As reported on the Thursday August 12, 2004, broadcast of The O'Reilly Factor, newspaper USA Today shelved a positive profile of President Bush by Ronald Kessler, a highly respected, award-winning journalist and investigator. A former staffer at the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, and the author of over a dozen books, Kessler has recently penned, A Matter of Character: Inside the White House of George W. Bush. Through interviews with the people who know Bush best, Kessler paints a positive portrait of the President as a hard-working, trustworthy, and principled individual. Echoing the tone of his new book, Kessler's article was to blow the lid off the mythology that the President is somehow "dim," as his detractors want people to believe.

        Although Kessler had previously published three other articles in USA Today and his new column was already approved by a sub-editor, the paper ultimately ditched Kessler's op-ed. The paper issued a statement to O'Reilly on Thursday night that said editor Brian Gallagher "had questions about the piece that couldn't be resolved with Mr. Kessler, so [we] didn't run the column." What were the so-called "questions"? Who knows.

        Meanwhile, the New York Daily News had no problem printing a knavish, Bush-bashing column on Wednesday by television host Bill Maher. Entitled, "Bush blew it the morning of 9/11," the article contains a flat-out falsehood. Challenging the President's reaction to the breaking news on the morning of September 11, the article charges,

"Bush wasted 27 minutes that day - not only the seven minutes reading to kids but 20 more at a photo op afterward."

        It's no surprise that Maher lists no source for his claim, because it's unlikely he has one. A timeline of the events of September 11, does not show any "20-minute photo op" that morning after the attacks had taken place. The President was notified of the attack by Andrew Card at 9:06 am. After he excused himself from the children, the President was in a holding room around 9:16 am, where he was briefed of the ongoing events. A photograph taken shortly before 9:25 am shows President Bush on the telephone in the holding room. At around 9:29 am, before heading to Air Force One, the President delivered a short remark at the school. There was not a "20-minute photo op." Why did the Daily News allow such a blatant, improvable lie to be published?

 

TheMediaReport.com says ... The facts are clear. A positive profile of Bush can't be published in USA Today. A Bush-bashing article with a flat-out lie is just flat-out fine with the New York Daily News.