Russert should debunk nonsensical attacks, not repeat them
A top advisor to John McCain recently described his sense of what the media’s role should be in the presidential campaign — the press, the advisor said, should “play referee on what is a bogus claim and what isn’t.”
That sounds about right to me. Clearly, news outlets have broader responsibilities, but at a minimum, journalists should help the public differentiate between fact and fiction, myth and reality. When high-profile media personalities do the opposite — repeat bogus claims that are demonstrably false — they fail on two levels: they’re misleading the public and neglecting to “play referee on what is a bogus claim and what isn’t.”
Consider Tim Russert on “Meet the Press” yesterday.
For those who can’t watch clips online, Russert asked Obama strategist David Axelrod about “Barack Obama with his hands clasped in front of him rather than holding his heart during the pledge of allegiance.” That, of course, never happened, right-wing email chains notwithstanding.
As Josh Marshall noted, “With his supposedly crack research staff, how does Russert manage to make a mistake like that? Where’s the retraction and apology? Or is it intentional?”
I’d really hoped we were past this nonsense by now, but if the DC bureau chief for NBC News still doesn’t understand reality, then chances are, there are plenty of Americans who are confused, too.
So, once again:
[T]he photo to which Russert was apparently referring — which is being spread in a chain email — appeared in Time magazine with a caption indicating it was taken during the national anthem, not the Pledge of Allegiance.
Washington Post “fact checker” Michael Dobbs noted in a November 2, 2007, item about the email: “Contrary to the e-mails attacking Obama for disrespecting the flag, the candidates were not reciting the pledge of allegiance. They were standing for the national anthem.” Dobbs also wrote: “Asked whether Obama normally puts his hand over his heart while listening to the national anthem, Obama spokesman Bill Burton replied by e-mail: ‘Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn’t. In no way was he making any sort of statement, and any suggestion to the contrary is ridiculous.’ ” Indeed, other photos show Obama with his hand over his heart during the national anthem.
During the Pledge, Obama recites it with his hand over his heart. During the National Anthem, he sings. The U.S. Code makes it optional: “[W]e spoke with Anne Garside, director of communication for the Maryland Historical Society — home of the original manuscript of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and asked if anyone could be punished for not placing their hands over their hearts during the national anthem. She quickly replied, ‘Oh, of course not,’ adding that ‘there is no obligation to put your hand over your heart.’ Garside told us she has been asked numerous times about this rumor and finds the controversy to have ‘gotten a little bit ridiculous.'”
Garside made that comment in January. It’s even more ridiculous now, and even more ridiculous still that the host of the highest-rated Sunday morning public affairs show is still screwing it up.
Russert’s a Republican. He’s not quite as obvious about it as a Limbaugh or an O’Reilly, but he’s on their side, and always slants whatever he does to favor them. After his supine Bush years, he’ll turn back into a tiger once Obama is president.
Should anyone want a better copy of Obama with his hand over his heart than the one in the link above, I have one here, along with the picture which started the attacks:
http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=2349
I put two fingers over my heart during the pledge and pour beer on a grave for the anthem. I was surprised that the video of Obama was of the anthem rather than the pledge and I read a lot of stuff. Maybe Russert’s gaffe will help get the correction out.
Put all these in the “why your owned and operated station licenses are being yanked by our FCC majority” file. That’s the only way this will ever change.
I confess, I watched Stephenopolous instead of Meet the Press this week. Please someone tell me Axlerod corrected Russert.
Russert as well as the entire NeoConBroadcasting company should be frog marched out of the protection of their corporate studios and right into prison for committing purposeful, criminal, fraud against the American People. They continue to do all that they can to get their corporate boy McBush installed as the next president of the United States so that a government by and for the few, GREED, can be sustained. Just yesterday another one of the CORPORATE GE TEAM , Tweety Matthews, hauled out a ‘poll’ that pretended that the youth vote, 18-34, actually had McBush ahead, yes ahead, of Obama. And then had all his talking clowns comment on how this could be. There is no such poll. It is pure fucking fiction that these criminals create in order to manipulate public perception. These corporate criminal pimps are starting to run real scared because of Obama. Thus we end up with the intentional mugging of Obama on the ABC ‘debate’. The corporate media is really a criminal enterprise akin to some kind of mafia in which the corporate created ‘media narratives’ are manufactured and acted on in unison on all the corporate media channels. They should be charged, tried, and convicted for criminal fraud and put into prison with soul buffoons like Russert, Matthews, Gregory , Williams et all turned into ‘bitches’ for the enjoyment of the inmates …
Has Russert not yet realized that we are singing anthems and pledging allegiance to flags that are MADE IN FREAKING CHINA?!? We need to start calling all these so-called “patriots” on their deceptions. The flag may “symbolize” the Republic—but that little “Made in China” tag isn’t symbolism in the least—it’s 100% real—and it symbolizes the coersive profits garnered from paying $15.99 for a piece of pretty cloth that costs less than a dime to make.
Only in Bushylvania….
I see a real shit storm of this kind of stuff in upcoming days. The repugnants have no choice they have chosen a senile old man to carry the torch and have smear and innuendo as the only hope. It is already starting in emails from wingnuts. These so called conservatives that conserve nothing hate Hillary and having a black man as president is unthinkable in their minds I wouldn’t claim to know Russert’s politics nor any of the pundits but there certainly seems to be a preponderance of focus on the supposed gaffes of Obama as compared to Insane McCain
The corporate media has a two-step plan:
1. knock Obama out to make Hillary the nominee
2. knock Hillary out to make McCain the president.
They’ve got their own kitchen sink strategy, and they’re implementing it.
One way for us to fight back is to stop watching. I’m off television nightly news and Sunday morning news entirely. Hopefully enough people will do the same, such that they either change, or they just become another Fox News where the only people who watch them are the right-wingers that tune in only to validate their ideological-based opinions.
From the first mention of this ridiculous non issue, I’ve noticed the blurring of reality starting with saying it’s the pledge of allegiance, when it is actually the National Anthem. As the hysteria builds, it gets worse, I even saw one GOP congressman emphatically declare that Obama “won’t even say the pledge of allegiance”!
As with Russert, this is just a slide into willful ignorance, or a refusal to discern any differences between similar items. It’s not new, it’s nearly eight years of this now. Nobody notices, right?
This is right up (down?) there with whether one should make he “Sieg heil” salute with arm bent straight up or extended with no elbow bend and somewhat forward. Should the sign of the cross be made from left to right (Roman rite) or right to left (Eastern rite). Should you wear green or orange on St. Patrick’s Day?
Tell me again about the poorest counties voting against their own interests but affirming their loyalty to cross and flag. Tell me again about how American thought is as deep as the surface of a TeeVee screen.
When Russert was not being critical of Obama, but very openly critical of Hillary, nobody in this blog comments complained.
If Obama wants to be President of the United States, he needs to answer tough questions, and face scrutiny from the media.
Of course this is intentional, like the Ds next to disgraced repubs on Fox News. It’s all done with plausable deniability as a harmless “error”. Have a nice day!
Speaking of stories that may or may not be true. Michael Moore just endorsed Barack. In his open letter he says that he is disgusted that Clinton keeps throwing up the Barack- Jeremiah Wright connection while ignoring that she and Bill had Wright come work with them during the Lewinsky affair. Is this true? I’ve never seen such a report.
Jack Welch is proud of his boys. He turned them as well (Russert & Matthews) as any street pimp could.
We need to make any corporation that has a major stake in Defense spending divest all media holdings.
Ed Stephan @ #11
the pledge was once said with precisely that salute — arm straight out in front.
for some reason, it got changed to hand-over-heart during world war two.
In his open letter he says that he is disgusted that Clinton keeps throwing up the Barack- Jeremiah Wright connection while ignoring that she and Bill had Wright come work with them during the Lewinsky affair. Is this true?
I really doubt it. There was a picture of Wright at a White House function with Clinton a while back. If there was anything more to this than his attendance (such as actually working with them) I would think something would have been made of that. Michael Moore has been known to be sloppy with his facts.
“If Obama wants to be President of the United States, he needs to answer tough questions, and face scrutiny from the media.”
I call bullshit on this one.
People like Greg confuse answering tough questions on relevant issues with debunking e-mail/internet lies or rumors unsupported by facts. Of course, Obama should face responsible scrutiny from the media, but repeating lies on a national broadcast news show is gross negligence at best or deliberate smears at worst.
It’s not the candidate that gets hurt when this happens, it’s us.
Surprised that hack Russert didn’t ask him if he was Muslim.
If Russert can never correct a Republican on his show, he surely won’t ever correct himself. Still getting the message out, after all these (tortured) years.
Yay Candy! You beat me to calling Bullshit on Greg!
Barry Lynn (14): Here’s the open letter. I’d say you pretty much got the story right.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=225