Greg Sargent at TPM Cafe has a great analysis of a CNN story on Rudy Giuliani’s anti-terrorism cred. On one hand, Sargent is pleased that the MSM is finally starting to investigate the holes in Giuliani’s so-called heroism on 9/11 (what Sargent calls “successful municipal crisis management” at best.)
The CNN report cites Dominic Carter, Sr. Producer for NY1 who criticizes Rudy on three main points:
- terrorism wasn’t even on Giuliani’s radar for most of his tenure as mayor
- Giuliani made the decision to house the emergency command center 1 block away from the World Trade Center. As CNN puts it: “Too close to a previous terrorist target without any backup site, according to the 9/11 Commission report. During the 9/11 attack, the command center was destroyed.”
- There was no compatability between police and fire department radios. CNN again cites 9/11 commission report: “the response operations lacked the kind of integrated communications and unified command contemplated in the directive.”
But Sargent notes that the ultimate message the piece sends is that Giuliani is the best man to keep us safe from terrorism. CNN totally buys into the entire premise of Giuliani’s candidacy by referring to him as “tough-talking” and casting Giuliani as the savior not only of the 9/11 attacks but of the 1993 attack as well:
he’s been through it twice. During the 1993 and 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.
Giuliani wasn’t yet mayor in 1993.
And then there’s the words CNN flashes on the screen during the report:
Giuliani’s War On Terror
So much for subtlety.
This is what passes for “balance” these days — if the truth is critical of a Republican, throw in some made up shit to balance it out. There’s no context here, it’s merely myth-building. As Sargent says,
It has nothing to do with having actual national security experience, which Rudy is trying to create the illusion of having in arguing that he’s the candidate who can best be trusted to fight global terrorism.
Until the media begins making this fundamental point…it’s basically ceding the key rhetorical turf to Rudy at the outset. Merely flashing the words “Giuliani’s war on terror” on the screen is handing Rudy a victory. That’s all there is to it.
2 Responses to “CNN: “Giuliani’s War On Terror””
Ask and you shall receive.
The New York Times ran a front-page story about Bill and Hillary’s marriage.
If you have access beyond the Times‘ firewall, please let me know if you can confirm that they contacted Chelsea at her New York office. I cannot be sure of that but for some reason, I think they did.
Something to say?
balance? you mean the kind of new york times balance, the kind that calls up the mayor’s kids and trys to dig up dirt on his divorce. when the new york times calls chelsey clinton and asks her about her fathers affairs, then, and only then, you can talk about bias and balance. rudy is the most negatively covered candidate in the race, due to the liberal medias desire to have a democrat win, and rudy being the biggest threat to that goal.
Left by matt
June 12, 2007 at 10:42pm