Is it true?
Is it true that none of the major broadcast networks carried the Democratic response to the President's national address? They have their licenses from the FCC on the condition that they serve the public interest. It is generally and widely understood that such interest includes presenting to Americans the other side of any question that deserves national broadcast, for free, of the President's views.
I realize that lots of people watch cable instead of broadcast and indeed few in the Internet sphere pay much attention to broadcast. But it is still the medium that decides elections. Those who fear the bias of the MSM should be put on notice that Democrats may have a difficult time getting a fair hearing in 08.
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Comments (7)
According to Media Matters, all of the networks aired the Democratic response.
September 14, 2007 7:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually according to MediaMatters only Fox didn't air the Democrat response on "broadcast" television.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200709140002?f=h_top
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Summary: Following President Bush's address to the nation on Iraq, Fox was the only broadcast network not to air the Democratic response. Instead, Shepard Smith gave a short description of the response and stated: "Our coverage continues on the Fox News Channel on cable and satellite with the Democratic response and more. Right now, back to your local Fox programming." ABC, NBC, and CBS all aired the Democratic response.
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September 14, 2007 7:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I figured that with all this interest the Dem response must have amounted to something. So I went and read it. There was a lot of verbage but the meat was here:
"We have put forth a plan to responsibly and rapidly begin a reduction of our troops. Our proposal cannot erase the mistakes of the last four and a half years, but we can chart a better way forward."
Now, being unfamiliar with this Dem plan, I went searching. First I went to the Dem site:
http://www.democrats.org/
Nothing there. No plan.
And then I went to the Dem senate site:
http://democrats.senate.gov/
Nothing there either.
While I saw a lot of negative stuff about the Repubs and Petraeus, and a lot of other fluff, I never found a plan. Has anyone found the Dem plan for ending the war in Iraq?
September 14, 2007 8:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah I found the plan. Its called "wait and see".
September 14, 2007 10:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I saw it on ABC.
September 15, 2007 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hope it's not rude, but my reaction to the post ("Is it true?") was that this kind of laziness isn't up to site standards. It's nice that Reed still cares about balance in the media with his background, even if he didn't watch TV that night, but he still has to shoot higher.
John
http://www.haberarts.com/
September 16, 2007 7:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Seems to me Mr. Hunt didn't want to single out Fox, for obvious reasons.
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September 16, 2007 7:29 AM | Reply | Permalink