Without Anesthesia... where the evil Dr. Ugly S. Truth dissects PARTISAN deception and media slant the Old School Way.
Monday, 20 September 2004
Blackjack Pizza's Larry Schmuhl Gets Back To Us
The president of Blackjack Pizza got back to me today regarding their sponsorship of "60 Minutes II," home of Dan Rather and those famous fake memos.
I thought it was great of Mr. Schmuhl to take time from his business day to answer my questions with actual information about how his business works - and to show that when people buy ads, it doesn't always mean "we brought this program to you and we think it's pretty spiffy."
I wrote him back, and he said it was fine with him if I shared the letter with you, so here it is:
"Mr. Frickey,
Thank you for your email concerning our commercial airing on 60 Minutes. We buy local TV spots on KCNC on what is called a "rotator basis."
Essentially this means a commercial is to run during the time frame from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., throughout the entire week. Whatever programming that runs between this time slots is where our commercial run. We do this not because of the type of programming, but because 80% to 90% of all of our sales of pizza occur during these hours.
In effect, we do not subscribe to a particular type of show, but can only afford to advertise only when people are most likely to be buying our product.
We are a local company that does not have millions to spend on advertising and our pulling our ad would not affect the political leanings of what is presented on 60 Minutes.
On the other hand, large national advertisers such as Procter & Gamble, GM, GE, and other big national advertisers do buy specific programs - if they would pull dollars away from CBS, this would have an impact on CBS revenues. If this were to happen CBS, which is owned by Viacom, might reconsider presenting programming that is more fair and balanced.
When you watch 60 Minutes and they say "brought to you by" such and such a company, these advertisers actually buy the program and could be influenced by complaints about the programming they sponsor.
Also, many mutual funds and pension plans own Viacom stock and they, too, should be held accountable for helping to fund programming that is one sided.
I hope this helps you understand our situation a little better, even though I know it is probably not the solution you are looking for.
Thanks,
Larry Schmuhl Blackjack Pizza Franchising, Inc."
Thank you, Larry - you explained this stuff better than I ever could.
What you shared with us IS exactly what I was looking for - a way to get the Big Eye Network and their competitors to clean up their act.
Getting investors to pay attention to what Viacom is doing with their hard-earned bucks is something that had never occurred to me.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AT WORK Topic: Democrat Violence
Proud of yourself there, chief?
I'm not asking the rocket scientist in the baseball cap and the union T-shirt taunting the 3 year old girl and her dad (although a LOT of us are going to remember THAT union label in the coming months).
I'm asking the question of Terry McAuliffe and Dan Rather and Molly Ivins and all the other people who have stirred up hatred of the Republican Party and the President until Baseball Cap and his friends in the background feel as though roughing the political opposition up - even 3 year old kids - robbing them (that's what it's called when someone takes even a campaign sign away from you without your permission) and denying them their freedom to speak and assemble freely is the right thing to do.
The real story behind this photo and the Kerry campaign's failure to condemn the assault on the little girl, her dad and their siblings is that the Democratic Party wants human rights ONLY FOR PEOPLE WHO AGREE WITH THEM.
I wish that they'd change their name to a more truthful one - like "the People Who Want To Win Presidential Elections with Violence - Even Against Children." Honesty in advertising, you know?
Kerry, Kerry Uber Alles - or, Keep Quiet or the Little Girl Gets It.... Mood: incredulous Topic: Democrat Violence
Quoted from the Manchester Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News:
"Sign incident at Edwards rally leads to Internet sniping By BRIAN FARKAS Associated Press Writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Phil Parlock says he's a peaceful guy who doesn't mind carrying a Republican sign to a Democratic rally.
Others say he has a history since 1996 of attending Democratic rallies in West Virginia for the sole purpose of provoking the anger of the party faithful.
(BLOGGER NOTE: And still others - well, me, at least - say that this article is a prime example of damage control conducted by Big Journalism for the Democrats.
There is no "other side" or possible excuse for physically attacking kids, and yet,
a) - notice the headline wasn't "Kids Get Roughed Up And Robbed By Union Thugs at Kerry/Edwards Rally", and; b) - notice the "You know, it was really the fault of that guy and his 3-year old little girl for waving bad signs at a Democrat political rally... because everyone knows the Democrats are violent psychopaths when aroused" lead-in to the story.
Even people who terrorize toddlers and their Dads for trying to exercise the right to free speech buy papers, huh?
"On Thursday, the Huntington real estate agent said, he hid nine Bush-Cheney signs under his pant leg and took 3-year-old daughter Sophia and 11-year-old son Alex to a rally for Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards. An older son manned the van outside the rally with a larger Bush sign.
"When it came time for Edwards to leave Tri-State Airport, Parlock said, he gave his children signs to proclaim their support for Bush. Just as quickly, the signs were ripped out of their hands and torn apart, he said. Two more signs were thrust into their hands. Again, Edwards supporters tore them away, he said.
"It was like a feeding frenzy," the father of 10 said Friday. "I didn't want to have Sophia being defeated and I told her to hold up the sign, but they kept going after the last shred."
"Sophia broke into tears, and the image of the child resting on her father's shoulders with a torn Bush sign in her hands was caught in Associated Press photographs. They ran in newspapers in New Hampshire and across the nation. The photo of Parlock and his daughter appeared on www.theunionleader.com for several hours Friday. It was removed when questions arose about the incident."
(BLOGGER NOTE: And Kerry supporters decided that the press really DOES belong to them, giving the Manchester Union-Leader and the AP their marching orders.
In one of life's odd little ironies, the man who snapped the famous photo of the North Vietnamese Army spy getting shot in the head by a South Vietnamese officer just died.
The unpublished truth there is that the guy being head-shot had just murdered two local officials AND their families, and as a spy in time of war the Geneva Convention specifically allowed his summary execution, which was captured in that historic photo.
The photo at the top of this blog entry shows the hard-line activist base of the Democratic Party in sharp relief. And an ugly picture it is.
"Freedom of speech? Fuhgeddaboutit. We'll slap your sorry ass around and rip signs out of your three-year old kids' hands first, punk!"
The shot at the top of this entry would occupy an equal place in the history of photojournalism, if the press blew it across the newspaper front pages and prime-time news programs of America - as they did thirty-odd years ago to drum up sympathy for that poor murdering North Vietnamese spy who screwed up and got caught being what he was, and who was executed in full compliance with the Geneva Convention.
I suppose the national press has to go with its priorities. They didn't turn pictures of the North Vietnamese's victims into worldwide memes, either.)
"That image became the subject of intensely partisan Internet chatter (NOTE: as opposed to "intensely partisan prime-time national TV news coverage"?) on Friday, with some Democratic supporters suggesting the incident was staged and that the sign had been grabbed by one of Parlock's other children. Other messages pointed out that Parlock was involved in similar incidents twice before."
(BLOGGER NOTE: And both times, Democratic Party operatives - to use a favorite Dan Rather spin-ism - robbed Parlock of his personal property - his signs - and assaulted him. The Democratic supporters - including the national press - either forgot that or didn't really care.)
"In 2000, Parlock and one of his sons smuggled in 12 Bush-Cheney signs to a campaign rally for Al Gore at the state Capitol. Police ejected them after Gore supporters tried to tear the signs away from them.
(BLOGGER NOTE: Let's get this straight - Parlock and his son were kicked out of a political rally for sitting there and holding up some signs because Gore's supporters lacked enough respect of other people's rights to freedom of expression to refrain from robbery and assault. Were any Gore people involved jailed, or even removed from the rally along with the Parlocks?)
"During a 1996 campaign stop in Huntington by then-President Clinton, Parlock held up a sign outside the rally with the words "Vince Foster," referring to Clinton's former deputy counsel who was found dead in a Virginia park on July 20, 1993. The sign was taken by steel workers attending the rally.
(BLOGGER NOTE: Another journalistic opportunity passed up - never mind Parlock, what happened to those steel workers? So far, all we know is that the AP doesn't find it remarkable that if you contradict the Democrats at one of their candidates' rallies, union thugs are going to rough you and your kids up.)
""We're not part of an organization. We're not part of the political machine here," Parlock said. "It's not bad to show children that you can go and express an alternative viewpoint and stand fast for that viewpoint no matter what people say."
"West Virginia is viewed as a battleground state in this year's presidential election. Although voter registration is 2-to-1 Democrat, Bush won the state in 2000 by 6 percentage points.
"Amy Shuler Goodwin, a spokeswoman for the John Kerry campaign in West Virginia, said their goal is to "include everyone in our events. But when your main goal is to disrupt and be the center of focus of the event, that's not what anybody wants." "
Gives you warm fuzzies about what'll happen if their man Kerry is elected, doesn't it? People like Amy Shuler Goodwin will be decision-makers in a (shudder) Kerry Administration.
What Amy Shuler Goodwin of the Kerry campaign was REALLY saying is: "Peaceful dissent against John Kerry, that's not what anybody wants, is it?"
Apparently there is no Fritz Gerlach in our own country's national press to condemn Hitlerian excesses among Kerry supporters, his campaign organizers, and the rest of the national press.
John Kerry had his chance to dissent peacefully in the 1970s, but he doesn't want anyone else doing it now - not even 3-year old girls.
Just two weeks ago, someone else was placed in a headlock and physically thrown out of a Kerry rally in Ohio for interrupting His Imperial Kerryness in mid-flop to ask about Kerry's famous, truth-challenged testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971.
Kerry and his supporters, just like that other populist war-veteran-turned-politician Adolf Hitler and HIS supporters, don't play games.
If kids get hurt, hey, they get hurt. That'll teach them to speak freely. Politics isn't a tea party, as a local Democrat media pundit is fond of pointing out, generally after her party's just done something really sleazy.
The Parlocks were demonstrating peacefully and should have been allowed to continue doing so, just as people with Kerry/Edwards signs are allowed to do at Bush gatherings.
In this country, we have something called "freedom of speech" and another something called "freedom to be secure in one's property."
Neither were respected by the Democratic Party when push literally came to shove.
Even after some time had elapsed to allow people to cool down, Kerry's spokespeople STILL defended the roughing up and terrorizing of KIDS.
Again, this story really gives you warm fuzzies about what'll happen if these violent Democrats' man Kerry is elected, doesn't it?
Since Kerry and pals are NOW violating other people's rights to assemble peacefully, speak freely and hang on to their own property even BEFORE he's elected, just imagine what he'll do once he takes over the FBI, IRS, Homeland Security - and the Armed Forces....
Dale Brown Deserves To Hear It - He Told Us So Topic: Unintentional truths Dale Brown Deserves To Hear It - He Told Us So
?
I've decided to write about something besides the sorry
twits we have for a national press today.?
Think of this as sort of a cup of coffee between sips of wine at a
tasting - a palate cleanser.? It's
Saturday and I'm going to have fun (not that humiliating Dan Rather isn't fun,
but.... )
?
Some people drink Colt 45 malt liquor; some people pick
their noses.? My big secret is that I
read techno-thrillers - novels by writers like Tom Clancy, Dale Brown, and -
well, it's pretty much Tom Clancy and Dale Brown in that genre.? As my bachelor's degree is in writing and that I have written for a living for about half my life, that's a momentous admission - like Dale Earnhardt, Jr. admitting that he has a Toyota Matrix in his garage and loves to wind that little sewing machine
out every now and then.
?
Tom Clancy's novels have gradually become less thrilling as
time has gone on, but he retains his popularity for the same reason that many
otherwise "serious" readers dote on police procedurals or other formula fiction
- because he is a reliable returner-of-the-penny for those of us who like to
play wargames in our heads.? But
that's pretty much where Tom Clancy begins and ends these days.?
?
As a geopolitical analyst, Clancy is less than stellar - his last novel set more or less here-and-now, The Bear and the
Dragon, had a complaisant Europe accepting Russia into NATO, a suddenly
un-xenophobic Russia voluntarily joining NATO on a last-minute invitation, and
a very uncomplicated, bipolar Russian - Chinese war in Siberia in which the
Koreas, Vietnam, Pakistan and India didn't figure.? In the novels before that, Saudi Arabia was our bosom buddy and
wouldn't have thought about sending suicide bombers to crash into the World
Trade Center.? But Clancy's readers
don't go to him for geopolitical analysis.
?
But Dale Brown's novels are sort of spooky that way:
-????????
in Storming Heaven, fanatics led by a millionaire with
a grudge against the United States crashed airliners and freighter airplanes
into businesses in order to manipulate stock prices; at the end of the novel, a
747 barely misses crashing into the White House (it was a bad decade for 747s
and the Capitol - later, in Debt of Honor ?Tom Clancy had a revenge-crazed Japan Air Lines pilot kill both
houses of Congress and most of the rest of the government by plowing his
747 into Capitol Hill during Jack Ryan's inauguration as vice-President);
-????????
in Hammerheads, drug smugglers adopt paramilitary and
terrorist methods, slaughtering cops and Coast Guardsmen and forcing Congress
to create a new cabinet-level department which takes over assets from the Coast
Guard, Customs, Drug Enforcement Administration, and other agencies concerned
with keeping America safe from outside threats;
-????????
in Fatal Terrain, China decides to confront the United
States aggressively, threaten it with nuclear attack, and use other Asian
nations as cat's paws to distract the US so that the Chinese Politburo can
finally annex Taiwan;
-????????
in Steel Shadows, the Chinese meddle in Iran, helping
them get modern missile technology, including a nuclear-tipped IRBM, and the US
is pulled into another Gulf War as an expansionist Iran threatens its
neighbors.
?
The spooky part being, of course, that deciding which of the
crazy things in Dale Brown's novels is too crazy to come true is a very
risky process.? Of course, most of
Brown's books aren't prophetic - thank God, because Brown, after all, writes
mainly about high-tech war and warriors.
?
None of this, of course, happens by accident.? Dale Brown was a navigator with the US Air
Force before becoming an author.?
Judging from the accuracy of the information in his books, I doubt young
Dale Brown ever had to tell his teachers that old Prince had eaten his
homework.? So when Dale Brown puts some
geopolitics into a novel, it's probably based on some pretty good poop, and
solidly researched - with more info on being a navigator than I ever will need
to know - so, if the phase of the moon is right, and...
?
My point, I guess, is that if I were President of the United
States and Jessica Stern, Condoleeza Rice, and a lot of other cute, incredibly
intelligent women were lined up to interview for the job of National Security
Advisor (goofy looking guys have had their run as NSAs - Kissinger and
Brzezinski were the harbingers of a very evil trend) I would just want to know
what they read to unwind.?
?
Maya Angelou fans would be sent to Foggy Bottom for extended
postings in Bratislava or Vanuaatu, while the disciples of Ann Coulter would be
sent to the RNC (I'm a Libertarian, but in this scenario I'd have to belong to
a party with a prayer of having won an election) for intensive throat-biting
training under Sensei Ann (for whom I have unbounded admiration as a fellow
writer); Clancy readers would be sent over to the Pentagon's technical writing
section, while Brown fans would make the short list for consideration.
?
The applicants who were also fans of Dale Brown would, of
course, already have been vetted for all the standard things national security
advisors get vetted for - as well as readiness to sustain an original thought
in the face of opposition and apprehension, and the initiative to learn all
manner of things that might bear on how world events might play out years in
the future... and for their enthusiasm for playing the war games held from time
to time to refine our strategies for dealing with emergent situations that
might threaten national security.?
?
The winner would have multiple advantages - all the
necessary tools for analyzing information during world security crises,? a willingness to use one's precious time to
hone human skills which would be vital in time of a fast-developing crisis, even
if the return for such an investment turns out to be uncertain or absent
entirely, and an unconscious informed by entertainment reading based on solid
research and good judgment about how real people behave during crises.?
Ask Them Yourself - "Did You Pay Rather to Do That?" Topic: CBS is 2/3 BS
Economic democracy in action - or "Do you know what Dan Rather is doing on YOUR dime?"
Here's YOUR chance to weigh in on the forged memos/incredible media bias debate!
I've found contact information for advertisers on the 60 Minutes II segment of Wednesday 15 September 2004 and reproduced it below, with live links to allow you to conveniently contact them, just as I did.
I contacted these people personally, asking each firm whether or not they agreed with CBS News' use of forged documents - at first uttering them as genuine - then bringing a little old lady on stage who could only tell us what she THOUGHT, and KNEW none of the salient facts well enough to prove them.
I also asked whether or not they agreed with CBS News' preferential treatment of Kerry, covering up the seedier side of HIS Vietnam-era service as alleged by the book "Unfit for Command," and his years of political activism on the behalf of North Vietnam and other corrupt, murderous aggressor states in Southeast Asia.
Now you can ask these questions, too. Go for it.
Morgan Stanley (investment services/Discover card) Worldwide Headquarters: Morgan Stanley 1585 Broadway New York, NY 10036 Telephone: (212) 761-4000 Email: genlfeedback@morganstanley.com
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S.C.Johnson and Company (Glade room deodorizers) (formerly "Johnson Wax") Company Address SC Johnson 1525 Howe Street Racine, Wisconsin 53403-5011 USA Telephone: 1.800.494.4855 contact them electronically at: their "Contact Us" page.
Be sure to ask them how CBS News' adventures in electronic slander and libel of the President of the United States square with their image as "a Family Company."
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AFLAC (disability income insurance)
AFLAC Worldwide Headquarters 1932 Wynnton Road Columbus, GA 31999 (706) 323-3431 1-800-992-3522 contact them electronically at: their "Contact Us" page. _
Finding out who REALLY pays for the "St.Joseph's Aspirin" commercials on CBS News programs involved a lot of Matt Drudgery (pardon the pun), but it was worth it - turns out that behind the detritus of corporate buyouts, cooperative marketing arrangements and co-branding, the folks at Johnson and Johnson pay part of Dan Rather's salary, thus are helping finance document fraud and unethical journalistic practices during a Presidential campaign.
CBS runs ads for its entertainment division programs during its news programs.
It turns out that these are two very different businesses, even though they both spew political propaganda at times (for a very small example of what is going on, "Becker" had some very inflammatory remarks to make about Republicans - I guess bigotry is OK in a sitcom character if it's directed at people who have regular jobs and won't show up at your corporate offices the next day with picket signs).
But even though CBS the warm and fuzzy sitcom and drama network is also part of the soulless agitprop machine, they, too must sell advertisements to make a living and feed all the leetle baby screenwriters and network executives.
You can raise their consciousness on this issue at:
their MAIN page. - go all the way down to the bottom of the page and click on "Feedback"
In the window you get when you do that, there's a big blank space into which you can cut and paste letters you've sent to the other firms that have enabled Dan Rather to lie and distort at will, saving you a little work; or you can write a very strongly personal message to them about all the chicanery going on under their roof.
Now, this same form can be used to comment on a number of different CBS programs.
Might it not be useful to let the people behind specific programs you now watch that you WON'T watch them as long as their ad revenues help prop up the crooked behavior of Dan Rather and CBS News?
Why don't we find out?
I sent CSI, CSI: Miami, and their movies/features outfit, all three of which advertised on the segment of "60 Minutes II" where Dan Rather used that poor old lady as a pawn to strike out at President Bush this simple message:
"The promo ad for your program appearing on "60 Minutes II" reminded me of how ad revenues your program generates help support the dishonest journalism which goes on at CBS News.
Until these practices cease, I will stop watching your show and all other CBS programming in order to help deny CBS News its revenue stream. It's for the good of the country."
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Arm & Hammer cat litter advertised on the Show of Shame is made by:
Church & Dwight Co., Inc. Consumer Relations Department 469 N. Harrison Street Princeton, NJ 08543
GlaxoSmithKline makes the "Wellbutrin XL" prescription antidepressants which were advertised on, thus helped run that wretched "60 Minutes" character assassination attempt.
Talk to them about it at:
GlaxoSmithKline 5 Moore Drive PO Box 13398 Research Triangle Park NC 27709
hang in there, folks - I had to try twice to post my comments because their server was so busy (according to the error messages I got). I think this is a good sign - maybe some of those "security moms" are getting busy.
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UBS (financial services) helped Dan Rather out in his time of need - you can share your feelings about that at their "Contact Us" page. _
Toyota can be reached and surveyed as to whether they intended to help CBS News influence a Presidential election in the USA with forged documents at:
Kohl's, a middling-big department store chain with several stores here in Colorado, bought some air time near the end of the "60 Minutes" episode. We still need to know what was on their minds:
Corporate Headquarters Kohl's Department Stores N56 W17000 Ridgewood Drive Menomonee Falls, WI 53051 Phone:(262) 703-7000
an even more local firm, Blackjack Pizza, also bought some ad time toward the end of the "60 Minutes II" episode.
UPDATE: Mr. Larry Schmuhl, who runs Blackjack Pizza Merchandising, took the time to answer my questions directly and personally - so far, the only such response I have received.
If you want to know how local firms wake up in the morning to find they've bought air time on Dan Rather's Hour O' BS, with Mr. Schmuhl's permission I reproduced his letter in a post on this blog: "Blackjack Pizza's Larry Schmuhl Gets Back to Us."
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Cadillac Division of General Motors Cadillac Customer Assistance Center P. O. Box 33169 Detroit, MI 48232-5169
There's no "please.yell.at.us@cadillac.com" Email address to which we may send our outraged comments regarding Cadillac's sponsorship of the Rather Biased Show. You have to navigate their Web site.
It's not hard, though: type www.cadillac.com where it says "address" on your Web browser; look at the bottom of the page for the words "contact us" and click on them;
A new window will pop up on your screen after a minute or two that says at the top "Cadillac.com - Contact us" - click on the words "Email Us";
A window will appear entitled "Cadillac.com - Contact Us - Email Us" - there will be a list of choices on that page - click the empty circle next to "I have a comment about your advertisements" to select that option, then click the gray button marked "Continue" at the bottom of the list of choices;
You'll get a window entitled "Cadillac.com - Contact Us - Email Us - Advertisement Comments" with spaces for your personal information (you only have to fill in the blank fields with '*" marks next to them) and a big space marked "Message," which is where you can put what you want to say to Cadillac.
It might be more convenient to write a letter in your favorite word processor, use the program's "File, Select All" and "File, Copy" commands to place a copy of the letter in your computer's "clipboard," then go over to the window entitled "Cadillac.com - Contact Us - Email Us - Advertisement Comments," place the mouse cursor inside the "Message" blank space, and click the right mouse button.
After you see the vertical line inside the blank space, use your browser's "File, Paste" command to put your letter inside the "Message" box. And there... you... go. After you've filled in all the blanks with "*" marks next to them, click on the "Submit" button.
--
Almost all the other "60 Minutes II" advertisers for last Wednesday have this same sort of javascript stuff going on, probably so automated spammers can't do to them what they do to us little people.
It's still not impossible to navigate through all the screens and options lists, though the tiny little type "Contact Us" is written in on many of these sites may indicate a less than total enthusiasm about being contacted.
Posted by V.P. Frickey
at 7:50 PM MDT
Updated: Wednesday, 22 September 2004 11:04 AM MDT
Kerry Lied; People Would Have Died Topic: Kerry's Lies and Spin
Stephen F. Hayes, who works with the Weekly Standard, compared Kerry's claim that there was no threat from Iraqi support for terror before the war with the findings of the CIA, Bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee reports, and the 9/11 Commisssion findings:
"Kerry campaign: "There was no terrorism in Iraq before we went to war." CIA Analysis, January 2003: Iraqi Support for Terrorism, (p. 314 of Senate Intel Report): "Iraq has a long history of supporting terrorism."
Kerry campaign: "There was no terrorism in Iraq before we went to war." CIA Analysis, January 2003--Iraqi Support for Terrorism, (p. 314 of Senate Intel Report): "Iraq continues to be a safehaven, transit point, or operational node for groups and individuals who direct violence against the United States, Israel and other allies."
Kerry campaign: "There was no terrorism in Iraq before we went to war." Bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee Report (p. 315): "The CIA provided 78 reports, from multiple sources, [redacted] documenting instances in which the Iraqi regime either trained operatives for attacks or dispatched them to carry out attacks."
Kerry campaign: "There was no terrorism in Iraq before we went to war." Bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee Report (p. 316): "Iraq continued to participate in terrorist attacks throughout the 1990s."
Kerry campaign: "There was no terrorism in Iraq before we went to war." Bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee Report (p. 316): "From 1996 to 2003, the [Iraqi Intelligence Service] focused its terrorist activities on western interests, particularly against the U.S. and Israel."
Kerry campaign: "There was no terrorism in Iraq before we went to war." Bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee Report (p. 316): "Throughout 2002, the [Iraqi Intelligence Service] was becoming increasingly aggressive in planning attacks against U.S. interests. The CIA provided eight reports to support this assessment."
Kerry campaign: "There was no terrorism in Iraq before we went to war." Bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee Report (p. 331): "Twelve reports received [redacted] from sources that the CIA described as having varying reliability, cited Iraq or Iraqi national involvement in al Qaeda's [chemical, biological, nuclear] CBW efforts."
Kerry campaign: "There was no terrorism in Iraq before we went to war." The 9/11 Commission Report (p. 66): "In March 1998, after bin Laden's public fatwa against the United States, two al Qaeda members reportedly went to Iraq to meet with Iraq Intelligence. In July, an Iraqi delegation traveled to Afghanistan to meet first with the Taliban and then with bin Laden."
The Fairness Doctrine - An Idea Whose Time Has Come (Again) Mood: celebratory Topic: Taking back our Culture
CBS News' and Dan Rather's surrealist performance last night on 60 Minutes last night point up the crying need for the Federal Communications Commission to revive the long-discarded provisions of the Fairness Doctrine, in order to remove the power of the huge broadcast networks to use politically-slanted reporting and even forged evidence to advance their political causes.
When the Reagan-era FCC relaxed the Fairness Doctrine rules, the idea was to allow broadcasters to cover politically controversial tactics without having to set aside huge amounts of equal time - time that can be extremely valuable if sold for commercials - to cover every possible alternative viewpoint to a broadcast on a controversial topic.
Speculation at the time is that the change was made to accommodate the growing number of political radio talk shows. Most of these new talk shows were, like Rush Limbaugh's, conservative and Reagan-friendly.
I personally thought that gutting the Fairness Doctrine was foolish when it happened, but not because - as some liberal reporters implied - Rush Limbaugh might have been able to be more overbearing than he was before the decision.
I could see, back in the late 1980s, that the major broadcast networks, not Limbaugh's EIB syndicate, would benefit most by loosening the Fairness Doctrine up. If anyone had a huge financial incentive not to have to give equal time to dissenting viewpoints, it was the Big Three broadcast networks.
Even then, Dan Rather - who took over the anchoring duties at the CBS Evening News from fellow leftist advocate/part-time journalist Walter Cronkite - was making a name for himself as a biased master of leftist rhetoric posing as a journalist.
Rather and John Kerry at times acted as a tag team, spinning for Central American dictator Daniel Ortega, complaining that Communism posed no threat to the United States at the same time Soviet ICBMs were being loaded with anthrax and plague in clear and explicit violation of treaties with us - and anyone who dared speculate about that happening was labeled a paranoid by Rather and his colleagues.
Rather also glossed over widespread Soviet support for terrorism in his broadcasts, in tune with Kerry's pleas that we just understand the Communists - and, of course, Kerry's insistence that the totalitarian murder machines around the world supported by Red China and the Soviets were morally equivalent to our own system.
An old French proverb says "The more things change, the more they stay the same," and so it is with Dan Rather.
Now, Dan Rather is in a leftist partisan hyperdrive, the remnants of his journalistic ethics apparently gone with the wind. The anchorman of the CBS Evening News now waves forged documents around to substantiate his pathetic piddling around in George W. Bush's military record, and entices retired ladies into racking their brains for more dirt on his bete noir.
If it's just a matter of examining any major Presidential candidate's embarrassing Vietnam-era military record, why does Rather insist on the thin pickings he's shown us so far, when he can send an intern down to Borders to get a much more interesting genuine document - Unfit for Command. The authenticity and provenance of the Swifties' book is NOT in serious doubt, at least not outside the crowd of national journalists whose political hopes may be dashed as you read this by CBS News' over-zealousness.
But Dan Rather acts as though he doesn't have to sweat it - as long as his advertisers and his bosses at CBS News back him up, he can pretty much say what he wants, and maybe he figures that since he's got one of the biggest megaphones on Earth, the nasty stuff he's flinging against the wall with it is going to stick pretty hard. Never mind that his big megaphone consists of a network of broadcast stations whose licenses require them to cover the whole spectrum of viewpoints in the local communities they serve - not just the viewpoint of John Kerry, Dan Rather, and CBS News.
Under a re-instated Fairness Doctrine, Bush would have equal time to refute the fuzzy recollections of Mrs. Knox during the last episode of 60 Minutes; Linda Tripp would have had a field day with the entire broadcasting industry, but especially with John Goodman, who impersonated her in drag at least twice on Saturday Night Live - maybe Sandra Bernhard would have donated her services to impersonate Goodman; Ken Starr would have had months of equal, broadcast industry-provided time to address the lies spread about him.
The Democrats would have to go back to registering derelicts, winos and dead people to vote.
Please, Brer Congress, throw us in that briar patch!
Will Congress Move the Refrigerator to Look at CBS News? Mood: celebratory Topic: CBS is 2/3 BS
In "Call in Congress," an essay posted on the Weekly Standard's Web site this morning, Hugh Hewitt told us "Sanctions against rotten, agenda-driven journalism are out of the question--and rightly so. The First Amendment is just fine as it is, its protections best burnished by searching self-examination.
But shining the light which is a byproduct of serious questioning under oath on the suits supposedly in charge of these institutional water carriers of the left would be a very healthy thing indeed.
On Tuesday night, California Rep. Christopher Cox called on the chair of his subcommittee, the above-mentioned Rep. Upton, to initiate an investigation. This proposal has divided the blogosphere, with critics predicting that the launch of an investigation would rally other media to CBS's defense, or cast the controversy in a partisan light."
As a blogger myself (purely Libertarian and free-lance - I don't make a silver dime off of what goes into my blog) I think that hearings are a SPLENDID idea.
If, after Congress slides the refrigerator to one side, the rest of the cockroaches want to form serried ranks to either side of Dan Rather and his bosses at CBS News instead of scattering, that's fine, too.
Backing Rather and CBS just places the rest of Big Journalism firmly on the side of cheap partisan rhetorical tactics in journalistic drag, and use of faked "evidence" as part of the foundation of a news story - exposing them as the journalistic phonies they are.
My high school journalism teacher would have had to go beyond the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet to find a grade far enough below "A" to describe Rather's performance on this story. And it'll take Congressional attention and perhaps legislative action to give CBS News an big enough rap on its knuckles for this mess.
From "recently-discovered memos" to "forgeries that reflect real documents.... " Mood: incredulous Topic: Kerry's Lies and Spin
On Thursday, September 9th, 2004, Dan Rather and the other folks at 60 Minutes told us that a public-spirited soul told them where they could get unsigned memos written by George W. Bush's commander in the Texas Air National Guard of a derogatory nature.
I won't repeat the specifics of the charges in the memos because even obvious forgeries can spread misinformation if what is written on them is repeated too often. People working for or with the Kerry campaign and/or the Democratic Party showed us fake papers expecting us to believe that what was on them was the truth. Fortunately, it didn't work out that way.
No, let's look instead at how quickly these memos evolved from genuine proof of some allegations I won't repeat to forgeries that "reflect real documents that once existed." Problem after problem after problem turns up to bring doubt as to the authenticity of these memos, and yet Big Journalism concentrates on the allegations made on the forgeries rather than the implications that - well, that Big Journalism itself may be implicated in the forgeries.
Guess that was foolish of me, wondering why we haven't seen some investigative reporting on forgers who are being protected by a major news organization as "unimpeachable sources." Actually, it's pleasant to reflect that if Senators Kerry or Edwards turn out to be implicated in this forgery personally, they might be "impeachable sources" - impeachment being the first step toward defrocking a Senator or Congressman accused of a serious crime of his or her immunity from arrest or prosecution for that crime.
Let's look, too, at why the same national press which spends so much time preening itself on its objectivity and high professional standards isn't scrambling to cover CBS News' apparent complicity in an attempt to influence the outcome of a Presidential election with forged evidence.
If the Republicans had tried something like this, we'd be hearing about it in prime-time specials all the way to Election Night, wouldn't we? Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings would be intoning grave condemnations of the criminals behind such an outrage in unison. Of course, Molly Ivins' routine would scarcely change - she lacerates President Bush in every column regardless of anything he's actually done that day.
Journalists seem to be very resentful of us bloggers lately - bloggers and Emailers.
One of the more portentuous scholarly journals recently bemoaned the massive Email condemnation of MSNBC's Laurence O'Donnell for calling Senator Zell Miller "crazy" and "a liar" on the McLaughlin Group - something about a "chilling effect" on journalism. The problem, of course, is that the journal article writer had confused O'Donnell's brain-fart with the practice of journalism and assumed it was properly protected from the massive condemnation of people with better manners and Email accounts.
Another person ordained by the conventional news media, while interviewing the law professor who runs the "Instapundit" site, made a snarky remark about bloggers being people who work in their pajamas and write whatever they feel like writing.
That's a very telling point, and I was cut to the quick. I wear pajamas when I write this blog on occasion. And I write what I feel like writing. The clincher, I suppose, is that I don't feel like lying to make my points or covering up my favorite politicians' pasts. I started this blog because I was tired of nationally-published and broadcast journalists doing just that sort of thing.
Journalists, by the same line of reasoning, could be described as people who work in nice casual wear and write whatever their bosses tell them to, or whatever they think will get their favorite political candidate elected.
If the Dan Rathers, Molly Ivinses, Morley Safers, and Chris Matthewses of the world would brush up on the ethics of journalism, people wouldn't go to us bloggers for a second opinion on what's happening in the world.
People aren't idiots - they know when they're being lied to. They know when other people are talking down to them, and maybe pulling a fast one on them. During the Reagan administrations, the press had worn out its welcome in American homes by precisely the same arrogant disregard for manners and journalistic ethics that is making a comeback now.
And our kids have forgotten more about how to make fake documents like the alleged Air Guard memos than the limited knowledge displayed by the "document experts" interviewed on camera by CBS to defend the authenticity of those memos. The last thing the people responsible for this fraud should have tried is to lie to 21st century Americans about what can and cannot be done with computers.
P.T. Barnum may have been right when he first said it, but a sucker isn't born every minute any more. Not in this country.
Posted by V.P. Frickey
at 12:01 AM MDT
Updated: Wednesday, 15 September 2004 12:39 AM MDT
Sure, they're FORGED, but they "reflect real documents that once existed" - TRUST US ON THIS!" Mood: celebratory Topic: Kerry's Lies and Spin "The most outrageous lies that can be invented will find believers if a person only tells them with all his might." - Mark Twain
Now, whoever decided to gin up a few transparent forgeries to buttress more attacks on the President is hiding behind the skirts of an elderly lady who used to type for the dead colonel who is supposed to have (gasp) said BAD things about the President.
I wonder if the decision maker behind this escapade dreamed how strange this trip would be when he signed the checks or did whatever else a political mechanic does to initiate a gargantuan fraud.
Perspective shift -
What if the Dallas Morning News went to see Rosemary Woods and she swore to them that nothing bad or incriminating was said in that 18-and-a-half minute gap on one of the Nixon White House tapes.
They would logically be compelled to insist that we take her word for it and stop being mean about Tricky Dick, if they also insist that we take the feisty and (going from their article below) extremely partisan Mrs. Knox's word about what Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Killian thought of his subordinate Lieutenant George W. Bush.
According to other news organizations, including the Associated Press, Mrs. Knox's statements on that score have been vehemently contradicted by Col. Killian's son and widow, and Col. Killian's personnel officer at the time.
In "A Desperate Campaign, an Eager Media, and Fraudulent Documents," attorney George C. Landrith writes "Gary Killian, the son of Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, said the documents did not come from his family and they are "very dubious" because the signatures were not his father's and the wording was not his father's style. He said his father thought very highly of young Lt. George W. Bush. In fact, unquestionably authentic National Guard documents show that Lt. Col. Killian rated Lt. Bush "an exceptionally fine young officer and pilot."
An Associated Press article, "Authenticity of new Bush military papers questioned," affirms the statements by Col. Killian's son and presents other statements by officers of the 111th Interceptor Squadron when both Killian and Bush were there:
"The personnel chief in Killian's unit at the time said he believes the documents are fake.
"They looked to me like forgeries," said Rufus Martin. "I don't think Killian would do that, and I knew him for 17 years." and
"Retired Col. Maurice Udell, the unit's instructor pilot who helped train Bush, said Friday he thought the documents were fake.
"I completely am disgusted with this (report) I saw on '60 Minutes,'" Udell said. "That's not true. I was there. I knew Jerry Killian. I went to Vietnam with Jerry Killian in 1968."
Also from the Associated Press report:
"Casting further doubt on the memos, The Dallas Morning News said in a report for its Saturday editions that the officer named in a memo as exerting pressure to "sugar coat" Bush's record had left the Texas Air National Guard 1.50 years before the memo was dated.
The newspaper said it obtained an order showing that Walter B. Staudt, former commander of the Texas Guard, retired on March 1, 1972. The memo was dated Aug. 18, 1973. A telephone call to Staudt's home Friday night was not answered."
So far, what we know is that: - Mrs. Knox, the subject of the article quoted below, heard some bad gossip about George W. Bush when he was in the Air National Guard unit where she typed memos for the commander of Bush's unit; - Mrs. Knox doesn't care for President Bush at all and isn't shy about saying so; - even so, Mrs. Knox spoke up about the "unsigned memos" being forgeries, even though that helps the Bush campaign; - and Mrs. Knox didn't recall typing the memos on which she says the fakes were based, even though she insists "the information is taken from the real ones." - So far, the case against Lt. George W. Bush, Texas Air National Guard, consists of what most independent experts who have seen them say are forged memos, and hearsay and inexact recollections reported by an 86 year-old woman. - and the "unimpeachable source" whose identity Dan Rather and CBS News are still hiding is probably a liar and almost certainly a forger - and an inept one, at that.
And the people at the Dallas Morning News exploit little old ladies, we've figured that out, too. No real light on the Bush controversy was shed by that article - it reeks of "X-Files"-grade speculation and lack of firm evidence.
The article - Judge for yourselves:
"Former secretary says she didn't type Guard memos
06:53 PM EDT on Tuesday, September 14, 2004 By PETE SLOVER / The Dallas Morning News
HOUSTON - The former secretary for the Texas Air National Guard colonel who supposedly authored memos critical of President Bush's Guard service said Tuesday that the documents are fake, but that they reflect real documents that once existed.
Marian Carr Knox, who worked from 1956 to 1979 at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston, said she prided herself on meticulous typing, and the memos first disclosed by CBS News last week were not her work.
"These are not real," she told The Dallas Morning News after examining copies of the disputed memos for the first time. "They're not what I typed, and I would have typed them for him."
Mrs. Knox, 86, who spoke with precise recollection about dates, people and events, said she is not a supporter of Mr. Bush, who she deemed "unfit for office" and "selected, not elected."
"I remember very vividly when Bush was there and all the yak-yak that was going on about it," she said.
But, she said, telltale signs of forgery abounded in the four memos, which contained the supposed writings of her ex-boss, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who died in 1984.
She said the typeface on the documents did not match either of the two typewriters that she used during her time at the Guard. She identified those machines as a mechanical Olympia, which was replaced by an IBM Selectric in the early 1970s.
She spoke fondly of the Olympia machine, which she said had a key with the "th" superscript character that was the focus of much debate in the CBS memos. Experts have said that the Selectric, and mechanical typewriters such as the Olympia, could not produce proportional spacing, found in the disputed documents.
CBS officials have defended their report. They have declined to say who provided 60 Minutes with the documents, other than that it was an "unimpeachable source" - or exactly where they came from, other than Lt. Col. Killian's "personal file."
The memos, if real, would show that as a pilot, Mr. Bush defied a direct order to obtain a flight physical, enjoyed the benefit of pressure from high officials to "sugar coat" his record, and was grounded for failing to meet military performance standards.
Mrs. Knox said she did all of Lt. Col. Killian's typing, including memos for a personal "cover his back" file he kept in a locked drawer of his desk.
She said she did not recall typing the memos reported by CBS News, though she said they accurately reflect the viewpoints of Lt. Col. Killian and documents that would have been in the personal file. Also, she could not say whether the CBS documents corresponded memo for memo with that file.
"The information in here was correct, but it was picked up from the real ones," she said.
She said that the culture of the time was that men didn't type office-related documents, and she expressed doubt that Lt. Col. Killian would have typed the memos. She said she would typically type his memos from his handwritten notes, which she would then destroy.
Mrs. Knox, who left the Guard before Lt. Col. Killian died, said she was not sure of the disposition of his personal files when he died while still serving at Ellington. But, she said, it would have been logical that a master sergeant who worked in the squadron headquarters would have destroyed any such nonofficial documents after Lt. Col. Killian's death.
That man, reached Tuesday, declined to comment. "I don't know anything about the matter," he said.
She also said the memos may have been constructed from memory by someone who had seen Lt. Col. Killian's private file but were not transcriptions because the language and terminology did not match what he would have used.
For instance, she said, the use of the words "billets" and a reference to the "administrative officer" of Mr. Bush's squadron reflect Army terminology rather than the Air National Guard. Some news reports attribute the CBS reports to a former Army National Guard officer who has a longstanding dispute with the Guard and has previously maintained that the president's record was sanitized.
Mrs. Knox also cited stylistic differences in the form of the notes, such as the signature on the right side of the document, rather than the left, where she would have put it."
Posted by V.P. Frickey
at 7:50 PM MDT
Updated: Wednesday, 15 September 2004 12:07 AM MDT
incredulous
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Phil Parlock says he's a peaceful guy who doesn't mind carrying a Republican sign to a Democratic rally. 
celebratory