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It's not the same one I see, day in and day out. He claims there's this big movement? I see tiny little hairline cracks in the wall.
Some of them have an awareness. John Dean said a number of his colleagues, privately, have recently admitted (or, to invoke one of the republi-CONS' phrases, have "had to at least concede") that they've done a poor job. Apparently they got the message a little too late - about going easier on the president. John Dean said there was a large public outcry that there was too much Monica-coverage on the news, and he says the media realized that this was much more of interest to the inside-the-Beltway types than it was to Middle America. They got the message alright. Unfortunately, it was one administration too late. And only now are they starting to hear more and more complaints about bush getting a free pass - when bush's tour of duty is, frankly, just about over. Only now.
I think it's a culmination of things:
People have been witness to stuff that wasn't covered - just by going to "Fahrenheit 9/11." That movie, ALONE, did a LOT of educating and eye-opening, and REALLY put the media in its place. And the very fact that it's such a mind-boggling, record-breaking hit - especially for a documentary (and I know conventional movies whose producers would be THRILLED OUT OF THEIR MINDS if they'd been in theaters for this amount of time and would now be pushing a 100-million-dollar box office gross. You DON'T IGNORE NUMBERS LIKE THAT. NO MATTER HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT THE CONTENT. BOX OFFICE REVENUE THAT SUBSTANTIAL, especially considering the realities behind it, CANNOT BE IGNORED. The press knows it. The people know it. And, even worse, the press knows that the people know it.
There are a few people who the media CANNOT HELP but treat with even-handedness and respect, who are out there talking to anyone who'll listen. Specifically, The Jersey Girls - the 9/11 widows who've been so outspoken. Even efforts to trash them and claim they're little more than Democratic Party operatives have failed. Even the Joe Scarboroughs of the world have HAD to be deferential to these women. And they NEVER hesitate to speak their minds, utter the uncomfortable truths, and provide the proof or documentation or facts or first-person witness accounts to back it up. They are more or less UNTOUCHABLE.
There are occasionally the facts that just simply cannot be spun. Like stuff coming out of the 9/11 Commission. Like ANYTHING that comes out of the White House in a Friday Night News Dump (such as the latest AWOL documents). If it were favorable to this White House, it'd be saved for the Sunday morning chat shows or "60 Minutes" so it, or the reaction to it would lead the news first thing Monday morning. And the FACT that the war is a lost cause and it's not all milk and honey over there - even now. And our troops are NOT coming home. And long retired reservists are being called back to service. And more troops are being sent over there. And it's just not abating.
Furthermore, there are some in the media who really like to stick with a winner. This is a REALLY "loyal" bunch (well, except for Pox "News"). The more the polls slant away from bush, it won't be just other republi-CONS who start shying away (watch them fall all over their tongues trying to find a "diplomatic" way of asking him NOT to come to their districts and help them campaign). Some in the press will read the writing on the wall and decide they don't want to hitch their wagon to a loser. A LOT of it is about SAVING FACE. A LOT of it. On the morning of November 3rd, you don't want to be standing there with egg all over your face, having cast your lot with bush and finding yourself nice and cozy and secure and well-positioned and "in" with the group that now has to pack up and LEAVE. Everybody wants to turn to their friends and colleagues and say - "SEE? Didn't I call it? I knew it all along! I was RIGHT, WASN'T I???!?!?!? Besides, the Kerry people are liable to remember, clearly, who was with 'em and who was agin 'em. And when it's Kerry on the way in, NOBODY wants to be stuck in the bush, so to speak. When you see the thoroughbred galloping by, you don't want your reins hitched to the mule with the three bum legs.
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