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Times Watch for
May 12, 2004
Bye
Bye Bangladesh Thanks to Bush
Times Sunday Magazine contributing writer James Traub comes up with a list of things to be afraid of in the age of terror, including…Bangladesh under water because of Bush's refusal to stop global warming: "I wonder if, in the future, the Bush administration will be blamed for failures of foresight that have nothing to do with terrorist attacks. When, for example, today's mammoth tax cuts make it impossible to fix Social Security or Medicare years from now, or when the insistence on developing tactical nuclear weapons provides other nations a pretext to flout the rules of nonproliferation and thus make the world yet more terrifying, Bush officials won't be able to seek refuge in 'We couldn't have known.' Should Bangladesh begin to disappear under water, people will recall that the administration refused to act to stem global warming despite a virtual consensus of scientific opinion on the subject."
Traub is prone to such anti-Republican exaggeration, writing in October that "Today's Republican Party is arguably the most extreme--the furthest from the center--of any governing majority in the nation's history."
For the rest of Traub's fear list, click here:
• George W. Bush | Environment | Global Warming | James Traub
Which
Republican Bush Critic Are We Lauding Today?
After interviewing media hero
Sen. John McCain
on Sunday, Sheryl Gay Stolberg Wednesday provides a laudatory look at moderate
Republican Sen. John Warner, another of the Times' favorite kind of Republicans:
Bush critics who are beloved by their Democratic colleagues. In "Warner, Courtly
Republican, Guides Panel in Rough Seas," she writes: "It is often said in the
Senate, if a Hollywood casting director were looking for someone to play a
senator, Mr. Warner, who was once married to Elizabeth Taylor, would top the
list. With his white hair and erect posture--a remnant of his Navy days after
enlisting at age 17 to serve during World War II--the senator is known as the
'the Squire' on Capitol Hill. The word most often used to describe him is
'dignified.'"
(That echoes how Stolberg described Democratic Senate leader Tom Daschle in January: "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.'")
The next paragraph suggests the reasoning behind the paper's kind words for Warner--he often sides with Democrats: "In the Senate, Mr. Warner has demonstrated a willingness to speak his mind. In 2002 he helped orchestrate the ouster of Senator Trent Lott, the former Republican leader, over racially charged remarks. He describes himself as 'quite loyal to the president of the United States,' but he was willing to stand with Democrats this year when they fought for an extension of the ban on assault weapons, over Mr. Bush's objections. Democrats generally give Senator Warner high marks. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, called him 'a person of integrity.' And Mr. Warner is so close to Senator Carl Levin, the senior Democrat on the panel, that Mr. Baker, the political scientist, described them as being 'like an old married couple.' Mr. Levin, of Michigan, did not deny it. 'We're very close, and we totally trust each other,' he said, 'and that's the key to everything.'"
For the rest of Stolberg on Sen. Warner, click here:
• Republicans | Sheryl Gay Stolberg
Pro-Abortion,
Anti-Gun "Tolerance"
An article Tuesday by New Jersey editor David
Kocieniewski, "Newark Archbishop Pressures and Angers Officeholders Over
Anti-Abortion Decree," hashes out the controversy over pro-abortion politicians
taking communion: "Early this year, a Vatican official stated that elected
officials who support abortion may be denied communion, a ruling that some
American Catholics have seized on as a kind of litmus test for officeholders.
Just this past weekend, newspapers and broadcast outlets across the nation
reported as news the fact that John F. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic
presidential nominee, received communion at a Mother's Day Mass despite his
support for abortion rights."
Then Kocieniewski makes a peculiar choice of words, choosing to frame the debate as pitting conservatives versus advocates of "social tolerance," insisting: "Still, the controversy seemed to catch many people off guard in New Jersey, a state where public opinion polls have consistently found voters to hold liberal views on issues like abortion, gun control and gay rights. That social tolerance has allowed moderate Republicans to stave off challenges from the conservatives who have gained power in much of the country."
Who doesn’t want to be "socially tolerant?" But what tolerance has to do with being pro-abortion or anti-gun, Kocieniewski leaves unexplained.
For the rest of Kocieniewski's piece, click here:
• Abortion | Catholic Church | David Kocieniewski | New Jersey | Religion
The
Ghost of Joe McCarthy
Sharon Waxman covers the controversy over the upcoming
environmental disaster movie "The Day After Tomorrow" in "Global Warming Ignites
Tempers, Even in a Movie."
Waxman explains in Wednesday's story: "Environmental advocates are using the film's release, scheduled for May 28, as an opening to slam the Bush administration, whose global warming policies they oppose. Industry groups in Washington are lobbying on Capitol Hill to make sure the film does not help passage of a bill limiting carbon-dioxide emissions, which many scientists say contribute to global warming. Meanwhile on Tuesday Fox sparred with celebrity advocates who complained that they had been disinvited to the movie's premiere, only to be reinvited later in the day."
Waxman relays without comment liberal paranoia from Robert Kennedy Jr.: "Mr.
Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, said on Tuesday that Fox's attitude toward
environmentalists seemed comparable to other instances of self-censorship by
media corporations in a politically charged climate. 'This is part of an
unfortunate pattern that fits in with CBS canceling the Reagan mini-series and
Disney refusing to distribute Michael Moore's film' 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' he said
in an interview before his invitation to the premiere was reinstated. He was
referring to recent controversies over political considerations affecting
entertainment decisions. 'This is like back to the 1950's and 60's, where people
in Hollywood were scared to death of Joe McCarthy, censoring artists, not
distributing films, blackballing people,' he said. 'It's a classic thing that
you're supposed to avoid in democracy, the merger of state and corporate
power.'"
Waxman lets Kennedy's comments stand as read, failing to point out the extreme
unlikelihood Hollywood was "scared to death of Joe McCarthy" in the 1960s, given
that the man died in 1957.
For the rest of Waxman on "The Day After Tomorrow," click here:
E-mail TimesWatch Director, Clay Waters, with TimesWatch feedback at cwaters@mediaresearch.org