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Check out this banner headline in the December 28, 2008 issue of Greenwich Time:
"Bush departs with legacy in question"
In question? The only questions for most Americans seem to be: "Can't he leave sooner?" and "Is he the worst president in American history, or only the second worst?"
But if you thought that headline strange, take a look at the first sentence of reporter Neil Vigdor's article:
"Some will remember him as Bush the protector, the president who prevented another terrorist attack from befalling the U.S. on its own soil during his watch."
Some will? Perhaps, but certainly extremely few, especially in this state. Vigdor goes on to write that in Greenwich,
"Where the seeds of his family's political dynasty were planted, George W. Bush is seen among many of his most ardent Republican supporters as an enigmatic figure at the close of his presidency."
An "enigmatic figure"? He carries the lowest approval ratings in modern history, thousands are dead in his pointless Iraq War, the country is racking up the worst economic numbers since the Great Depression, and Neil Vigdor believes that there is something "enigmatic" about Bush? No, he's an unmitigated disaster. Period. |
| But you have to understand that this is Greenwich Time, a fiercely conservative newspaper that has been sticking it to Democrats and praising Republicans for decades.
Remember all of Vigdor's articles about Ned Lamont? Virtually every one of them called Lamont a "political neophyte", in spite of Ned's seven years in elective office and his run for the state senate, or "Greenwich millionaire". Of course, when Greenwich multi-millionaire Scott Frantz, a Republican, ran for state senate last year, Frantz, who had never held or run for elective office in his life, Vigdor and Greenwich Time didn't once call him a "political neophyte" or "Greenwich millionaire". Not once. But I digress.
In this article, Vigdor and his editors apparently felt that it was perfectly OK to include not a single quote from a Democrat or any serious critic of Bush- not one, even though Bush 43 actually lost the primary here in 2000, and the town went for a Democrat for the first time in forty years last November, and the ratio of Republicans to Democrats has declined during the Bush years from 2.5:1 to a bare 12% lead. And forget the fact that the overwhelming majority of Connecticut voters loath the guy. Oh, the editor's name is Jim Zebora. You might recall him from his recent oped in which he strenuously opposed gay marriage because gays can't procreate, and who stated that anti-Semite Lee Whitnum had run an "honorable campaign", or as the guy who insisted that progressive columnist Sarah Littman be fired. Him.
Yep, to Greenwich Time, it's only Republicans who are considered worthy of having their opinions count regarding Bush's legacy. Hey, here's a really juicy quote that Vigdor scrounged up. It's from Russell Reynolds, Jr., the founder of the eponymous headhunting company:
"I think George W. Bush is going to be one of the most underestimated presidents in history...He exemplifies the best of the American spirit. He's been strong. He's stod up to people who would like to see him crumble. He does not waffle with the polls or do what is politically correct."
Then you have a quote from the recently elected right-wing state representative for the 151st district Fred Camillo:
"I always remind people that in 1952 Harry Truman let office with a 21% approval rating. Twenty years later, he was revered."
Yes, Fred, but Truman was a Democrat. Americans always seem to understand later how wonderful Democrats were for the country. Republicans, however, reveal over time just how damaging they really were.
There are a couple of comments that are mildly critical. But there is only one sentence in which the Iraq War is mentioned, and that in passing. Nothing about the four thousand dead, the 32,000 wounded, the maimed, the four million Iraqi refugees, the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi dead, the hundreds of thousands of young Americans with PTSD. Not a word. And not a mention about the criminal wiretapping, the torture across the world, the politicization of the Justice Department.
No, for Hearst Newspaper's Greenwich Time, it's all about whitewashing. Don't interview Democrats, don't bring up the really criminal stuff. Just keep it simple, keep it among Republicans, and tell as little of the truth as possible.
Hearst Newspapers. Neil Vigdor. Greenwich Time. Got it. |
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