Leslie Sahl Tonight--A Study in Media Fear....pathetic

[BabsSong]

Just watched 60 minutes. Clarke was absolutely--and I mean totally absolutely--fantastic. Indeed, the truth--and what we have been tring to tell this idiotic country for a few years now!! I won't talk about him because I'm sure that's discussed thoroughly. But it was Stahl that fascinated me.

I've seen her "I'm a tough broad" routine on a zillion subjects. But tonight she wasn't just "playing a part" to draw someone out. They went out of the way to show "agnst" on her face whenever the standard propaganda of the administration was being rebuffed and rebuffed with such total excellence. Gosh, she was "pained" and "hurt" and "disbelieving" and "offended at the horror"---what garbage. As if these things were so unAmerican and offensive. Gasp...Bush did nothing with Clinton's info?; gasp, "are you accusing THE PRESIDENT of blah, blah". She's isn't that dumb of a broad. In fact on other things she's right on target, up to date, and going for blood. In a word, she and CBS were scared shitless of crossing the regime and it showed. While they let the guy say it without edit, they wanted to make sure their asses were covered as "good Americans who just couldn't believe this stuff". THAT visible fear was the absolute proof of the power of the regime and corporate America. Leslie, my dear, tonight you really could have been walking the streets and engaging in a more honorable profession---your fake "shock" was sickening and it totally underminded your credentials.

[mandyky]

1. Just further proof that there are very few

American journalists left. They have turned into propoganda spouting TV personalities.

[soleft]

2. There was a moment when she was walking thru a park with Clarke

When he was telling her all the things that could have been done to prevent 9/11, putting the photos on Dan Rather, etc., and she shook her head, not in outrage that Clarke could say such a thing, but in disgust that more wasn't done.

That's how I read it. I have no problem with journalists taking the devil's advocate role and asking questions meant to debunk as along as they give the subject the chance to adequately respond.

[BabsSong]

6. soleft--I was referring to so many places where she wasn't doing

her usual "devil's advocate" and that's what caught my eye. I've seen her do the "gee, are you telling me.." routine. But this time was different. There wasn't the ernest, but no emotion on the face, as she baits people. She was really doing a "shocked" and "surely you can't mean" face. It's so hard to describe in print. I've seen Leslie in action a lot and know her "playing the devil's advocate role". But this was something different and even my husband noticed that this wasn't the usual. She very much wanted to be seen as someone who just "couldn't believe" that Bush would be like this. They were definitely covering their asses.

[LSdemocrat]

3. I disagree. I though she actually helped Clarke.

Clarke was able to forcefully counter her questions.

If anything she made the adminstation spokesperson Hadley look ridiculous, especially with her "two sources" assertion.

[mindfulNJ]

4. I disagree with you on this...

I think she was playing devil's advocate...I think it ended up being an excellent interview.

[alcuno]

5. I thought she did an excellent job.

Clarke was terrific.

[Lorien]

7. Contact 60 minutes

(CBS) 60 Minutes:

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[lostnfound]

11. Contact and tell them to give us more of the same..

and have Clarke on for some followups...
along with some corroborators..

[riverwalker]

16. 60 Minutes email

http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/feedback/fb_news_form.shtml
There is a email feedback form for 60 Minutes.

[scarletwoman]

34. Email them here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/home/main100.shtml

Scroll to very bottom of page, click on "feedback". DO write and thank them for doing this interview!

sw

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

8. I thought it was an Inspector Renault routine from Casablanca

"Im shocked, shocked, to find gambling in this establishment !"

Mock horror mixed with cynicsm

[lostnfound]

9. I disagree. Her shock WAS fake but it helped Clarke.

I think she was aware of the couch potatoes watching 60 minutes and trying to present it in a way that would mirror an ordinary couch-potato reaction.

Of course, if we had a different sort of media we'd have a different public..

but all in all I think she very much believed Clarke but couldn't very well say 'YES! Well, I'm not surprised one bit!!"

[Marymarg]

10. She is a pro

She knows how to get the information out. Good reporters play devil's advocate to allow their interviewee to make their points and support them.

Would you really want her to act like Rush Limbaugh, etc. and insist on only one view??

It was a great interview, made more credible by the fact that she raised questions,asked for clarification when the information was really shocking, and gave that other guy (can't remember his name) a chance to respond.

[lostnfound]

12. And told Hadley she had two witness corroborate the Bush meeting.

That was good reporting, too.

[alcuno]

22. I had to laugh at Hadley's response.

Something about how he stood by what he said. You have to be slightly in awe of their arrogance.

[kodi]

36. yeah, like john cleese in fawlty towers caught lying to his wife

.

[Malva Zebrina]

28. yes that was especially good

[Junkdrawer]

13. Got the story out AND preempted the 'liberal media' spin...

that's how I see it.

[acmavm]

14. Stephen Hadley is a walking talking two legged freak show. And as for

Leslie Stahl, here the bimbo was handed the news story of the decade, and she acts like she's almost afraid of being contaminated by Clarke just by being in the same room. The only redeeming thing that she did was when that pathological liar Hadley tried to deny that Bush wanted Clarke to link Iraq to 911, she did have the least little bit of decency to point out that they had two independent persons who verified that story, one of them having witnessed the event. (Way to go Leslie, did that hurt much?)

How in the hell did so many psychopaths and sociopaths end up in one administration? Is there some kind of Rorshach test that can determine this? What means can there be to gather the most incompetent, greedy, scheming, conniving, lying, thieving crowd of greedy criminal idiots in one building and then pass their pathetic asses off as politicians and the leaders of this nation, and the biggest dolt of them all as president?

Scared? Why the hell should CBS be scared? If the frigging media operated the way it is supposed to, then they would bust this who criminal enterprise wide open. But they act like pimps for this bunch of whores. Maybe it's just me. I grew up during Watergate. I know what great investigative journalism can be. Let me tell you, we are not seeing any of it in the mainstream press or televised news. What we are seeing is a bunch of cowards who are out to protect their own skins, to hell with the rest of the country.

Oh yes, and one more thing. THIS PROVES THAT TENENT IS A LYING PIECE OF SHIT. He was in these meetings and told the Resident's cabinet that they had been over this for years and the Iraqis hadn't committed an act of terrorism against the US since 1993. The FBI and the CIA signed off on Clarke's report. If there were any justice, if there were any morality, if there was one ounce of decency left in both the House and the Senate, there would be hell to pay RIGHT NOW!!!! George and Company would be looking at some hard time in a federal penitentiary somewhere for what he has done, the murders and fraud he has committed, the lies he has told. He had damn well better not believe in an afterlife. Because if there is, his room deep in the bowels of Hell is reserved.

edit: so angry I can't even spell

[BabsSong]

21. acmavm--exactly--that's what I'm trying to convey with my post

I've seen her before being the devil's adovcate. But this time she was acting like "being contaminated by being in the same room as him" as you put it. She wanted (for career purposes--think??) to let people know that "I'm interviewing this guy BUT don't pin on me that I would ever think this of our president". This wasn't usual Leslie...this was a "I've got a big story but I don't want the right wing freaks and my news corporation to fire me" thing.

[Malva Zebrina]

30. that's OK some cannot spell even when they are not angry.

I agree and am totally perplexed as to the role Tenet is playing in this whole thing. It is baffling.

I have watched him speak over and over and cannot make any sense out of what he is saying at all.

and that is certainly pathetic==beccause I am not a stupid person.

I suspect that I am not the only one in this position.

[KC21304]

15. I thought she did a fine job.

She let him get it all out.

[Disturbed]

17. Liars.

"How in the hell did so many psychopaths and sociopaths end up in one administration?"

All must take a lie detector test. They must prove that they can lie and beat the test overwhelmingly. If they cannot do so they are not hired.

[yardwork]

18. I had the same reaction as BabsSong

Clarke got his message out but Stahl was more of a hindrance than a help. She kept interrupting him. She kept acting skeptical instead of following up with even deeper questions. She came across as a junior high librarian who couldn't really believe that dope was found in the girls' bathroom.

And why didn't 60 Minutes devote the whole show to Clarke?

[acmavm]

20. I don't know, God knows the story is BIG enough. At least, at the very

least, in the end Clarke did get to say that bush* has done a horrible job in the area of 'terra'. But then, that's a given. Before, during, and after. What I want to see is an interview of the pilot who flew bush* here to Omaha and then to wherever the hell else the crybaby little coward went to after that. I want to hear if he sat there and cried for Mama. Because I sure as hell know he didn't do anything expected of the President of the United States.

Did you see that picture that they showed at the beginning and end of the interview. Bush looked just like a paranoid basketcase.

[G_j]

25. don't forget the next act,

Clark will be giving public testimony. I doesn't sound like he'll be changing his tune either.

[Jim__]

19. She definitely exposed Steve Hadley as a liar

Hadley was saying, "we", the administration, can't find any evidence that such a meeting ever took place between bush and Clarke and she replied 60 Minutes has been able to independently verify this meeting took place with 2 separate witnesses.

It exposes the whole bush lie machine. They can't find any evidence of what's going on in their own administration, 60 minutes can easily find the evidence.

That was great stuff!

[Ksec]

23. She actually has sex with a corporate whore who runs the country

Of course shes going to pretend she didnt know what was happening. If she acted like she knew she would be banished from society once the secrets out and they line these MFers up for prison.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

24. Who is she married to?

[Malva Zebrina]

26. I did not have a problem with Stahl

I thought she did a good job. She manageed to let Clarke get out his points but also managed to preserve her journalistic image.

Of course I do not know how much of that is Stahl or simply editing by someone else.

[napi21]

27. I thought Leslie did a good job!

If she hadn't questioned Clark the way she did, the whole interview would have been dismissed as Clark being a kook.

I sent a message to 60 Minutes thanking them for convincing me that the entire media isn't running scared of Bush.

[calimary]

32. EVERYBODY should do what you just did, napi21.

CONTACT CBS!

OBVIOUSLY they listen to mass rantings. Look what they did with the Reagan miniseries.

[G_j]

35. I wrote them also

I told them it was one of the most important interviews they had ever aired and thanked them.

[WillyBrandt]

29. She did a great job. She was the skeptical questioner for both

Clarke and the Bush guy. Clarke did extremely well since he has the truth on his side, and the Bush guy failed because he had nothing but lies.

I think the piece was all the more credible since Stahl gave Clarke the standard objections and he got through.

We shouldn't take every instance of someone not acting like a DU-er as whoredom.

[calimary]

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[scottxyz]

33. Yeah, I noticed this same thing

At first, I thought she was just playing devil's advocate, because I'm not familiar with how tough she normally is as you say. (Believe me, turning on the TV tonight and getting the antenna right to tune in ole CBS was a big procedure at our place, as I've given up on TV for news in the past few years.)

But from what you said, BabsSong, I can see she was doing more than just playing devil's advocate to draw them out. She was really trying to look very shocked and amazed at everything Clarke said - covering her ass so that HE would be the one making the accusations, whereas as she was somehow not a part of it.

She could have drawn out a lot more answers, instead of pretending to be so amazed that Clarke wasn't "loyal" to the President in his book.

C'mon Leslie, cut the "shocked" routine. You know very well that when it comes down to a choice between being loyal to an incompetent fool or exposing him, you expose him. Even in the military there is the concept of "relieving someone of their command" - and as a reporter covering the commander in chief, you damn well better have known this. So don't play all shocked and amazed, Leslie. Yeah, you let him say his piece - but you could have encouraged him to say a lot more if you hadn't acted so surprised by everything he said.

[immoderate]

37. I thought Leslie was good

To us he's just a piece of shit. But to many he is the fucking President of the United States. Stahl had to be more..ah..circumspect than she would be with the rip-off repair man.

--IMM