NYT uncritically reported Bush claim that Al Qaeda terrorists "would follow us here" from Iraq"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200707050004

AP, NY Times, Wash. Post uncritically reported Bush claim that terrorists "would follow us here" from Iraq

In articles on President Bush's July 4 speech to the 167th Airlift Wing of the West Virginia Air National Guard, the Associated Press, The New York Times, and The Washington Post uncritically reported Bush's oft-used defense of his Iraq war policy -- that Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq will attack Americans inside the United States if U.S. troops withdraw "before the job is done." Yet none of the articles noted that security and terrorism experts have challenged Bush's view, despite several recent news reports on this dispute, including a March 18 Post article.

The AP directly quoted Bush's speech, while the Times and the Post paraphrased his claim. From the July 4 AP article:

"Victory in this struggle will require more patience, more courage, and more sacrifice," Bush told the guardsmen and their families in a half-hour speech in a cavernous aircraft maintenance hangar at the 167th Airlift Wing.

"If we were to quit Iraq before the job is done, the terrorists we are fighting would not declare victory and lay down their arms. They would follow us here."

That line played well with the crowd.

From the July 5 Times article:

Mr. Bush said if the United States were to leave Iraq now, Al Qaeda "would be able to establish their safe haven from which to do two things: to further spread their ideology and to plan and plot attacks against the United States."

Victory, he said, "will require more patience, more courage, and more sacrifice."

:eyes:

First they help spread the propaganda and then act like big hero's for acting like they are exposing it.

Then they spread some more propaganda when they think no one is looking.

Lot of dimwits fall for it too.

Don

and doesn't seem to understand that a news story about a Presidential speech is not the place to rip into the speech-- that's done in the analysis articles and the editorial pages.

Reporting is reporting, not dissecting.

Oh, wait a minute. They already did that.

Don

run another article looking into the allegation. The Times does that all the time-- with a "News Analysis" article and several other articles and sidebars. Too bad no one reads those.

Anyway, NOT reporting what the President says, or picking at while reporting it is a big no-no. Imagine the outcry from our side had the press decided to edit Clinton's words like some claim they should edit Shrub's.

Criticizing the NYT/WaPo/NPR for simply reporting the President's words is ridiculous.

The terraist don't have the financing nor the "where with all" to come to the US of A in the first
place, this arguement is old "we have to fight them there to keep them from coming here" that was said by Lyndon Johnson almost 45 yrs ago, it was bushshit then and it still smells the same today.

...they will be over here raping our women. I swear I remember that. Not sure where. But I heard it.

Don

hit Malibu Beach, with surf boards.

that I don't have a problem with this at this point in the game.