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Politics : FREE AMERICA -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (1286)	4/1/2006 11:49:04 PM
From: GemSeeker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14758

". . . . you, should show what the hell you're talking about." Well, you and I both know that nothing I say or link to in this thread will have the slightest impact on your opinion re media bias. Remaining unaware of MSM bias while pretending to be a mature and literate member of society is like defending communism after Kruschev's disclosures of Stalin's innumerable crimes. You may well be a sentient being but not all of your circuitry is up to code specs. Nevertheless, you find me in a generous mood this evening, hence I will make the obligatory (but futile) effort to educate. See if you can guess which of the following quotes actually opened the Dec. 16 CBS Evening News. "Good evening, I'm Bob Schieffer. The administration revealed today that, since shortly after 9/11, the National Security Administration has been intercepting international telephone conversations between Americans and suspected terrorists abroad. The administration has no comment on the story but a report in the New York Times indicates that, according to anonymous sources, these phone taps were ordered in instances where potentially valuable intelligence would be lost if it were necessary to delay the intercept for the 6 to 48 hours necessary to obtain a warrant from the special court that oversees such matters. Some members of Congress have raised questions about the legality of these wiretaps and a vigorous debate is developing." ---Bob Schieffer opening the Dec. 16 CBS Evening News "Good evening, I'm Bob Schieffer. Has the government been using its spy satellites fo illegally eavesdrop on Americans? It is against the law to wiretap or eavesdrop on the conversations of Americans in this country without a warrant from a judge, but the New York Times says that is exactly what the President secretly ordered the National Security Agency to do in the months after 9/11. The administration will neither confirm nor deny this story, but Congress is in a fury." ---Bob Schieffer opening the Dec. 16 CBS Evening News Those of us who can actually identify facts from assertions will instantly recognize the first version as the fact-based report and the second as the assertion-based report. And since we are dealing with CBS, we also instantly understand that the assertion-based version is the one that actually aired. In just the first three sentences Schieffer breathlessly suggests illegality, criminality and bad faith by the administration and that everyone in Congress is furious at this behavior. In fact, Schieffer boldly proclaims that "It is against the law . . . " as though he and CBS's crack legal staff have examined all the relevant statutes, interviewed all the participants and considered all the legal subtleties of Executive power in wartime and are entitled to pronounce judgment. Is the word "hubris" just a little inadequate here? The truly tragic element of this kind of reportage is that it's perpetrators seem to be genuinely unaware of their bias. Just like you.