Friday, June 16, 2006

But I Read It In the Papers! (Part 1)

It finally dawned on the current regime that the dropping poll numbers for the Emperor and his party were closely related to the public's growing weariness and disgust with the war in Iraq. Because there's an election looming, somebody finally decided something had to be done. A pow-wow on the war at Camp David led to a super-secret drive-by trip to Iraq by the Emperor in Chief which lasted five hours, long enough for the experienced head of the most powerful, most successful at blowing things up military to get an indepth view of the situation on the ground.

That in turn led to a 'press conference' in the Rose Garden at which the Emperor assured us all that Iraq was a functioning democracy. To cap off the whirlwind of activity, Congress was ordered to debate the issue and to pass resolutions to 'stay the course,'even though that course has never really been charted. Ever mindful of the Emperor's power, the Congress complied. We are now in the second day of debate on the various resolutions.

The liberal press, especially that paper of record, duly noted the debates for today's readers. The NY Times weighed in with extensive citing of various sound bites from the debate. However, buried deep within the story is this interesting bit of news:

In a highly unusual attempt to influence the debate, the Pentagon sent a 74-page "prep book" to several members of Congress, outlining what it called "rapid response" talking points to rebut criticism of Mr. Bush's handling of the war and prewar intelligence. The Pentagon sent the book to Democratic leaders on Wednesday night, apparently in error, then sent an e-mail message two hours later asking to recall it. [Emphasis added]

That's it. The article contained no indication of why the Pentagon sent the "prep book" or who ordered it be sent. Even more interesting was the fact that it was intended only for Republicans. No comment on that, either. Apparently the Pentagon is the educational wing of the Republican Party. Who knew? Finally, the article doesn't set out what the prep book contained or even whether the Republican members of Congress refused to divulge the contents, which would at least suggest that the reporters tried to find out.

The conclusion of the article is rather interesting in its phrasing as well.

The combination of the popular and unpopular in this resolution — support for the troops, combined with an endorsement of the administration's policy and a rejection of any withdrawal deadline — left many Democrats in a bind as they headed toward Friday's vote. But some Democrats argued that it left Republicans in a bind, too, committed to an open-ended presence in Iraq. [Emphasis added]

The article asserts as a truth that Democrats are "in a bind." That fact is so indisputable to the reporters involved that those who disagree with the assessment are sloughed off as argumentative Democrats.

Great objective journalism, no?

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Objective? Where was that? I only see objective political writing on Blogs. Let's face it. Bush broke it, he needs to fix it. Democrats have nothing to do with this mess and the repugs won't let them play in the sandbox. I say, let them sweep the sand off the floor. Bush is in a bubble and clearly stands against America. Their little folly with that debate episode solidified the fact they are not listening to America.
PeasantParty

4:49 PM  

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