Friends in the Press There is now a long record of the major news media excusing, ignoring or forgetting Bush’s growing list of false, misleading or hypocritical statements on issues from the serious to the trivial. Though
the press occasionally notes Bush’s mangled syntax, the Texas governor
seems to have inherited the friendly press coverage that his
well-connected father received during his 12 years as vice president and
president. The
list of Bush’s deception and hypocrisy is a long one, reaching from
his youth to today’s campaign. Here is a sample: --As
a young man, Bush supported the Vietnam War. “My first impulse and
first inclination was to support the country,” Bush recalled in an
interview. [NYT, July 11, 2000]. But Bush avoided service in the war by
joining the Texas Air National Guard. Bush
has said no one to his knowledge helped him get into the National Guard.
“I asked to become a pilot,” Bush said. “I met the qualifications,
and ended up becoming an F-102 pilot,” The Associated Press
reported. Bush insisted that he knew of no special treatment. [AP, July
5, 1999] But the record indicates that, despite having the lowest acceptable score for entry, Bush jumped over other young men waiting to get into the National Guard. Other
accounts suggest that a “good friend” of Bush’s father, George H.W.
Bush, then a congressman from Houston who supported the war, weighed in
with Ben Barnes, the Texas Speaker of the House, to arrange a slot for
George W. Bush. [The Guardian (U.K.), July 29, 1999] Sometime
in late 1967 or early 1968, Barnes “personally asked the top official
of the Texas Air National Guard to help George W. Bush obtain a pilot's
slot in a Guard fighter squadron,” The Washington Post
reported. [Sept. 21, 1999]. On Sept. 27, 1999, Barnes submitted a sworn
statement that he helped Bush by contacting Brig. Gen. James M. Rose. --Bush has a one-year gap in his National Guard duty from 1972-1973 when he was supposed to have transferred from the Texas Air National Guard to the Alabama Air National Guard. According
to the Boston Globe, “In his final 18 months of military
service in 1972 and 1973, Bush did not fly at all. And … for a full
year, there is no record that he showed up for the periodic drills
required of part-time guardsmen.” [Boston Globe, May, 23, 2000] Bush
has said that he has “some recollection” of attending drills that
year, but has not been more specific. Under Air National Guard rules at
the time, anyone who did not report to required drills could be inducted
in the draft to serve in Vietnam, according to the Globe. That
never happened to Bush. The
press has reported these gaps in Bush’s record, but has not pressed
the issue as a story worthy of determined pursuit or pundit show
commentary. Similarly, Bush’s implausible answers have not led to
questions from the media about Bush’s veracity. By
contrast, the press has dwelled on Gore’s supposed exaggerations about
the dangers he faced as a U.S. Army reporter in Vietnam. Gore
volunteered for the war, although he and his father, a senator from
Tennessee, opposed it. It
is not clear how today’s reporters, who were not present with Gore in
Vietnam, would have anyway of checking how much danger Gore might have
encountered. But they have judged him a liar nonetheless. --Early in the campaign, Bush faced short-lived press scrutiny of his possible drug use. To date, Bush has never answered the question of whether, when, how much or specifically what illicit drugs he used in his early adulthood. The
press accepted Bush’s carefully parsed statement in which Bush denied
recent drug use while refusing to acknowledge earlier drug use. While
ducking questions about cocaine and other illegal drugs, Bush has
confessed to drinking heavily well into his adult years. As part of his
biography, he has described how he woke up after his 40th
birthday party with a hangover and decided to stop drinking for good. “It’s hard to usher in the responsibility era if you
behave irresponsibly,” Bush has declared even while avoiding questions
about his own youthful indiscretions. [U.S. News and World Report,
Nov. 16, 1998] By
contrast, Gore has admitted smoking marijuana as a young man. --As
Texas governor, Bush boasts that he knows how to work in a bi-partisan
manner. One of his examples is the expansion of the Children’s Health
Insurance Program [CHIP]. “In 1999, Governor Bush and the Texas
Legislature worked together to implement the CHIPs program for more than
423,000 children,” the Bush campaign has said. Yet,
according to the Houston Chronicle, Bush tried to block the
Democratic initiative in the Texas Legislature to expand the CHIP
program to children of parents earning up to twice the federal poverty
level (about $33,600 for a family of four). Bush favored instead
covering parents up to only 150 percent of poverty (about $25,200 for a
family of four). [Houston Chronicle, Aug. 30, 2000]. After
losing the legislative battle, Bush turned around and claimed credit for
the CHIP expansion and his success in working with Democrats. --Bush has made as a centerpiece of his campaign the theme that he would change the “tone” of Washington and restore “dignity” to the White House. Yet,
during the Republican primaries, the Bush campaign targeted Sen. John
McCain, R-Ariz., for personal attacks. By fall 1999, McCain, who spent
five years in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp, had narrowed
Bush’s lead and the Bush assault began. In
October 1999, McCain said, “'Apparently the memo has gone out from the
Bush campaign to start attacking John McCain, something that I'd hoped
wouldn't happen.”' [AP, Oct. 26, 1999] Bush’s
negative attacks intensified after McCain won the New Hampshire primary.
Seeking to rebound in South Carolina, Bush visited Bob Jones University
and refrained from criticizing the school’s ban on interracial dating
and its anti-Catholic views. Bush also wouldn’t take a position on
removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Statehouse. After
winning the South Carolina primary, Bush apologized for having spoken at
Bob Jones without "disassociating myself from anti-Catholic
sentiments and racial prejudice." --As McCain remained a threat, Bush’s campaign ran a misleading ad attacking the senator for not supporting breast cancer research. The
ad cited an omnibus spending bill, which McCain voted against not
because of the breast cancer research but because of the enormous
spending included in the entire package. McCain complained, but the Bush
attack strategy worked. --After securing the Republican nomination, Bush renewed his pledge to run a positive general election campaign. But again, the promise lasted only until the governor found himself lagging in the polls. Bush
again broke his promise, unleashing his campaign to tear down Gore’s
character, ironically, targeting Gore’s credibility. The news media observed the changed tactics but took little notice of how Bush was violating his own pledge. Instead,
the press happily joined in repeating many of the canards about Gore’s
honesty, these largely mythical and exaggerated press accounts that the
media have repeated over and over for many months -- Love Story, Love
Canal, “inventing” the Internet, etc., etc. |
