Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Chuckie Watch 66: Chuckie vs. Dan Rather

All right!  Our guy Chuckie is ready to give us the definitive Patriotically Correct word on Dan Rather (09/20/04).

Chuckie's been hearing about old Dan's reporting lately.  And Chuckie don't like it.

He used forged documents to try to discredit President Bush’s National Guard service record and no amount of hem hawing or dancing around the issue can change that fact. (my emphasis)

Whoa!  Now Chuckie's a document expert, too!  Is there no end to this man's talents?  It makes me almost wish the Republicans do hold Congressional hearings on this thing.  They can haul up people like Chuckie and Pat Buchanan and all the other rightwingers who know already these documents are "forgeries."  It would be fun to see them testify under oath about their inside knowledge.

But Chuckie's clearly been following Dan's career for a while.  Chuckie says Dan used fake stories in a documentary he did in 1988 about the Vietnam War.  It seems that ole Dan suggested that - can you believe this? - that there might have been some American atrocities committed in Vietnam!

Now, every Patriotically Correct Chuckie disciple knows this can't be true.  Because if the Americans did it, it couldn't be an "atrocity," now could it?  Gunning down dozens of civilians at My Lai, why, that was just some good ole boys blowing off steam.  If Rush Limbaugh had been broadcasting his tirades in those days, he would probably have said he and his frat buddies used to do things like that all the time.  At least, that's how they responding the revelations of torture in Abu Ghuraib in more recent times.

He owes an apology to the parents of the fifty two thousand brave souls who fell in Vietnam for trying to dirty the memory of their sons and daughters.

Dadburn it, Dan said that every American killed in Vietnam had committed atrocities?!  Shoot, he must be part of some anti-American Liberal Media conspiracy or something, huh?

And he owes an apology to the people who have faithfully watched his newscast for so many years who now have to wonder just how much bogus trash they’ve beenfed over the years.

Ole Chuckie may just have him a point here.  Back in June, I posted about the bizarre hero-worship of the Iran-Contra criminal Ollie North that the mainstream media promoted during after that scandal broke.  And I quoted the following from Eric Alterman:

The irony of this situation is that the reported reaction of the country to North’s testimony was actually at odds with most Americans' profound disapproval of both his methods and his aims.  The committee’s unwillingness to prosecute North proved less a reaction to the genuine beliefs of the American people than to a phony 'Potemkin' pretense of a public reaction created by administration supporters and other conservative movement figures.  Most of the media fell for it as well.  Time, for instance, reported that "The Boy Scout and patriot had the nation rooting for him," while Newsweek subtitled its cover story "The 'Fall Guy' Becomes a Folk Hero."  Its attendant coverage argued that North "somehow embodied Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper and John Wayne in one bemedaled uniform."  The coverage in both newsweeklies was directly contradicted by published polls at the time, including their own.  Time’s own poll showed that 61 percent believed that the term "national hero" did not describe North.  According to Newsweek’s polls, 45 percent of respondents believed North was a patriot and a hero, while 48 percent did not.  On July 9, 1987 "The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather" reported, without evidence, that "ninety-six percent of you back North up, saying you approve of his actions."  The broadcast went on to compare North to Rambo and Dirty Harry.  Overall, in four separate polls taken in June and July of 1987, between 68 and 81 percent of Americans questioned disagreed with the appellation "hero" when applied to Oliver North.  The labels "villain," "victim," "dangerous,"  "fanatic," and "can be bought" proved considerably more popular. (my emphasis)

What do you think, Chuckie?  Should ole Dan be apologizing to the nation for that one, too?  Maybe apologizing to all the soldiers and all the government officials who do their jobs honestly and obey the law for making a hero outof that  felon?  Yeah, Chuckie, let's go after him for that one, okay?

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