The Might of the Poison Pen:
The Case Against the Biased Elite Media during the 2004 Presidential Elections
The 2004 Presidential Election is arguably the most critical election in our generation. The world is at a crossroad and desperately needs leadership. Will it be business as usual (pre 9/11 world concept with the UN, US, EU and the rest of the world supposedly peacefully co-existing) or will it be tough measures for a desperate time? America is also at the crossroad. September Eleven changed the way we look at things forever.
Following the unprovoked 9/11 attacks on our home soil when 3000 innocent victims were murdered, President Bush has ably led America with a steely resolve and has forcibly dragged an unwilling and reluctant world to confront terror in it’s face. This election is about America doing what it needs to do to defend itself and its allies or allowing the UN the leadership role it desperately seeks to run the whole world.
Despite the President’s able leadership and notable success in the War on Terror, the mighty array of forces lined up against him this November is just mind-boggling. Never in our lifetime have we witnessed such worldwide animosity towards one person. We have all the major newspapers in the US and perhaps the world lined up against the President. A routine Google word search for “Bush” usually generates thousands of worldwide news articles bashing the President in various forms and fashion.
Four years ago, the USA Today was at least balanced in its reporting. Today, all the major newspapers, including the LA Times, NY Times, Washington Post, and the USA Today are anti-Bush. The major television networks like CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC are also unbelievably one-sided in their reporting on the election. Take for instance, the Dan Rather’s Memogate where the 60-Minutes anchor took some forged documents that purported Bush got favorable treatment while in the Texas Air National Guard and reported that as news on his 60-Minutes Show.
He did it despite CBS’s own experts having warned him about the lack of authenticity of those memos. Dan Rather had stubbornly defended his story for more than 10 days, insisting that while the documents themselves may be false, the story is true and that people should focus on the story. How on earth did Journalism 101 get so low is unfathomable! Shockingly and inexplicably, his fellow anchors from ABC and NBC, Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw had come out publicly to defend him. How much lower can the media get? We shall soon find out.
On October 25, 1 week before the elections, the NY Times published a flawed article on its front page describing how US negligence had resulted in 380 tons of high explosives missing. CBS also disclosed that it had planned to carry the same story on it’s 60 Minutes show on Sunday, 10/31/04, 2 days before the election leaving the White House no time to respond. Interestingly, NBC however ran a news report on Tuesday, 10/26/04 that by the time the 101st Airborne reached the bunker, all the explosives were already missing.
NBC should be in a position to know the truth. One of their own reporters was embedded in the 101st Airborne during that first march into Baghdad. Unfortunately, all the major networks and newspapers have already heavily publicized the NY Times report. John Kerry wasted no time in piecing together a new TV ad accusing the President of negligence based on false and unsubstantiated information. How much lower? We have our answer! NBC’s action however, is one silver lining in a dark and cloudy sky of media bias.
In the more recent case of the memo from ABC’s Mark Halperin whereby he instructed ABC’s reporters to help expose President Bush’s so called distortions against Kerry, no attempt was made to hide yet another clear case of media bias.
When Paul O’Neil and Dick Clarke, President Bush’s Treasury Secretary and Counter Terrorism Chief resigned and wrote books damaging to the President, they both became darlings of the media. Dick Clarke’s public apology to the families of 9/11 victims on national television during the 9/11 Commission public hearings was designed to inflict maximum damage to the President. Since then, both men have made their fortune from book sales!
The media had their hit pieces and the President’s standing was damaged. It did not matter that most of their allegations were proven false later. When it comes to disinformation and distortion, whoever has the media on his side tends to win and this is no exception.
The President’s enemies used the 9/11 Commission to inflict maximum damage to his Presidency and part of that strategy was to insist on the public testimony of key members of the Bush administration including Dr. Condoleeza Rice and John Ashcroft. As an appointee of the President, Dr. Condoleeza Rice does not have an obligation to testify on the Commission but through the incessant pressure drummed up by the media the President relented.
The subsequent public testimony revealed why the President was reluctant for her to testify in the first place. The Democrat attack dogs like Ben Veniste and Bob Kerrey tore at Dr. Rice as though she was the defendant in a criminal trial. She was badgered repeatedly and her attempts at explaining her answers were interrupted by the questioners’ demands for a “yes” or “no” answer. Her brilliance and cool collectedness under intense fire won her the admiration of the American people much to the consternation of those attack dogs.
The integrity of the 9/11 Commission was also severely compromised by the inclusion of Jaime Gorelick, Clinton’s deputy Attorney General.
During the 9/11 hearings, Attorney General John Ashcroft told the Commission that one of the major reason for the intelligence failure that resulted in the 9/11 attacks was the presence of a wall that barred the sharing of information between law enforcement and criminal investigation officers. He dropped a bomb shell by telling the Commissioners “this wall was put in place by one of your own” and indicated that person was none other than Jaime Gorelick.
She was instrumental in raising the wall (hereafter named the Gorelick Wall) to prevent law enforcement officers from sharing information with criminal investigators. Suddenly, Gorelick’s conflict of interest became evident to all. She was personally responsible for the major cause of the 9/11 attacks and here she was, sitting on a Presidential Commission to investigate the failures (of which she was responsible) that led to those attacks.
The Gorelick Wall had prevented Law Enforcement officers from checking into the seized computer of the convicted 1993 WTC bomber. One could reasonably enquire how a person who was so instrumental in the law enforcement of the previous administration sit on a Presidential Commission to investigate the failure of a system she helps create? An unbiased media would surely have howled at such blatant conflict of interest. True there was some muted calls for her resignation but by and large, the media had vehemently attacked John Ashcroft, the messenger.
Evidently Gorelick was placed there to ensure that the Clinton administration, which did nothing for 8 years despite the 1993 WTC bombing, the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, and the USS Cole bombing in 2000 would not get blamed for the 9/11 attacks. It worked beautifully and the 9/11 Commission eventually faulted the Bush’s administration (in power for only 8 months) as much as the Clinton’s administration (in power for 8 years).
Let’s not forget also how Sandy Berger, Clinton’s former National Security Advisor and disgraced advisor to the Kerry campaign stuffed classified documents into his socks and pants, and removed his own handwritten notes from the National Archives.
A more diligent media from an earlier era (remember Watergate?) would have screamed but not the media of today. What was stolen from the National Archives and its significance to the 9/11 findings we will never know? One can only conjectures that it is something the Clinton administration does not want America to know so badly that someone was willing to risk jail time to cover up.
One Susan McDougal actually spent two years in jail for refusing to testify in the White Water scandal. Does that ring a bell?
Another prime piece of propaganda is Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. In his so-called documentary, Michael Moore cast the President in devious light. In his own way, he propagates that President Bush made arrangements to allow members of the Saudi Royal family leave New York right after 9/11.
Despite Dick Clarke’s admission that it was his call to allow the Saudi Royal family to leave, one can only imagine how many innocent and unsuspecting undecided voters may have switched their votes over to Kerry, especially if one considers how little exposure the media had subsequently given to Dick Clarke’s admission.
Michael Moore also cast aspersion on the fact that President Bush waited a full 9 minutes before leaving a classroom full of little kids upon receiving news of the 9/11 attacks.
How many of Moore’s duped audience have ever heard that the President was reading to a classroom full of little kids and he was calm and collected enough not to cause a panic among the kids?
How many of Moore’s duped audience have ever heard that at that moment, the head mistress of that school had decided that she was going to vote for the President?
My guess is not a whole lot because the elite and biased media would have none of it.
By contrast, how many have heard that John Kerry sat in his office in the senate for a full 40 minutes not knowing what to do when he heard about the attacks? Those were his own words as reported by NewsMax. My guess is not a whole lot because the elite media have not and will not broadcast stuff detrimental to their candidate.
This election has also seen the most vicious attacks on the President ever. 527 organizations like Moveon.org, AmericaComeTogether, Media Fund, etc have spent more than $80 million in television ads that viciously attacked the President. In one such ad, a picture of Hitler slowly morphed into the President face.
Despite the good intention of Senator McCain and Feingold, the campaign finance law had some loopholes that Democrats cleverly exploited. 527 organizations are not regulated by McCain-Feingold and can have unlimited soft money contributions so long as they do not coordinate with either party and do not explicitly call for the ouster of any particular candidate.
As early as March 2004, the Republicans have voiced their concern about these 527’s but the FEC refused to do anything. Thus the Republicans were faced with a huge disadvantage with these 527’s. The playing field has never been more tilted.
Then in July 2004, justice struck. A small group of Vietnam veterans who called themselves Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth, armed with a measly $250,000 budget aired a short advertisement in a few small markets in some swing states. In that ad, each of these veterans stated that John Kerry lied about his record in Vietnam and is not fit to be the Commander-in-Chief.
The elite news media were up in arms. In unison, these veterans were derided, reviled, and totally cast aside. John Kerry, in his typical lawyerly style, marshaled his forces and started threatening television stations against airing those ads, as well as threatening the book publisher. Nobody, with the exception of Foxnews and Newsmax gave these veterans any time of the day.
It was poetic justice that this group of veterans, totally ignored by the elite media, armed with a shoestring budget took the wind out of John Kerry’s campaign boat. To date, the group had raised more than $7 million.
This is nothing compared to the $400 million raised by the leftist 527s. George Soros, the patron saint of these 527s have donated more than $40 million to these organizations and had publicly stated that his goal in life is to defeat President Bush. He even went on record that he is willing to donate his entire $7 billion if someone can guarantee the President’s defeat.
The election rhetoric has also gotten more and more bitter. Al Gore screamed that President Bush betrayed the country. Howard Dean insinuated that President Bush had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks.
Ted Kennedy made the outlandish claim that the war in Iraq was concocted in Crawford, Texas.
McAuliffe, the DNC chief repeatedly claimed that President Bush was AWOL in his National Guard Service.
Abetting these vitriolic outbursts was a most willing media! It is really important that all Americans go out to vote on November 2, 2004 to make an unequivocal statement that the White House cannot be bought and that the Poison Pen is not the mightiest weapon on earth. We must declare that decency, honesty, and old-fashioned morality still has a place in the hearts of simple Americans and that thanks to the Internet and its so-called bloggers we do not have to rely on the elite media as our sole source of information, in this case disinformation.
One of the NY Times best seller, “Unfit for Command” written by swift boat vet John O’Neill had stood for two months atop the NY Times best seller list without getting any mention by the elite media. Finally and reluctantly, it was accorded a book review by the NY Times, albeit a trashy and unflattering one printed at the same time with a more flattering review of Kelly Kitty’s Bush bashing book that was given three full days of national television exposure by NBC.
Another book that was totally ignored by the media is “ Stolen Honor”. The book described the plight of several Prisoners of War (POW) in Vietnam and how John Kerry’s 1971 congressional testimony where he falsely accused them of being war criminals committing atrocities on a daily basis in a manner reminiscent of Genghis Khan; the burning of villages, shooting in free fire zones, raping, killing, with the full knowledge of the military command was used by their North Vietnamese captors during their torture.
Sinclair Broadcasting, an independent network’s attempt to show the documentary on their 62 stations was greeted by the media with a howl of protest, lawsuits, and a John Kerry’s complaint to the FEC. The pressure worked and Sinclair came up with a watered down version that infuriated their more conservative viewers. It is precisely in situations like this that the might of a biased media can be brought to bear.
The Poison Pen has written, and mighty is its work. Never in the history of mankind has such a great force been arrayed against a single person.
The President is in a precarious position. All that he stands for; a strong, compassionate, and moral America that spearheads the spread of Freedom and Liberty abroad hang in the balance.
His record is impeccable.
He enacted the Medicare Reform of 2004 and for the first time gave seniors a prescription drug coverage, an issue that the Democrats have been championing and talking for years with no results.
He led a bi-partisan effort in reforming education with his “No Child Left Behind” Act, another pet Democrat project.
He inherited a recession, was hit by the 9/11 attacks 8 months into his Presidency that crippled the tourism and airline industry (a million jobs lost right there) but by introducing the most sweeping tax-cuts in history.
He turned the recession around in the shortest time on record and created 1.6 million jobs in the last 13 months.
He also became the first wartime president to win two wars against Terror.
On the other side is the most liberal senator with a 30-year record of Big Government, Big Spending, Tax Increases, Soft on National Defense, and Pro-Abortion and Gay Rights with a publicly stated but seldom reported position of relinquishing control of the US military to the UN.
Make no mistake that John Kerry is a tough competitor and his comeback during the Democratic primaries clearly indicated that. Nevertheless, his sleaziness is easy to see. With his record, this election should not even be close.
This is a candidate who hardly ever follows the teachings of his church with his unabashed support for abortion-on-demand who suddenly shows up during the last two weeks of the campaign in an African American church flanked by the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
Somehow when a democrat uses the pulpit for political purposes, there is just not much outrage from the separation of Church and State lobby. He even quoted scriptures from the book of James? Perhaps someone should show him Jesus’ own words “a tree is known by the fruit it produces” and John Kerry has certainly produced much fruits of the liberal kind during his 19-year senate run. Perhaps someone should show the sadly misguided Christians he mixed around with the scriptural verse “beware of wolves that come in sheep’s clothing”.
How about a candidate who has always been for gun control suddenly shows up brandishing his rifle in a flak jacket hunting for geese?
Another highly charged election year issue is the issue of embryonic stem cell research. The media has blatantly ignored available scientific data on embryonic stem cells (that it does not offer any cure to diseases) and have instead focused attention on the President’s objection to allow federal funds for such research. The media lavished attention on Ronald Reagan JR whose pro-embryonic stem cell research stance ranked a distant second to his dislike for President Bush.
John Edwards was not just irresponsible and cruel when he stated recently that Christopher Reeves would still be alive and walking if John Kerry is President. He was preying on the emotional mindset of a grieving family and millions of Reeves movie fans. An extra vote is so important to John Edwards that there is no line he will not cross to get it. This was so amply demonstrated during the recent presidential/vice presidential debates where both John Kerry and John Edwards chose to opt out Mary Cheney’s sexuality on national television, with the intention to drive a wedge between Dick Cheney and his religious conservative base. While 2 out of 3 viewers reacted negatively to those stunts, there was scarcely a whimper from the elite media.
Last but not least in this epochal struggle is the future composition of the Supreme Court. We are really one or two appointments away from mayhem and the next President may have the opportunity to appoint up to 3 justices. In the most recent case of Judicial Tyranny, Lawrence versus Texas, Justice Kennedy wrote for the majority that the decision was based not so much on the US Constitution but on the European Court of Human Rights. In the words of Dr. James Dobson, this is ground for impeachment.
The choices cannot be starker and the dangers more present. This is no ordinary election. With the world drifting inexorably and inevitably towards prophetic end-times, President Bush may yet represent a setback to the global one world government system that John Kerry may have unwittingly supported (benefit of doubt applied here).
Shall we just sit back and watch as President Bush and our hopes for a stronger America are being swept away by this global tide of forces or shall we marshal our forces and answer the call on November 2, 2004 one more time? I have made my choice and I hope you will join me on this crusade.
Encourage each and every of your friends to vote for the President.
Discuss with your undecided friends on the different issues. Try to win them over.
Let your rubber meet the road today! Hit the pavements now!
There are 6 days left to fight for an America we all believe in. If we don’t fight, after November 2, there may be nothing left to fight.
And as you fight, pray continuously that the Lord Almighty will have mercy on this land.
We have more than a few good reasons to vote for the President. How about four million more reasons to do so? Records show that four million evangelical Christians stayed home during the 2000 elections. God forbid that should happen this time!
Please do your part to encourage all your Christian friends and acquaintances to exercise their votes for the President and if this attempt to summarize the issues helped you in any way, please forward far and wide. God Bless.
