I am reminded of the president's trip to Albania where he was mobbed by adoring crowds.  If memory serves an adoring fan yanked his watch off as a souvenir.  Of course, the libtard scribes could not bear to admit that their favorite punching bag could get the rock star treatment under any circumstances and tried to spin it as yet more evidence of his "stupidity" for "losing" it. 

All the MSM TV and newspapers completely used up their travel budgets on the Obama world tour '08. They have nothing left and so are not travelling with the President on his last trip to Asia and the start of the '08 Olympics. This trip, though scheduled for months and months in advance, was deemed not as important as the Obamamessiah's trip through several countries as "just an American citizen". It's not their fault. They can't be expected to report on events that they are not able to witness first hand, can they? George W. will just have to persevere along on that lonly and empty 747.

The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic. Let's get it back! Alan Keyes '08.

WT,

Have you ever written to the editors of various media outlets and asked them these questions?  If so, what response did you get?

I remember in 1992 there was a media blackout on coverage of anything the then president Bush did on an official basis...i.e. anything that might make him look good...

The MSM are a despicable herd of swine!

Just a side note; I'm an Army wife and we were stationed in Korea last month.  What really struck me about this was that news outlets, like Reuters and CNN, predicted before the president even set foot in Seoul (which is a fabulous city, by the way), were talking about how possibly 50,000 or more protesters would meet the President in "massive protests".  And there were only a couple hundred!  But there was almost no mention of the 15,000+ supporters of the U.S. and Bush who showed up.

Even on the cover of today's left-leaning Stars and Stripes were photos and an article about the protests against the President, not the warm and large positive reception he received.

I like how Reuters changed their article from Bush arrives in Seoul, faces large anti-US protest  to Bush arrives in Seoul amid minor protest .  "Bush was greeted by a minor protest aimed mostly at his host instead of a big anti-U.S. rally that had been expected."  Well, how about that. 

The Republic of Korea has 2 basic parties; progressives and conservatives.  Progressives don't like Bush no matter what he does because they're liberals.  Although in their defense, some are afraid, because Bush is such a strong leader that seems to be slapping dictators into shape, that he might do something to torque off Kim Jong Il provoking an attack.  S. Korea is the size of Illinois and has 50 million people.  It's packed here.  So a war with N. Korea, although it would be crushed by the U.S. and S. Korea, would produce massive S. Korean casualties.

We've been issued gas masks, every family member, incase N. Korea attacks, which I don't foresee, but Bush's position of strength intimidates some Koreans. 

But when 15,000 Koreans come out to pray for and welcome Bush into the country, completely on their own accord and organization, that's impressive.

If it's to do with President Bush, it automatically gets an "I'm sick of him" reaction from the media and even some of the American populous. No one wants to hear the good things our President has done, we'd rather continue to focus on the bad things. Now, if it were a reception for Obama... well, you all know.

Though I'm really not surprised any more that this story wasn't covered, the tactics of the MSM are getting old. It's times like these that I'm really glad I don't have cable or TV. Looks like I'm not missing much by not having it, anyway!

ABC News Radio opened their hourly report yesterday afternoon with the announcement that Bush was greeted in South Korea by protesters (against US beef) who were handled with water cannons. They went on to say that "even more" people turned out to cheer him - but that was secondary to the notation of the protesters. Why start with the protesters? Rhetorical question.

McNotObama '08

President Bush not being covered here is infuriating.

For the msm to black-out the President because of their hatred, bias, and agenda make fools of themselves in the long run.

Things like this are going to end up back-firing on them...and they won't understand why they are so full of hatred.

These people are contemptible. 

Thank goodness for the internet, plus great people like Amy and WTH to post this for us...and of course NBs.

"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh

I have a lot of experience with Korea. I read the Korean English-language newspapers every day and sevearl blogs by long-time expats in Korea. (I also lived and taught in Korea for over 4 years and have a MA in Korean Studies).

I've also focused a lot of attention for several years on South Korean society's attitude toward the US relationship with it. www.usinkorea.org

So I can offer some perspective on this news item.

The immediate context is the hysteria over the resumption of US beef imports. That hysteria has been going on for a couple of months now - and only recently died out to just the regular groups of anti-American protesters over the past couple of weeks. (mostly the college aged kids as another commenter noted)

Before that, the protests were drawing tens of thousands of people nightly and up to a hundred thousand on weekends.

That means average Koreans were more than willing to join in.

It was nuts. If you google for sites like "Marmot's Hole" and "GI Korea" - two well-known blogs in what the expats call the K-blogsphere -- you'll find a lot of in-depth analysis of this most recent spike in anti-US activity.

Basically, Korean society recently installed a new president - in a return of the conservative GNP party to the Blue House (the Korean White House).

That meant -- the US alliance was again secure - after 5 years of worry.

Because, 5 years ago, during one of the worst periods of anti-US activity in the society since the 1988 Olympic riots - Korean society lost its head and elected a former human rights lawyer who had at one time helped lead a petition drive to demand US forces leave Korea.

When Korean society woke up and realized they had gone too far - when they heard Donald Rumsfeld say the US would gladly remove US troops to use elsewhere if that is what Korea really wanted, and they realized their new president would welcome Rumsfeld's suggestion, Korean society paniced and put the common anti-US activity on ice.

President Roh, the man elected in 2002, made enough notes here and there during his five year tenure, as did members of his staff, that Korean society kept anti-US activity on ice for the longest period I've been able to research --- but now that has come to an end.

As soon as Roh was out of the Blue House, and a new, pro-US president was in office, I predicted we'd see a return to typical pre-2002 anti-US activity - and it happened - big time - over an incredibly minor and stupid issue ---- the threat of Mad Cow Disease in American beef.

But, that massive return in anti-US activity has petered out.

It got too large and ran too long. Elements of the Korean press and regular people, many of the same elements that were happy to join in with the early protests and public outrage, recently started to express concerns that things had gone too far (again) - that damage was being done to Korea's international image and the US relationship.

So, over the past few weeks, pressure has been put on the every-day anti-US activists and things have slowly ground to a halt.

Then Bush was slated to come...

and the press and average Koreans were afraid the anti-US groups would be able to capture foreign media attention - so - the pro-US elements came out to offer a different message.

Don't get me wrong --- the groups that are doing the pro-US rallies are sincere. They are made up primarily of Korean military veterans and older Koreans who can remember the Korean War and Japanese colonial occuption.

But, the only time the society at large joins in with them is when - they want to put on a show for visiting foreign journalists. ---- which occurs fairly infrequently.

Average Koreans, however, find the time much more frequently to join into things like the Cows Gone Wild!! Hysteria some of us have watched roll on week after week this summer....

What and how Korean society as a whole feels about the US relationship with Korea is very complex.

Basically, Korean society likes to have its cake and eat it too: they want the US military to shield it and save Korean tax payer's money --- but beating up on that same US in Korea is one of the most standard elements of Korean nationalism.

In short, the norm in Korean society is not what you see in this recent pro-US rally.

 is that the Pro's outnumbered the Anti's by over 2 to1. The Antis show up hours later as fast as they could be organized (so much for being prepared!) and eventually made up a crowd of half the size. Not soon after, bored Anti's wandered off (munchies? Another protest their Northern Masters wanted them to go? homework?) but the few that stayed turned violent and required watercannons and arrests to calm them down.

 Not one speck of violence on the Pro Bush side. Hmmm. I'm seeing a common thread among liberal protesters, both domestically and now internationally.

"to call an illegal immigrant an "undocumented alien" is the same as calling a streetcorner drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist".

"You spend your money anyway you want and respect other's rights to do the same"

Okay, I've just been presented with what is an honest-to-God moral and ethical (okay, maybe just moral) dilemma:  

I just got offered a freelance (but open-ended) big-time job offer to do various web and print design work at...... yup, that's right....... The NY Times! The hourly pay is pretty good, although it's through a staffing agency which takes a big chunk. But, needless to say, as much as we hate the organization, they're still a pretty big client that will look good on my resume.

Anyway, what would all of you do? I haven't given them an answer, and waiting on more details. If I took it, would you all hate me?? :(

* * * SOCKS THE CAT '08 * * *
For REAL Change

It's always good to see stuffed reused; I wash and use over my plastic
forks from my Burger King salads. The BK girls are always so impressed.

I know how to win wars!

That was the reported ratio in the local mid-Maine rag, but the headline was about the protest and not the gratitude many South K's have for the US, as we are keeping them from being over-run, despite who the POTUS was or is. Bush just happens to have been tagged "it" for now.

I wasn't Bush per se the gratitude was being shown for it was the UNITED STATES!