You can read it in its entirety here:
Immediately, I thought of this column by Gil called It’s not about balance or bias, it’s all about the Benjamins.
Gil implies that the Downing Street Memo and Guantanamo were two issues not raised in the interview.
However, they were raised -- just not in the way Gil wanted them to be.
HANNITY: Let's talk about Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Guantanamo Bay (search). He said it's not being considered for closing. There was a little bit of ambiguity there. The people weren't sure if the president was saying they're looking for all alternatives there. Is there any consideration to close Gitmo?
Hannity also alluded to the Downing Street Memo with the following question:
HANNITY: You keep, in the administration, coming under fire for Iraq.
The Downing Street Memo? The Downing Street Memo? PLEASE!
Here's what the Downing Street Memo says:
...Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy...
...Regime change and WMD were linked in the sense that it was the regime that was producing the WMD...
So, Bush wanted to remove Saddam by military action, BUT...
But?
...but the intelligence and facts were fixed around the policy.
Why would Bush "fix facts" if something was preventing himself from removing Saddam by military force?
This could mean that the UN was "fixing facts" to prevent Bush from taking action.
As I've previously discussed on my blog, it appears that "fixed intelligence" means that it was "agreed on" intelligence, not that it was "fixed" in a slang sense of the word (according to Microsoft Encarta dictionary and dictionary.com). The alleged author of the memo used that term in a 2002 interoffice email.
What did Tony Blair and Bush say about the Downing Street Memo?
QUESTION: Thank you, sir. On Iraq, the so-called Downing Street memo from July 2002 says intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy of removing Saddam through military action. Is this an accurate reflection of what happened? Could both of you respond?
PRIME MINISTER BLAIR: Well, I can respond to that very easily. No, the facts were not being fixed in any shape or form at all...
BUSH: ...There's nothing farther from the truth...
If Gil had bothered to read anything other than Daily KOS or Democratic Underground, he would realize that the reason the memo has not received a wide amount of American media attention is that no one has actually produced a copy of the memo -- just the alleged "text" of this "memo".
Actually, Foxnews has provided alot of coverage on the Downing Street Memo -- much more than it really deserves as it's pretty much a non-issue that attempts to rehash an old Democrat argument defeated years ago.
The memo says alot of other things that seem to contradict this interpretation.
No decisions had been taken...
...the timing was not yet decided.
Regime change and WMD were linked in the sense that it was the regime that was producing the WMD.
The Foreign Secretary thought the US would not go ahead with a military plan unless convinced that it was a winning strategy.
But we needed a fuller picture of US planning before we could take any firm decisions.
...we were considering a range of options.
There is a good article here.
So which is it, Gil? Should there be media bias? Or should it just be biased in the direction that you want it to be?
For someone who frequently puts his perspective on the Lancaster page (no indication that it's perspective), I would have thought he would be supportive of Foxnew's right to put perspective in News without saying it?
I think it was Sean Hannity's interview and Gil needs to butt out of it. Last time I checked, he was not a Foxnews reporter.
That's my perspective on it.
And did anyone catch this phrase?
"A few years ago, when Democrats controlled both Congress and the White House..."
Last time I can remember Democrats being in a majority in the Senate and House with a Democrat President was 1993-1994, 11-12 years ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment