NEWSWEEK'S DERELICTION OF DUTY

New York Post ^ | 11/06/04

[kattracks]

What did Newsweek know — and when did the magazine know it?

Barely 24 hours after the polls closed Tuesday, the newsweekly came out with its special election edition, chock-full of fascinating behind-the-scenes tidbits culled by a team of reporters during the lengthy campaign.

Included with all the little anecdotes (Teresa Heinz Kerry is a royal pain — duh!) was at least one major political bombshell.

After clinching the Democratic nomination, Newsweek reports, John Kerry was so desperate to enlist GOP Sen. John McCain as his running mate that he made an "outlandish" offer: He'd expand the role of vice president to include the duties of secretary of Defense.

Moreover, Kerry — seeking the presidency in a time of grave international danger — promised to put McCain in charge of all U.S. foreign policy should they win.

[snip]

Faustian doesn't begin to describe the rank ambition behind this proposed bargain: Kerry simply had no soul to sell in the first place.

Truly, America dodged a bullet this past Tuesday.

[snip]

Voters had a right to know about the depths to which John Kerry was willing to sink in order to win the Oval Office.

And they had a right to know it before they voted, not after.

Keeping the public informed is what journalism used to be about.

Not anymore; not at Newsweek.

[clee1]

No anymore, in any of the MSM.

[My2Cents]

We've known for some time that the news media does not report the news -- the exude an agenda.

[JennysCool]

Even worse, stories like this would never have been reported had Kerry won.

[what's up]

The truth about Kerry's proposal to McCain would have caused Kerry to drop like a rock in the polls. This is why Newsweak did not report it. They wanted a horse race.

[cgk]

LOL. I guess I'm twisted. This is EXACTLY the kind of thing I'd expect them to publish the morning after Kerry had won... to rub it in our faces just who we elected.

[MplsSteve]

You are correct about the depths that Kerry would lower himself in order to win the Presidency.

But as Evan Thomas pointed out at the start of his article, Newsweek promised BOTH Kerry and Bush that none of the notes they took (during the span of the election) would be posted until after Election Day.

To Newsweek's rare credit, they upheld their end of the bargain.

Anyway, I believe that the Bush-Cheney campaign knew about the offer to McCain but didn't figure they could gain any political traction and chose not to use it.

[CWOJackson]

They would have done the same thing had President Bush lost; immediately publish a behind the scenes look at how he and his staff prayed, cared about people, were respectful...all those disgusting conservative things.

[stopillegalimmigration]

These things are minor compared to MSM's giving credence to al-qaqa story to help kerry, while playing down OBL tape to protect kerry.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Not at all surprising that Newspeak kept all this under wraps until after the election after we heard their editor Evan Thomas say months ago that the media wanted Kerry to win and were going to try to get him an extra fifteen points in the polls with their coverage - apparently they followed through on their plan, since recent studies show that stories on Kerry were about seventy-five percent positive while coverage of Bush was only about thirty percent positive - the big question now is, who will believe a word the magazine and the likes of Thomas tell us in the future (and why should we even buy their rag at all).......

[Miss Behave]

I strongly feel that if Rice Butt had been elected, this whole expose' would have been SCUTTLED. STAT.

[Alberta's Child]

Even if we assume that the agreement that was in place between Newsweek and the two campaigns was not in place, the basic premise of this article is absolutely wrong -- for a reason that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere. If Newsweek magazine had an obligation to inform the public about John Kerry's outlandish offer to John McCain, then John McCain himself had an even greater obligation to report this -- since it serves as strong evidence that Mr. Kerry is something of a loony-tune and therefore had no business running for a position as sensitive as the President of the United States.

[GeronL]

It will be amazing if the Old Media have any credibility with the masses after all this

[GeronL]

They had a book planned about it, NEWSWEEK, Evan Thomas. They planned to rub it in.

[GeronL]

bump

[AZLiberty]

We've known for some time that the news media does not report the news -- they exude an agenda.

You're too kind. I'd have to say they excrete an agenda.

[Ophiucus]

If Newsweek magazine had an obligation to inform the public about John Kerry's outlandish offer to John McCain, then John McCain himself had an even greater obligation to report this -- since it serves as strong evidence that Mr. Kerry is something of a loony-tune and therefore had no business running for a position as sensitive as the President of the United States.

I can agree that McInsane had an obligation to be forthcoming if such an offer was made but given the fact that he is more of a "looney-tune" than lowlife Kerry combined the fact that he has all the scruples of a DemoRat, there is no way that McInsane would do the right thing.

[Allegra]

It was disgusting the watch the media creating scenarios prior to the election. They manipulated polls, didn't even attempt to hide their blatant agenda favoring Kerry and started talking about lawyers and courts weeks before the election was held.

It must be quite disheartening for them to have gone to all of that trouble and we were still able to see though their smoke and mirrors. they were unable to get their candidate elected.

The media does not have quite the power it thought it did.

[been_lurking]

Rice Butt

I'm still laughing. Thanks.

[elizabetty]

This is EXACTLY what I was thinking! Shame on them.