January 23, 2009
As President Barack Obama reverses some of ex-President George W. Bush’s most controversial “war on terror” policies, a consensus seems to be building among Democratic congressional leaders that further investigations are needed into Bush’s use of torture and other potential crimes.
5 comments:
What is wrong with the press, or so the public keeps asking? Is not listening to the news also an illegal form of intellectual torture? CNN, it turns out, is part of this problem and not the solution. Let me focus on Wolf Blitzer's "The Create a Situation Room." Obama has not been in office more than three days and already Blitzer has his hatchet out swinging wildly at anything that moves in the Executive Department and White House. I am offended by news lead-ins such as, "Clinton Power Grab," "Is Obama Moving Too Fast," "Obama May Not Be President According To Some," "Obama's Press Secretary Not Up To The Job," Transparency In Government? Apparently Not," "New White House Ethics Rules Set Aside For Pentagon Job." If these are not enough examples of ego and self-importance creating false stories, there is the recent claim, "Watch the situation Room as we Keep the White House honest." Apparently, Wolf Blitzer, whom I like to describe as the perpetual verbosity machine, has taken over the roles of deities of the news media and the U.S. Justice Department. Such hubris might be excused, if he were accurate more than 30 percent of the time, which he is not. What cannot be excused is his continual effort to put negative and contraversial spins on each news story, reporting arguments, contradictions and political fights that do not exist. I am recommending that viewers boycott his programs until news policy changes at CNN.
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Thanks Robert for the interesting and informative article. As for you first commentor, I share his disdain for Blitzer - - he's a pompus windbag. His poor wife. She has to put up with his talking all through his sleep. This guy never shuts up about anything. I understand that while he was eating lunch a few months ago a patron walked up and threw a glass of water in his face. Right on! Someone has to put out the Blitzer fire so other people do not get burned. Such arrogance. such poor reporting. Shame on CNN.
I have become so cynical that these legislative hearings have absolutely no meaning to me. I watch them on C-Span and I am throughly disgusted with the way our legislators, bend and bow to the witnesses and apologize to them for the questions and thank them for appearing. It is a useless waste of time and taxpayer dollars except for the fact that we get to see just how these witnesses who direct our major government and business operations, fail misterably at their jobs and yet get away without even a good slap on the wrist. Nothing ever happens as a result of these hearings.
I, too agree with the first commentor about Wolf Blitzer. He is disgusting and despicable.
I believe that the mainstream media has been running scared due to the fact that conservatives have pretty much gained control of the mainstream media. The oft repeated myth of a "Liberal media" in this country may have been true in the 1960's and 1970's, but no longer. That, plus the power of the Bush family to control what is written about them has made our mainstream media justifiably afraid to do their jobs. Plus, a lot of people in said field approved of the things Bush did! It's a lot easier (and safer) to fill the airwaves with stories about Amy Winehouse, Brittany Spears, etc., than it is to find out and report the truth about the policies Mr. Bush and his people have initiated in the country the past 8 years as well as the means he used to do it. Let's hope that the Democrats, who have also been spineless the past 8 years, finally step up to the plate on this and don't botch it up.
Drop the euphemisms and get it straight:
Waterboarding is NOT "simulated drowning". It is CONTROLLED drowning from which -- drowning -- one can die.
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