Posted on 10/26/2004 10:50:42 PM PDT by CyberAnt
The New York Times and CBS News have been caught attempting to influence the outcome of the Presidential election by the nature and the timing of a story out of Iraq. At a minimum, the story was to be disturbing. At a maximum it was timed to be devastating to the campaign of President Bush.
Briefly, the New York Times ran a story about a gillion tons of high explosives having disappeared from a storage facility in Iraq. The piece indicated it had been stolen sometime after the coalition forces had taken control of Iraq which John Kerry jumped on as "proof" of the President's mis-handling of Iraq.
Unfortunately for the Times and Kerry, NBC reminded everyone that it had an embedded reporter who had said there was "no sign of the missing HMX and RDX explosives."
According to the MSNBC website, "Reporter Lai Ling Jew, who was embedded with the Army's 101st Airborne, Second Brigade, said Tuesday on MSNBC TV that the news team stayed at the Al-Qaqaa base for about 24 hours."
That's not all. CBS - the network of Dan Rather and Joe Lockhart - had planned to hold the story until this coming Sunday night when they were to have released this blockbuster news 48 hours before the election.
According to a statement reported in the Los Angeles Times, 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager said, "our plan was to run the story on October 31, but it became clear that it wouldn't hold..."
Drat. I hate when you have a great plot and it gets hatched before you're ready.
CBS is now oh-for-two in unsuccessfully attempting to unfairly influence this election campaign against President Bush.
The Sunday 60 Minutes crew, remember, loudly protested that they would never have fallen for those forged documents the way the mid-week 60 Minutes goofballs did. No sireebob. The Sunday 60 Minutes geniuses, however, fell like a drunk in a barrel over Niagara Falls for repackaging this story which was first broadcast in APRIL 2003.
The howls of protest against Sinclair Broadcasting over whether they were unfairly attempting to harm Senator Kerry are - surprise! - not being reprised against CBS.
Here's what we should do: Boycott CBS.
You can't make much headway boycotting a network. But you can make a big dent boycotting a network's local affiliate.
So, let's do that. Boycott your local CBS affiliate. Here are some action steps:
1. Do not watch any local programming on your local CBS affiliate. This is most likely to be the local news. The CBS, ABC, and Fox affiliates are using just about the same weather information; they're using the same traffic information; and they are watching the same local sporting events.
2. Call or write the general manager of your local CBS affiliate and tell him or her that you are taking this action to protest the network's shocking behavior regarding this campaign.
3. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper to inform your neighbors that you are taking this action in defense of a fair and impartial media.
4. Call your local radio station and tell them you are doing this.
5. If you do (3) and (4) the other network affiliates will get the joke and will probably help make the CBS affiliate feel uncomfortable. They might even help out by contacting the CBS affiliate's sponsors and suggesting they move their advertising money away from the CBS station because of the alarming drop in viewership.
6. Send this to every person in your contacts list and ask them to do the same things - same letters, same phone calls, same forwarding.
7. If you come up with some other ideas - legal ideas - send them to me and I'll pass them along.
Boycotting the New York Times is not a bad idea either, but I suspect there are not many of you are getting the New York Times delivered to their doorstep to start with.
On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to the NY Times story and a link to the Los Angeles Times' reporting on the CBS involvement; a nice Mullfoto, a typical Kerry Katchy Kaption of the Day, and an explanation of those MTV awards.
If you don't know how to contact your local CBS affiliate, go to the CBS website and they should have a link to find your local station.
Also .. you can email or call all your local radio stations and announce your intention to boycott CBS "to protest the network's shocking behavior regarding the Presidential campaign". Demand a fair press.
Send them this article which they wrote on April 4, 2003 which debunks their current hit piece. Find it here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/04/iraq/main547667.shtml
Send it not only to the affiliates but to all media.. Rush, Hannity, Fox, CNN, MSNBC...
Come on FReepers! Let's DO THIS!!
Do you realize that if you have cable, they track what you are watching. You don't need the Neilson boxes any more, so don't cheat.
Yeah, that's how they figure out what each station's ratings are .. and the ratings determine how much a station can charge for advertising.
I believe I have been Boycotting CBS Prime Time programming for about the last decade. Then again that is basically the result of the junk on CBS
Admittedly, I do watch some Golf and Football on CBS. Not sure i can give those up
I want to go after the true heart of the Liberal Establishment. My question is what can we do to go after the Times. They are the true evil. CBS is juts a wannabee Evil
That is awesome .. thanks!!
Not to worry. Haven't watched CBS since 1981.
Well .. I think Rich is saying we need to boycott not only their news - but THE WHOLE NETWORK.
This is personally a drag for me, because I love the CSI series, along with NCIS, Crossing Jordan, etc.
However, I am angry enough to give them up if it will cause some REAL CHANGE TO OCCUR. Dan Rather needs to be removed - CBS needs to revamp it's whole thinking process about news gathering and reporting.
It has been 5 years since I watched CBS. I have never liked Dan Blather. My dislike for him has been validated in the past few months.
Can anyone find a list of Advertisers who do business with SeeBS? a Fax and Email campaign just might turn up the heat a little. (especially faxes)
Buy a NYT paper and start some negative communicating with their advertisers.
Or .. buy a Washington Times or NY Post and start some POSITIVE communicating with their advertisers.
Remember .. these people in journalism are a community .. they talk to each other, just like TV news people.
Divest of all Viacom stock (and funds that may have Viacom stock).
Inform advertisers on the CBS evening news and 60 minutes that you will boycott their products if Dan Ratherbiased is not fired this year.
Draw a line in the sand.
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