Kerry’s “fall” on the slopes – yet another example of liberal media bias.
Robert Moran writing for the National Review today brings up some interesting points regarding John Kerry’s little “fall” on the ski slopes earlier this week and the coverage (or lack thereof) that it has recieved from the ‘mainstream’ media:
It was September 19, 1996. I woke early, hurriedly dressed for a long day at the office during campaign season, walked out the front door of our townhouse, opened the Washington Post and beheld a vast, above-the-fold, picture of Bob Dole falling off a stage at a campaign rally in a Little League field in Chico, California. It was so patently wrong, so unfair, so mean-spirited, so petty that anger, pity and sadness all fought inside me for equal time. I was not alone.
Washington Post executive Leonard Downie Jr. received more than 150 irate calls that day. His response at the time was that if Bill Clinton had fallen off a stage somewhere, there was “no doubt” the Post would have run the picture.*snip*
It is now March 20, 2004. It is one day after John F. Kerry had a spill on the ski slopes and cussed out one of the secret-service agents duty-bound to protect him.
I woke early, walked out the front door of our home, opened the Washington Post and was greeted with a full color, above-the-fold, picture of children injured in the fighting against terrorists in Pakistan. But, I was not greeted with a picture of a falling John Kerry. I was greeted by a ridiculous non-story about a Bush-Cheney 2004 sweatshirt made in Burma. But, I was not greeted with a picture of a falling John Kerry. I was greeted by a full color “gallery of soldiers who died in Iraq” on pages A14-15. But, there was no picture of Kerry’s spill.
In 1996, the Los Angeles Times wrote that Dole’s fall was a “visual metaphor for a presidential bid that has stumbled.” Given Kerry’s week, couldn’t the same thing be said of Kerry’s campaign? *snip article*
Lovely, eh?
I should note that the NY Times article that briefly mentioned this stated that Kerry used the expletive about the Secret Service agent to a reporter – thus Moran’s bit above about the agent being “cussed out” by Kerry isn’t accurate. However, that doesn’t detract from the point regarding the double standard we are seeing yet again regarding the coverage a Democratic candidate gets versus what a Republican candidate would. I also remember those shots of the President falling off the Segway splashed on a few news sites.
Surpised? No. Amazed? Oh yes.