Monday, August 16, 2004

Blatant Media Bias In Ann Arbor--Why Am I So Shocked??

I am just furious. I can't believe what I'm seeing in today's Ann Arbor News. I don't know why I expect anything different from this blatant liberal piece of garbage. Let me give you the rundown:

Front Page:
Article about local "fallen soldier" funeral with large picture of mother weeping.
Article: "Protesters find FBI on their doorsteps" - a touching article on how the evil FBI is targeting groups in Ann Arbor planning protests in NYC at the Republican Convention.
Page 3 - entire page about about an Iraqi girl who was injured in US shelling who was flown to America for rehab. Pictures of her crying.
Page 4 - An article "Militants asked to leave shrine" BUT with a picture of a US soldier crying over his fallen comrades in Najaf.
And, an article on "Palestinian Prisoners refuse food as Protest"- describing how bad the conditions are in a Jerusalem prison. Oh, and they quote some Cabinet minister (unnamed) who comments that he wouldn't care if they starved to death.

Had enough? Well, we're not done yet:
Page 5- Article - "Young voters abandoning Bush's Ranks: Strong turnout by 18-29 year olds could give Kerry presidency"
Page 6 - The Opinion Page
Lead op-ed- "Bush's chances hing on economic progress-news about falling incomes won't help"
Editorial Cartoon: Bush sitting with a fake halo over his head with posters of "excuses" (ex. "9-11 is to Blame" and "Blame the U.N." and "Clinton's Fault") with bush saying "I stand for people taking responisbiity for their own actions."

And in the Entertainment Section:
"Arab world reacts strongly to Fahrenheit 9/11- moviegoers wish they had their own Michael Moore" (I wonder if we can give them ours?)
And another article on the same page: "No apology for use of headline in film" detailing how Mr. Moore is standing firm on his artistic rights to change a headline from an Illinois newspaper to suit his purposes in his film.
Oh, yes--an article on the "West Wing" and how it will be reflecting the current political situation in the coming weeks as President Bartlett "is coming to the end of his term".

I suppose I should be grateful that the "Local" section didn't have anything in particular today. Usually it is full of sweet pieces about how tough it is to live in this economy; and heroic protesters against the administration, etc. etc.etc. Nary a word about Kerry, I should mention. Or even about the unraveling of the Cambodia lies. So, the only interesting fact is that the paper (at least today) isn't "Pro" Kerry--its simply "Anti" Bush. It is an afternoon edition and you'd think there might be some mention of Bush's address to the VFW this morning, where he stated he will be withdrawing troops from Europe and Asia. Obviously, redeployment of our troops around the world is not important.

Any one of these article would have been appropriate. But the cumulative effect of an article or two on almost every page is clearly based on an editorial decision to slam Bush. It's hard to imagine that this paper could be any more biased than it currently is. But calling it a "News" paper is really giving it far more credit than it deserves. What a disgusting, blatant, propaganda-ridden rag. Absolutely outrageous.

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