Mediawhores, how they do it (Durbin and Clark): Chicago Sun Times

[Adelante]

The Chicago Sun Times, Dick Durbin's hometown paper, has chosen to misrepresent Wes Clark's refusal to give in to Hannity's demand he "condemn" Durbin. By a little creative editing, the CST manages to imply a criticism that wasn't there.

This is the opening paragraph of a piece published today:

There's an old rule in politics, and I've seen it many times," said retired Gen. Wesley Clark on Thursday night, as he brushed aside Fox News talker Sean Hannity's demand for him to condemn Sen. Dick Durbin. "Whoever uses the 'Nazi' word first loses," said Clark, the former Democratic presidential candidate who is a political analyst for Fox.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-sweet192.html

That opening paragraph damns by proximity two separate interview incidents, one at the outset of the interview when Hannity demanded Clark disown Durbin; the second near the end of the interview in an answer to Alan Colmes, who was talking about Santorum.

Sean Hannity specifically asked Clark to "condemn" Durbin's statement and Clark refused. He rightly turned the discussion away from name-calling and partisanship to the issue at hand, the Bush policy being carried out at Gitmo.

As the transcript shows, Clark's old political rule reference followed Colmes's mention of Rick Santorum just before the close of the interview.

COLMES: Yes, didn't hear any conservatives condemn Rick Santorum for comparing Democrats to Nazis back when he said that during the filibuster.

CLARK: Well, Alan, I think -- you bring up two very good points here. But I think the real issue here is to get past the politics, past the name-calling.

There's an old rule in politics, and I've seen it many times: whoever uses the "Nazi" word first loses. We ought to get past the name-calling, past the politics, and the partisan politics on this, because we have a national security issue and the country needs to focus on it. Our leadership needs to focus on it, and we can't if we just call them names back and forth with each other.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159907,00.html

Let them know we're watching

http://www.suntimes.com/geninfo/feedback.html

[Ysolde]

1. That crap makes me sooo mad!

Here's what I sent:

In your June 19th article: "Gitmo remark makes Durbin easy prey" by Lynn Sweet, your opening paragraph claims that the "nazi" response by Clark was in response to the question about Durbin, when it reality it was in response to a question about Santorum. This is not only misleading, it is downright lying! That is not what General Clark said nor implied and your writer needs to be reprimanded for using the quotes in this manner. What happened to real journalism where quotes were used properly and not made to fit the writer's own bias? If you want to be a newspaper, cover news appropriately and don't allow your personal bias to invade and twist the way you report.


This is the ONLY way to get the media whores back on track. To call them EVERY time they pull this sh%t!

[Robbien]

2. Thanks for the headsup. Feedback sent. . . . eom

[Nancy Waterman]

4. I am furious over this entire thing.

Every time they try to criticize Durbin, the response should be about the torture and the abuse of prisoners, not about Durbin, andnot about our soldiers. Period!

GOP critic: It is SHAMEFUL that Dick Durbin said this about our soldiers, blah, blah.

Response: No, what is SHAMEFUL is that the US has lost so much of its prestige and credibility over our abusive and illegal treatment of prisoners. What is SHAMEFUL is that there are photos of prisoners being abused at Abu Ghraib and no one in a position of real authority has been implicated. There has been no accountability. What is SHAMEFUL is that we have prisoners who have no access to lawyers and have never been accused. Etc. etc.

The point it that our Dems should use the same perjorative term and use it against the adminsitration and the GOP for their incompetence, dishonesty, lack of accountability, torture policies, etc.

This is the same strategy they should use when Dean is criticized. Use the same perjorative, nasty terms and turn them around, putting the GOP on the defensive.

[AllyCat]

3. Email sent to your address as well as comment to Lynn Sweet

Are they this scared of Clark? Here's what I sent:

Ms. Sweet,

Your June 19, 2005 story regarding former General Wesley Clark's refusal to refute Dick Durbin's remarks this week are misleading and inaccurate in that Clark's comments are taken out of the context in which they occured. Clark rightly refused to answer Sean Hannity's charge to condemn Durbin's comments as wrong, insisting on getting away from name-calling and back to the facts at hand. Alan Colmes, moments later, stated that no one seemed to care when Rick Santorum directly called filibustering Democrats "Nazis". It was to Colmes statement that Clark remarked that the first one to use the Nazi word was the loser.

Your report would indicate otherwise. It is inaccurate and misleading and I expect that you will publicly correct your error.

Durbin and Clark are both honorable men and deserve accurate reporting in the Sun Times.

AllyCat
Madison, WI

[CarolNYC]

5. I'm glad you started this thread...

This really bothered me....as I've been posting in various threads already....especially because at first glance the totally misrepresentation can be and, I believe was, overlooked by some....

Considering the article's title - Gitmo Remark Makes Durbin Easy Prey - there is no doubt in my mind that this was a deliberate attempt, whether on the part of the writer or the editor, to make it look like Clark was condemning Durbin.

Argh!!! These idiots make me so mad!

[Catrina]

6. That is infuriating

Frist has been demanding an apology from Durbin also, as has Gingrich et al. Sen. McCain was asked about it on Meet The Press today and joined the crowd asking for an apology.

I believe Gingrich or someone is getting a petition signed asking that Durbin be censured.

Can we not get Democrats to start another petition asking the Frist be censured for calling the entire Democratic Party Nazis? The absolute gall of that fool to want to censure someone for somethign he has done himself.

Maybe we ought to tell Durbin about Frist's remark so that he can respspond to the media by asking why they are not concerned about HIS use of the word!!

My letter to the editor:

In the June 19th article: "Gitmo remark makes Durbin easy prey" by Lynn Sweet, Gen. Clark's remarks were completely misrepresented by Ms. Sweet.

She failed to note that Alan Colmes had referred to Sen. Santorum's reference to Democrats as 'Nazis' and that Gen. Clark's comment was in response to that remark, and not intended at all to 'make Durbin easy prey' nor did it, to anyone who was watching the show.

Ms. Sweet deliberately created the impression that Gen. Clark's comment was intended as a criticism of Sen. Durbin, which it clearly was not.

I was also struck by the fact that there was no implication by Ms. Sweet that Alan Colmes' reminder of Sen. Santorum's earlier use of the word 'Nazi' in reference to the Democratic Party, made Sen. Sanatorum 'easy prey'.

It is disturbing to see so many examples of this kind of biased (or is it sloppy?) journalism and is the reason why faith in the press is at already at an alltime low.

I think Ms. Sweet needs to correct this mistake. I also think she might want to remind her readers of Sen. Santorum's disrespectful speech about the Democratic Party as a whole.

Since she chose to add her voice to the histrionics about a Senator's use of the word 'Nazi', I would have expected her to give equal time to other Senators who have also used the word.

I will look forward to a correction by Ms. Sweet and an inclusion of the Majority leader's remarks about the Democratic Party, which should make him also 'easy prey' by Ms. Sweet's own logic.

Thank you for your time,

[CarolNYC]

7. Great letter

This whole thing is more than infuriating. Anyone who listened to or read Durbin's remarks would know he wasn't calling anyone a Nazi anyway! His remarks were perfectly fine as far as I can tell....

Yet, no one blinks an eye when a right winger calls the Dems Nazis! ARGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

:grr:

[me b zola]

8. Have you shot this to Media Matters yet?

To edit like that makes it an OUT-RIGHT LIE!


Thanks for posting, I'll be writing to the Sun Times :grr:

[Clark2008]

9. I just did.

And referenced this thread.

[Clark2008]

15. Shoot. I just remembered I didn't post my letter. Geesch.

Media Matters,

According to the Chicago Sun Times, retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a former Democratic candidate for president, said this in response to Sean Hannity's question about Sen. Dick Durbin's Gitmo statements: "There's an old rule in politics, and I've seen it many times.. "Whoever uses the 'Nazi' word first loses."

http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-sweet192.html

Problem is, that's not the question this answer was in response to - not even close.

According to the transcript, Clark was responding to Alan Colmes question about Sen. Rick Santorum's calling the Democrats "Nazi's."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159907,00.html

HANNITY: Obviously, he doesn't know what the Geneva conventions are. Obviously, he's never read them. Obviously, he doesn't know they don't apply to enemy combatants. But we'll put that aside for just a minute.
General Clark, these comments are insidious; they're repugnant. There's propaganda. This misinformation is outrageous. These comparisons are over the top, and they put our troops in harm's way. And we need prominent Democrats like yourselves to condemn it. Will you condemn him for saying this?

CLARK: I'm not going to condemn him, Sean. I think we have a real issue here. And the issue is how we are perceived to have treated these people down at Guantanamo, on top of everything that happened at Abu Ghraib (search), on top of the bad press we've gotten throughout the Islamic world. All of that puts our soldiers at risk.
Now, I'd fight anybody who compared our soldiers to Nazis, because that's simply not the case. I know the men and women in the United States Army, a lot of them. I know how they've been trained. We do respect the Geneva Convention, and we understand what it means.
But I'll tell you what we have here. We have a real policy issue for our country. We've got to get buy in from other nations around the world on how to deal with these terrorists and other people that we've captured.

HANNITY: General, first of all, enemy combatants are afforded no protection under the Geneva Conventions. These are the combatants in the field that want to kill our soldiers. These are the people that want to destroy our country. There's 550 of them.
But we're not murdering them. We're not torturing them. There is no comparison to Nazi Germany or the Soviet gulags or Pol Pot and the killing fields. It's an outrageous propaganda campaign. It gives aid and comfort to people that already hate this country.
And I just cannot believe the Democrats, just like they stood by and listened to the comments of Howard Dean, that you guys are going to defend this? Rally around him? Circle the wagons?

I — frankly, I guess, politically speaking, I should be glad, because I think it's — the American people are not going to like this.

CLARK: Well, Sean, I think we've got to focus on what's really at issue here. This shouldn't be a political issue. What it is, is a policy issue. And this is where the people in the United States, our government, we have to pull together. We've got to get a solution...

HANNITY: Tell that to Durbin.

CLARK: ...for what's really happening down there in Guantanamo. We've got to get buy in from people around the world. Bring them over; let them see how they're being treated. Let them look and evaluate the evidence. Figure out, what's the best way to deal?
Some of these people, if they're released, would attack us again. We can't let them go. Some of them, maybe they should be charged. We need a process that the world understands and has legitimacy in their eyes. That's what's really at issue here.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: General, it's Alan Colmes. Welcome to FOX News. Good to have you aboard.

CLARK: Thanks, Alan.

COLMES: Senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano says Geneva Conventions do apply. We also have the U.N. conventions on torture and a number of other treaties to which we're signatories.
In terms of the Hitler and Nazi comparison, let me show you what Rick Santorum (search) said on the floor of the Senate when talking about the filibuster, comparing Democrats to Nazis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICK SANTORUM (R), PENNSYLVANIA: The rule has been in place for 214 years that this is the way we confirm judge — judges, broken by the other side two years ago. And the audacity of some members to stand up and say, "How dare you break this rule?" is the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 18 — 1942 saying, "I'm in Paris. How dare you invade me? How dare you bomb my city? It's mine."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLMES: Yes, didn't hear any conservatives condemn Rick Santorum for comparing Democrats to Nazis back when he said that during the filibuster.

CLARK: Well, Alan, I think — you bring up two very good points here. But I think the real issue here is to get past the politics, past the name- calling.
There's an old rule in politics, and I've seen it many times: whoever uses the "Nazi" word first loses. We ought to get past the name-calling, past the politics, and the partisan politics on this, because we have a national security issue and the country needs to focus on it. Our leadership needs to focus on it, and we can't if we just call them names back and forth with each other.

Now, is the Sun Times trying to drive wedges between various Democrats or is this just sloppy reporting?

More references here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1868235

Hope you can use this.

[CarolNYC]

16. Good job

Hope David puts it up....

[me b zola]

10. here's my letter

I am writing in regard to an article published June 19, 2005, written by Lynn Sweet, Washington Bureau Chief, entitled 'GITMO Remarks Makes Durbin Easy Prey'. Within the article, Ms. Sweet edits a quote by General Wes. Clark's to misrepresent what General Clark had said. The misrepresentation is so egregious, it certainly paints Ms. Sweet as a liar.

There have been all too many recent examples of paid propaganda coming from the White House, and I have to wonder if this is not yet another. I will remind you of the necessity & the responsibilities of a free press that the public depends on for information. I am outraged that this is what passes for journalism, and that someone who has no more respect for the fourth estate than this, to be writing for what was a respected newspaper.




I was going to sign it, 'OUTRAGED IN AMERICA', but I accidently hit send:(

[ClarkUSA]

12. Hey, thanks

You got the message across just great.

[ClarkUSA]

11. Here's the phone number of the Chicago Sun-Times [phone]

If you are from Illinois, please consider writing a LTTE at: [e-mail] in defense of Senator Durbin.

Here's the link to Fox News transcript of the interview:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159907,00.html

And here's link to video fo the interview:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/06/18.html#a3512

Let's make Lynn Sweet and Sour by tomorrow and give those media whores notice that liberals are fighting mad and we won't take this crap anymore!

Great thread, WesDem!

[Radical Activist]

13. Not to nitpick, but Durbin isn't from Chicago.

His hometown paper is the Springfield State Journal-Register, which is run by a Republican. Durbin's remark was the front page top headline for three days.

[Adelante]

14. Thanks for the correction

:hi: