Sunday, January 30, 2005

About 45 mins. ago, Bush gave a statement about the Iraqi elections. The third or fourth sentence of the statement has been transcribed by AP as follows:
Bush said they "firmly rejected the antidemocratic ideology" of terrorists.
I watched Bush live on NBC and winced when I heard him stare into the camera and firmly enunciate this point. HOWEVER, why is it the AP felt the need to clip the quotation marks at the word "ideology" when clearly (again, I heard it, saw it, and played it again to make sure) Bush said, "...ideology of the terrorists"....?

Yes, it's a big difference. Why? Because Bush and his administration continue to try to link our Iraq presence with 9-11, i.e. terrorists. Note he did not state Iraqis "firmly rejected the antidemocratic ideology of Saddam Hussein." It's subtle but it speaks volumes to how Bush/Cheney have tried to change the original message of why we invaded Iraq in the first place. When was the last time you heard any Republican mention WMD? Remember when this was all we heard? Yet, they now wish for us to assume & believe that terrorists were 1) in Iraq all along (false), and 2) that's indeed why we invaded (false again).

Worse yet, not just the American public allows them a pass on this huge lie, but also the press (AP, in this instance) allow for a pass by not fully quoting Bush on a key part of his statement. The AP story has been picked up by newspapers all over the country (just search right now on Google), so this slight -- but big -- misrepresentation is all anyone will see and they'll assume he perhaps did not state "terrorists" exactly, as it is not within quotation marks.

Liberal media bias? Ah, no, try instead inaccurate, or even lazy, media bias.

UPDATE: It was astounding to witness Bush making this statement on a Sunday NOT from his Texas ranch (yes, he was actually in Washington on a weekend!).

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