Couric Shares Levin's Frustration with Hindrances to Leaving Iraq --11/16/2006

1. Couric Shares Levin's Frustration with Hindrances to Leaving Iraq
CBS anchor Katie Couric on Wednesday night empathized with the plight of incoming Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, as his wish to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq hits roadblocks. After a story by David Martin on testimony before the committee by General John Abizaid, chief of the Central Command, Couric ran a taped Q & A with Levin. She began with a very leading question: "Senator, were you as frustrated with General Abizaid's position today as John McCain and Hillary Clinton?" Levin expressed how he was similarly "frustrated" by Abizaid's "stay the course" position, leading Couric to empathize with his frustration: "So as the future Chairman of the Senate Arms Services Committee, where does that leave you, Senator Levin? I mean, what are your options? You have long advocated a phased withdrawal, but how are you going to make that happen? It seems almost impossible right now."

2. Koppel: Bush Joined NG to Avoid Vietnam, Going to Stay Out of DC
As the guest on Wednesday's Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central, Ted Koppel ribbed host Jon Stewart for not ridiculing President George W. Bush over his trip to Vietnam and then Koppel offered his own sharp-edged joke about it. Koppel scolded Stewart, "I'll tell you what I have been thinking: I can't believe you haven't done anything on George Bush in Vietnam." Koppel then delivered his wisecrack: "Thirty-five years ago, he joined the Texas Air National Guard to stay out of Vietnam. And now, he's going to Vietnam to stay out of Washington." That generated loud applause and laughter from the audience in the Manhattan studio, as well as hearty laughter from Stewart, and Koppel chuckled at his own one-liner. A bit earlier, Koppel delivered another politically-loaded quip: "Remember the joke before -- it wasn't that much of a joke -- before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, we used to say in Washington, 'we know Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, we still have the receipts.'" That prompted Stewart to express bafflement with why Koppel's news agenda isn't shared more widely: "Why isn't that joke the lead of every news story about Iraq?"AUDIO&VIDEO

3. Olbermann Highlights 'Shoot Dick Cheney' Quip from John Edwards
Once again, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann seems entertained by the thought of conservatives being shot. Less than five months after depicting the image of Rush Limbaugh as the target of gunfire during his Countdown show, on Wednesday's show, during the regular "Top Three Soundbites" segment, Olbermann included a joke about shooting Dick Cheney. One of the featured clips was from Tuesday's Daily Show with Jon Stewart in which Stewart asked his guest, former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, whom he would have "accidentally shot in the face" if he had been elected Vice President, to which Edwards responded "Dick Cheney." Notably, just one night earlier, Olbermann had spent an entire segment discussing whether conservative commentators had inspired a man to mail fake Anthrax letters to public figures, and to make other threats, a la King Henry's declaration "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest," referring to Archbishop Thomas Becket.

4. Flashback: Media's Bitter, Lashing Out Reaction to 1994 Election
A quick glance back at the first post-election Notable Quotables newsletter in 1994 found that it carried a pile of quotes that bore no resemblance to the new-day-dawning tone of 2006. There was a lot of bitterness, and some wistful looks forward. For instance, a November 10, 1994 New York Times headline over story by then-Washington Bureau Chief R.W. Apple, "1994 Isn't Forever: Despite Sweeping Gains for Republicans, History Suggests the Power is Temporary." The late Peter Jennings maligned the impulse behind the GOP victory: "Imagine a nation full of uncontrolled two-year-old rage. The voters had a temper tantrum last week....Parenting and governing don't have to be dirty words: the nation can't be run by an angry two-year-old."

Couric Shares Levin's Frustration with
Hindrances to Leaving Iraq

CBS anchor Katie Couric on Wednesday night empathized with the plight of incoming Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, as his wish to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq hits roadblocks. After a story by David Martin on testimony before the committee by General John Abizaid, chief of the Central Command, Couric ran a taped Q & A with Levin. She began with a very leading question: "Senator, were you as frustrated with General Abizaid's position today as John McCain and Hillary Clinton?" Levin expressed how he was similarly "frustrated" by Abizaid's "stay the course" position, leading Couric to empathize with his frustration: "So as the future Chairman of the Senate Arms Services Committee, where does that leave you, Senator Levin? I mean, what are your options? You have long advocated a phased withdrawal, but how are you going to make that happen? It seems almost impossible right now."

In her third, and final, question to a politician who has constantly assumed the worst about Iraq, Couric seemed apologetic for seeing "the glass as half empty" when that matches Levin's contention and the picture painted by the news media: "I don't mean to see the glass as half empty, but what if the Iraqis and the Iraqi government, what if they're not up to the job?"

[This item was posted late Wednesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

The MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video for the taped interview which aired on the November 15 CBS Evening News:

Katie Couric: "Senator, were you as frustrated with General Abizaid's position today as John McCain and Hillary Clinton?"
Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan), from Capitol Hill: "I was somewhat frustrated because I thought basically he was saying that we should stay the course, which is, I think, clearly a position that's been rejected by the American people overwhelmingly. Staying the course in Iraq is not a strategy for success. The horrible violence on the ground, it seems to me, is proving that every day."
Couric: "So as the future Chairman of the Senate Arms Services Committee, where does that leave you, Senator Levin? I mean, what are your options? You have long advocated a phased withdrawal, but how are you going to make that happen? It seems almost impossible right now."
Levin: "What I'm hoping to do is now that the election's over is to see if there aren't some Republicans, and I believe there are, who also believe we've got to change the course in Iraq, and that only the Iraqis can change that course because only they can work out the political settlement which is so essential to ending the violence."
Couric: "Senator Levin, I don't mean to see the glass as half empty, but what if the Iraqis and the Iraqi government, what if they're not up to the job?"
Levin: "We cannot save them from themselves, Katie. We've done everything that any country could to give them an opportunity. The only people who can reach a positive outcome here are the Iraqis and their political leadership. If they're going to have a civil war, that's got to be their choice."

Koppel: Bush Joined NG to Avoid Vietnam,
Going to Stay Out of DC

A bit earlier, Koppel delivered another politically-loaded quip: "Remember the joke before -- it wasn't that much of a joke -- before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, we used to say in Washington, 'we know Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, we still have the receipts.'" That prompted Stewart to express bafflement with why Koppel's news agenda isn't shared more widely: "This is the thing that always befuddles me and you and I have this conversation all the time: Why isn't that joke the lead of every news story about Iraq? You know, the context that we sold them all those weapons, why isn't that more prominent in all this?"

[This item was posted with video late Wednesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org. The video/audio will be added to the posted version of this CyberAlert, but in the meantime, to watch the Real or Windows Media or to listen to the MP3 audio, go to: newsbusters.org ]

Koppel, the long-time anchor of ABC's Nightline, made the appearance to promote his two-hour Sunday night special on the Discovery Channel, Koppel on Discovery: Iran -- The Most Dangerous Nation, scheduled to air at 9pm EST/PST and again late Sunday night/Monday morning at 1am EST/PST: dsc.discovery.com

A transcript of the relevant portion (matching the video clip) of the November 15 Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which will air again Thursday at 8am, 2pm and 8pm EST/PST:

Ted Koppel: "Remember the joke before -- it wasn't that much of a joke -- before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, we used to say in Washington, 'we know Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, we still have the receipts.'" (audience laughter)
Jon Stewart: "And this is the thing that always befuddles me and you and I have this conversation all the time: Why isn't that joke the lead of every news story about Iraq? You know, the context that we sold them all those weapons, why isn't that more prominent in all this?"
Koppel: "Well, because a long time ago, and I think the nature -- especially of 24/7 cable news today -- is, you know, a focus on what's most recent, not necessarily on what's most important. You know, that was years ago. That was back in the 1980s. When you think about it, the chemical weapons that were used by the Iraqis against the Iranians came from components that were sold to them by the British, the French, the Germans and [pause] the United States. The weapons that were used, the chemical weapons that we used against the Kurds in Halabajah, in 1988, again, the components were sold to them by western Europeans and U.S. companies."
Stewart: "You're a real downer."
Koppel: "All right, I'll tell you what I have been thinking: I can't believe you haven't done anything on George Bush in Vietnam."
Stewart: "We were going to do, he's getting there on Friday. It's his first visit."
Koppel: "Just think about it. Just think about it."
Stewart: "He tried to get a deferment. He couldn't get one this time." (Audience laughter)
Koppel: "Thirty-five years ago, it's a sign of the times: 35 years ago, he joined the Texas Air National Guard to stay out of Vietnam. And now, he's going to Vietnam to stay out of Washington. Right? (audience applause and laughter, Koppel laughed at his own joke)
Stewart: "Very funny, my friend. You know, I had heard that he had asked his father to try and get him out of this trip. But his father has no pull over there anymore, so it's a difficult situation."

Olbermann Highlights 'Shoot Dick Cheney'
Quip from John Edwards

Once again, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann seems entertained by the thought of conservatives being shot. Less than five months after depicting the image of Rush Limbaugh as the target of gunfire during his Countdown show, on Wednesday's show, during the regular "Top Three Soundbites" segment, Olbermann included a joke about shooting Dick Cheney. One of the featured clips was from Tuesday's Daily Show with Jon Stewart in which Stewart asked his guest, former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, whom he would have "accidentally shot in the face" if he had been elected Vice President, to which Edwards responded "Dick Cheney." Notably, just one night earlier, Olbermann had spent an entire segment discussing whether conservative commentators had inspired a man to mail fake Anthrax letters to public figures, and to make other threats, a la King Henry's declaration "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest," referring to Archbishop Thomas Becket.

See the November 15 CyberAlert item, "Olbermann Links Domestic Terrorism to 'Right Wing Blogs,'" online at: www.mrc.org

The June 28 CyberAlert item, "Rush Limbaugh a Target for Gunfire on Olbermann's Countdown," recounted: Rush Limbaugh the target of gunfire from gun enthusiasts? Evidently this is a thought MSNBC host Keith Olbermann finds entertaining, as evidenced by the opening teaser of his latest edition of Countdown. On Tuesday's show, when Olbermann got to a plug for a story about a gathering of gun enthusiasts in Oklahoma, and while showing clips of people firing at targets using automatic weapons, an image of Rush Limbaugh's face was briefly shown overlaying a clip of background explosions right after one of the participants shouted, "Rush! Big rush!" Olbermann then joked: "Huh? Oh, you mean a different 'big rush.'" For more, and video: www.mrc.org

[This item, by Brad Wilmouth, was posted Wednesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

Below is a transcript of the relevant portion from the November 15 Countdown:

Keith Olbermann: "But first, here are Countdown's 'Top Three Soundbites' of this day."
Jon Stewart: "Senator Edwards, if you had been fortunate enough to be elected Vice President in 2004, who would you have accidentally shot in the face?" [audience laughter and applause]
John Edwards: "Um, Dick Cheney." [audience laughter and applause]

Flashback: Media's Bitter, Lashing Out
Reaction to 1994 Election

A quick glance back at the first post-election Notable Quotables newsletter in 1994 found that it carried a pile of quotes that bore no resemblance to the new-day-dawning tone of 2006. There was a lot of bitterness, and some wistful looks forward. For instance, a November 10, 1994 New York Times headline over story by then-Washington Bureau Chief R.W. Apple, "1994 Isn't Forever: Despite Sweeping Gains for Republicans, History Suggests the Power is Temporary." The late Peter Jennings maligned the impulse behind the GOP victory: "Imagine a nation full of uncontrolled two-year-old rage. The voters had a temper tantrum last week....Parenting and governing don't have to be dirty words: the nation can't be run by an angry two-year-old."

For the November 21, 1994 edition of the MRC's every other week Notable Quotables newsletter: www.mrc.org

[This item is adopted from a Wednesday night posting, by Tim Graham, on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]

A classic liberal-media reaction came very late on election night as CNN's Mary Tillotson predicted that 1994's results could be seen as a dreadful disaster for the Republicans in 1996:
"It would strike some of us that the campaigns have all been so down and dirty and nasty and personal, there's no overarching mandate that the GOP can read into this...My memory after that '92 convention the Republicans held in Texas, is that a lot of people, even Republicans, said `Good Lord, what have we done?' Because the party seemed to have skewed so to the right. Well, the whole country gets to see that now. It's at least conceivable they set up their own defeat in '96, isn't it?"

Over on NBC's Today, Bryant Gumbel wasn't offering the new majority flowers and candy:

# "You're aligned to a party which owes many of its victories to the so-called religious right and other conservative extremists who are historically insensitive to minority concerns. That doesn't bother you?" -- Today co-host Bryant Gumbel to black Republican U.S. Rep.-elect J.C. Watts, November 9 (morning after election.)

# "The so-called Christian Coalition, as you know, is claiming a great deal of credit for GOP victories across the board. Are you not at all concerned about where their brand of, some would say, extremism or intolerance, may yet try to take your party?" -- Gumbel to Jack Kemp, November 10.

# "You said the American people gave very clear orders. I read the transcript of your press conference yesterday and you talked at length of a Republican mandate. But in an off-year election where Republicans won the majority of only a 37 percent turnout, how broad a mandate can you rightfully claim?" -- Gumbel to Senator Phil Gramm, November 10.

The late Peter Jennings used his November 14 radio commentary to paint the electorate as a bunch of crybabies:
"Some thoughts on those angry voters. Ask parents of any two-year-old and they can tell you about those temper tantrums: the stomping feet, the rolling eyes, the screaming. It's clear that the anger controls the child and not the other way around. It's the job of the parent to teach the child to control the anger and channel it in a positive way. Imagine a nation full of uncontrolled two-year-old rage. The voters had a temper tantrum last week....Parenting and governing don't have to be dirty words: the nation can't be run by an angry two-year-old."

One last classic quote -- Tom Brokaw ruing how an allegedly conservative, even anti-Clinton media bias had aided Newt Gingrich's ascent:
"During the course of the last two years, they have passed the crime bill. They have made progress on the deficit. They have done things like the national volunteer service. Do you think the press has been too fascinated with other ancillary issues like the feud between the President and some more conservative members of Congress, like Whitewater and Paula Jones?"
NBC News Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert: "Yes I do." -- Exchange after Bill Clinton's news conference, November 9. (The day after the election.)

-- Brent Baker