FOX and Friends one-two punch against Hillary Clinton
FOX and Friends got in two jabs against presidential candidate Hillary Clinton this morning 10/08/07. First they made a big deal over her retort to an Iowa voter (whom they want to have on the show tomorrow) and later, did a segment on Sandy Berger joining her campaign as an adviser. Berger is continually labeled "Sandy Burglar," "document thief," etc on FOX, which has yet to my knowledge referred to Oliver North as "convicted felon" and "illegal arms trader."
The first segment, bannered "Hillary Smackdown" and regarding Clinton alleged that she "snapped" at a questioner who asked "Why should I support your candidacy...if it appears you haven't learned from your past mistakes?" supposedly referring to her recent vote for a Senate resolution to categorize Irans' Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. She reportedly replied "The premise of the question is wrong, and I'll be happy to explain that to you... somebody obviously sent you...I apologize. It's just that I've been asked the very same question in 3 other places." (Elipses and edits are FOX's; this is hopw it appeared on-screen.)
Greg Kelly allowed that it doesn't read very testy, but "witnesses say" it was quite tense. He continued
"You know what? You can talk about healthcare, you can talk about foreign policy, you can talk about all sorts of things for days and days and weeks and months, but you snap at a voter on the campaign trail, that has the potential to become a real story and something people remember."
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the problem with the media in a nutshell. They are the gatekeepers; they choose what to highlight, what to repeat, what to bury, and they choose sensationalistic gossip and meaningless anecdotes like this.
They showed the guys picture and name and said they're trying to get him on, making him an instant star and keeping the non-story alive another day. Doocy said that one report he read on-line said Clinton was screaming: a quick Google reveals that "report" to be reprinted at Free Republic, a right-wing ideological gab site, from the American Spectator, a neo-conservative publication that notoriously smears the Clintons.
Bill O'Reilly was having FITS for a week because a Media Matters item that quoted him saying something racially offensive was picked up by CNN, yet here's Steve Doocy using a right-wing hate site as a source about a political candidate. Typical FOX hypocritical double standard.
The later segment, with Washington Examiner and FOX News Contributor Bill Sammon, was bannered "Socks and Docs." Doocy referred to Berger as "admitted secret document thief" and asked Sammon incredulously "Bill, you've got to be kidding me!" Sammon rehashed the details of Berger's taking documents from the National Archives, and said he is now advising Clinton on foreign policy. Not answering whether it is a paid or informal position, Sammon recalled that Berger was an adviser to John Kerry's 2004 campaign until the scandal broke and he was fired - making Clinton's use of him all the more interesting.
Gretchen Carlson fed Sammon the line that Berger must be some kind of foreign policy whiz if Clinton is risking a PR debacle, and Sammon came back with his own, less flattering, speculation that it might be payback for his (what "some people" believe was) "scrubbing the public record" of President Bill Clinton's performance against terrorism.
Doocy and Sammon agreed that it was puzzling why Clinton would bring back an "old crony who got in trouble" from the first Clinton administration and all the bad connotations from that era.
Berger, we're reminded, was fined, placed on probation, and lied. (Again, like Oliver North, speaking of "payback.")
Sammon and his Friends at FOX are worried that Berger will get classified information which he is legally not allowed to have (his security clearance was revoked for three years, ending in late 2008) because of his new position on the campaign. It's very troubling that he could be, "even by osmosis, receiving classified material from Hillary."
Kelly asked if this story has legs? Are people going to weigh in, and perhaps this won't be a permanent arrangemet? (In other words, Can we make a big enough stink and get him fired?)
Sammon said "it's entirely up to the mainstream media." He imagines the "hue and cry" if a Republican campaign hired Scooter Libby, but doubts the media will muster enough righteous indignation over Berger.
They wrapped it up with yet one more jab: the old crew is back in town but they won't go so far as to bring back Monica Lewinsky.
Hypocrites. The Bush-W administration is run by cronies of Bush Sr, with a web of highly-placed officials starting with the self-appointed VP, yet we rarely (if at all) hear of that. Watch them "grow" this Iowa-voter non-story while scrupulously avoiding healthcare, foreign policy, and all sorts of things.
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