Globe Headline Writers Promote A Lie, Fail To Read Own Story September 22, 2007

On page A12 of today’s Globe a banner headline reads ‘Senate Democrats fail to pass troop withdrawal legislation‘.

Not true, as the third paragraph clearly states:

Republicans blocked the measure, contending it would have dire consequences for the region and usurp control of the war from seasoned generals.

So why doesn’t the headline read ‘Senate Republicans block troop withdrawal legislation‘?

And naturally the Republicans went on to say stupid things to justify their actions. It’s just too tiresome to repeat.

So how about it, Globe? Wanna poll your headline writers for raw, unmitigated Conservative Republican bias?

Technorati Tags: Globe Headline, Iraq, Troops, Senate

More News Distortions, From the AP August 17, 2007

Steven R. Hurst of the AP wrote a sixteen paragraph piece today on Iraq. The headline in the Globe reads “Iraqi leaders form new power bloc after 3 days of crisis talks”.

The first paragraph:

Iraq’s political leaders emerged yesterday from three days of crisis talks with a new alliance that seeks to save the crumbling US-backed government. But the reshaped power bloc included no Sunnis and immediately raised questions about its legitimacy as a unifying force.

The following fifteen paragraphs are devoted entirely to the rescue efforts in the town where several hundred people were killed the other day by suicide bombs.

I think that fact that the Iraqi leadership has again failed to comprehend the importance of creating a unifying government is a lot more important than what happened in that town.

Multiple bombings kill people there everyday. It’s a fact of life and will remain so as long as the U.S. occupies Iraq. We can feel sympathy, sorrow even on some level, and anger.

But what the Bushites have stressed as a matter of real importance is that the Iraqis create an inclusive government. That’s always been huge. And once more they failed, with apparent deliberation , to do so.

But it rates only a misleading headline and one paragraph of text out of sixteen. Sort of burying the important information by leading with it. Interesting technique.

While it is entirely possible that the editors mixed up the text of a couple of stories, in this day and age, under this government,  it’s smarter to assume that they’re screwing with us again.

Mr. Tony Snow: Mr. Vapid, Mr. Twister, Mr. Liar. Would You Buy A Used Anything From This Guy? June 15, 2007

From ThinkProgress:

Yesterday, (Tony) Snow described Petraeus’ report as merely a “first opportunity” to “have a little bit of a metric” to “see what happens when you have all the forces in place for the Baghdad security plan.”

Transcript:

Q Let me follow on that, because I think some American officials have called this an act of desperation. And I’m wondering how this is seen as an act of desperation. Does that mean that the terrorists are so concerned that they’re sort of being shut down, and that the surge is so effective that they’re now desperate to make a statement?

MR. SNOW: Well, I think, again — a couple of things. It does fit a pattern that we see throughout the region, which is that when you see things moving towards success, or when you see signs of success, that there are acts of violence. We saw that, certainly — we’ve seen that in Lebanon, once again, today, tragically. We also saw it earlier in Lebanon. We have seen it on a number of occasions where, when Israel and the Palestinians seem to be getting close to a deal, there are kidnapings and acts of violence.

+++

Q Tony, whenever you, or the President, or anyone in the administration is asked about assessing how the surge is going, you point out not everyone is there yet, it’s going to take a while — 30 or 60 days. Are we going to see any softening of the September deadline for a pivotal assessment on how this is going?

MR. SNOW: You call it a pivotal assessment — there are going to be regular assessments of what goes on — what has been going on in Iraq. And I think in September you will have the first opportunity to have a little bit of a metric to see what happens when you have all the forces in place for the Baghdad security plan. I mean, that I think — if you want a definitive judgment, I’ve warned from the very beginning about expecting some sort of magical thing to happen in September.

This is a war, and it is the sort of thing where you want to make sure that the measures that you are taking are producing results. And I think at that juncture you’re going to be able to have a little more granularity, as they say.

ThinkProgress:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/14/snow-success/

Tony Blair: Media Isn’t Nice to Me June 13, 2007

Tony Blair, falling from his perch as Prime Minister of Great Britain, fired a parting shot at the media in a London speech at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“We are all being dragged down by the way media and public life interact,” Blair said… “The fear of missing out means today’s media…hunts in a pack. In these modes it is like a feral beast just tearing people and reputations to bits.”

Tony, baby, sweetie, that’s their frigging job. When you lie, and you have, often, it’s their job to expose you and to shred you, especially when your lies and pandering send British soldiers to be shredded in Iraq. Or, as the Times story notes:

The last few years of Blair’s premiership have seen aggressive media investigations of a series of scandals, including allegations of cash paid for peerages and the government’s decision in December to halt an investigation into possible payments made to Saudi Arabia in connection with an $89 billion fighter jet contract.

The Times is being rather polite there, since what they’re referring to is the two billion in bribes and/or kickbacks paid to a Saudi bigwig.

So, Tony, you screwed up, badly, fatally for thousands of people, and the press caught you and called you out. Well boo freakin’ hoo!

Now The Lion is no fan of the press, in Britain or America. The press has blood on its hands, lots of blood, for what it’s done in the matter of Iraq, and for what it’s done and continues to do in destroying civil liberties and civil rights and the rule of law and the Constitution in the United States. But when someone whose hands are just as bloody criticizes them for finally doing their job, The Lion has no sympathy, just contempt. So stuff a sock in it, Tony. (Gosh, maybe you can borrow the sock your master, the Little Psychopath, stuffed down his flying suit in the famous Mission Accomplished performance piece on that aircraft carrier. You might want to wash it first.)