MSM – the Main Stream Media

12/21/08  Commentary

The MSM Demonization of President Bush

The bias of the mainstream media is nothing new.  As reported earlier, a Pew Research Center survey released in late October found, for example, that 70% of voters agreed that the press wanted Mr. Obama to win the White House; the figure was 62% even among Democratic respondents.  The same analysis found a Democrat-friendly press dating back to the 1992 presidential election.

And yet, despite knowledge of their bias, the MSM continues to be a powerful force in American politics.  As much as we would desire it to be otherwise, they still drive public opinion, and can play a major role in national, as well as state, politics.

The MSM was clearly in Mr. Obama’s corner in the November election, using a variety of tactics to help their candidate win:

• the demonization of President Bush and, likewise, Republican policies
• the politics of personal destruction – evidenced by personal attacks on Governor Palin and even Joe the Plumber.
• attacks on Senator McCain, questioning his ability to lead at his age, as well as his citizenship (proved much more convincingly than Mr. Obama’s)
• the tying of Mr. McCain to Mr. Bush, trying to exploit his unpopularity, which was media-driven to start with
• the tying of Mr. Bush, Mr. McCain and Republicans to the financial meltdown

We will deal here with the first point – the shameless demonization of President Bush by the MSM.  How did they accomplish this?  How did they drive public opinion?

1.      The 2000 Election.  The MSM managed to convince many, through their presentation of the events following election night 2000, that George Bush and the Supreme Court had “stolen the election.”  Patently ridiculous.  Al Gore never led in any official vote counts.  First, he tried to throw out veteran absentee ballots, then cherry-pick recounts from Democratic districts.  Even these tactics were doomed to failure until Democratic operatives at the polls began to try to “determine the will of the voters” rather than count.  The Supreme Court rightly stopped the chicanery.

2.      The Iraq war.  History tells us that the latest conflict is a continuation of the first Gulf War, where Iraq hostility and the subsequent invasion of Kuwait was put down by allied forces, including the US.  Iraq’s refusal to follow the terms of surrender, including the monitoring of Iraq’s capability and willingness to produce weapons of mass destruction, resulted in extension of the initial conflict.  All of Congress viewed the same intelligence as President Bush, and overwhelmingly voted to renew the conflict.  There was never any truth to the liberal mantra that “Bush lied and kids died.”  Liberal shill Cindy Sheehan was effective at getting out the liberal propaganda, until she was discredited after visiting Hugo Chavez.

3.      The war on Terror.  Liberals took their opposition to the prosecution of the Iraq war a step further, labeling it a failure, with Senator Harry Reid leading calling for an immediate withdrawal.  Despite mounting evidence, the MSM refused to acknowledge the success of the 2008 surge.  But, how many attacks have there been on American soil since 9/11?  How many terrorists have been  eliminated since the commencement of this phase of the war?

President Bush summed it up when he said, “While there's room for an honest and healthy debate about the decisions I made — and there's plenty of debate — there can be no debate about the results in keeping America safe."  According to the AP, he credited his administration terrorism fighting strategy: reorganizing the government's intelligence and military communities to confront the threat; pre-emptively targeting potential threats and making no distinction between terrorists and their supporters; and nurturing democracies.

4.      The Plame Affair.  This was another liberal witch-hunt.  There was never a crime committed:  there is only a law prohibiting the outing of a covert agent – Ms. Plame had been working at a desk for seven years.  Yet, there was much investigation and a perjury charge against “Scooter” Libby, not to mention the MSM having further opportunity to sully the reputation of the administration.

5.      Hurricane Katrina.  Since when does a president have any control over nature, or the bureaucracy’s handling of the aftermath?

In his November 13 article, “Bitterfest ’08,” National Review Senior Editor Jay Nordlinger  makes the following observations:

“I’m sorry, but the treatment of Bush – the demonization of Bush – is appalling.  Absolutely appalling.  And it says something rotten about our political culture.  Think for a second about Katrina – the hurricane.  I have no doubt that the federal government made mistakes, and no doubt that Bush fumbled the PR aspect.  But this was a huge natural disaster – and people acted as though Bush caused it.”

And then we had singer Kanye West telling us, through the media, that George Bush “hated black people.’  Give us a break!

6.      The financial meltdown.  A complicated set of events led to our financial crisis, but the MSM did its best to lay it at the feet of Bush, McCain and the Republicans.  In fact, the media’s success at this could have turned the election.  Yes, there was deregulation on the Republican’s watch, but the “watch-dogs” in Congress, namely Democratic Senators Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd, did nothing to anticipate, or help with, the crisis.  

In his “Talking Points” memo,” “Hating President Bush’” on December 16, Bill O'Reilly said the following:

“After 9/11, his administration has kept the homeland safe, a very big achievement. Al Qaeda was also badly damaged by aggressive Bush policies. His generosity has saved millions of lives in Africa, a continent largely ignored by the rest of the world. And for three-quarters of his administration, there was relative prosperity in America.”

“But those accomplishments have been marginalized by a hostile media and a vicious hate-Bush movement. It's not really fair, but that's the way it is.”

We agree wholeheartedly with Mr. O’Reilly’s sentiments.