ABC: Bring Out your Dead!
Written by Doc Farmer
Friday, January 21, 2005
I've written in the past about media bias. It's an easy enough subject, as there is so much evidence of it broadcast, printed and announced every day. Still, the lib/dem/soc/commies declare that there is no bias, that they're ''fair and balanced'' and anybody saying any different is a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Fascist Nazi Lying Scumbag with Bad Breath.
Scholarly studies have proved that the ''big three'' (who, by the way, are no longer as big as they once were) have news coverage that is most definitely left of centre. Fox News is slightly to the right of the centre point in their news, but a three point sway to starboard is pounced upon by the southpaws as proof positive that Rupert Murdock is planning to take over the world, while ignoring the thirty point sway to port of their own news services.
I think we all know that the mainstream media doesn't like Dubya. It has been trashing him for years. Blamed for this, accused of that, yet nothing it did could stick. Hell, it even failed to bring down the President with forged documents - although it was not from a want of trying.
CBS has been getting a lot of bad press these days - and deservedly so - but folks seem to feel that it is the only culprit. On Wednesday, the day before the inauguration, ABC News published the following request on their website:
- Jan. 19, 2005 - For a possible Inauguration Day story on ABC News, we are trying to find out if there any military funerals for Iraq war casualties scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 20. If you know of a funeral and whether the family might be willing to talk to ABC News, please fill out the form below:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/Inauguration/story?id=425110&page=1
That web page was hastily pulled, but (luckily) there were some plucky bloggers out there who caught a picture of it before it departed. Go to http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/pubfiles/story.htm to see the page.
Think about this. On the day of the inauguration of the President of the United States of America, a ''news'' service was hoping to cover the military funerals of servicemen or women who died in Iraq. Not funerals before or after January 20, but only on THAT day. Not servicemen or women who died in Afghanistan, or at Central Command in Qatar, or in a training accident in Germany, but only in IRAQ.
I'm not a journalist, but even I know when something is journalistically unethical. This attempt by ABC News goes far beyond unethical, however. It is pure spite. It is cheap, low, squamulose, vile, obscene, perverse, putrid, and a number of other adjectives that cannot be used on a family site like this one. To think that an organization that claims to be unbiased, that claims to provide only the facts, would stoop so low as to try and trash a President ON HIS INAUGURATION DAY by counter-pointing that historical event with the emotional blackmail of showing a military funeral, simply boggles the mind and turns the stomach. This would be more the realm of The Jerry Springer Show than a company that is supposed to be ''respected'' in the realm of journalism.
Frankly, I'll bet that Horrendo Revolver is sorry he moved over from ABC to Fox News. He and his magical mystery mustache would have jumped at the chance to shove a microphone into a grieving spouse's or parent's face and ask, ''What would you say to President Bush if you had the chance?'' It would finally have redeemed his reputation in the eyes of the lib/dem/soc/commie media for 1) moving to Fox and 2) not finding anything in that vault on live TV.
Naturally, this story has had very little coverage. It was uncovered by bloggers, or the pajamahadeen as they've been called. El Rushbo gave it some mention on Thursday in his first hour, after the Inauguration Ceremonies had wrapped up. One of my posters on the ChronWatch Forum informed me that Laura Ingram also mentioned ABC's attempted skullduggery. Other than that, it's been awfully quiet out there. The Weekly Standard picked up the story (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/151ciuex.asp), possibly because the author is a blogger himself. Nevertheless, there was no outcry from CNN, no mention on CBS, and all's quiet on the NBC front.
Birds of a feather flock together, it would seem.
I've been boycotting CBS for quite a while now. Ever since they tried to trash ''The Reagans,'' and more so since Desperate Dan helped to commit journalistic fraud (not to mention other more serious felonies). Looks like ABC's going to be added to that list. Oh, I don't believe that my single voice will stop them from trying to pull another stunt like this. The only reason it didn't work this time was because they got caught early on. Nevertheless, I refuse to have in my home a ''news'' or ''entertainment'' source that would be involved in something so base and loathsome.
I also know that this won't make a lick of difference to the folks at ABC News, but I feel compelled to say it.
SHAME ON YOU!
Now, if only ABC News had a sense of shame, it might have some effect . . .
About the Writer: Doc Farmer is a writer and humorist who is also a moderator on ChronWatch's Forum. He formerly lived in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but now resides in the Midwest. Doc receives e-mail at
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