[NYTr] Media & Impeachment: Not for Discussion, Only for Derision
 
Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2007 17:34:06 -0500 (CDT)


Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
FAIR Extra! Jul/Aug, 2007
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3149

Media and Impeachment

Not for discussion, only for derision

By Cynthia Cooper

Ocean Beach in San Francisco was abuzz with 1,500 people who showed up
to spell out a giant bImpeach Nowb with their bodies on April 28, all
in the home district of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Pelosi made a splash prior to the November 2006 election by saying that
a Bush impeachment was boff the tableb (Washington Post, 5/12/06).
Several scandals laterbthe Libby conviction, failing Iraq bsurge,b U.S.
Attorneysb purge and missing White House e-mailsbpeople across the
nation served up their own impeachment proposals.

But bimpeachb is barely in the lexicon of major national media; on the
rare occasion itbs deployed, itbs generally accompanied by derision,
dismissal and denial.

Commentators expressed shock when Rosie ObDonnell dared to mention
impeachment on the View (3/29/07), asking: bWhat do you have to do to
get impeached in this country? What do you have to do?b She might have
added: What do you have to do to get impeachment discussed by the news
media?

ObDonnell is not alone in her interest in impeachment. Thirty-nine
percent of people favor impeaching the president, reported columnist
and pollster Matt Towery in the conservative Townhall. com (5/8/07).
InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion found only 55 percent in opposition,
and the bbiggest newsbb42 percent of independents favor impeachment.
Former Rep. Bob Barr (R.-Ga.) told Townhall that he and other leaders
of the Clinton impeachment had never experienced polling numbers so
favorable.

On the weekend of April 28, impeachment rallies raised the issue in 125
locations, including Seattle, Minneapolis, Boston, Honolulu and
Memphis. On April 20, the Vermont Senate passed 16b9 a nonbinding
resolution supporting impeachment proceedings. On March 1, the
Washington State Senate held hearings on SJM 8016, which would be a
formal request for an investigation of the sort states are allowed to
make under the House of Representativesb impeachment procedures. Scores
of towns and cities passed resolutions, which, if nonbinding,
demonstrate public hunger.

A bred stateb mayor, Rocky Anderson of Salt Lake City, crisscrossed the
country, calling for impeachment. He explained on the Situation Room
(CNN, 3/19/07):

This president, by engaging in such incredible abuses of power,
breaches of trust with both the Congress and the American people, and
misleading us into this tragic and unbelievable war, the violation of
treaties, other international law, our constitution, our own domestic
laws, and then his role in heinous human rights abuses: I think all of
that together calls for impeachment.

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R. Neb.), a powerful member of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, said bthere are ways to deal with a
presidentb (ABCbs This Week, 3/25/07), and in Aprilbs Esquire magazine,
he elaborated, bYou can impeach him [Bush], and before this is over,
you might see calls for his impeachment.b Equally startling were
comments of Rep. John P. Murtha (D. Penn.), a close advisor to Pelosi,
who volunteered that impeachment is one of the ways Congress can
binfluenceb a president (CBSbs Face the Nation, 4/28/07).

Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D.-Ohio) called
for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney on April 24. On May
10, Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Bush administration
Secretary of State Colin Powell, said on National Public Radio that an
impeachment inquiry would be a reasonable thing for Congress to do.

Yet perusers of mainstream media would be hard-pressed to find
discussion of any of thisbimpeachment, it seems, is off the assignment
desk.

In the New York Times, a reader might have to scour the obituary of
Molly Ivins (2/1/07), where Katherine Q. Seelye noted that the
columnist had called for Bushbs impeachment. The newspaper has not
reviewed any of five recently published books on impeachment of Bush
(one co-authored by this writer) or published a single op-ed.

To its credit, the Times published an op-ed (5/3/07) and an editorial
(5/12/07) that suggested impeaching U.S. Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales following the firing of U.S. attorneys.

But when it comes to the White House, Times news coverage seems to fall
under a bargain basement 98-words-or-less rule. Ninety-eight words were
allotted to a bNational Briefingb about Kucinichbs resolution
(4/24/07). There was no room to quote Kucinich, but 36 words were
devoted to Cheneybs spokesperson, who said that the V.P. bis focused on
the serious issues facing our nation.b In other words, impeachment is
not serious.

The Times managed to eke out another 98 words in bNational Briefingb on
the Vermont vote (4/21/07). The paper found 87 words for the hearings
in Washington State, featuring Mayor Anderson (3/2/07), and followed
upbnot with a policy discussionbbut a blove bim/hate bimb profile of
Anderson (3/22/07). It took the Salt Lake Tribune to run bThe Time Has
Come for an Impeachment Tutorialb by law professor Ed Firmage
(4/27/07), breaking down the history, theory, language and arguments
for impeachment.

The tone of coverage was set in a December op-ed by history professor
David Greenberg (Washington Post, 12/3/06), who argued that Bush wasnbt
nearly as bad as Nixon. bSomething close to a national consensus
emergedb about the need to remove Nixon, Greenberg wrote, and bno such
consensus exists for a Bush impeachment.b

But the bconsensusb on Nixon came after five months of inquiry by the
House Judiciary Committee, complete with subpoenas, sworn testimony and
a staff of 100. When the committee approved three articles of
impeachment on July 27b29, 1974, more than one-third of the members
held out for Nixon. A full consensus only emerged days later, when the
U.S. Supreme Court ordered Nixon to release tapes that contained
damning comments by the president, and Nixon resigned.

Since there has been no inquiry into the Bush administration, a
comparison is not apt. Nonetheless, the public bconsensusb on Bush
places him in close proximity to the low regard the public had for
Nixon when he departed. A Harris poll taken April 20b23, 2007 put
Bushbs approval rating at 28 percent. In August 1974, when Nixon
resigned, his approval rating was 24 percent, and at that moment of
bconsensus,b he had a lower disapproval rating (66 percent) than Bush
had in April (70 percent).

In the same April poll, Cheney rated only a 25 percent approval rating.
Yet when Kucinich announced House Resolution 333, Dana Milbank of the
Washington Post (4/25/07) encouraged Kucinich to bcontact planet
Earth,b poking fun at his height (bstanding perhaps 5 feet 6 inches
tall in shoesb) and his hair (bweighted by Brylcreemb). Milbank gave
not the slightest attention to the substance of the arguments.

The low level of Milbankbs discourse was betrayed a week later by
fellow columnist Richard Cohen (Washington Post, 5/2/07). bThe
congressmanbs case is persuasive,b wrote Cohen. While disagreeing on
the need for impeachment, Cohen provided solid information about
potential high crimes and misdemeanors , and quoted Kucinichbs charge
that Cheney bpurposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive
the citizens and Congress.b No one who reads the documents, Cohen
wrote, bcan fail to conclude that this is a rational serious
accusation.b

No one ever accused cable television pundits of reading documents.
Foxbs Sean Hannity, interviewing Kucinich (Hannity & Colmes, 3/22/07),
charged that impeachment advocates were damaging the country, a
repeated theme among Fox pundits. bDonbt you see that as reckless, when
our country is at war?b Hannity demanded.

In a show about Vermont towns that passed impeachment resolutions
(ObReilly Factor, 1/30/07), Foxbs Bill ObReilly didnbt bother with an
opposing view; he booked a politician, Rep. Charles Rangel (D.-N.Y.),
who said he doesnbt agree with impeachment. ObReilly rifled the
thesaurus for derogatory terms, calling impeachment bloony,b
bnonsense,b bnutty stuff,b bfoolishb bmisguided,b binsane,b bfringe,b
boff the chart,b without ba shred of evidence,b birresponsibleb and, in
the pundit mantra, bundermining a sitting president whobs in the middle
of the war.b When Rangel insisted on a right of free expression,
ObReilly turned impeachment talk into a terror threat: bIt hurts every
one of us because webre diverting attention away from the real
problem . . . Islamic terrorists.b

CNN (Situation Room, 4/24/07) at least allowed an impeachment proponent
to say a few words. Although Kucinich was introduced as a bpresidential
wannabe,b Wolf Blitzer let him outline his case. But Blitzer could not
stop himself from resorting to the Fox playbook: bWhat about the
argument, congressman, that this is during a time of war, and thatbs
not a time to go after impeaching a sitting vice president?b Kucinich
responded that a conflict was underway during the Nixon years, too, and
the deceptions leading to war were key to his resolution.

Three weeks earlier on Situation Room (3/2607), reporter Carol Costello
concluded a Reality Check segment by saying, bThe only way President
Bush can be impeached is if he violates the law.b Untrue, according to
constitutional scholars, who note that abuse of power and subversion of
the constitution are clearly impeachable offenses. Even so, Costello
neglected to mention that impeachment proponents argue that Bush has
admitted violating federal laws on domestic surveillance (FAIR Action
Alert, 3/30/07).

At a time when people need coherent, informative and probing
discussions of presidential misconduct and constitutional standards,
the major media are simply missing the mark on impeachment.

 
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