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Times Watch for
March 4, 2004
"My Heroes Have Always Been…"
Senate Democratic Leaders?
In January, Sheryl Gay Stolberg talked up Democratic Senate minority leader Tom Daschle: "With his soft-spoken, almost gentle manner, Mr. Daschle is the rare politician who can go on the attack without seeming snappish; one word often used to describe him is 'decent.'" That's despite Daschle once accusing Rush Limbaugh listeners of death threats.
On Thursday Stolberg piles more accolades on Daschle in "Looking Back and Ahead After Senate's Votes on Guns." Stolberg uses Tuesday's whirlwind gun votes in Congress to spin Sen. Daschle into a legislative hero: "When the gunfight--or rather, the fight over guns--finished in the Senate on Tuesday, it seemed as if Senator Tom Daschle, the Democratic leader, was the last man standing. Facing a tough re-election race in South Dakota, Mr. Daschle supported shielding gun manufacturers from lawsuits. Facing pressure from fellow Democrats, he also backed amending the bill to extend its ban on assault weapons and require background checks on customers at gun shows. In the end, Mr. Daschle got to vote for all three, only to see Republicans kill their own measure after the amendments had passed. 'He's the one guy who got what he wanted, and he stayed true to himself, his state and his caucus,' Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said. 'Not an easy thing to do.'"
After setting out the possible political ramifications of Tuesday's chaotic voting, Stolberg concludes as she began, with liberal Schumer praising liberal Daschle: "'Daschle was not trying to have it both ways,' Mr. Schumer said. 'The president was.'"
For the rest of Stolberg on guns and Daschle, click
here.
• Sen. Tom Daschle | Gun Control | Sen. Charles Schumer | Sheryl Gay Stolberg
Haitian Conflagration Not Clinton's Creation?
For the second time this week, a lead editorial bashes Bush for moving too slow in Haiti (after months of lamenting his "rush to war" in Iraq). The Times writes in Thursday's edition: "The Bush administration's belated and ham-handed intervention last weekend practically delivered Haiti into the hands of an unsavory gang of convicted murderers and former death squad officers under the overall command of Guy Philippe, whom American and Haitian officials believe to be a drug trafficker….After intervening to restore Mr. Aristide, the first democratically elected president in Haitian history, to office in 1994, Washington failed to do enough to help develop strong institutions, like an independent police force and judiciary, to sustain democratic rule."
And who was president in 1994? For the Times, Clinton failures are an orphan, the mistakes of an amorphous "Washington," while blame for current events in Haiti are promptly laid at the feet of George W. Bush: "Yet after costly nation-building stumbles in Afghanistan and Iraq, it's astonishing to see the administration assume responsibility for yet another failed state with so little forethought or serious planning."
A Washington Post op-ed by Bob Shacochis provides some context regarding Clinton's 1994 invasion: "Similarly, the American military in Haiti, particularly the Special Forces, were in a sense defeated by hope--their own desire to be part of an event that made the world a better place. They left after 18 months with a keen awareness and frustration that they were not allowed to do their job. Originally deployed with a list of bad guys to neutralize, capture or kill, the U.S. forces were soon given other guidance: They were told, through the National Security Council and the U.S. Embassy, that the terrorists they were rounding up were actually the 'loyal opposition,' a legitimate political counterweight to Aristide's Lavalas party. Throughout the country, the Special Forces arrested an abundance of thugs (well-known murderers, torturers, death squad gunmen and narcotraffickers), shipped them to Port-au-Prince and then watched in dismay as the detainees were, inexplicably, released, to make their return 10 years later as armed insurgents taking over the nation and boasting that they were the new Haitian army. Aristide was right to call them terrorists."
In other words, the "unsavory gang of convicted murderers and former death squad officers" were held, and released, in 1994 by U.S. forces operating under President Bill Clinton. Yet Times Watch wonders when it will read the following sentence in the New York Times: "Bill Clinton failed to do enough to help develop strong institutions, like an independent police force and judiciary, to sustain democratic rule."
For the rest of the Times editorial on Haiti, click here.
• George W. Bush | Bill Clinton | Haiti
Bad for Bush to Push Marriage Amendment
In "Senate Hears Testimony on a Gay Marriage Amendment," Carl Hulse puts the onus on Bush and Republicans to justify their push for a marriage amendment: "Senate Republican leaders said Wednesday that they would aggressively pursue a constitutional amendment banning gay marriages despite Democratic arguments that the proposal is divisive, unnecessary and a distraction from more pressing issues."
Of course, it was liberal gay activists that pressed the issue onto the national agenda in the first place by issuing invalid marriage licenses in San Francisco and New Paltz, NY.
In his Thursday story, Hulse also displays a touch of labeling disparity: "The hearing provided a vivid illustration of the emotions surrounding the subject as conservatives sat side-by-side with some same-sex couples who brought their young children to the session." Are there really no liberals involved in the fight over gay marriage?
For the rest of Hulse's story, click here.
• Amendment | Gay Marriage | Carl Hulse | Labeling Bias
E-mail TimesWatch Director, Clay Waters, with TimesWatch feedback at cwaters@mediaresearch.org