Charges against Ritter remain unproven...Guess who started it...Ann Coulter. To keep from being sued, she wisely uses the word "suspected": "When Scott Ritter, an expert on Iraq wandered off the Republican reservation to expose Bush administration lies about weapons of mass destruction, the right wing media struck. They reported Ritter had been accused of trying to pick up a girl in an online chat room. Media darling and hypocritical critic Ann Coulter, attacking Ritter in FrontPageMagazine.com, wrote, "Scott Ritter, former U.N. arms inspector turned peacenik turned suspected pederast. . . ." All without mentioning Ritter is a Bush-voting Republican."
By Mike Hersh
Online Journal Contributing Writer
May 7, 2003—At one time, there may have been a liberal bias in the American media. No more. Recently, the ABC News website "The Note" asked: "Could anyone deny that most Washington reporters tend to move more aggressively to bring down Republicans in trouble than Democrats in trouble?"
Of course everyone should "deny" this preposterously false although often repeated assertion. It's easily disproved and explained by accounts in the foreign press.
Reuters News Service quoted vice chairman of AOL Time Warner Ted Turner's assessment of FOX News owner Rupert Murdoch and the media in general: "He's a warmonger," Turner said about Murdoch. "He promoted [the Iraq War]," Turner added, "The media is too concentrated, too few people own too much."
Turner said, "There's really five companies that control 90 percent of what we read, see and hear. It's not healthy." (See Turner Calls Rival Media Mogul Murdoch 'Warmonger', by Duncan Martell, Reuters News Service, 25 April 2003.)
Corporate advertisers refuse to support moderate or liberal voices in the US media. Corporations dominate the media. General Electric runs NBC, CNBC and MSNBC. Right-wing cult leader Sun Myung Moon owns the Washington Times media empire which includes the United Press International syndicate.
Rupert Murdoch controls FOX "news" and several "news" papers. Richard M. Scaife sponsors various "news" outlets dedicated to demonizing even moderate Democrats like Bill Clinton. The Clear Channel radio conglomerate dominates radio, and sponsors right-wing activism while censoring and punishing people like the Dixie Chicks.
Anyone with more brains than bias admits the press in Washington relentlessly attacks Democrats while giving Republicans free rides. The only reason anyone can think otherwise is that Republicans commit more crimes, voice more hatred, and act more hypocritically than Democrats. So even with all the help the media can give them, a few Republican flubs leak out.
Does the name Gary Condit ring a bell? What about Joe Scarborough? The former, the Democrat, was hounded because a woman with whom he had sex was missing. Turns out he was innocent of wrongdoing. The latter, the Republican, got a free ride in the media, although his young female aide was found dead in his office with her skull fractured. Will we ever know what really happened? More on that later.
During the 1988 campaign, the media knew George H. W. Bush cheated on his wife with Jennifer Fitzgerald. For some reason, the "liberal media" refused to run the story, even after Bush lied about it. Were they as respectful of Gary Hart? During the 1996 campaign, the media knew Bob Dole cheated on his various wives with various girls he put on the government payroll, but refused to run the story. Were they as respectful of Bill Clinton?
Newt Gingrich, Bob Barr, Dan Burton, Henry Hyde and other rabid Clinton-haters led the sexual witch hunt again our duly elected president, spending about $50 million to sniff around an act of consensual sex. The media didn't report that these four hypocrites also lied about sex. They did cover Burton's tirades calling President Clinton a "scumbag" and accusing him of murdering Vince Foster.
Gingrich attacked former House Speaker James Wright's book deal, then cashed in with a multi-million dollar deal from Rupert Murdoch after pushing through legislation which helped Murdoch expand his media empire and make billions in the process. Newt cheated on his first wife with his second, and was busy cheating on wife number 2 with a pretty young aide on the government payroll while he was blasting Bill Clinton for fooling around with Monica.
Newt refused to adequately support his daughters living with his first wife—they had to beg for charity to stay fed and to keep their electricity on! Burton fathered a child out of wedlock and refused to support him.
Bob Barr paid for an abortion, something he calls "baby killing" when others do it, and lied under oath in a divorce case. Henry Hyde broke up a woman's family, romancing her and leaving her kids without a father in what he called a "youthful indiscretion" he committed at the ripe age of 41!
There are countless other cases of Republican Clinton-hunter hypocrisy. Lying under oath and other indiscretions—by the Hutchinsons, Helen Chenoweth, Tom DeLay, and other indignant Clinton critics. All of them guilty of everything they claimed Clinton did and more!
Lack of mass media attention to these Republican scandals allowed AWOL Bush and others to promise a "return of honor and dignity" to Washington and "changing the tone."
On bigger issues, GHW Bush lied about Iran-Contra, claiming he was "out of the loop," and the media remained mum about a massive arms smuggling, drug dealing and money skimming operation run in violation of US law—a criminal enterprise run out of the White House! Bush escaped press examination during and after his role in these crimes.
Bush escaped criminal prosecution when he pardoned several criminals to prevent them from testifying against him—the Iran-Contra criminals. Contrast that free ride against the vicious press' going away present for President Clinton: "Pardongate."
The Washington media hounded of Bill Clinton—a duly elected president They stalked Clinton for Whitewater, a land deal in he was a silent partner and lost money. For legally avoiding Vietnam service. For trying pot in England. For consensual sex with a young woman. For countless even more trivial accusations.
Contrast Clinton Hunting vs. AWOL Bush's Free Ride
The media gave Bush a free pass throughout the 2000 campaign all the way to stealing the election. The national press so obsessed with all things Clinton refused to report about Bush going AWOL from the National Guard.
After endless Whitewater rehashes, they ignored Bush's insider trading of Harken stock and lying about it. After taking the White House, Bush did special favors for Enron's "Kenny Boy" Lay and lied about that, too. The mass media is complicit in the cover-up.
Against all this evidence "The Note" writers—identified as Mark Halperin, Marc Ambinder, David Chalian and Brooke Brower—complained that the "liberal media" were beating up on Sen. Rick Santorum for making bizarre and bigoted remarks. This after doing the same to Sen. Trent Lott for his racist comments. Set aside the absurd notion that the "liberal media" would really beat up on itself for liberalism, consider what "The Note" noted:
They explained "Concerned Women for America and the Family Research Council, two conservative social policy groups with the ear of the White House, have denounced the denunciations, and are calling on Santorum to repeat and extend his remarks. Defending Santorum is, to many, akin to defending traditional values." (See I'm Sorry, I Didn't Think I Was Going to Talk About Man on Dog with a United States Senator)
What Liberal Media?
Eric Alterman wrote a book by that title, and it makes an excellent case against the sloppy, unsubstantiated book Bias by Bernard Goldberg, which alleged liberals control the media. The argument in Bias—aside from anecdotes which were easily debunked—is very odd.
Goldberg admitted that the media tend to support increasingly right-wing Republican candidates and policies over Democratic ones. However, he claimed that refusal to run stories which employed racism, sexism, gay bashing and other intolerance demonstrates left-wing media bias.
This does not represent "liberal bias" so much as the right-wing Republicans' stark departure from—some might say backlash against—American progress toward mutual respect, pluralism and equal opportunity.
Media disapproval of Santorum and Lott shows only "bias" against the right-wing open embrace of bigotry, elitism, and crassness. Anyone who calls this "liberal bias" is arguing that only liberals decry segregation and racism or gratuitous attacks on gays.
During the 2000 election, right-wing pro-Bush bias dominated. The excellent Daily Howler website lists hundreds of examples of the media goring the Democrat while cuddling up to the Republican nominee. Studies proved most of the coverage of Al Gore falsely accused him of lying, while most coverage of Bush called him a "different kind" of Republican or otherwise just repeated Bush's campaign themes.
The media refused to cover explosive stories about Bush, while pestering Gore and making up bizarre distortions of Gore's comments to depict him as a liar. Remember the flap about Bill Clinton "dodging the draft?" The media hounded Clinton about that and rumors he tried marijuana. Contrast media assaults on Clinton and Gore to their gentle treatment of Bush.
Many reputable sources allege that Bush went AWOL from the National Guard, which is a crime. There are rumors Bush used cocaine, and evidence he failed a drug test while in the Guard, thereby losing his status as a pilot. Reports indicate Bush may have violated the law by trading Harken stock as an insider and then lied under oath on SEC notification forms to cover this up.
There is reason to suspect Bush also lied under oath to cover up crimes in the Texas "Funeralgate" scandal, after doing favors for a Bush family friend, SCI CEO Robert Waltrip. If these charges are true, Bush thereby committed perjury and obstructed justice before running for president. The media led a witch-hunt against Bill Clinton and Al Gore for much less. Why did the media ignore all of these stories? Clearly right-wing bias played a major part.
Bush lost the 2000 election nationwide and in Florida. Bush lost the popular vote and the media consortium determined that Al Gore received the most legal votes in Florida. Under Florida law and the US Constitution, Gore won the election. This even though Bush's partisans in Florida pulled out all stops cheating to win. The US Civil Rights Commission determined that Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris and other Republican operatives violated the US Voting Rights Act and Florida law but they still lost.
The media has been similarly AWOL since Bush lost the election but "won" a crooked lawsuit. Bush improperly interfered with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to benefit his patron, Kenneth Lay of Enron. This illegal quid pro quo may constitute bribery—defined as grounds for impeachment in the Constitution.
Right-Wing Media Bias
More examples of right-wing media bias assault our sensibilities everyday. Everyone knows who Gary Condit is and we all know all about the tragic death of Chandra Levy. But who was Lori Klausutis? How did she die? And what does Joe Scarborough of MSNBC's "Scarborough Country" entertainment program know about it? Most Americans have no idea, thanks to a mass media run by right-wingers for right-wingers.
Scarborough is the extreme right-wing former member of Congress from Florida whose 28-year-old aide Lori Klausutis died under bizarre circumstances. Klausutis was found dead in Scarborough's Fort Walton Beach district office, her skull fractured. The Republican investigators brought in Dr. Michael Berkland—a medical examiner with a dubious past—who declared the mysterious death was by natural causes!
Of course while the "liberal" media was going nuts over the Gary Condit and Chandra Levy mess all through the summer 2001, they completely ignored the Klausutis affair.
The innocent Condit is in disgrace, while the Scarborough has his own TV show—a platform he uses to call brave Americans "traitors!" Read more about the oddities surrounding the death of Lori Klausutis: "Never Bound By the Truth", "Unwrapped" Part 1: A strange way to die, "Unwrapped"Part 2: Dr. Michael Berkland in Missouri.
When Scott Ritter, an expert on Iraq wandered off the Republican reservation to expose Bush administration lies about weapons of mass destruction, the right wing media struck. They reported Ritter had been accused of trying to pick up a girl in an online chat room. Media darling and hypocritical critic Ann Coulter, attacking Ritter in FrontPageMagazine.com, wrote, "Scott Ritter, former U.N. arms inspector turned peacenik turned suspected pederast. . . ." All without mentioning Ritter is a Bush-voting Republican.
The corporate media's embrace of Coulter, an extremist known for lying and lunacy who infamously lamented Tim McVeigh hadn't blown up the New York Times building, itself demonstrates right-wing bias in the media Coulter condemns as liberal. By contrast, two top Republicans who actually engaged in lewd and illegal acts with under aged girls remain under the right-wing media radar screen: Philip Giordano and Richard Delgaudio.
Philip Giordano, the former mayor of Waterbury, Conn., and the Republican nominee for the US Senate in 2000 was convicted of sexual activities with minors, including conspiring to take them across state lines. The Republicans chose Giordano, later convicted of sexually preying on grade-school girls, as the Connecticut resident most worthy of representing their party and state in the US Senate.
How biased is the right-wing media? How dedicated are they to protect all Republicans—even child molesting right-wingers? A websearch uncovers only 20 news stories mentioning "Philip Giordano." Some of those omit all reference to his status as a convicted sex offender, his once-lofty position in the Republican Party, or both. At least one refers to a different Philip Giordano, a Democrat who is not a convicted child molester like his Republican namesake.
This is still a "live" story. Although "a federal jury convicted him in March of 17 charges" there are still pending charges against this GOP politician: "Giordano is charged in state court with six counts each of sexual assault, risk of injury to a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual assault" according to a report on a local news site.
Even the local media buried this story, which conveniently never mentioned this child molester is a Republican. They lead with the following stories ahead of what WFSB Eyewitness News called, "The very graphic and lurid details of former Waterbury Mayor Philip Giordano's alleged encounters with young girls."
"Alleged encounters?" This Republican former mayor and once-likely US Senator was convicted! See: "Details of Giordano's encounters released," WFSB Eyewitness News, May 1, 2003. But hurry, as stories which expose Republican crimes and hypocrisy have a short half-life on the Internet.
All of these stories took precedence over the Giordano story in the local media: Bush approval soars in Connecticut; Arrests, cost figures in for UConn weekend; Arrests made in Willimantic incident; Towns sues over housing of sex offender; Police arrest NY man in Meriden theater shooting; Proposal to seal divorce financial information aired at hearing; Legislative leaders to work on malpractice rates; Hartford man faces animal cruelty charges; Yale graduate student union fails; Senate passes smoking ban. See: WFSB Eyewitness News, May 1, 2003.
Four stories about arrests and criminal charges reported ahead of Giordano's sex-crime wave in his hometown media. Even stories about another sex offender and animal cruelty come first in the local media. Of course the national media remains eerily silent about Giordano. Imagine if he were a Democrat!
Is there any wonder "Bush approval soars in Connecticut" when the local and national media refuse to hold Bush, his policies or even local child molesters in Bush's party accountable?
Is this an aberration? No. Richard A. Delgaudio, a harsh Clinton critic known as a Republican "Legal Affairs" leader recently escaped national media attention despite pleading guilty to child pornography. As the Washington Post reported:
"Republican activist Richard A. Delgaudio, a longtime Northern Virginia-based fundraiser for conservative causes and personalities, was sentenced to two years' probation yesterday after pleading guilty to a child pornography charge.
"Delgaudio was charged with taking sexually explicit photographs of a 16-year-old girl. He paid the girl—a single mother and high school dropout—by the hour for photo shoots at the Deluxe Plaza Motel in Baltimore, according to court documents and Baltimore City Police Detective Randy Wynn, who investigated the case.
"Delgaudio's attorneys issued a statement saying that their client 'acknowledges the acute moral shortcomings of his conduct and he will continue intense self-examination, and professional and spiritual counseling.' Bruce Fein, a prominent legal commentator helping to defend Delgaudio, also told the judge that Delgaudio plans to donate $5,000 to help 'young mothers in great need.'
"As part of a plea agreement on the felony charge, Baltimore Circuit Court Judge John M. Glynn placed Delgaudio on probation. . . .
"Delgaudio, 50, heads an array of conservative activist groups from offices in Fairfax County, according to filings with the Internal Revenue Service. He is listed as president of Legal Affairs Council Inc., which had $2.6 million in revenue in 2001, according to the filings. Delgaudio also is listed as chairman and director of the United States Intelligence Council and president of National Security Center Inc."
See GOP Activist Admits to Child Porn, N.Va. Fundraiser Gets Probation in Case in Baltimore, by Michael Laris, Washington Post; Page B02, April 24, 2003.
In 1998, this Republican "Legal Affairs" leader excoriated others for what he called dishonorable and illegal activities:
"Legal Affairs Council President Richard Delgaudio called on Congress to stand on principle over what some consider to be popular opinion. 'Standing for principles might not produce a quick fix in the short term,' said Delgaudio, 'but it energizes your base, stimulates a healthy and principled debate between the political parties, and in my view, is the one and only way for Republicans to maintain and enlarge their majorities in the Senate and the House."
"Delgaudio said, 'The president has flouted the honor code and broken the law. He has lied under oath, cheated in his dealings with the Independent Counsel, and stolen the trust of the American people.'
"Delgaudio said those in Congress who vote against the impeachment process are 'like the men of Ephraim, who according to Psalm 78, were "armed with bows, [but] turned back on the day of battle."' He added, 'It is time to put aside the opinion polls, the devious backroom deals and, if need be, your own short-term popularity.'"
See: Conservatives Urge Congress Proceed on Impeachment.
This Republican leader turned kiddie porn king gets off with probation. Where are the Concerned Women for America and the Family Research Council? Delgaudio once pontificated, "Clinton is a lawbreaker and a terrible example for our nation's young people." What was this kiddie-porn producer thinking he was doing taking porno pictures of under-aged girls? Upholding the law? Providing a great example?
Reportedly Delgaudio's brother, Eugene, who runs an anti-gay lobbying group called Public Advocate and is a Loudoun County supervisor, said he did not know of Richard Delgaudio's legal troubles. "It doesn't sound like him," he said. All this rank hypocrisy, and not a peep from the so-called liberal national media!
Countless Republicans similarly escaped media scrutiny. Hypocritical Republicans mouth off while their closets full of skeletons remain closed to the American public. Beyond issuing free passes to Republicans while bashing Democrats, the mass media shamefully and shamelessly helps right-wingers deceive and mislead Americans.
Next, Part 3: Media Cheerleaders
Copyright © 2002–2003 by MikeHersh.com
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