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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gao seng who wrote (137960)	4/12/2001 9:48:09 PM
From: gao seng	Respond to of 769667

It isn't Clinton, it's the media. If not the Chinese and TV news, who can you believe? 2001-04-12 By Robert L. Haught oklahoman.com WASHINGTON -- Does anybody believe that the wife of the Chinese hot-dog pilot whose supersonic jet collided with the slow-moving U.S. spy plane really wrote that letter to President Bush? Did a distraught Ruan Guoqin actually sit down and pen a note to the leader of the free world accusing him of being "too cowardly to voice an apology" for her husband's misfortune, which from all indications he brought on himself? China's government controlled television said she did, and American TV networks parroted the report. Well, if the communist rulers in Beijing said it, it must be true, right? After all, weren't they forthcoming about incidents leading up to Tiananmen Square? Didn't they own up to tying illegal campaign contributions for Democrats to trade policy changes in the Clinton administration? Haven't they admitted to stealing U.S. nuclear secrets and selling technology to terrorist nations? Guess again. As for the talking heads on television, don't they have a record of accurate and impartial reporting? Wasn't it a clear demonstration of objectivity for hosts of two TV Sunday talk shows to suggest strongly that the U.S. should apologize for the incident that triggered the Chinese-American standoff? (Fox News' Brit Hume took a different approach. Since the Chinese fighter pilot with a reputation for reckless manuevers flew too close, endangering the lives of 24 Americans, he wondered why the U.S. government didn't ask for an apology?) The truth is, certain elements of the American news media are just as guilty as the Chinese leaders in being careless with the truth or biased in their positions. Exhibit 1: On a recent newscast, ABC White House reporter Terry Moran scolded President Bush for using the term "energy crisis." He argued that "since there are no gas lines and the price of crude oil is declining" the president only used the term "to sell his energy agenda." The following evening a substitute anchor, Charles Gibson, promoted an upcoming story by saying, "When we come back, America's energy crisis. Gas prices are soaring and they'll get even worse this summer." Exhibit 2: CBS anchor Dan Rather was the featured speaker at a Democratic fund-raising event in Texas. Partisans paid up to $1,000 to attend the event, held at the home of an Austin city council member. Hosts included Robin Rather, the TV newsman's daughter, who is considering a run for mayor of Austin. Rather said he didn't know in advance the gathering was a fund-raiser or that his daughter was an official host. "I didn't ask the question," he explained. Unlike Al Gore at the Buddhist temple, however, Rather said after he got there he was aware it was a party fund-raising affair. But he spoke anyway. Rather was forced to apologize, saying he had made a "regrettable error in judgment." Did he also err when he gushed about Hillary Clinton as the "Person of the Year" on a TV talk show? No wonder there's a RatherBiased.com Web site. Exhibit 3: Margaret Carlson of Time magazine delivered a stinging and highly exaggerated anti-Bush attack after a regulation requiring a salmonella test on hamburgers served in schools was withdrawn, then reinstated. "Imagine, mad cow disease among children, K through 12," she said. The proposed rule change would have broadened control on all types of contamination during slaughtering and in processing plants. Exhibit 4: "Have the cows gone mad? Are ice caps melting? Can Mozart raise your baby's IQ? If you answer yes to all these (and other) questions, it means you've been listening to the media," say organizers of a National Press Club forum scheduled for April 18. A panel of scientists and journalists will examine why reporters tend to "add the numbers wrong" when writing about natural and social sciences, and will discuss the cost to society of media mistakes. The prosecution rests.

To: gao seng who wrote (137960)	4/12/2001 10:08:35 PM
From: zonkie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

>>>>>It is not Clinton I am concerned about. Hell, I grew up in Arkansas. Made me a proud homeboy. But he has said some things about how individual rights should be reduced. And that is not right. It is not so much that he said it, it is the fact that so many dictatorships around the world practice it.<<<<< ________ What do you think about the following remarks and actions of Junior George? I'm sure you'll have no problem defending him when he is saying there ought to be limits to freedom. ________ Bush criticizes Web site as malicious Owner calls it a parody of White House bid 05/22/99 By Wayne Slater / The Dallas Morning News AUSTIN - Saying "there ought to be limits to freedom," Gov. George W. Bush has filed a legal complaint against the owners of a Web site that lampoons his White House bid. The designer of the unofficial Bush site described it on Friday as a parody and said the governor is trying to limit what is written about him on the Internet. But Mr. Bush, a front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, had harsh words Friday for the site (www.gwbush.com), which offers mock interviews and policy initiatives on drugs and crime. "There's a lot of garbage in politics, and, obviously, this is a garbage man," said Mr. Bush. Attorneys for the Bush presidential exploratory committee have filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission seeking to have the owners post a disclaimer identifying who built the site and who is paying for it. "It [the site] is filled with libelous and untrue statements whose aim is to damage Governor Bush," the campaign said in its letter to the FEC. "The headline of the site is, 'Just Say No to Former Cocaine User for President.' This site's innuendoes and false statements attack the governor's positions on tough standards for convicted drug dealers." Karen Hughes, a Bush campaign spokeswoman, said the site so closely resembles the official Bush campaign site (www.georgewbush.com) that people could be confused. Ms. Hughes said the unofficial site urges people to vote against Mr. Bush, making it subject to federal disclosure requirements. Sites that are strongly critical of candidates but do not urge voters to take action are exempt from federal rules. Frank Guerrero, a spokesman for the designer, said the site is meant to poke fun at Mr. Bush by comparing what he calls his "youthful indiscretions" with his tough-on-crime policies as an adult. He said the site does not advocate the defeat of any candidate and is such a clear parody that no one would confuse it for the real Bush campaign Web page. "We're not affiliated with any other campaign," said Mr. Guerrero of the site's designer, Rtmark, a loose-knit group of corporate critics. "In fact, we see ourselves as completely nonpartisan." The FEC confirmed Friday that it had received a complaint but declined to discuss the case, citing agency rules. Ron Harris, an FEC spokesman, said the commission has not dealt with many Internet-related complaints and the current case could break new legal ground on how the Web is governed under campaign laws. The unofficial Bush site has a photo of Mr. Bush and a banner that reads, "Presidential Exploratory Committee." It includes a mock initiative dubbed "Amnesty 2000," which suggests Mr. Bush would pardon prisoners convicted of drug crimes if they have "grown up." As a potential presidential candidate, Mr. Bush has declined "to catalogue my youthful indiscretions," saying that he has learned from his mistakes. The site also pokes fun at Mr. Bush's characterization of himself as a "compassionate conservative." "G.W. Bush has indeed been forgiven again and again by others. First there was his rambunctious youth," the site says. "Then, as an unsuccessful Texas businessman, he was bailed out with millions of dollars from friends of his vice president father. As president, G.W. Bush wants to create an America in which everyone gets as much forgiveness and as many chances to grow up as he had." The Bush campaign filed an initial complaint about the look-alike Bush site in April. Mr. Guerrero said changes were made so it would look less like the official site, but Bush campaign lawyers filed a second complaint with the FEC this month demanding a disclaimer and disclosure of funding sources. "We appreciate humor. We appreciate parody. George Bush is known for his sense of humor," said Ms. Hughes. "But there's a difference between expressing opinion, poking fun and breaking the law." Mr. Guerrero estimated about $70 had been spent to construct the site. He said the money came from Zack Exley, a Massachusetts computer consultant who initially registered and maintains the gwbush.com site. Bush campaign political consultant Karl Rove has purchased at least 60 domain names that include the Bush name in an apparent attempt to curtail other anti-Bush site-makers. "We've put out a request for domain names for [Vice President Al] Gore as well," said Mr. Guerrero. "We're trying to be bipartisan." Staff writer Andy Dworkin in Dallas contributed to this story. gwbush.com