WashPost: Using 'Civil War' To Define Iraq Undercuts Public Opinion
November 29th, 2006 7:27 AM
In one of those "analysis" pieces reporters love to write, Washington Post White House reporter Peter Baker underlined on Wednesday one reason why NBC might have started using "civil war" to define Iraq: it severely undercuts the Iraq war in opinion polls.Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, said Bush would rather frame it in the terrorism context to preserve public…
Gregory Ignores Pelosi's Flub, Treats Retort to Bush on al-Qaeda in Ir
November 28th, 2006 9:29 PM
Asked by a reporter about how “President Bush today blamed the surge of violence in Iraq on al Qaeda,” incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded with a disjointed answer about how “the 9/11 Commission dismissed that notion a long time ago and I feel sad that the President is resorting to it again." Though al-Qaeda is clearly in Iraq and responsible for deadly bombings, and the 9/11…
Bogus Source Cited in NBC 'Civil War' Decision
November 27th, 2006 11:36 PM
A transcript posted at the blog Think Progress quotes NBC as factoring in a story from now-discredited source Jamil Hussein about Sunni worshippers being burned alive as a major factor in NBC's decision to declare a "civil war" in Iraq [emphasis added]:The news from Iraq is becoming grimmer every day. Over the long holiday weekend bombings killed more than 200 people in a Shiite neighborhood in…
NB's Bozell on Hannity & Colmes About NBC's Decision to Declare Iraq a
November 27th, 2006 10:10 PM
Brent Bozell, the President of the Media Research Center, the parent of NewsBusters, appeared alongside Democratic strategist Laura Schwartz on Monday night's Hannity & Colmes on FNC to discuss the decision by NBC News to call the situation in Iraq a “civil war.” (Earlier NewsBusters items by Mark Finkelstein and by Geoffrey Dickens on how on Today Matt Lauer insisted NBC made the decision “…
NBC Concedes Iraq 'Civil War' Description Could 'Erode' Support, ABC
November 27th, 2006 8:12 PM
Twelve hours after the Today show repeatedly announced how NBC News had decided to call the situation in Iraq a “civil war,” as if that decision was major news itself, Monday's NBC Nightly News led with the term and conceded it could “erode” public support for the war. Meanwhile, CBS and ABC didn't go quite as far as CBS's Katie Couric referred to how Iraq “slips ever-closer to civil war” and ABC…
It's Official: Media Body Burning Story is Bogus
November 27th, 2006 1:25 PM
The news that six Sunnis were captured by Shiites, doused with kerosine and burned alive, was too sensational to not be picked up by the mainstream media. But it turns out that the event never happened. Furthermore, the Iraqi "spokesman" relied on to give all information regarding this event is as fictional as the story itself.
Jamil Hussein, the man news reports called "police Capt. Jamil…
