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December 29, 2004

Tsunami Media Spin Begins

Here it comes...the media spin on the tsunami catastrophe. Andrea Mitchell, substituting on MSNBC's Hardball tonight, asked if this was a "missed opportunity" by the Bush administration to "reach out to Muslims." Leslie Gelb, right on cue, answered that "I think it was."

Sadly, this is not at all surprising. I think that many of us have now gotten used to Old Media blaming George W. Bush for just about everything. If they don't blame him fully outright then they implicitly suggest that he bears either some culpability or - as in this case - could have acted faster and with greater resources to assist with the recovery from this monumental tragedy, which everyone is attempting to cope with to the best of their abilities at present.

Programs like Hardball, and other predictable parts of Old Media, are why there is an information revolution going on at this very moment and why many, many people are very interested in this.

UPDATE: Bill Clinton, true to form, just had to get out and criticize George W. Bush before the dust has even settled. It's always about Bill Clinton first, regardless of what the consequences might be. The White House appropriately remarked that "The president wanted to be fully briefed on our efforts [before speaking out]. He didn't want to make a symbolic statement about 'We feel your pain.'"

A direct and appropriate slap at Bill Clinton. Very nice.

p.s. Bill Clinton let how many die in Rwanda, while doing nothing?
(Hat tip for that from Charles Krauthammer on today's Fox News roundtable)

UPDATE 12:48 PM Pacific, 12/30/04: Patrick Leahy, not to be outdone, has promptly gone on CNN and parroted the "missed opportunity" Democratic party line.

Posted at 08:18 PM Pacific