What Dan Rather and John Gibson Have in Common

We all remember when Dan Rather didn't do his homework on Bush just before the election. He was then still anchor at CBS and irresponsibly aired a story about Bush being AWOL during the Vietnam War. They toasted him for it, and eventually he had to leave off being anchor.

Well, we have the first instance of it in this election. First Steve Doocy of Fox News reported that Baruch Obama had spent the first decade of his life raised by a Muslim father. This itself was a garbled version of the original article in Insight, claiming that Hilary Clinton's camp had found out that Obama had attended a madrassa or fundamentalist Muslim school during the time his mother and step-father lived in Indonesia in the 60's. Double whammy--get Clinton and Obama in one swoop.

Then Gibson repeated it on his program, still without doing his homework.

It turns out that Doocy, Insight, and Gibson were skewed on several points. Obama had only met his father once in his life, and he was an atheist. CNN actually did their homework and contacted the school, which apparently was no different from any other "public" school in Indonesia at the time.

But in the end, none of this matters in the slightest. Obama had a conversion experience in his 20's. He was only 6 at the time he was in Indonesia.

Gibson has not apologized for getting his facts wrong. Doocy at least made some correction.

I am quite comfortable with my sense of bias among the media. Fox clearly leans to the right. Even here, I respect some more than others. O'Reilly, bless his soul, is arrogant and clearly has a right inclination, but I do believe he is honest. I can't think of anyone at Fox who leans to the "liberal."

There are clearly those who lean left at CNN and MSNBC. Keith Olbermann immediately focuses on the negative of any speech Bush makes. He is a kind of left version of O'Reilly. He's honest, but clearly has a "liberal" inclination. But frankly, I can't think of anyone at MSNBC who is as skewed liberal as, say, Anne Colter or Rush Lindbaugh is to the right. And I don't see how anyone sane can really consider Joe Scarborough a liberal. He regularly features Pat Buchanan and vigorously supported the Iraq War.

My favorite media people are those that really seem to try to listen to both sides--and who really seem to listen. I can't think of any of the main reporters for NPR who wouldn't fit in this category, although clearly some of the side program hosts are liberal. I consider Chris Matthews of this sort. His brother holds local Republican office and I honestly couldn't figure out during the election whether he was Republican or Democrat.

And certainly Tim Russert is so fascinated as an observer that I have no idea what his views are. I mean this as a compliment--he is so nerdily fascinated to watch the politics that who knows what he thinks!

Is David Greggory a liberal, like Snow and Fox have accused? I don't know if he is, but there is a point where the data is so clear that a person would have to be skewed even to give time to some possibilities. When the MSNBC correspondant says that the manner of Saddam's death has caused a big PR among Iraqis, isn't it possible that there is no bias here? What if it is so obvious to someone on the ground in Iraq that it would be skewed to pretend the other is even a possibility?

Bush's State of the Union Address

State of the union night. I thought the beginning of the speech was good strategy. First, I think Bush is a good man with good intentions. His opening comments to Palosi and the Democrats were, dare I say, "Christian" and honorable.

I do give Bush and the economic philosophy of his cohort (including Greenspahn) credit for the quick turn around of the economy this decade. I am a Republican in my economics. I'm not competent to judge, but it seems to me that, whether we like it or not, whether it is Christian or not, economies are built when capitalists do their thing. The big economic blunder of Bush is the war in Iraq.

Some ho hum old plans. School choice. Fine, whatever. We'll see if it goes anywhere (I bet not). I'd be glad for something to shake out with health care and immigration. We'll see.

Nice things to say on shifting to alternative sources of energy. I smiled when he said "global climate change" and not "global warming." It's a way to acknowledge the issue without selling out the willful who continue to deny that the human element in global climate change is beyond reasonable doubt.

Bush's narrative of the Iraq story really leaves me speechless, dumbfounded. Is he even on the same planet as I am? Interesting subtle attempt to connect 9-11 to Iraq by calling them Sunni extremists. Again, no connection. He continues to make it sound like no one could have foreseen that these things would happen when there were a thousand voices he refused to listen to. Terrorists fear freedom, he says. I picture them laughing at him every time he says this nonsense. I don't know what the answer is but I'm glad Bush can't just continue blindly to do whatever Cheney wants anymore.

"Not the fight we entered but the one we're in"? No, we are responsible for this mess. Sheez.

Good words on Darfur. I hope he follows through.

The Iraqi Army and Police

One fear I have as we embed our troops among Iraqi troops around Baghdad is the likelihood that Madi army people are in the police and the army. Bush tended to talk about these forces as if they were neutral forces that might stabilize the sectarian violence. But the army was debathified and thus heavily de-Sunnified. These forces are overwhelmingly Shiite, and some seem loyal to Al Sadr.

So do we expect them to reign in themselves? What's worse, I fear that at some point they will turn on the embedded troops!

Saddam Hanged

I watched one of the cell phone videos of Saddam's hanging on YouTube. It raised various emotions. I suppose my main sense was how pathetic the situation has become in Iraq. The punishment of Saddam Hussein should have been a climactic moment--it's the current reason we invaded Iraq. We entered to topple an evil dictator and bring democracy to a people.

So for a group of hooded Shiites to lynch him in some "back alley" ceremony behind closed doors--not what Bush or Cheney would have planned as a moment of final justice! Instead, it became an act of tribal revenge.

What to do, what to do...

Gerald Ford's funeral

I've been amazed at the praise that has been poured out on Gerald Ford this last week. He has been interestingly silent all these years--his opinion of Bush's invasion of Iraq only came out posthumously!

He is a man who's identity in my mind has largely amounted to three things:

1. The only president who was never elected.
2. The guy who pardoned Nixon.
3. The guy Chevy Chase made fun of the first season of Saturday Night Live by falling all over the place.

The last one is deeply ironic since Ford was one of the most athletic presidents we have ever had--one article said the most athletic.

I heard part of Kissinger's eulogy on him today. It sounds like he was a deeply virtuous person. Indeed, although I probably agree with much of what Jimmy Carter is saying these days, Ford's silent disagreement may win him a legacy of honor and virtue that surpasses Carter's.

We'll see.