David Gregory, Byron York repeated myth of Giuliani as 9-11 hero, omitting criticism

[NNN0LHI]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200705120001?f=h_top

On the May 11 edition of NBC's Today, NBC News chief White House correspondent David Gregory said of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Republican presidential candidate: "To many, 9-11 made Giuliani a hero." Later in the same segment, Gregory aired a clip of National Review White House correspondent Byron York asserting that Giuliani might "convince" conservative voters who oppose his abortion positions "to still vote for him because he's so strong on issues of national security." Neither Gregory nor those quoted in his report took note of the serious questions surrounding Giuliani's record on the issues of terrorism and national security, which Media Matters for America has repeatedly documented.

The view that Giuliani acted heroically before, during, and after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has been strongly disputed:

On the May 1 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, HBO host Bill Maher said that "{a}ll of the experts told him {Giuliani} to move the command-and-control center out of the World Trade Center. He put it in the World Trade Center." Maher added: "He's not a terrorism fighter. He has no credentials in this."

In their book, Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11 (HarperCollins, August 2006), Wayne Barrett and CBSNews.com senior producer Dan Collins cited several of what they presented as Giuliani's security-related failures, as Media Matters noted, including "the lack of interoperable radios" between the New York fire and police departments, which they wrote "became ... a focus of fury" (Page 343). On 9-11, the New York City fire department was using outdated VHF radios that were incompatible with the police department's UHF radios.

A March 14 New York Times article reported that Harold A. Schaitberger, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said, "The whole issue of the radios is unforgivable. ... Everyone knew they needed a better system, and he {Giuliani} didn't get it done."

[Kagemusha]

1. Ummm. It is true that to many, 9-11 made Giuliani a hero. Certainly not all.

But just the fact that the hero image has been strongly disputed is in no way a factual rebuttal that "to many" it made him a hero. They just happen to not include Wayne Barrett, Dan Collins, the International Association of Fire Fighters and Bill Maher. That leaves a lot of potential people.

Rebutting falsehoods is one thing. This isn't a falsehood. It's a legitimate statement about the opinions - not facts, the opinions - held by numerous people. These people may be in error; that in no way makes David Gregory's statement false, as in, a lie.

Is someone jumping the shark over at Media Matters and Think Progress lately? I've seen this sort of over-aggressive reach numerous times this week. This is just the latest.

[Cha]

2. The mediawhores aren't gong to

change a thing..they have their playbook and their stickin' to it and stickin' to us.

We have to be the light that shines on the dirty underwear of politics..yeah, rudy I'm talkin' about you.

Fuck you david gregory and the fucking horse's ass you rode in on.