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The item below from Bloomberg is the kind of report that is not uncommon and contributes to the opinion that the MSM injects excessive bias while draping vague facts to appear balanced and objective. The subject of the piece is of course Iraq. And the specific topic is the current operation called the ’surge.’ Broadcast accounts of the surge never seem to offer any reports on the positive effects of the surge without emphasizing the negative aspects. While the same cannot be said of other coverage because it only focuses on negative aspects of war to support the MSM opposition to victory. Print media is no different.

Those in Congress and the MSM who have constantly opposed victory in Iraq refuse to express any legitimate support for actions that may prove successful. Their continued slant toward failure is nothing more than an attempt to generate a self-fulfilling prophecy. Oppose victory and downplay all positive results to aid the enemy to avoid the positive outcome for as long as it takes to secure a political advantage at the expense of troops and civilians in harm’s way.

One or two line quotes in the piece from Bloomberg raise a question of editing to achieve the desire effect. While no unethical practices are suggested, a search for the full interviews mentioned was tedious and not successful. Does the author expect the reader to accept information at face value? In addition, the first quote is merely two words while the quote that follows and obviously supports the conclusion the author wants to draw is a full sentence. Yet the quotes were not found at any other source after a brief search.

However, from July 24th an excerpt from a Pajamas Media interview of Romney was found. Of Iraq, Romney says that “at this stage the right course is the troop surge. No one has put forward a Plan B that is superior to that one.” It is offered as an example of how to quote and reinforces the idea that there is no significant change in Romney’s position on the surge.

And the quotes the author offers from the Romney camp are equally suspect even accepting what is given in the article. It would be more correct to say that Romney’s staff is expressing political reality and suggesting the candidate is allowing for other options. The author suggests through the entire piece that support for victory in Iraq is diminishing among GOP Presidential candidates except for McCain.

In the fourth paragraph from the piece is another subtle distinction. The first sentence is attributed to Tom Rath, a senior adviser, but not in quotes while the next sentence is. This may suggest taking separate conversations out of context and putting them together to make the desired point. This would be a suggestion of unethical reporting. Or at the very least, errors in providing the information.

After the excerpt from Bloomberg is a link to the current Romney video on the topic within the associated press release. There is no evidence of any waining support for victory in Iraq or lack of support for the surge.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

Romney, Giuliani Change Their Tone on Bush’s Iraq Troop Buildup
By Heidi Przybyla

Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) — For Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, the difference between “real'’ and “reasonable'’ is the distance he’s traveled on President George W. Bush’s Iraq war policy.

In April, Romney said Bush’s plan to rush more than 150,000 additional troops to Iraq had a “real chance'’ of succeeding. On July 26, he was more equivocal, saying in an interview: “I don’t give that a high probability, I give it a reasonable probability.'’

With pessimism growing about the ability of a troop injection to overcome Iraq’s sectarian violence, Romney, 60, and other Republicans who embraced the plan are gingerly laying the groundwork for a possible shift away from White House appeals to stay the course.

Romney, who isn’t noted for jabs at Bush, is simply preparing for a call for a post-surge strategy, said Tom Rath, a senior adviser. “That cannot be viewed as a sign of disloyalty or disrespect, but rather an inevitability in the political process.'’ The issue, Rath said, “is how far any candidate should go in separating from the president.'’

The Romney Vision: Gov. Mitt Romney: Surge Of Support At Home

Tuesday, Jul 31, 2007

“We don’t just need a surge on the ground in Iraq – we need a surge of support for our troops as well. Democrats say they support the troops, but many don’t support the work they are doing to make the surge successful. Representative Clyburn, the third-highest ranking House Democrat, said it would be a ‘real big problem’ for Democrats if progress is made in Iraq. That’s not a problem but good news for all Americans.”
– Gov. Mitt Romney

THE ROMNEY VISION: LEADERSHIP SURGE NEEDED TO DEFEAT RADICAL ISLAM GLOBALLY

Gov. Romney Blasted Rep. Clyburn’s Recent Comments That Good News In Iraq Was Trouble For Democrats. ROMNEY: “We don’t just need a surge on the ground in Iraq – we need a surge of support for our troops as well. Democrats say they support the troops, but many don’t support the work they are doing to make the surge successful. Representative Clyburn, the third-highest ranking House Democrat, said it would be a ‘real big problem’ for Democrats if progress is made in Iraq. That’s not a problem but good news for all Americans.” (Gov. Mitt Romney, 7/31/07)

Gov. Romney Calls Defeatist Talk Of Some Democrats “Inexcusable.” “Romney said it was ‘inexcusable’ for Democrats and others to publicly claim that this nation has lost the war in Iraq while troops remain in that country.” (Robynn Tysver, “Romney: Give Iraq War Plan More Time,” Omaha World-Herald, 7/28/07)

Gov. Romney: Give The New Iraq War Plan Enough Time To Work. ROMNEY: “Let’s give General Petraeus and Prime Minister Maliki enough time to see if it is working. If it’s working, great. We’ll be able to bring home our troops soon. If it’s not working, we’ll consider the problem at that point.” (Robynn Tysver, “Romney: Give Iraq War Plan More Time,” Omaha World-Herald, 7/28/07)

Gov. Romney Stresses The Importance Of Winning In Iraq And Defeating Radical Islam Globally. ROMNEY: “The congressional debate in Washington has largely, and myopically, focused on whether troops should be redeployed from Iraq to Afghanistan, as if these were isolated issues. Yet the jihad is much broader than any one nation, or even several nations. … The jihadist threat is the defining challenge of our generation and is symptomatic of a range of new global realities.” (Gov. Mitt Romney, “Rising To A New Generation Of Global Challenges,” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2007)

Gov. Romney Warns That Radical Islamists Want To End “Civilization As We Know It.” “The former Massachusetts governor has been one of President Bush’s staunchest supporters of the war. He routinely talks about the threat of radical Islamists and, he says, their desire to install an Islamic regime around the world. “They want to cause the collapse, the collapse of civilization as we know it,” he said.” (Robynn Tysver, “Romney: Give Iraq War Plan More Time,” Omaha World-Herald, 7/28/07)

THE DEMOCRATS: ‘A REAL BIG PROBLEM’ WITH SUCCESS IN IRAQ

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) Said A Positive Iraq Report From Gen. Petraeus In September Would Prevent The Democrats From Declaring Defeat. “[Clyburn] said Monday that a strongly positive report on progress on Iraq by Army Gen. David Petraeus likely would split Democrats in the House and impede his party’s efforts to press for a timetable to end the war. … Clyburn noted that Petraeus carries significant weight among the 47 members of the Blue Dog caucus in the House, a group of moderate to conservative Democrats. Without their support, he said, Democratic leaders would find it virtually impossible to pass legislation setting a timetable for withdrawal.” (Dan Balz and Chris Cillizza, “Clyburn: Positive Report by Petraeus Could Split House Democrats on War,” The Washington Post, 7/30/07)

Rep. Clyburn: A Positive Report On Iraq Would Be “A Real Big Problem For Us.” “‘I think there would be enough support in that group to want to stay the course and if the Republicans were to stay united as they have been, then it would be a problem for us,’ Clyburn said. ‘We, by and large, would be wise to wait on the report.’ … Many Democrats have anticipated that, at best, Petraeus and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker would present a mixed analysis of the success of the current troop surge strategy, given continued violence in Baghdad. But of late there have been signs that the commander of U.S. forces might be preparing something more generally positive. Clyburn said that would be ‘ a real big problem for us.’” (Dan Balz and Chris Cillizza, “Clyburn: Positive Report by Petraeus Could Split House Democrats on War,” The Washington Post, 7/30/07)

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) Claimed The U.S. Has Already Lost In Afghanistan To Al Qaeda And Bin Laden. SEN. HILLARY CLINTON: “We’ve got to figure out what we’re doing in Iraq, where our troops are stretched thin, and Afghanistan, where we?re losing the fight to al Qaeda and bin Laden.” (CNN/YouTube, Democrat Presidential Candidate Debate, Charleston, SC, 7/23/07)

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) Proclaimed That The “War Is Lost” Before The Surge Was Even Fully Implemented. “Senate majority leader Harry Reid said yesterday that the war in Iraq is ‘lost,’ triggering an angry backlash from Republicans who said the top Democrat had turned his back on the troops. … ‘I believe myself that the secretary of state, secretary of defense, and ? you have to make your own decisions as to what the president knows ? [know] this war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday,’ said Reid, a Nevada Democrat.” (Anne Flaherty, “Reid Says War Is ‘Lost,’ Drawing GOP Rebuke,” The Associated Press, 4/20/07)

This entry was posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 2:23 pm and is filed under Public Affairs, Bush, Terrorism, Iraq, war, wordpress, Politics, campaign, election, McCain, News Media, United States, romney, Military, giuliani. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.