Pentagon Finally Gets New Press Spokesman -- A Year After He Said U.S. TV

TV Networks Were Aiding Terrorists
NEW YORK The U.S. Senate voted Friday to confirm a new Pentagon spokesman, months after President.Bush bypassed the Senate to install him in the job after objections were raised about a column he wrote for the Wall Street Journal.Senators approved the nomination of Dorrance Smith, a former ABC News producer, to be assistant secretary of defense for public affairs. The vote was 59-34. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., had held up the nomination because of an opinion article in which Smith accused U.S. television networks of helping terrorists through their partnerships with Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera.


The job of Pentagon spokesman had been unfilled since Victoria Clarke quit the post in June 2003. Bush used a recess appointment in January to put Smith in the job. So what, exactly, did Smith write? And why did a Wall Street Journal editorial later declare, ”Contrary to Sen. Levin's assertions, Mr. Smith's op-ed is evidence of why he is qualified for the job”?In a column in the Wall Street Journal on April 25, 2005, Smith cited “the ongoing relationship between terrorists, al-Jazeera and the networks….Isn't it time to scrutinize the relationship among al-Jazeera, American networks and the terrorists? What role should the U.S. government be playing? “Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and al Qaeda have a partner in al-Jazeera and, by extension, most networks in the U.S. This partnership is a powerful tool for the terrorists in the war in Iraq. Figures show that 77% of Iraqis cite TV as their main source of information; 15% cite newspapers….“In addition to being subsidized by Qatar, Al-Jazeera has very strong partners in the U.S.--ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN and MSNBC. Video aired by Al-Jazeera ends up on these networks, sometimes within minutes.


:eyes: there's more...
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002313899

That's the criteria, right? ANY contact with ANY possible terrorist?

I wonder what convinced Levin :(