Schwarznegger, Bush and our bigoted media
Gerard Jackson
Schwarznegger's overwhelming victory has had the worthy effect of exposing the ingrained ideological bigotry of the media. Any normal person would see Davis's defeat at the hands of Schwarznegger as a GOP triumph. Instead, the media interpreted this crushing defeat for the Dems as a dire warning to President Bush!
Their so-called reasoning (in reality, blind political prejudice) led them to conclude that the election result was a warning to incumbents everywhere, particularly in the White House, rather than a warning to corrupt and incompetent administrators.
The foreign correspondents, demonstrating their total independence of mind, unwaveringly followed the lead of America's leftwing mainstream, with Australian correspondents running to keep up.
Roy Eccleston's Arnie a bad omen for White House (The Australian's 9/10/03) summed up the media's political bigotry while also providing an excellent example of the ideological rot that passes for reporting. (Incidentally, The Australian is a Rupert Murdoch paper).
Leaning mainly on the opinion of an embittered Mr. Zogby, a Democrat who asserted that "Come next November, that anger might be directed at a different incumbent . . . in the White House," Eccleston tried to paint a bleak political landscape for Bush's prospects in California.
(Eccleston's idea of political analysis is to uncritically quote Dems and other opponents of the Bush administration).
Unable to leave the anti-religious card out of his report, Eccleston claimed that the GOP has "assumed the conservative moral and religious attitudes of the American South." This is newsspeak for religious bigotry, for which he does not provide a shred of evidence.
What Eccleston is apparently unaware of, however, is the ironic fact that the vast majority of blacks and Hispanics share what he would sneeringly call GOP "conservative moral" attitudes.
Trying to cover for Davis, Eccleston claimed that "California's troubles stem in large part from the collapse of the technology bubble, which slashed its tax revenues." He then pointed out that "most states are in economic trouble — about 40 have budget deficits."
His first point is just plain rubbish. "California's troubles" stem from Davis's reckless spending spree and his corruption. During his first term revenues rose by more than 25 per cent. Davis's response to this windfall was to raise spending by more than 36 per cent. This fact totally destroys Eccleston's ideologically motivated insinuation that Davis is not guilty of fiscal incompetence.
Another fact ignored by Eccleston is that Davis's deficit exceeded the sum of the deficits of the remaining 49 states. Moreover, at one stage Davis enjoyed a $12 billion surplus — something else that Eccleston neglected to mention.
Now let's look at the real facts. The ones that Eccleston refused to report. The GOP got 61 per cent of the vote. That's right, 61 per cent. (A vital fact that our media spiked). And yet the ideological likes of Eccleston seriously assert that the vote was a dire warning for president Bush. Only stupidity or bigotry can account for such a conclusion.
In addition, the GOP garnered 23 per cent of the black vote and 41 per cent of the Hispanic vote. These are frightening figures for the Dems that Eccleston completely ignored. Now why did he do that, I wonder?
The California results highlighted the little-talked about trend to the GOP that is occurring throughout the country. This trend indicates that a political shift is taking place that will, if not checked, shortly give the GOP a built in majority. I do not consider it a mystery that Australian correspondents have ignored this process.
I think it's now pretty clear that the political bigotry of the media is so deeply ingrained that its Pavlovian response to Schwarzenegger's victory was to immediately spin it into bad news for President Bush.
Eccleston's treatment of the California election was an outstanding piece of objective reporting compared with the dishonest treatment he dishes out to President Bush.
In Claims damage US case for war, 30 September, Bush aide faces inquiry on CIA leak, 1 October, and Jobs growth shines through for Bush, 16 October, Eccleston falsely claimed that Bush had stated in his SOTU speech that Saddam had tried to buy uranium from Niger. Eccleston has yet to apologise or be reprimanded for this brazen lie.
Eccleston's style of reporting only provides us with more evidence on why the media is not to be trusted.
Another example of Eccleston's ideological bigotry:
Four weeks after Eccleston's silly comment about Schwarzenegger's victory being a warning for Bush, The GOP defeated the Democratic governors of Kentucky and Mississippi
Gerard Jackson is also Brookes' Economics Editor
BrookesNews.Com
Monday 27 October 2003
Murdoch's rag lies about the CIA and Bush