Giuliani's war on the facts
Posted at 11:37 AM on January 8, 2010
by Bob Collins
(14 Comments)
Filed under: Politics
How does the man who was mayor of New York on September 11, 2001 forget September 11, 2001?
Rudy Giuliani was on ABC's Good Morning America this morning when he compared the war-on-terror records of George Bush and Barack Obama, noting there's been one terrorist attack on Obama's watch.
"What he [Obama] should be doing is following the right things that Bush did -- one of the right things he did was treat this as a war on terror. We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We've had one under Obama," Giuliani said.
Another question worth considering. How does a news interviewer not call Guiliani on his statement?
Comments (14)
The answer to the first question: Because Guiliani is still little more than an opportunist trying to cash in on 9/11 (financially and politically), therefore the truth does not matter to him or his handlers, only the message they've been sent to tell.
The answer to the second question: Because this "news interviewer" is NOT a "news interviewer." He is a haircut with experience in politics, but a journalist his is not. Which is part of the problem with main stream media - far too much of it is either biased in favor of corporate interests or staffed with incompetents with nice hair or connections (actually, that kind of describes the U.S. Congress, doesn't it?).
Perhaps when he said "domestic" he meant that an attack hasn't originated in the U.S., like the Oklahoma City bombing.
Well, the underpants bomber didn't originate in the U.S., either.
I don't know how the reporter failed to call him on it, but they need to be taken to the wood shed on air over their gynormous lapse. I'm thankful you monitor these thing, Bob, myself I can't stand TV network news at all anymore. If they don't make a major point of this on-air this idea will continue to gain traction just like most Americans were lead to believe that Iraq had something to do with 9/11. No terrorist attacks under Bush? We can't let the "Bin laden determined to attack in US" memo that went across Dr. Rice's desk during the Bush administration fade from public awareness.
Is everyone forgetting Richard Reid, the shoe bomber? He tried to detonate on a plane as well. Then there was also Anthrax. The collective memory is always so short.
@Tyler - If that's the case, then he left out the 2001 anthrax bioterrorism that killed 5 people.
Rumor has it that Larry King didn't let Rudy get away with it. (Somebody needs to confirm that -- I haven't got it on tape.)
Scary to think that Larry King is therefore one of the few remaining examples of actual journalists working on the boob tube. (Not a knock on Larry, but on his peers...)
Wow... simply wow...
Don't forget the shooting at the El-Al counter at LAX a few years back; as well as the DC "sniper" shootings.
The underpinning of all of this is the connection of the timing of an incident to the president in power. The possibility is that the timing of terrorism has nothing to do with who's in the Oval Office but has more to do with people like the guy at the airport in Newark who decided to leave his post, of the guy in Rome New York on 9/11 who said, "there's nobody in the room" when aviation authorities called to try to get some military help.
I wonder if the exploiting of flaws in the system have more to do with those people?
I have to wonder what the purpose was of having him on GMA in the first place. He's little more than a partisan hack when it comes to talking politics, and his claim to fame is being mayor of a city targetted by terrorists. Why is what he says perceived to be relevant?
Having said that, the morning shows are atrocious. I was off last week & turned them on one morning while breakfasting. It was uninformative, brain jellifying garbage.
\\How does a news interviewer not call Guiliani on his statement?
This became part of the playbook a decade ago. Lie often enough and with conviction until enough people believe it is the truth. How many major lies have gained traction this way in the past decade.
It seems to be easy to get away with when talking to a media 'personality', not so easy with an actual journalist. The mainstream media outlets have few journalists left, but plenty of personalities. Any discussion around the decline of journalism should tackle that issue first.
I guess I don't understand why anyone is surprised by any of this. The Mayor of 9/11 is a political hack who, by all rights, should be sitting in a prison cell and not working the talk circuit.
He put NYC's emergency response center in the World Trade Center because it was a more convenient location for meeting his lover (who later became his wife after he dumped the woman he was married to at the time).
His handpicked Police Commissioner pled guilty to 8 counts of conspiracy, mail fraud and lying to the IRS.
Stephanopoulos has since admitted error in not calling Giuliani out on his monstrous lie, but his admission failed to note the other terrorists attacks on the USA while Bush-Cheney were in charge (anthrax, shoe bomber, etc.).
But it's not just Giuliani. Dana Perino said much the same thing on another show, and Mary Matalin has tried to excuse 9/11 as not being Bush's fault.
Republicans are deliberately spreading disinformation and if the media won't call them on it when they're out of power, what hope is there for our republic?
"there's been one terrorist attack on Obama's watch." Why does he look so happy?
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