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Times Watch for
September 28, 2004
Skipping Ted Kennedy's Incendiary Claims
Michael Janofsky covers an "acerbic" speech by Sen. Ted Kennedy in "Kennedy Denounces Bush Policies as Endangering the World."
Janofsky notes: "To bolster his case, Mr. Kennedy outlined 13 reasons he believed Bush administration strategies had undermined the security of the United States. They included, he said, an erroneous contention that Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda worked together, a lack of focus on Al Qaeda's efforts to obtain nuclear weapons, a diplomatic arrogance toward other countries and detachment from growing nuclear threats in Iran and North Korea. 'A mushroom cloud over any American city is the ultimate nightmare, and the risk is all too real,' Mr. Kennedy said."
But Janofsky left out the most incendiary part of Kennedy's "mushroom cloud" reference: "If Al Qaeda can obtain or assemble a nuclear weapon, they will certainly use it -- on New York, or Washington, or any other major American city. The greatest danger we face in the days and weeks and months ahead is a nuclear 9/11, and we hope and pray that it is not already too late to prevent. The war in Iraq has made the mushroom cloud more likely, not less likely, and it never should have happened."
This weekend the Times delivered a worried editorial accusing Bush of "un-American" campaign tactics: "Dennis Hastert, said recently on television that Al Qaeda would do better under a Kerry presidency, and Senator Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has announced that the terrorists are going to do everything they can between now and November 'to try and elect Kerry.' This is despicable politics."
Will the editorial page now label Kennedy "despicable" for saying Bush has made a nuclear attack on America more likely?
For the rest of Janofsky on Kennedy's speech, click here.
• Campaign 2004 | Editorial | Iraq War | Michael Janofsky | Sen. Ted Kennedy
Clam Up About Iraq, Cheney
The Times seems to want Dick Cheney to stop
talking about all that scary terror stuff. Joel Brinkley asked Cheney supporters what they wanted to hear from the vice president for his Monday piece, "Cheney Crowds Would Like More on Kitchen-Table
Issues."
Brinkley says: "For Vice President Dick Cheney's weeklong campaign swing, little was left to chance. Or so it seemed. Campaign advance workers for each of the rallies and town hall or round-table discussions chose every participant, combing lists of Republican activists and donors. But these advance workers could not control what Mr. Cheney said or predict that his dark message would be out of sync with what many in his ardently supportive audience wanted to hear: his stand on domestic social issues. Mr. Cheney, in unscripted remarks that began several of the events, was bleak, the harbinger of a future dominated by terrorist threats. One observation, made in one form or another at every event, warned of a possible cataclysm."
Brinkley took his own tiny little survey: "When several chosen supporters at each of the events were asked before Mr. Cheney arrived what they wanted him to talk about, the usual responses were jobs, health care, education and other domestic concerns. Only two people in this decidedly unscientific sampling of about a dozen people in three cities said they wanted to hear about Iraq."
Even when Cheney does talk about domestic issues, it's not satisfactory, judging by Brinkley's closing description of a Michigan rally: "[Alfonso] Salas, who describes himself as a strong Bush supporter, was dissatisfied with Mr. Cheney's response to his question about ever-rising health costs. Mr. Cheney responded, as he always does, by citing four medical issues. He trumpeted the new Medicare prescription-drug law. He called for the medical-malpractice law that the Senate has refused to pass. He promoted a tax break that would encourage businesses to add $500 to employees' health savings accounts. And he talked up another proposal that would allow small businesses to cooperate so they can buy employee health insurance at a lower cost. After Mr. Cheney left, Mr. Salas shook his head. 'I don't think he answered that question completely,' he said."
For more of Brinkley on Cheney, click here.
• Campaign 2004 | Dick Cheney | Iraq War | Terrorism
Tommy Franks' Book Sounds "Scripted By Fox News"
Michael Newman, staff editor for the paper's op-ed page, takes on Gen. Tommy Franks' book (and Franks' personality) in the Sunday Book Review. Writing on "American Soldier," Franks' account of his life, including his command of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, Newman says: "Like his plan for the Iraq war, Tommy Franks's book begins better than it ends."
Later he gets personal: "Franks is a profane, impatient man, too fond of caffeine and hyperbole, whose talents are better suited to telling stories than to explaining military strategy."
Later Newman lays out the ultimate Times' insult: Franks sounds just like Fox News!
"His reports of war-planning meetings with President Bush and high-level cabinet members, for example, read as if scripted by the Fox News Channel ('We will do what we have to do to protect America,' he quotes the president saying grimly after one meeting)."
For the rest of Newman's take on Franks' book, click here.
• Books | Fox News | Tommy Franks | Iraq War | Michael Newman
"Unsubstantiated" Swift Boats Watch
Another one for the
pile. Glen Justice and Jim Rutenberg's Saturday story on campaign ads throws in the paper's favorite
long word: "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which drew national attention with advertisements making unsubstantiated attacks against Mr. Kerry's military service, has less money and uses several strategies to stretch its dollars, said one of its leaders, John O'Neill."
For more of Rutenberg and Justice, click here.
• Advertising | Campaign 2004 | Glen Justice | Jim Rutenberg | Swift Boat Veterans
E-mail TimesWatch Director, Clay Waters, with TimesWatch feedback at cwaters@mediaresearch.org