NY Times Marks "Poignant Commentary on the War" from Bush-Bashing Sen. Webb

By Clay Waters (Bio | Archive)
January 24, 2007 - 16:54 ET

Kate Zernike's front-page profile of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (featuring a large picture of Pelosi shaking Bush's hand at last night's State of the Union address) opened with a celebration of Pelosi's femaleness and ends with "poignant commentary" by the left's new favorite Bush fighter, Democrat Sen. James Webb of Virginia.

"The first two words of the evening on Tuesday were evidence of how much has changed here: 'Madam Speaker,” boomed Congressional escorts, 'the president of the United States.'"

That's in apparent contrast to boring "white males" like the vice president: "She sat on the dais next to Mr. Cheney, her junior by several months, but an emblem of a generation of white male politicians."

During the 2006 campaign, the Times didn't go "macaca" for Democratic candidate (now Senator) James Webb of Virginia like the Washington Post did, but does go a little mawkish over Webb on Wednesday. Near the end of Zernike's story: 

"Perhaps the most poignant commentary on the war and the plan to increase troops came in the Democratic response to the speech, given by Senator James Webb of Virginia. He had been chosen because, as Senator Harry Reid, the Democrats’ leader, said, he understood what it meant to go to war. A former secretary of the Navy and ex-marine, his son is serving in Iraq.

"In his speech, he held up a photograph of his father serving as an Air Force captain in Germany. He had carried it with him for most of his life, he said. And as a child, he had taken it to bed for three years as he prayed for his father’s safe return."

For more New York Times bias, visit TimesWatch.

—Clay Waters is the director of Times Watch, an MRC project tracking the New York Times.


Comments Policy

All comments are owned by whoever posted them and are subject to our terms of use. They should not be assumed to represent the views of NewsBusters.

Viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Speech

January 24, 2007 - 17:16 ET by Gordon Schumway

This babe could use a makeover. Does anyone have the number to Teen Magazine or Tiger Beat?

Gordo

Melmac

So today, wondering how to co

January 24, 2007 - 17:22 ET by uc

So today, wondering how to come down from State of Union Speech viewing and reviewing and reviewing til like three in the morning, I walked past Senate office buildings and further across DC, realized, I think on sixth street looking north, you have street line view of National Shrine of the Virgin Mary in distance, and kept walking until walking past NPR people having there regular lunch gathering at the hot dog stand outside, and, then, two or three more street crossings to the new DC convention center for the 2007 auto show (all this while new Mayor of DC is attending U.S. Mayors conference somewhere today.).

I have no idea how GM got a Suburban to get 20mpg highway mileage.  I thought 14 mpg was forever tops for such a vehicle.

They did have some low to ground almost seat on the ground vehicles that looked fun but didn't get better mileage than the new Suburban.

On the Bush troop surge and Congressional votes today I can only say Bush's plan to try something they haven't tried yet does deserve an all american give it a go chance.  To pull out before trying to "clear and hold" and not just "clear and go" which has been complained much about (though still maybe right for those times???) does seem even against odds of success something of which free Iraqies at least deserve an American attempt to test effectiveness or ineffectiveness.   It may be the only thing that might work that hasn't yet been tried even if for some reason many american elected officials are still doubting Iraq is ready for such. 

The Democrats are rather sh

January 24, 2007 - 19:46 ET by zhombre

The Democrats are rather short of politicians who know "what it means to go to war." However they have a surplus of pols who know what is means to take cheap shots, sneak in an earmark, posture and spout banalities. I'll give Webb credit for cojones, but that's like saying in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king.

"She sat on the dais nex

January 24, 2007 - 21:18 ET by Conservative in the Arts

"She sat on the dais next to Mr. Cheney........

Yea, it was so historic, and it looked like she was sucking a lemon all night with something in her eye. Every shift from her I wanted to use as a hemorrhoid commercial.