Mind over Media Matters
Media Matters for America is the left-wing answer to Brent Bozell's Media Research Center and is headed by David Brock, the one-time right-wing hatchet man who "saw the light," admitted that he was a liar and became a left-wing hatchet man saint.
I don't often visit Media Matters because they spend much of their time criticizing pundits for not being "fair." While the MRC focuses largely on purportedly unbiased, mainstream news broadcasts, the majority of Media Matters' ire is directed at Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly and just about every other conservative commentator.
Something I was reading -- I'm pretty sure that it was OpinionJournal.com's "Best of the Web Today" -- had a link to Brock's baby, so I followed the link and then went to the site's front page where they had this interesting tidbit:
Iraq
Media ignored Bush's contradictory stance on "timetables" in Iraq
In covering President Bush's March 13 speech, the media reported that Bush effectively laid out a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq by setting a "goal of having the Iraqis control more territory than the coalition by the end of 2006," but completely ignored the numerous statements Bush and other administration officials have made denouncing timetables for withdrawal, and attacking those who propose them. Read More
What Media Matters calls a "timetable" is actually a "plan" -- you know, the thing that Democrats are always complaining that Bush doesn't have. Simply read that direct quote again: Bush has a "goal of having the Iraqis control more territory than the coalition by the end of 2006." A "goal." If you don't meet the "goal" you don't pull out the troops. (We'll set aside the possibility that having Iraqis controlling more territory doesn't necessarily create a situation where we have fewer troops in Iraq. After all, the South Koreans control all of their territory and we still have troops there.) A "timetable," on the other hand, means that on X date you remove Y troops, regardless of the conditions on the ground.
Even the mainstream media can figure this out, but not the geniuses over at Media Matters.
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