Brian Williams Calls LA Terrorist Plot 'Alleged'
Posted by David Flanagan
NewsBusters
February 10, 2006
The first words issued by NBC Nightly News host Brian Williams tonight were as follows:
<<< "The plot thickens. Tonight, the President reveals new details about an alleged terrorist plot involving hijackers, shoe bombers, and a sky scraper in Los Angeles.
But there are questions." >>>
And with that, Brian Williams launched into what appared to be quite a skeptical analysis of the details released by President Bush today regarding the foiled plot to hijack a passenger jet and crash it into an L.A. sky scraper.
The tone of the analysis seemed to convey that most everything revealed by the President was suspect and timed for political reasons. Yet the facts of the foiled terror plot stand on their own. In regards to the timing of this announcement, it seemed to me that the NBC News staff expected viewers to look with suspicion on the fact that the President was releasing details of this foiled attack today. Why should we be suspicious of this? Washington, after all, is all about politics and timing.
Did Brian Williams ever bother to question the timing of the NY Times story on the NSA terrorist monitoring program? That story, after all, was timed so as to help in the promotion of the author James Risen's new book, 'State of War : The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration'.
Again, if timing is so important, then perhaps we should look at the way NBC heaped negative press around the story regarding the foiled plot. First by calling it the "alleged terrorist plot," as if the President's claims were suspect. In a subtle way, hinting that the President's claims were "false until proven true."
Yet, is this not what the MSM has been demaning of the President for the past few years? "Where's the beef," has been their question. So the President recently offered some details, saying that anti-terror efforts have foiled approximately 10 different terrorist attempts in the past few years.
But was that good enough? Of course not. So the President responded again today with the details of one of those foiled plots, so that the American public could get a slight peek behind the curtain of national security and feel more confident that valiant efforts were being made to protect citizens. Furthermore, the details of this foiled plot shows that such valliant efforts are paying off.
Yet, the MSM and Democrats remain unimpressed. What must the President do, create a reality TV show so that we can all see their daily efforts to foil terrorist attacks in this country and around the world?
Hmmm... Now that's got me thinking.
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