How's Our Anti-Bush Scoop Playing Out? -- October 28, 2004 -- TimesWatch.org

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Times Watch for October 28, 2004

How's Our Anti-Bush Scoop Playing Out?

Thursday's lead story from Elisabeth Bumiller and Jodi Wilgoren, "Bush Hits Back At Kerry Charge Over Explosives," mostly skips fact-finding about exactly when tons of explosives vanished from the Al Qaqaa site in Iraq, in favor of a meta-analysis over how the Times' suspiciously timed story is playing between the two campaigns.

"President Bush broke his silence on Wednesday on the disappearance of 380 tons of explosives in Iraq, accusing Senator John Kerry of making 'wild charges' about the missing explosives and of 'denigrating the actions' of troops in the field. Mr. Kerry quickly responded that while 'our troops are doing a heroic job, the president, the commander in chief, is not doing his job.' The president's comments, his first on the missing explosives since Mr. Kerry began accusing him on Monday of incompetence in failing to secure Iraq after the American-led invasion, reflected concern in the Bush campaign that the issue could be hurting the president only six days before what is expected to be an extraordinarily close election."

Charges and counter-charges between Bush and Kerry follow, with the Times relaying Bush's argument that the explosives may have been moved before U.S. troops arrived.

The Times later allows that Kerry is using the Times' well-timed scoop aggressively: "Mr. Kerry and his aides are seeking to use the missing explosives as Exhibit A for their argument that Mr. Bush has shown 'incompetence' as commander in chief and been unwilling to change course."

For more from Bumiller and Wilgoren, click here.

Passing Along Democratic Complaints from Florida

The front-page story from Florida by chief political correspondent Adam Nagourney and Abby Goodnough, "Passion and Election Disputes On Rise in Florida as Vote Nears," lends credence to Democratic charges of bad faith among Republican officials.

The story opens: "It is as if the presidential election of 2000 never ended here. Six days before Election Day, Florida is again struggling with questions about potential voting irregularities, from complaints about missing absentee ballots in Broward County and accusations of voter suppression in minority neighborhoods to concerns about new touch-screen voting machines. Floridians have been standing for as long as three hours to cast early votes in the presidential race, testimony to the unresolved passions of the election of 2000. Interest is so intense that analysts predict that a staggering 75 percent of Florida voters will cast ballots by the time polls close Tuesday evening. The disappearance of absentee ballots only fed suspicion among Democrats already distrustful of a state government controlled by President Bush's brother Gov. Jeb Bush, with pollsters saying Floridians are already concerned that their votes will not be counted."

Nagourney and Goodnough also don't question the Kerry's camp's public confidence about Democratic prospects in the state: "Even so, the apparent tightness of the contest here has surprised some Republicans who thought that the hurricanes that whipped through this state in August and September -- leading to a series of images of Mr. Bush helping Floridians in need, and keeping Mr. Kerry away -- would allow Mr. Bush to spend more of his time and energy in states like Ohio….But aides to both campaigns said Mr. Bush did not get the boost from the hurricanes that he had hoped for. Instead, Mr. Kerry's aides contend, the hurricanes here meant that Floridians were never exposed to some of the coverage of difficult months for the Kerry campaign -- from the attacks on his war record by some Vietnam veterans to accounts of turmoil in his campaign -- and saved Mr. Kerry here from the downturn he suffered in the rest of the country."

For the rest of Nagourney and Goodnough from Florida, click here.

Bush "Abandoning Rational Analysis" for "Iron Certainty"

What the Times finds worthy of debate five days before the election: Concerns about Bush's Christian faith.

The wide middle of Thursday's op-ed page is dominated by a long piece from liberal author Robert Wright, "Faith, Hope and Clarity," fretting over Bush's devoutness, to the point of criticizing a devotional book by the late Scottish minister Oswald Chambers Bush reads each morning: "Chambers's book continues to sell well, especially an updated edition with the language tweaked toward the modern. Inspecting the book -- or the free online edition -- may give even some devout Christians qualms about America's current guidance."

Wright uses some phrases from Chambers as a metaphorical hammer against Bush: "Some have marveled at Mr. Bush's refusal to admit any mistakes in Iraq other than 'catastrophic success.' But what looks like negative feedback to some of us -- more than 1,100 dead Americans, more than 10,000 dead Iraqi civilians and the biggest incubator of anti-American terrorists in history -- is, through Chambers's eyes, not cause for doubt. Indeed, seemingly negative feedback may be positive feedback, proof that God is there, testing your faith, strengthening your resolve….Of course, all religions have ways of explaining bad news, and the Abrahamic faiths, with one omnipotent God, must explain it as part of God's plan. But lots of Christians do that without going the Oswald Chambers route -- abandoning rational analysis and critical re-evaluation for ineffable intuition and iron certainty."

For the rest of Wright's op-ed, click here.

• George W. Bush | Campaign 2004 | Opinion | Religion | Robert Wright

"Legitimate" Concerns About NYT Bias

Five days before the election, the Times reminds us things are still going badly in Iraq with a two-column front-page story by Edward Wong, "Provincial Capital Near Falluja Is Rapidly Slipping Into Chaos -- U.S. Troops Struggle to Contain Iraqi Insurgents."

Wong opens woefully: "The American military and the interim Iraqi government are quickly losing control of this provincial capital, which is larger and strategically more important than its sister city of Falluja, say local officials, clerics, tribal sheiks and officers with the United States Marines….While Ramadi is not exactly a 'no go' zone for the marines, like the insurgent stronghold of Falluja 30 miles to the east, officers say it is fast slipping in that direction. In the last six weeks, guerrillas have stepped up the pace of assassinations of Iraqis working with the Americans, and marine officials say they suspect Iraqi security officers have been helping insurgents to attack their troops. Reconstruction efforts have ground to a halt because no local contractors are willing to work….Ramadi lies at the heart of rebellious Anbar Province and astride the major western supply route to Baghdad. The city, whose 400,000 residents have at best merely tolerated the foreign military presence, is seen as a crucial part of American efforts to plant a secular democracy in Iraq. But the disintegration of authority puts in jeopardy both the Bush administration's plan to stage nationwide elections by Jan. 31 and any sense of legitimacy such elections might have."

Concern over the "legitimacy" of the forthcoming Iraqi elections is a longtime Wong hobby horse -- he's referred to the problem 11 times in articles, often using the same pessimistic formulation.

Here's an excerpt from Wong from October 18: "Some American officials have said the occupation forces must pacify Ramadi and Falluja before legitimate nationwide elections can be held in January."

From October 9: "American commanders say the goal is to pacify as much of the country as possible to ensure a large voter turnout for scheduled elections in January, but many experts are voicing growing doubts about whether legitimate polls can be held given the rampant violence here."

From October 6: "At stake now are the scheduled elections, which will appear legitimate only if there is a large voter turnout. In recent months, experts have voiced increasing doubts about the ability to hold such elections, given the instability here."

From September 25: "Along with the kidnappings, the rocket attack and the random nature of the deaths demonstrated anew how little of even the capital was controlled by the American military or Iraqi security forces. That in turn has raised serious doubts about whether legitimate elections can be held as scheduled by the end of January, as President Bush and Prime Minister Ayad Allawi insist they will."

For the rest of Wong from Iraq, click here.

• George W. Bush | Campaign 2004 | Edward Wong | Iraq War

Safire Throws Waters on "Explosives" Story

Times columnists Maureen Dowd and William Safire appeared on Larry King Live Wednesday night to discuss the election, and Safire cast some doubt on the origins of the paper's "explosives" story, alleging that 400 tons of explosives vanished from the Al Qaqaa weapons cache in Iraq after U.S. troops failed to secure the area.

According to a CNN transcript, Safire is leery of his own paper's attempted election-changing bombshell: "I'm a little suspicious of any last-minute charge. First of all, we have to find out, is this true. Second, why, if we knew about it or if it was known for 18 months since it began, why did it suddenly surface the last week of the election campaign. And third, what was the motive of whoever leaked it."

Later Safire is quoted: "We now know from CBS's admission that CBS planned to broadcast this story, which we call in journalism, a keeper, one that's kept for its greatest impact. They planned to broadcast it next Sunday night, 36 hours before the polls opened. That is known as a roar back. That's a last-minute, unanswerable story, and it would have been all over the papers Tuesday morning as people went to the polls. Now, I think that's scandalous. What happened, because The New York Times was working with CBS on the story, and I don't work on the news side of the Times at all, so I'm speculating, the Times, either -- probably from a combination of ethical and competitive standards decided, no, we're not going to hold this story. We're going to go with it now. And they went with it on Monday. And -- but just think for a minute, if the plan had gone ahead, we wouldn't have had this debate this week where it's possible we could shoot some holes in this story or focus on the attack on the integrity of the examination by the troops that were there."

MRC in the NYT

Jim Rutenberg Thursday looks at websites of media criticism, and first up is Times Watch's parent: "The conservative Media Research Center posts a daily list of supposed infractions on its Web site. A typical item, posted last week: CBS News did not identify a Sept. 11 widow voicing support for Mr. Kerry, Kristen Breitweiser, as 'an outspoken, anti-Bush activist.' Sandy Genelius, a CBS News spokeswoman, said the report was 'straightforward, fair and accurate.'"

For Rutenberg's full story, click here.

• George W. Bush | Campaign 2004 | Media Research Center | Jim Rutenberg

E-mail TimesWatch Director, Clay Waters, with TimesWatch feedback at cwaters@mediaresearch.org