As usual.
By Brad Friedman on 7/24/2004, 12:59pm PT  

In another fine example of how the mainstream, supposedly "Liberal" Media --- in this case CNN --- passes off White House propoganda as "news", take a look at this exchange from yesterday's Inside Politics with Judy Woodruff on CNN which further underscores a point made here recently (and re-published by the Democratic Underground) about the myth of a "Liberal" Media.

Note Judy's first question in the following exchange and how it would seem to have nothing to do with what she's just been told by the reporter. Also note how, in the end, a report/conversation that certainly sounds like news or analysis is anything but. Instead, it's a virtual echoing of the unsupported White House position that George W. Bush served honorably and was not AWOL from the National Guard in 1972:

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Judy. Perhaps you remember earlier this month, the Pentagon said that some key payroll records relating to President Bush's service in the Air National Guard some 30 years ago had been inadvertently destroyed in an effort to preserve the microfilm.

Now they say upon further checking, that is not the case. The records were intact and in fact have been found. They say that the reason they were confused before is they had the wrong records access number that was straightened out by a manager of the facility and they have found the payroll records for that quarter which was missing, which was in 1972, the third quarter including July, August and September.

The White House had maintained all along that even though the records were missing they were irrelevant because it was never claimed that President Bush accumulated flying hours during that time. Instead they said he fulfilled his service over a 12-month period and was honorably discharged from the Air Guard.

Nevertheless, the gap in the records caused critics to question what had happened to them. We do have the records now and they do show in fact, as near as I can tell from reading them that President Bush did not accrue any flying hours during that time. But again, the White House said that was irrelevant, but now the records have been found and the record is complete --- Judy.

WOODRUFF: So, Jamie, to clarify, this indicates that President Bush was present and putting his service while he was in the Air Guard, even though he wasn't flying, am I correct?

MCINTYRE: Well, it doesn't show that he accrued any credits during that three-month period, but again, the White House never asserted that he had during that three months. They say that he fulfilled his obligation over a 12-month period and that the records for that exist that show he accumulated the necessary points to have done what he was supposed to do. Critics charge at that point that he was away working on a senatorial campaign and was essentially AWOL for 12 months. The White House says that the documents refute that, but there was always a question about what this gap --- how this gap in the documents came by and now they say they've found that missing document.

WOODRUFF: All right. Jamie McIntyre with this late-breaking development out of the Pentagon. Jamie, thank you very much.

The fact of the matter is that nothing in the newly released documents shows that George W. Bush actually performed his required service in the National Guard. Nothing in any document has actually been able to prove that. Nor has a single witness to Bush's "service" in the last quarter of 1972 come forward to attest to his presence during that time. Not one.

If these newly released records do anything they serve to further underscore there is no proof that George W. Bush did what he claims, and instead likely deserted his post but was given an "honorable discharge" anyway for some reason. Not that having a father who had just become the chairman of the Republican National Committee after serving as ambassador to the United Nations in 1972 would make such a deserter more likely to receive said "honorable discharge".

None the less, the supposedly "Liberal" Media of CNN is happy once again to spin P.R. duties for the White House.

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