OMFG!!! ABC and CBS PWN Bush!!!

[Dinner]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
I did. It was hilarious. Bush's plan for dealing with Iraq is hoping the media stops covering it.

Naw, they're also going after internet bloggers.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Ming
Again... that's what they need to do. If they continue to focus on military records, Kerry will lose this election.

Unfortunately, you are right. Kerry seems like a lost little child who can't figure out what he's supposed to say.

It seems obvious to me. 1) You attack Bush's record and label him a failure. 2) You show how you'd make the future different. This isn't rocket science.

[Drake Tungsten]

*sigh*

Why am I always the one who has to bring facts into these debates?

Media failed to find facts behind Bush's service record

February 11, 2004

BY THOMAS LIPSCOMB

President Bush has had a rough 10 days, beginning with the Tim Russert "Meet the Press" interview on Feb. 1 of Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, who charged Bush was "AWOL" and "never served in the military." Only a week later, Bush asked to appear on Russert's show in a clear attempt to stem the damage from these charges. For over a week they were endlessly repeated and never analyzed by the news media.

But the only basis for these charges was summarized by London's Sunday Telegraph on Feb. 8: "If the Vietnam veteran John Kerry becomes the next president, there will be one man to thank above all others: retired Brig. Gen. William Turnipseed."

It all started with a report by the Boston Globe during the 2000 presidential election questioning Bush's National Guard service. Walter Robinson cited retired Turnipseed, of the Alabama Air National Guard, as his source.

But in an interview , Turnipseed states that Robinson's reporting of their conversation was either distorted or based upon his misunderstanding of how the military functioned at the time of Bush's service. For Bush to be "AWOL" or "away without leave," he would have had to have been assigned to a unit and under its command.

Turnipseed states Bush was never ordered to report to the Alabama Air National Guard. He points out that Bush never transferred from the Texas Air National Guard to the Alabama Air National Guard. He remained in the Texas Guard during his stay in Alabama. This was confirmed by the Texas Guard. And Turnipseed added that Bush was never under his command or any other officer in the Alabama Guard.

Turnipseed added that Bush was informed of the drill schedule of the Alabama Guard as a courtesy so he could get credit for drills while in Alabama for his service record in the Texas Guard. There was no compulsory attendance.This was also confirmed by the Texas Guard.

Sen. John Kerry got in on the act on Sunday, asking, "was he [Bush] present and active on duty in Alabama at the times he was supposed to be? I don't have the answer to that question." But as Turnipseed points out, Bush was never "supposed to be" anything in Alabama. And Kerry doesn't have "the answer" because he is taking advantage of a partisan political fantasy that has stayed aloft this long because of the lousy job done by the press in reporting on it.

Now, Robinson is beginning to have second thoughts. His latest column states: "President Bush received credit for attending Air National Guard drills in the fall of 1972 and spring of 1973 -- a period when his commanders have said he did not appear for duty at bases in Montgomery, Ala., and Houston -- according to two new documents obtained by the Globe." How could Robinson have gotten it so wrong?

The most charitable explanation for this distortion is the almost total ignorance the press of the realities of military service and its record-keeping. Yet Turnipseed has been repeatedly called by news organizations since the Globe reporting four years ago, and no one has chosen to correct the errors he has tried to point out or cover his denials.

The most startling aspect of this story is that the press has continually treated this affair as a political debate rather than a matter of fact.

An Air National Guard officer such as George Bush left an extensive paper trail of service. The vital summary sheet of a military record is a simple form called the DD214 or NGB 22. It covers all the basic questions being asked about Bush today. Every military veteran has one.

Kerry has one. On it are listed his dates of service, the nature of his discharge and the medals and service ribbons he has every reason to be proud of. It was filed away at the time of discharge and is almost impossible to alter.

Did a single member of the thousands in the press take the trouble to look up just one DD214 or NGB22 -- President Bush's?

Apparently not. And that is the saddest part of the story.

There was already an exhaustive look at Bush's National Guard records published and available on the Internet to any reporter who has written on this in the last week. None of whom bothered to look it up. It's title? "The Real Military Record of George W. Bush: Not Heroic, But Not AWOL, Either." It was "the first full chronology" and concludes "he did accumulate the days of service required of him for his ultimate honorable discharge."

The article included the pasteup pay records just released by the White House. It also included the "two new documents obtained by the Globe" by Robinson.

It was published four years ago in George Magazine. Its publisher was that well-known GOP supporter -- the late John F. Kennedy, Jr.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-banal11.html

It's sad that the only way the media can "pwn" Bush (as they so obviously want to) is by ignoring already known facts that destroy their story...

[Agathon]

We're supposed to believe someone called "Turnipseed"?

Who are the repugs going to bring out next? "Hogscrewer"?

[chequita guevara]

The documents uncovered by 60 Minutes conflict with what Turnipseed says. I think I'll believe the documents written in 1972 and not what Turnipseed says today.

[Drake Tungsten]

The future president joined the Guard in May 1968. Almost immediately, he began an extended period of training. Six weeks of basic training. Fifty-three weeks of flight training. Twenty-one weeks of fighter-interceptor training.

That was 80 weeks to begin with, and there were other training periods thrown in as well. It was full-time work. By the time it was over, Bush had served nearly two years.

Not two years of weekends. Two years.

After training, Bush kept flying, racking up hundreds of hours in F-102 jets. As he did, he accumulated points toward his National Guard service requirements. At the time, guardsmen were required to accumulate a minimum of 50 points to meet their yearly obligation.

According to records released earlier this year, Bush earned 253 points in his first year, May 1968 to May 1969 (since he joined in May 1968, his service thereafter was measured on a May-to-May basis).

Bush earned 340 points in 1969-1970. He earned 137 points in 1970-1971. And he earned 112 points in 1971-1972. . . .

That brings the story to May 1972 Ethe time that has been the focus of so many news reports "when Bush deserted"(according to anti-Bush filmmaker Michael Moore) or went "AWOL" (according to Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee).

Bush asked for permission to go to Alabama to work on a Senate campaign. His superior officers said OK. Requests like that weren't unusual, says retired Col. William Campenni, who flew with Bush in 1970 and 1971.

"In 1972, there was an enormous glut of pilots," Campenni says. "The Vietnam War was winding down, and the Air Force was putting pilots in desk jobs. In '72 or '73, if you were a pilot, active or Guard, and you had an obligation and wanted to get out, no problem. In fact, you were helping them solve their problem."

So Bush stopped flying. From May 1972 to May 1973, he earned just 56 points - not much, but enough to meet his requirement.

Then, in 1973, as Bush made plans to leave the Guard and go to Harvard Business School, he again started showing up frequently.

In June and July of 1973, he accumulated 56 points, enough to meet the minimum requirement for the 1973-1974 year.

Then, at his request, he was given permission to go.

http://www.hillnews.com/york/090904.aspx

What's the problem with Bush's record?

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Ohhh & I can't wait until Barnes starts his attack on Bush familial ties getting him his NG post.

You think the media exposed their soft liberal underbelly in trying to paint the SBV's as partisan hacks in the employ of the repubs, wait to you see them pose Barnes as a media darling whilst ignoring his ties. Were it not so apparent it would be laughable.

[Drake Tungsten]

I don't think it's that laughable. The media has lost all sense of neutrality and fairness and the population at large can't help but suffer because of it.

[Shi Huangdi]

Say what you like about the circumstances behind Kerry's medals, but that wasn't all of what SBV for truth were saying. They also ran attacks based on Kerry's VVAW activities, and his demonstratably false claim of being in Cambodia under Nixon in 1968. The media demonized SBV, and played along with the Kerry's allegations that SBV were Bush's cronies, even though SBV was an independent group. This new group will certainly be applauded.

I don't know why it is, maybe the FCC fines put these networks on the defensive(is it a coincidence this comes so shortly after the FCC fined CBS over Jacksons's boobs), but it seems these networks are giving up any guise of being non-partisan and are throwing all their credibility on the line to try to elect John Kerry.

[Drake Tungsten]

I don't know why it is

The media gwants Kerry to winh and so gtheyfre going to portray Kerry and Edwards as being young and dynamic and optimistich and gtherefs going to be this glow abouth them, Evan Thomas, the Assistant Managing Editor of Newsweek, admitted on Inside Washington over the weekend.

[Agathon]

I don't think it's that laughable. The media has lost all sense of neutrality and fairness and the population at large can't help but suffer because of it.

Why shouldn't the media hate evil as much as normal people?

Besides, the media now confuse objectivity with neutrality. If they were doing their jobs properly both candidates would be toast by now and Nader and Badnarik would be the front runners.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
What's the problem with Bush's record?

He disobeyed direct orders, and went AWOL.

[Ben Kenobi]

Bush earned 340 points in 1969-1970.

7 times his required points.

Not too shabby for a flyboy who staged his jet landing, eh?

[Ben Kenobi]

Why shouldn't the media hate evil as much as normal people?

If they were doing their jobs properly both candidates would be toast by now and Nader and Badnarik would be the front runners.

Kerry is evil?