CNN TV NOVEMBER 28, 2003

JOHN KING: One day after President Bush's dramatic visit to Baghdad, a reminder today that the war goes on in Iraq and American troops are being killed almost every day. Insurgents today killed a U.S. soldier in a mortar attack in Mosul. The president visited Iraq, despite the persistent attacks on U.S. troops and on Iraqis. The continuing violence is one of the biggest potential threats to the president's reelection prospects.

White House correspondent Dana Bash reports tonight from near the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, on the president's dramatic trip and the day-after reaction -- Dana.

DANA BASH: Well, John, the White House is still basking in the glow of what they were able to pull off, the stealth mission, to Iraq, the images it provided, and the buzz surrounding it over the past 24 hours.

But they know all too well, John, from experience, that positive news, positive images are a single event, could not necessarily have staying power. And it is the violence and the president's policies in Iraq that they are most concerned about for the long term.

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BASH: But, of course, this is, John, an election year. And anything that the president does, whether they say it is -- was for political reasons or not is seen through that prism.

And the White House did focus on the images with the president and the troops. That made it hard for Democrats to criticize. The candidates out on the campaign trail were very careful in saying that they understand it is important for a commander in chief to visit troops abroad, but they also were very careful to quickly try to turn it back to the president's policy in Iraq, Howard Dean saying that the men and women shouldn't be there in the first place, and John Kerry saying that it is a shooting gallery there and that is the issue. It is the president's policy. That's what John Kerry and Howard Dean both said today -- John.

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KING: Dana Bash, live for us from near the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, where we assume where the president is, where they say he is, tonight -- thank you, Dana.

Ahhh... the White House made it hard for Democrats to criticize the trip. Let me read that again... yep, it was the White House.

You know who might be the most effective propaganda tool of the administration? NPR - they're paid for by public funds, you know.

MORNING EDITION NPR RADIO, NOVEMBER 28, 2003

President Bush Visits Baghdad

BOB EDWARDS: President Bush is back in the United States after a top-secret whirlwind visit to Baghdad International Airport. The surprise visit from the commander-in-chief was a morale boost for weary troops in Iraq and a media coup for a White House seeking to restore public confidence in the management of the postwar conflict.

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EDWARDS: NPR White House Correspondent Don Gonyea joins me now.

Good morning Don.

DON GONYEA: Good morning.

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EDWARDS: He didn’t land on an aircraft carrier this time.

GONYEA: No. That was back in May. That was when he landed on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln out in the Pacific to declare an end to major combat operations. That one was one big flag waving victory party, complete with the mission accomplished sign that the White House has since tried to distance itself from. This one again, the whole point was to be invisible ‘til after the fact and there’s something about appearing before troops who are still out there, facing serious risk everyday that made it clearly calculated to be a more humble visit. Perhaps because of the lesson learned from that U.S.S. Lincoln landing. That has been widely criticized as a big future of Bush campaign commercial. This one certainly has political overtones, the White House says the reason to go was to thank the troops, but I’m sure the Bush-Cheney ’04 Campaign loves the pictures they’ve seen and they’re certainly thinking that this went off well and that a lot of people around the country today are probably saying hey, that was a pretty gutsy move on the part of the president yesterday.

EDWARDS: Well, others will be saying something else.

GONYEA: Indeed.

"Indeed."

Thankfully we've got the BBC, who won't shy away from reporting the downside of the news, who bravely announce criticism of the president, and who don't forget carrier landings under giant banners that say "No one anywhere will ever die again!!!!" a mere few months after they occur.

According to the BBC's Dyke, continuing with his heroic acceptance speech for his network's award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in New York, sometimes you've just got to rock the boat:

"Telling people what they want to hear is not doing them any favours. It may not be comfortable to challenge governments or even popular opinion, but it is what we are here to do." Mr Dyke said there was an appetite for such news in America, judging by the growth in demand there for BBC news on the World Service, the internet and the television channel BBC World.

Wow, I guess there would be a market for that, since we can't get truth from our government-controlled media tools.

Funny he should say "appetite" though, in light of this bit of news from the UK, as reported in the WSJ Online's Best of the Web Today:

Ha'aretz reports that the British Political Cartoon Society has awarded its Cartoon of the Year award to Dave Brown of the Independent, a far-left broadsheet, for a strip depicting the prime minister of Israel eating an Arab infant.

Yummy.