The thumb screws are being applied to the "US
mainstream news media." Buzzflash is reporting that
Newsweak, which actually revealed that the _resident's
controversial 9/11 ads featured fake firefighters, has
now scrubbed its own story. No surprise, of course.
The fake firefighters, I mean. The turkey the
_resident held up for the photo op during his 20
minute visit with some soldiers at the Baghdad airport
was a fake. The "rescue" of Jessica Lynch was a fake.
The "capture" of Saddam was a fake. Hell, even the
_resident's own election was a fake. Fake, fake, fake.
However, the deaths of the innocents on 9/11 were not
faked, nor the 540+ deaths of US soldiers or the $500+
billion Federal deficit...it is all painfully
real...So, apparently, is the "US mainstream news
media" capitulation...Incredible...
MSNBC/NEWSWEEK (Until a little while ago): Another
less-publicized aspect of the ad flap: the use of paid
actors—including two playing firefighters with fire
hats and uniforms in what looks like a fire station.
"Where the hell did they get those guys?" cracked
Harold Schaitberger, president of the International
Association of Fire Fighters, which has endorsed John
Kerry, when he first saw the ads. (A union spokesman
said the shots prompted jokes that the fire hats
looked like the plastic hats "from a birthday party.")
"There's many reasons not to use real firemen," retorted one Bush media adviser. "Mainly, its cheaper and quicker."
Break the Bush Cabal Stranglehold on the "US
Mainstream News Media," Show Up for Democracy in 2004:
Defeat Bush (again!)
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4467791
2004 Campaign: A 'Shocking' Stumble
Inappropriate images? The Bush/Cheney campaign was caught off guard by the controversy over its use of 9/11 imagery in TV ads
Newsweek
March 15 issue - The controversy over President George
W. Bush's new TV ads featuring fake firefighters and
fleeting images of the 9/11 attacks threw campaign
officials on the defensive—and raised questions about
the Bush team's ability to effectively spend its
massive $150 million war chest, some GOP insiders say.
The president's ad team, led by Austin, Texas-based
media maven Mark McKinnon, had carefully road-tested
the spots in focus groups, and Bush himself signed
off. But the rollout of the ads, which argue that Bush
has made the country "safer, stronger," was quickly
marred by charges from some 9/11 families that the
Bush team was seeking to exploit the attacks for
political gain. One scene shows footage of a
flag-draped coffin of a terror victim; another has an
American flag waving in front of World Trade Center
wreckage. Publicly, Bush aides were dismissive and
insisted the flap had only strengthened their plan to
make 9/11 "a central topic of the campaign." "There's
no way you can talk about George W. Bush without
talking about September 11," said one campaign
adviser. "It's like talking about Franklin Roosevelt
without mentioning World War II." But privately, some
GOP strategists were disturbed by the backlash and
suggested the ad team had misjudged how the imagery
would play. "It's quite shocking to a number of
Republicans to watch them stumble out of the block
like this," said one veteran GOP consultant, who added
that the big question in GOP circles is "Do they [the
Bush-Cheney campaign] know how to spend" their huge
budget?
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Another less-publicized aspect of the ad flap: the use
of paid actors—including two playing firefighters with
fire hats and uniforms in what looks like a fire
station. "Where the hell did they get those guys?"
cracked Harold Schaitberger, president of the
International Association of Fire Fighters, which has
endorsed John Kerry, when he first saw the ads. (A
union spokesman said the shots prompted jokes that the
fire hats looked like the plastic hats "from a
birthday party.") "There's many reasons not to use
real firemen," retorted one Bush media adviser.
"Mainly, its cheaper and quicker."
The flap is likely to put renewed attention on the
White House's continuing wrangle with the 9/11
Commission. Kristin Breitweiser, a leader of a 9/11
family group, charged it was "hypocritical" of the
Bush team to use September 11 when the president has
refused to turn over sensitive intelligence documents
to the full commission and, more recently, insisted
that Bush himself will meet with the panel's chair and
co-chair for only one hour. Even some GOP panel
members are miffed at the White House stand—and blame
it on administration lawyers. In what appears to be an
attempt to defuse some of the controversy, NEWSWEEK
has learned, White House officials have privately
signaled to the commission that Bush will not rigidly
stick to the one-hour time limit. When time is up,
Bush won't walk out if there are still more questions,
an aide said.
—Michael Isikoff and T. Trent Gegax, with Tamara
Lipper in Crawford, Texas
© 2004 Newsweek, Inc.