Kurtz: Helen Thomas let Bush show country he's up against left-wing press

[Rose Siding]

From Media Matters

In his March 22 Media Notes column, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz wrote about an exchange President Bush had with Helen Thomas, a syndicated columnist with Hearst Newspapers, during Bush's March 21 White House news conference, in which he claimed that by calling on Thomas "for the first time in three years," Bush found "a useful foil" that allowed him "not only to punch back but to show the country that he's up against a left-wing press corps."

Oh, yeah. Weighted heavily in our favor

http://www.gcse.com.nyud.net:8090/fm/images/donkey.jpg

[oasis]

1. Kurtz proved to be a "useful tool" to the Bushies when he tried to head

off the Jeff Gannon WH press scandal.

Mediawhoresonline exposed Howie's Bush bias years ago.

[BikeWriter]

2. Fuck yeah. He answered her once in three years.

[shance]

3. Is it a left wing press or the someone in the press corps being honest?

And simply asking the right questions?

Seems to me "right" and "left" and "moderate" are terrific labeling tools used by those in American Propaganda institutions so as to divide and isolate Americans, and simply to perpetuate more fear and assumption.

Im sure I could be called all three labels on all various assortments of topics. We are never simply a label, are we?

[rodeodance]

4. I think calling on was planned by Rove et al--and Helen WAS a foil--which

enabled Bush to spew out his preplanned answer.

[KharmaTrain]

17. Do I Get Credit For Calling This One???

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=724272&mesg_id=724351

I was predicting that Helen was going to be called on before the dog and pony show and the fact the asshat didn't answer her question but went on his own little diatribe proves it was all staged. Just listen to the response.

Cheers...

[grasswire]

5. Damn. It was a setup.

They hornswoggled us by "allowing" Helen a question.

[Bozita]

6. Kurtz's wife, Sherri Annis, is a GOP spokeswhore. Never forget it!

[Marlie]

7. Helen did a great job

But, she was used as bait. The attack on the liberal press began full force
today and she was the proof of how the aggressive press attacks our beloved
President and his war. Keith tried to pull that out of her tonight but I don't
think she realizes it wasn't a nice gesture by the President to call on her -
it was to use her. Imagine what our country would be today if we really had a liberal press.

[Skip Intro]

8. She asks fair questions. They have no effing answer. That doesn't make her

left wing or radical or liberal or someone with an agenda - she's holding the moron accountable to his own words and actions and he and his little gang can't stand it, so they whine and cry and play victim. George fucking w fucking bush - a victim.


Unbelievable.

[Liberal In Texas]

9. All * was doing was trying to do was to fake bravado. His handlers told

him to do it. It was a set-up.

It was false bravado in the face ofthe * poll numbers falling into oblivion. He picked on Helen as the examplar of the left wing. The one person that he hadn't called on in the WH press room for 3 years to pick a fight.

Well coached about what he had to say, * pointed his finger and chastised Thomas as a representative of what the administration really thinks of as the enemy. US.

Hoping to reinvigerate their base with "strong" put-downs of criticism, * actually just showed how desperate these people are right now.

[aaronbees]

10. One person asking serious questions...

does not a "left-wing press corps" make. The Thomas exchange showed no such thing; in fact, the very fact she's seldom called upon logically shows exactly the opposite. Kurtz's whole article just meanders through the spin-corps. Blah, what a waste of space he is, and hats off to Helen Thomas, a real writer of substance.

[Leopolds Ghost]

11. A left-wing press in which Kurtz has no power to kill Dan Rather's career

For raising the issue of Bush's Guard service while Kurtz was busy challenging Kerry's

(under the guise of "analysing" the Swift Boat allegations in a full-page, above the fold "analysis".)

And don't you forget it.

So Kurtz turned on Rather in order to flex his muscles and prove himself to his GOP bosses at the Washington Post to be an able successor to hatchet men like Woodward, capable of maintaining the Post as an important power broker and go-to institution of record for the Permanent GOP Majority (tm). Now the GOP has no pesky independent network news divas to worry about kowtowing (allusions to Dietrich in V for Vendetta)

[dave29]

12. Please note he called on Jeff Gannon well before he ever called on Helen.

Bush: Look at all these lefties I have to deal with. They're not even on the payroll!

[Marr]

13. Yeah, right. And the Republicans love the NSA spying scandal, too.

They always try to find some way of saying the screw up du jour is actually *good* for the GOP.

It isn't. An actual journalist managed to ask an actual question, and Bush looked like the bumbling liar he is national television. Period.

[Kagemusha]

14. I see Kurtz resents being called left-wing on Thomas' behalf.

Well TOO BAD.

[dcTsarina]

15. Just read every reply to this posting

and you all made me just smile. Then giggle. Then laugh right out loud. I love you guys!

[deacon]

16. It took him 3 years to face an 85 year old woman- LOL n/t