July 23, 2008
From the files of, “you got to be kidding me” yet another cover-up is underway in the corporate media. For decades we have heard the myth of the liberal media bias and how poor little republicans have such a disadvantage because of it. Ignoring the right-wing dominated talk radio cabal and the Fox Fake News Network; the wingnuts on the right continue to try and perpetuate this nonsense and foist it on the American people. Despite the obvious slant the Bush Administration has received about everything from terror to torture. You point to the fact that MSNBC recently had primetime anchors such as Joe Scarborough, former GOP Congressman and Tucker Carlson, noted GOP hack and they flail desperately and point to people like Katie Couric. Well yesterday the Katie Couric façade collapsed as well.
The story is simple. Couric did an interview with John McCain which was taped for later broadcast. Within the questions, McCain answered a question about the surge incorrectly. Grossly incorrect I might add. As everyone knows, foreign policy is the only plank of the McCain campaign. He has no other strengths. Without being a so called expert on foreign affairs and convincing everyone that what happens in Iraq is more important than what happens in this country, John McCain has no chance come November. This is where the story gets Orwellian. Someone at CBS decided to edit the interview before broadcasting it and REPLACED the wrong answer with a standard McCain blurb. To cover their tracks, they inserted a still picture at the moment of editing, so no one would be the wiser.
Did you get that America? A major news network, responsible for reporting the truth to the American people, purposefully altered the truth to protect a presidential candidate during an election year. They spliced together other answers and purposefully inserted them to cover for McCain. When called on their horrific breach of trust, CBS simply said: “mistakes happen.” Are you kidding me??? Mistakes happen? This was no mistake. A mistake is when you accidentally do something not when you select the only incorrect answer from an entire interview and splice in three other portions over the incorrect answer to cover it up, including inserting a still picture so that viewing public would not notice.
With each passing day John McCain gets more and more free passes from the corporate media. He has routinely confused the situation in Iraq, referred to countries that haven’t existed in 15 years, and now incorrectly stated that the surge started the Anbar Awakening. This despite the fact that the surge primarily affected Baghdad and that the Anbar Awakening actually occurred months before the surge was even announced. Instead of pointing out to the American people the gaffes which cut right to the heart of his campaign, the media is now engaged in a scheme to cover them up for his benefit. To make matters worse, the blurb CBS chose to insert to cover up the faux pas was the tired McCain line about Obama preferring to lose a war in order to win an election. So, CBS not only edited out the mistake but replaced it with an attack on Obama, insinuating that he would put the election before his country.
The press are supposed to have a solemn responsibility in this country. They are supposed to report, not make up the news. This incident destroys the fabricated myth that the media is slanted liberal and clearly shows the opposite is true. They are engaged not only in supporting John McCain but are prepared to lie to the American people to accomplish their goal of a McCain presidency. It is an abhorrent breach of the trust of the American people. Not only should CBS be ashamed they should be heavily fined for this egregious betrayal of democracy. The editor in question as well as Katie Couric should be fired immediately and CBS needs to issue an apology, not some weak and pathetic attempt to pretend it was a “mistake.” Of course for that to happen, the other media outlets will have to actually REPORT it and keep reporting it until something happens. Everyone needs to deluge CBS with demands for the heads of those responsible, including Couric and the other news agencies need to be deluged with demands that they stand up against CBS and do their jobs as well. If this goes unanswered, we might never recover the 4th estate from the abyss.
