Guild vs. U.S.
Linda Foley, international president of the Newspaper Guild, has accused the U.S. military of targeting journalists for death “in places like Iraq.”
A similar charge led CNN news chief Eason Jordan to resign his position earlier this year, after backing away from his words. Miss Foley’s accusation also comes as Newsweek admits it erred in publishing a story that said U.S. interrogators at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had defiled the Koran.
“Journalists, by the way, are not just being targeted verbally or politically,” Miss Foley said Friday in St. Louis. “They are also being targeted for real, in places like Iraq. What outrages me as a representative of journalists is that there is not more outrage about the number, and the brutality, and the cavalier nature of the U.S. military toward the killing of journalists in Iraq.”
Mark E. Hyman, host of the Sinclair Broadcast Group’s “The Point,” said last night on his TV program: “These completely irresponsible remarks speak for themselves. Foley should immediately deliver evidence that supports her horrible allegations, or she should immediately resign as Newspaper Guild president.”
Mr. Hyman added: “The question is whether Newspaper Guild members will hold Foley accountable, or will they give her a free pass in endangering American lives with inflammatory remarks without any proof?”
Biased to the left
“The Newsweek magazine story falsely reporting desecration of the Koran by American military interrogators in Guantanamo, Cuba, where terror suspects are being held, is the fourth major false report printed or aired by a highly respected arm of the Anglo-American journalistic establishment in the past year,” Dick Morris writes in the Hill newspaper.
“Each of those inaccurate stories has roiled the political waters and threatened to inflict colossal damage on either President Bush or British Prime Minister Tony Blair and on American and British efforts to defeat terrorists and the regime of Saddam Hussein,” Mr. Morris said.
“It is high time that the American people got the point: The organs of establishment journalism are slanted and biased toward the left and disregard the standards of fair and accurate reporting, with impunity, when an election is on the line.”
Circle the wagons
“Some journalists were appalled Tuesday by White House press secretary Scott McClellan‘s suggestion that Newsweek ‘help repair the damage that has been done … by talking about the way they got this wrong, and pointing out what the policies and practices of the United States military are when it comes to the handling of the Holy Koran,’ ” the Media Research Center’s Brent Baker writes at www.mediaresearch.org.
“At the briefing, ABC’s Terry Moran demanded: ‘Who made you the editor of Newsweek? Do you think it’s appropriate for you, at that podium, speaking with the authority of the president of the United States, to tell an American magazine what they should print?’
“On the ‘CBS Evening News,’ Wyatt Andrews tried to explain away Newsweek’s responsibility: ‘The White House is still pressuring Newsweek, saying this mistake cost lives. Newsweek, however, says no U.S. official ever denied that story until four days after the rioting began, and that the magazine immediately scrambled to uncover and then admit the error.’
“Bob Schieffer marveled at how ‘I can never recall a White House telling a news organization to go report X, Y or Z.’ Andrews then scoffed: ‘As if Newsweek is now obligated to repair the damage that America has suffered to its reputation overseas. Never seen it.’”
Dean unrepentant
Democratic Party chief Howard Dean refuses to back away from his description of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay as a criminal, the Arizona Republic reports.
Mr. DeLay’s office fought back with the Democrat’s own words from the 2004 presidential campaign. The former Vermont governor had maintained that even terrorist leader Osama bin Laden should not be prejudged if captured.
“There’s corruption at the highest level of the Republican Party, and they’re going to have to face up to that one of these days, because the law is closing in on Tom DeLay,” Mr. Dean said in an interview with reporter Jon Kamman.
“I think he’s guilty … of taking trips paid for by lobbyists and of campaign-finance violations during his manipulation of the Texas election process,” Mr. Dean said.
The remarks reflected no retreat from Mr. Dean’s comment Saturday to Massachusetts Democrats that “I think Tom DeLay ought to go back to Houston, where he can serve his jail sentence.”
Fellow Democrat Barney Frank, a Massachusetts representative, said Monday on television that he considered the comment “very unfair.”
“I think it was inappropriate,” Mr. Frank said. “I’m a great critic of Tom DeLay’s … but to say that he’s a criminal — at this point, there’s no basis for that.”
Meese, the book
Ed Meese, who served as attorney general under President Reagan, drew a crowd of friends and admirers Tuesday at a Capitol Hill party marking the publication of his biography.
The book, “To Preserve and Protect: The Life of Edwin Meese III,” was written by Lee Edwards of the Heritage Foundation.
Former Attorneys General William Barr and John Ashcroft showed up to honor their predecessor, as did former Judge Robert H. Bork and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.
Justice Janice Rogers Brown of the California Supreme Court, whose nomination to a federal appeals court awaits the outcome of the Senate filibuster wars, made an appearance, as did Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, Utah Republican, who is helping to lead the charge to win her confirmation.
Mr. Meese was surrounded by old friends such as Reagan chum Paul Laxalt, a former Republican senator from Nevada; Michael Deaver, Mr. Reagan’s public relations wizard; and Meese Justice Department alumni Charles J. Cooper, Michael Carvin and J. Harvie Wilkinson III, now a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.
Other attendees included Judge Stephen Williams, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Ed Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation. James L. Swanson, Heritage senior legal scholar, hosted the affair.
Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes.com.
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