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Walter Cronkite, the godfather of biased media,

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Edit: Oh, oh, I am slowly realizing that maybe you are saying that Walter is a *liberal* and that what he has to say does not agree with your views.

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I was unimpressed by the RatherBiased guy

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Cronkite has himself admitted his bias... if you want I can Google one of his many quotes.

Oh wait, here is one of them: "Everybody knows that there's a liberal, that there's a heavy liberal persuasion among correspondents."

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Off the top of my head, Cronkite has opposed the Iraq war because it was a military action by the US without UN approval,

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but never once criticized Clinton's actions in Yugoslavia (without UN approval or even Congressional approval). Yugoslavia posed no thread to the USA.

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He also raised no concerns over France conducting action in the Ivory Coast without UN approval.

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Your missing the point of journalism. The journalists views are not supposed to enter into the coverage or the story itself. If Tim Russert is a Democrat, that's fine, who cares. His or any journalists views should not be a factor. But, if by watching a particular journalists show reveals that person's personal views, than that person is not being a good journalist because they are letting their bias enter into it. You tend to agree with the bias so you just think it's "true".

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He is the Godfather because he handed the duties over to Dan Rather.

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....I can tell you that Bush's strategy is to keep national security (either Iraq or the War on Terror as a whole) the main issue.

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As the polls have shown, it doesn't matter if it's good news or bad news regarding Iraq. People still trust Bush more than Kerry when it comes to Iraq and terrorism. Let's not debate who you think would do a better job. The point is the polls show that this is Bush's strong point.

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So, when the planted ammo cache story broke, the Republicans decided it was better to drop the UN thing and keep the cache story front and center even though it was actually the Democrat's "October Surprise". Kerry's only chance is to keep domestic issues as the main focus and I think his camp miscalculated by running with the ammo cache story. There is even speculation that Kerry knew this story was coming during the debate when he said something like "and weapons from that dump are being used against our soldiers."

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A funny theory is that since Clinton's people are running the Kerry campaign now, they actually did this on purpose because a Kerry victory means that Hillary can't run until 2012. This is what a lot of Republicans think is possible, I wonder what you liberals/progressives/Democrats/etc think about that... I think it's far fetched, but "fun" to think about.

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I highly doubt that the UBL tape was planned by the Bush people. That would imply that the Republicans and Al-Jazeera are working together and that's impossible. They've already endorsed Kerry

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Rove, while perhaps the most willing, is smart enough to know what works, though. His masterful reputation is well-deserved, but he isn't God. So maybe there isn't a surprise....or maybe he tried to plant some fake Kerry memos and it didn't work.... or maybe we'll only learn what it was in 2038 from a deathbed confession.

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On the Larry King show, Walter Cronkite, the godfather of biased media, says that Carl Rove, set up this whole Usama bin Laden lecture and broadcast.

Please.

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The choice of 2038 is an interesting one; His time_t is 32 bits?

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Correspondents tend to be college-educated. Colleges are known to be havens for liberal thinking, so correspondents must then be disproportionately liberal.

This is bordering on elitist territory by assuming that most college educated peoples are of a liberal mindset so, in turn, most conservatives must be farm raised, bible thumping, simpletons who are too scared by new things to be open minded to a better, progressive utopia. But I'll assume this wasn't your point... While colleges are indeed havens for hacky sacks, hemp beaded necklaces and protest movements du jour, I think a lot of this begins and ends in that environment. While most people don't graduate to later become Republicans (it's probably split), most do in fact go on to lead pretty conservative lives, even if they don't vote that way.

Journalism professors, on the other hand, do tend to be quite liberal. I know first hand how we had to read only liberal books on the evils of consumerism and the blessings of large government in order to pass a class (and write only praising reviews to get a good grade). I thank God that I was repulsed by the requirement to write at a 5th grade reading level. This moved me out of broadcast journalism.

The real problem IMO is that most journalists are driven by the desire to "change the world" which is not what journalism is about. If anything, that's what editorials are for. But, growing up in the age of Watergate and the McCarthyism, there is a mold for these budding journalists to fit into... Unfortunately, journalists/activists don't get the luxury of graduating to a better life. Instead, they get hired by the likes of Arthur O. Sulzberger.

I seriously doubt you'll be motivated to write and complain about a bunch of journalists

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Quote: Off the top of my head, Cronkite has opposed the Iraq war because it was a military action by the US without UN approval,

Seems like one of many good reasons.

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My memory, though, is that there was more of a sense amond the world at large after Bosnian genocide that it was necessary to do *something*, and that Clinton would have been criticized no matter what path was pursued.

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Who would have criticized Bush for *not* invading Iraq?

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Presently, we have a sitting President who *may* have been wirelessly prompted through a Presidential debate, but the only journalists with the temerity to ask what that bulge was live within the confines of a comic strip. That's not good.

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Tim Russert *is* one of those college-educated liberals, I think. What does he do that is unfair?

I said in my post that Russert was a liberal and I didn't care. He does his job. He respects the people he interviews and respects his position as the host of one of the longest running political shows in the US. I have deep respect for him. It's impossible to expect any reporter to have "no views" at all. The problem only shows up when those views are reflected in the reporting. He does slip up from time to time on the Today show, but that's my fault for tuning in!

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To my amazement, there are still people who think it *was* winnable, and blame Cronkite, Fonda and others for our defeat. You?

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Oh, and Edward R. Murrow was, I'm pretty certain, a liberal, thank goodness.

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McGovern spells out what liberalism has accomplished. What has conservatism gotten us?

That's a different era my friend. John Kennedy was a democrat but supported preemptive action and lower taxes. I think he'd crap if he saw that Howard Dean represents his party more than he does today. Conservatism, by nature, is all that we hold sacred in this great nation of ours. That's why we want to conserve it. Winning the Cold War and allowing millions of people to live in freedom comes to mind.

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Did Cronkite keep an office at CBS?

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Does anybody in the current Iraq command structure respect Dill O'Reilly? Oh, he's not a journalist. Or is he?

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NPR comsymp Daniel Schorr had an interesting off-the-cuff spin this AM -- that any mention of "Iraq" helps Kerry while any mention of "terrorism" helps Bush. I don't know.

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Knowledge of unsecured or porrly secured dumps from which insurgents could lift large quantities of explosives, ammo, RPGs were in the news early on in the "post-war" war, weren't they?

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I am not sure why this one is getting so much attention other than the IAEA seals.

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A small voice in my head says "Do I want to spend the next four years listening to Republicans yell 'That Flipflopper!'" and a very tiny part of me wants to say "George, you want it? You can have it."

I'm glad that you are coming to terms with Bush's inevitable victory already. But the thing to remember is that if Bush wins, as Americans, each and everyone of us is a winner.

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The one I really want to know about is the "American Al Queda" What's up with that?

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Maybe he needed to buy a new video camera.

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UN approval is nice (although it wasn't enough for Kerry in the Persian Gulf War), but shouldn't be a requirement for the United States or any country to protect itself. Especially when there was no way in hell that France, Russia, Germany or China were going to ever support such action (and France promised to veto it). What were we to do? Out bid Saddam's bribes?

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Once Saddam succeeded in lifting sanctions and reconstituting his weapons programs,

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bringing it up, is because only the "Bush attacked Afghanistan for an oil line!" people are buying into this.

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Who can ever know? I was born in 1975, so I was too preoccupied with um.. I don't remember. I do know that the Vietnamese say that the Anti-War movement in the US is what gave them faith to keep fighting. At that point, they knew they didn't have to win strategically. All they had to do was cause enough US casualties to sway public opinion. The Vietnamese even have John Kerry and Jane Fonda in their museum . I sure as hell think that we could have won, had the war been fought differently from Day One, but that's all hindsight.

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That's a different era my friend. John Kennedy was a democrat but supported preemptive action and lower taxes.

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Conservatism, by nature, is all that we hold sacred in this great nation of ours.

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That's why we want to conserve it. Winning the Cold War and allowing millions of people to live in freedom comes to mind.

Ah, but that's helping your fellow man, that's liberalism

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I think they do in spades. Because he supports and respects them. He honors their service and doesn't view them as war criminals in waiting.

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I'm glad that you are coming to terms with Bush's inevitable victory already. But the thing to remember is that if Bush wins, as Americans, each and everyone of us is a winner.

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At least we know his DVD player is working.. he seems to have a copy of Moore's 9/11.

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UN approval is nice (although it wasn't enough for Kerry in the Persian Gulf War), but shouldn't be a requirement for the United States or any country to protect itself.

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RICE [10/25/04]: When people ask whether Iraq is a part of the war on terror, well, of course. Not only did Saddam support terrorists, not only was he a weapons of mass destruction threat and all of those things, but he was a tremendous barrier to change in the Middle East.

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CHENEY [8/26/02]: Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.

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RUMSFELD [9/19/02]: No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people than the regime of Saddam Hussein and Iraq.

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RICE [9/8/02]: You will get different estimates about precisely how close he is. We do know that he is actively pursuing a nuclear weapon.

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"if unchecked, it [Baghdad] probably will have a nuclear weapon during this decade (See INR alternative view at the end of these key judgments)"

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The activities we have detected do not add up to a compelling case that Iraq is currently pursuing an integrated and comprehensive approach to acquire nuclear weapons.

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BUSH [10/7/02]: America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.

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POWELL [UN]: The gravity of the moment is matched by the gravity of the threat that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction pose to the world. Let me now turn to those deadly weapons programs and describe why they are real and present dangers to the region and to the world.

POWELL [UN]: We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more.

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CHENEY [8/26/02]: Many of us are convinced that Saddam Hussein will acquire nuclear weapons fairly soon.

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RUMSFELD [1/29/03]: His regime has the design for a nuclear weapon, was working on several different methods of enriching uranium, and recently was discovered seeking significant quantities of uranium from Africa.

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"There is no corroboration from other sources that such an agreement [to buy uranium from Africa] was reached or that uranium was transferred.

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BUSH [1/28/03]: The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.

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BUSH [10/7/02]: Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

BUSH [9/12/02]: Iraq has made several attempts to buy high-strength aluminum tubes used to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon. Should Iraq acquire fissile material, it would be able to build a nuclear weapon within a year.

BUSH [1/28/03]: Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production.

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RICE [9/8/2002]"are only really suited for nuclear weapons programs, centrifuge programs."

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CHENEY [1/30/03]: His regime aids and protects terrorists, including members of Al Qaeda. He could decide secretly to provide weapons of mass destruction to terrorists for use against us.

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BUSH [9/25/02]: The war on terror, you can't distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror.

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Once Saddam succeeded in lifting sanctions and reconstituting his weapons programs,...

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... the same people that point the finger at Bush for letting 9/11 happen, except that this time, they would have a valid argument. As Churchill said, World War II could have been avoided, and hundreds of thousands of lives would have been saved if the world confronted the fascist regimes in Europe before country after country began to fall under their control. But, it was the USA's isolationist movement, Britain's appeasement and France's head in the sand that let World War II happen.

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Little did we know that France having its head in the sand was better than where their head is now.

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A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.

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Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

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Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.

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Geez Jim! I wanted to have some free time tonight! Let the bottom posting begin!

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This is bordering on elitist territory by assuming that most college educated peoples are of a liberal mindset so...[snip].

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Journalism professors, on the other hand, do tend to be quite liberal. I know first hand how we had to read only liberal books on the evils of consumerism and the blessings of large government in order to pass a class

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(and write only praising reviews to get a good grade). I thank God that I was repulsed by the requirement to write at a 5th grade reading level. This moved me out of broadcast journalism.

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The real problem IMO is that most journalists are driven by the desire to "change the world" which is not what journalism is about. If anything, that's what editorials are for. But, growing up in the age of Watergate and the McCarthyism, there is a mold for these budding journalists to fit into... Unfortunately, journalists/activists don't get the luxury of graduating to a better life. Instead, they get hired by the likes of Arthur O. Sulzberger.

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I seriously doubt you'll be motivated to write and complain about a bunch of journalists

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UN approval is nice (although it wasn't enough for Kerry in the Persian Gulf War),

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but shouldn't be a requirement for the United States or any country to protect itself.

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If not having UN approval is "one of many reasons" to oppose something, I don't how this can be considered anything but a global test.

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But again, we are debating issues that we'll never agree on.

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The real point was that a journalist's viewpoint should not enter into his job.

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Whether it be politics, sports or the purple section of USA Today, a journalists job is to tell the public what has happened.

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The world at large can have whatever sense they want. The point is that Russia vowed to veto any UN action in Bosnia so the US acted unilaterally. Clinton was smart enough to know that the UN was and is useless except when it comes to issuing pointless resolutions. (Just look at how many humanitarian disasters have happened as the UN sat idly by.)

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Some ground troops would have been nice, and it would ave been nice to let our pilots fly lower to avoid civilian deaths, but Clinton did the right thing.

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Once Saddam succeeded in lifting sanctions and reconstituting his weapons programs, the same people that point the finger at Bush for letting 9/11 happen, except that this time, they would have a valid argument. As Churchill said

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This is tin-foil hat stuff.

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Was he wearing earmuffs or something to cover his ears so that we couldn't see an IFB sitting in there?

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I said in my post that Russert was a liberal and I didn't care. He does his job. He respects the people he interviews and respects his position as the host of one of the longest running political shows in the US. I have deep respect for him. It's impossible to expect any reporter to have "no views" at all. The problem only shows up when those views are reflected in the reporting. He does slip up from time to time on the Today show, but that's my fault for tuning in!

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To my amazement, there are still people who think it *was* winnable, and blame Cronkite, Fonda and others for our defeat. You?

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With me squinting through my bifocals to read the small-ass type in this BBS post window, if you haven't seen the hundreds of typos in my previous posts, then maybe you weren't paying attention. Sometimes I see them in Preview Mode, but I got 'Fark, I am too tired. What is a little typo? Will Bitt track me down and shoot me?"

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You can probably tell your web browser to enforce a minimum font size.

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I still haven't seen it.