Shaun Kenney | Politics and Religion in Virginia's Public Square


Tuesday, May 20, 2008 Gillespie Hammers NBC And rightly so over the editing of President Bush's interview with NBC regarding Iran: Bush aides were angered by how the president's answer was portrayed when Engel questioned him about his condemnation of 'the false comfort of appeasement' in an address last week to the Israeli Knesset. NBC stood by its treatment of the interview Monday. Bush had mentioned the president of Iran in his speech, and said: 'Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along.' Obama's campaign considered that statement an attack on him, which the White House has denied. Engel asked Bush if he was referring to Obama in his speech. As it appeared on 'Nightly News' Sunday and the 'Today' show Monday, Bush's response was: 'You know, my policies haven't changed, but evidently the political calendar has ... And when, you know, a leader of Iran says that they want to destroy Israel, you've got to take those words seriously.' But the White House said NBC edited out these words that Bush said between those two sentences: 'People need to read the speech. You didn't get it exactly right, either. What I said was that we need to take the words of people seriously.' Bush counsel Ed Gillespie, in a letter to NBC News President Steve Capus, said that 'this deceitful editing to further a media-manufactured storyline is utterly misleading and irresponsible.' He asked that the network air Bush's response in full on the two programs. NBC countered by saying the unedited interview has been available since Sunday on the network's Web site, and that the reporting accurately reflects the interview. Interpretation: NBC knows what President Bush intended to say, so they edited his remarks until they got what they wanted? Of course, rumors are swirling that the United States is preparing to attack Iran before the end of President Bush's term, a move welcomed by the Israelis but cautioned against by SecDef Gates and SecState Rice back in Washington. You would have missed this if one relied entirely on NBC for "facts" and ethical reporting. UPDATE: The Hill has more from the Gillespie memo: Gillespie used the opportunity to also inquire whether NBC News still believes that Iraq is in the midst of a civil war. In November 2006, the network decided to label the infighting in the country a “civil war.” “I noticed that around September of 2007, your network quietly stopped referring to conditions in Iraq as a ‘civil war,’ ” Gillespie wrote. “Is it still NBC News’s carefully deliberated opinion that Iraq is in the midst of a civil war? If not, will the network publicly declare that the civil war has ended, or that it was wrong to declare it in the first place?” Don't you just love it when the media tries to create facts that just aren't true? Of course, it certainly makes one shudder that 75,000 people in Oregon rallied to a candidate whose prime issue -- failure in Iraq -- is by and large manufactured (yes, manufactured) by the MSM... that's 75,000 Obama supporters willing to be lied to in order to relive the '60s. Go get 'em, Ed. posted by Shaun Kenney \| 5/20/2008 07:06:00 AM \| 0 comments 0 Comments: Post a Comment Home
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