Big Story graphic on Iraq debate: "DEMS VOW MORE FAILURE"
On the November 19 edition of Fox News' The Big Story, during an interview with Frances Fragos Townsend, who had resigned that day from her position as White House homeland security adviser, co-host John Gibson asserted: "[W]e can't help but notice the news that the war is going better. We can't help notice that we haven't been attacked, and yet we see the Democrats in Congress continuing to try to surrender, if you will. The Democrats have vowed more failure." Gibson then asked Townsend, "Do you believe that 'stop the war' is a winner?" As Gibson asked the question, an on-screen graphic appeared featuring the Democratic Party logo, the phrase "DEMS VOW MORE FAILURE," and the question, "Is 'Stop the War' a Winner?"
As Media Matters for America noted, on the July 31 edition of The Big Story, Gibson misrepresented July 30 comments by House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) to ask, "What should we say about politicians who actually fear a good report on the surge, whose nightly prayers are evidently that their country lose a war because otherwise they might lose an election?" Media Matters has documented other instances (here, here and here) of conservative commentators asserting that the Democrats want the U.S. to lose in Iraq.
From the November 19 edition of Fox News' The Big Story with John Gibson & Heather Nauert:
GIBSON: Fran, I know this isn't exactly in your turf, but we can't help but notice the news that the war is going better. We can't help notice that we haven't been attacked, and yet we see the Democrats in Congress continuing to try to surrender, if you will. The Democrats have vowed more failure. Do you believe that "stop the war" is a winner?
TOWNSEND: It is not a winner. And, in fact, it is a guaranteed loser, as you know. We are seeing the effects of the surge. We know from our generals that attacks are down substantially in Iraq. We see the beginnings of progress on the part of the Maliki government. This would be the worst conceivable time to decide to pull back. We are making progress, we are seeing progress, but it's fragile. And we have to build on that progress. When I hear people talk about pulling back from the surge, I say, "And what? And what if that -- we don't -- the progress crumbles? What is your plan?" And I don't hear the Democrats having a plan.
HEATHER NAUERT (co-host): Fran, let me ask you, one of the reasons that we've been successful in Iraq is that our men finally got around to figuring out that, pay off some of these tribal leaders, get them on our side. That seems to be working, calming the violence there, but what happens when we leave? It's likely that these guys could just go back to their old ways.
TOWNSEND: I don't think so. I mean, this is really a question of building political progress and building political momentum. What you're going to see is political institutions and alliances begin to build up, just as they do in any other democracy, and it won't depend so much on our generating it. They will naturally occur on their own. People with like-minded views and policy objectives will come together, and I think that's what we've seen in Anbar [Province], and that's what we're beginning to see around other parts of Iraq now.
GIBSON: Fran Townsend, congratulations on your four and half years and your career in public service, and thanks very much. I know we'll be seeing you again.
TOWNSEND: Thanks, John.
Regardless of whether you feel Iraq is improving or not, this is completely biased reporting and should be shunned as a "news channel".
FOX News is not a News channel. I do not at all like these tabloid stories but the Today show had that guy Peterson whos wife is missing in Illinois and his lawyer on, I have not been following the case but the lawyer said that FOX News is in the Entertainment business and is creating stories. I guess Greta and some Doctor on the FOX payroll are saying this guy killed his 3rd wife. Anyway the lawyer said it best , FOX does make things up and is in the entertainment business. Also the propaganda busness.
I'm afraid this Peterson guy is going to be the next "Big Distraction" for the Media Bobbleheads. When they're not talking about Hillary stiffing a waitress, they'll be looping Peterson's goofy driveway interview. The guy really fascinates them, and will prbably be indicted soon. I wonder if Scott McClellan's bombshell admission will get a tenth of that coverage....you think?
Just outrageous and disgusting.
A major cable news outlet claiming an American political party wants us to lose.
Imagine the handwringing and bloviating from the Troglodytes if MSNBC displayed a graphic saying "Republicans Vow More Death, Destruction and Waste".
On second thought, maybe they'd like it...
FOX will say anything please its bonehead viewers.
FOX is like a prostitute who doesn't tell her clients she has crabs. Let the suckers enjoy the moment and then blame the aftermath on their spouses.
Whats to lose? We already won and it is time to get the hell out! Yesterday I read a story about a couple GI's handing out gifts to the young kids and some sick, SICK disgusting human filth ran up and detonated a bomb, killing GI's and 3 kids. If we where not there, I would not have to read these sick stories.
note:I do not blame our occupation of iraq for these deaths. I blame the sick IGNORANT suicide bombers.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2007/11/19/suicide_attack_kills_3_us_soldiers_3_iraqi_children/
Oh Dogrun, time for you to regurgitate your vietnam argument again!
Oh, that's right. DogTrack thinks the Press lost Vietnam by telling us what was going on, doesn't he? I guess, in the Jingofascist paradigm, it's better for the populace to remain uninformed about its wars, so that the government can spin it however they want. Gee, that sounds familiar...
It sounds REAL familiar...
Man, there are some really bitter posters on that site.
Spinning it with idiocies such as:
We can't help notice that we haven't been attacked
Um... I think at last count 21 of the 23 nations that tagged along with the US into Iraq HAVE been attacked. Who's this "we", Kemo Sabe?
Here's a great PDF that illustrates just how 'unbusy' terrorists have been since 9/11.
Could go the Lynne Cheney route when she was on the Daily Show, and Stewart brought up the bombings in Madrid, the bombings in London, anthrax attacks post 9/11 when she brought up the old carrot of "we haven't been attacked so it must be working". She made some stupid statement about, "Well, America hasn't been attacked." to which Stewart responded, "I was under the impression that these other countries were our, you know, allies."
Of course, they tend to forget that the terrorist attack on the WTC in 1993, and then on 9/11 were, yes, 8 years apart. It's only been 6 since 9/11.
I do feel that indeed, we'll have some sort of terrorist attack on our soil once again in the future, possibly the near future. This is the danger of living in a free and open society that we do. I don't know if it will happen on the same level that we saw before, and I hope that it doesn't.
For Bush administration officials to claim that we're safer now, than we were before 9/11 is just false, based on the data of increased terrorist attacks around the world, and the shear number of attacks carried out around the world since September of 2001.
Did you notice that the fear levels are being elevated by the Homeland Security officials? I heard a warning on the radio yesterday that as the elections draw near we should remember that terrorists become more active in trying to supress democracy.
I have a friend who is confident that the domestic terrorists in the GOP will do something in 2008 to indefinitely suspend elections, based on a directive that Bush quietly signed into law last year.
I'm choosing to not believe that.
The radical righwing fringe is definitely capable using violence as a lever for political change. Intimidation is more the stock and trade of those guys. Thankfully.
It wouldn't take much to incite the righwing loonies to violence. They already believe we lefties are in league with those determined to kill us. To them we're Godless, freedom haters. It would be easy for them to sublimate their guilt as they execute liberals, they're told everyday on talk radio how we have ruined their good country, that we hate their freedom, that our respect for diversity is holding them down.
But I digress. The report I heard was referring to foreign terrorists...I think.
And if we are attacked they will find some way to blame the democrats.
People, people, you're not thinking clearly. Bush asks for funding, Bush gets his funding. Bush says we're following commanders on the ground; Bush says we're implementing Gen. Patraeus surge. So what has it been PRIOR that Dems are NOW vowing "MORE" of?
Nice to see Fox has finally seen the light.
Now that the NeoClowns are thumping their chests and touting their "success" in Iraq, I wonder what will be the cost of maintaining this "success"? How long can we sustain the troop levels necessary to keep the violence tamped down? Have we just bought ourselves a very expensive Third World Colony? Is that, perhaps, what they intended all along?
GIBSON: We can't help but notice that we haven't been attacked
Would someone please explain to me how this has anything to do with the war in Iraq?
Oh that's right, Saddam Hussain and the Iraqis were behind the 911 attacks. Killing American soldiers in an Iraqi civil war keeps us safer at home and is definitely the reason we haven't been attacked since. I'm sure glad I watch Faux news so I can keep up on the facts.;)
Can't the FCC do something like, say, make them put a "not necessrilly the truth" disclaimer up on the screen before the start of Gibson's "Big Story"? Or does just the word "Story" legally cover their ass?
Toe Tapping Republicans Warn, Hide Your Sons.
Makes just as much sense as the Fox graphic.
"Vow or take an educated guess based on past performance?"
You decide. I think it is fairly apparent.
Democrats do want to stop the war. So I'm not sure how John Gibson is wrong here.
To claim Gibson is simply telling it like it is, is just crass partisanship. He's calling dissenters traitors, again. He's sleazy. He can't support his faith in the Bush doctrine and demonstrate that terrorism is on the decline or that the world is safer. So, he says his fellow citizens (yeah Democrats are citizens) are invested in failure, that they want surrender. That's cheap and tawdry and has no place in such an important discussion of collective future and safety.
We lefties, many sensible righties too, do want an end to the Iraq occupation. This occupation is breaking the military, destroying marriages and dividing communities all while failing to make us safer.
Gibson is wrong.
WE CAN'T LOSE!!! WE WON!!! WE OVERTHREW THE GOVERNMENT FOIR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! WHAT MORE DO WANT TO DECLARE "VICTORY"?!
HOW THE H#LL CAN WE LOSE?! IS IRAQ GOING TO INVADE US OR SOMETHING?! IS OUR GOVERNMENT GOING TO BE OVERTHROWN AND OUR MILITRAY DEMOLISHED?! ARE WE GOING TO SURRENDER AND LET THE VICTORS DICTATE TERMS?! THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LOSE A WAR PEOPLE!!! (Ask Japan, ask Germany, ask Afganistan.)
How is an Iraqi civil war a MILITARY LOSS for the US? Did they become the 51st state or something? They keep talking about the US LOSING THE WAR, because they don't want to admit that our VICTORY IN IRAQ (which is already a matter of historical fact) is IRRELEVANT because the ivansion was an example of FAILED FORIEGN POLICY!!! (Big words though - avergae Fox viwwer can't get his head around them, I guess.)
Why do these bone-heads kepp pushing this idea, AND WHY CAN'T THE IDIOT SHEEP WATCHING AT HOME FIGURE THIS OUT???!!! WHY ARE THERE SO MANY STUPID PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY??!!
It drives me CRAZY!!!
That's because you're trying to apply logic. The Republican paltform is based on fear and emotion, not logic.
POX Spews is journalism like the WWE is sports.
I say we start a movement to force Fix news to post a disclaimer on all of the (I hate to use the word) news shows. A continuous crawl, something to the effect like "This show contains opinion presented as fact, unsubstantiated rumors as fact, mis-information and out and out lies pretending to be news. There is no real news here and anything said on this station should be considered entertainment. The opinions expressed on this show are of the owner and managers of this station and are biased."
They make these disclaimers for infomercials, there must be some way to make this a reality for Fix. I would also like to see the FCC grow some cajones and establish a truth in news broadcasting doctrine that would have to be met in order to get a license to broadcast on the radio and regular television.
This station and the idiots on it are helping to destroy our democracy and their acts should be considered anti-American and treasonous.
This bull crap cannot be allowed to continue.
I know fix is a cable station so the FCC does not really have any say over these pinheads, but we do.
Apparently, the Iraqi Sunnis and Shiites citizens on the ground are way ahead of their government. They’ve combined forces in Baghdad and have virtually defeated Al Qaeda by a combination of their own combined militias’ raids on the Al Qaeda and their sympathizers, and feeding valuable intel on the whereabouts of the bombers and killers to coalition forces. Life is even getting normal in Baghdad.
Of course, you won’t hear this subject broached during any of the CNN-like staged Democrat party debates. Bad news for the Demos: victory in Iraq. While the idiots in control of the congress continue to engineer defeat, the 800-lb gorilla in the room is victory - and the Democrats are scared, disillusioned, desperate, disorganized, and going out of their minds.
Next move: Lots of unhappy civilians as the Pentagon is forced to curtail spending in the U.S. to support continuing victory in Iraq and Afghanistan. Let’s see, most of those civil service types used to vote Democrat. I wonder how they’ll feel with Dingy Harry’s latest move on withholding funding to the troops over there.
Odds are that Harry, Pelosi, and the rest of the congressional Democrats will crack before the end of next week.
Happy Thanksgiving!I couldn’t agree more. I visit this web site because if refuse to not view all sides of all debate's then I don’t have a leg to stand on as far as my view's are concerned. But if you all think for one second that the comments of Harry and Nancy don't more than show there vested interest in our defeat in Iraq then I suggest that you do your homework. And when you state a grievance with Fox News considering they are the ONLY network available to the general public who isn't totally liberally slanted it sure appears that you all believe that liberals should have a monopoly on all of TV news media. Conservative view points are way under reported in the main stream media, don’t we at least deserve ONE station? You have all the rest. In fact this very site (Media Matter's) is a total liberal propaganda machine only concerned with getting Hillary elected. Read all the news the report and it’s obvious that they have Hillary's best interest at heart. This group enjoys tax exempt status because they "educate without political agenda". Yeah right. And guess who started this organization? That’s right Hilary Clinton. The Clinton’s disregard for our countries laws knows no bounds. I have and will continue to read EVERYTHING on this web site because you can't honestly support your view if you only hear one side of the argument. I encourage all of you to do the same. Unless you’re afraid of what you might learn.
Oldie,
You always come up with the most delusional scenarios ever.
Please direct me to one single source that states what you have just said.
Just one!
I think the nurse may have given Oldmarine his turkey smoothie and sleepy pill.
Since you are so stupid you dont even know the name of the largest political party in the United States it isnt suprising that you still support the policy of getting as many Americans killed as you possibly can. You guy just love it when Americans DIE. Its party time at your house as long as Americans are DYING.
Happy Thanksgiving pig. Is this what victory means? Is this the price of victory?
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