January 26, 2005

Liberal Bias or Alzheimer's?

Conservatives and Republicans love to rant about the supposed "liberal bias" in America media. I think it's the opposite -- that the right has so intimidated journalists that they afraid to do real reporting and point out the obvious.

Take today's story in the Washington Post about the President's new budget, which includes a record $427 billion deficit. A big part of that is another $80 billion for the Iraq war, bringing the total from 2003-2005 to $277 billion. "That $80 billion would come on top of $25 billion already appropriated for the war this year, pushing the total cost of fighting to $105 billion, up from $88 billion in 2004 and $78.6 billion in 2003." Record '05 Deficit Forecast.

That's not so bad. What is astounding, however, is that nowhere in the news story or the commentary does the Post point out that in the 2004 election debates, Bush-Cheney excoriated the Kerry-Edwards ticket for saying that the war would cost "$200 million." VP Cheney roundly chastized Edwards on October 5, 2004:

EDWARDS: And we see the result of there not being a coalition: The first Gulf war cost America $5 billion. We're at $200 billion and counting.

CHENEY: Well, Gwen . . . [w]ith respect to the cost, it wasn't $200 billion. You probably weren't there to vote for that. But $120 billion is, in fact, what has been allocated to Iraq. The rest of it's for Afghanistan and the global war on terror. . . . So your facts are just wrong, Senator.

Same thing in the last (October 13) presidential debate.

KERRY: The fact is that he did not choose to go to war as a last result. And America now is paying, already $120 billion, up to $200 billion before we're finished and much more probably. And that is the result of this president taking his eye off of Osama bin Laden.

Well, the facts were NOT wrong. The United States spent $166.6 billion on the Iraq war in '03-'04 and is spending another $125 billion this year. That's way more than $200 billion, but no one in the "liberal" media has the cohones or gray matter to point it out. They're not biased liberals, they're forgetful cowards.

 Posted by glenn

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