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May 4, 2006
MSM Suffers Big Loss in "Lapdogs"
Eric Boehlert's new book "Lapdogs" annihilates the Main Stream Media for completely rolling over for Bush in the Swift Boat affair preceding the 2004 election. (Huff).
for instance, the Washington Post published 13 page-one Swift Boat stories in 12 days, most of which failed to address the key fact that the Swift boat allegations -- that Kerry lied about his Vietnam War record -- were riddled with errors and compounded by the veterans' fanciful, ever-changing stories. Despite the lack of evidence to substantiate their claims, which were floated 35 years after the fact and bankrolled by partisan Republicans, the press refused, in real time, to call out the Swift Boat allegations as a dirty trick.
"Lapdogs," in bookstores next week, charges that the press, spooked by allegations of liberal bias, has been "afraid of the facts and the consequences of reporting them" during the Bush years.....
As Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting suggested in 2004, what if the situation had been reversed and the shoddy Vietnam-ear attacks targeted Bush's war service? What if all the available documents showed that George Bush had fully completed his obligation in the Air National Guard with flying colors? What if virtually every member of his unit said he had been there the whole time, and had done a great job? And then suppose a group of fiercely partisan Democrats who never actually served in Bush's Guard unit came forward to claim for the first time--and 35 years after the fact--that Guard documents and the first-hand accounts were wrong, and that Bush really hadn't been present for his Guard service. Would the MSM really have had a hard time figuring out who was telling the truth, and would the MSM really have showered the accusers with weeks worth of free media coverage?
The press was mored concerned about access to power than actually reporting the truth.
Posted by Chip Spear at May 4, 2006 2:06 PM