NBC Pushes as 'New' Murtha's Stale Charge About Civilians Killed --5/18/2006

1. NBC Pushes as 'New' Murtha's Stale Charge About Civilians Killed
On the six month anniversary of Democratic Congressman John Murtha's successful publicity stunt call for the U.S. to withdraw from Iraq, Wednesday's NBC Nightly News jumped on the chance to highlight Murtha's charge that last November some Marines deliberately killed more than a dozen innocent Iraqi civilians. But in treating Murtha as some kind of authoritative figure making "new allegations," NBC ignored how the fairly well established as accurate charge (pictures exist of the immediate aftermath and three Marine officers were relieved of their commands) is old and has already been widely-reported -- including on the March 20 NBC Nightly News. Nonetheless, anchor Brian Williams touted: "There are disturbing new allegations tonight from the Congressman and decorated Marine veteran who stunned the Bush administration about six months ago with his call for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq."

2. Time Mag Goes Left, Picks Bradley Adviser as New Managing Editor
Time magazine, which apparently only considered liberals for the position, on Wednesday announced that they've named Richard Stengel, who worked on left-winger Bill Bradley's 2000 presidential campaign, as the new Managing Editor for Time magazine and the Time.com Web site, the top editorial job. As if the magazine isn't already opinionated enough, he told the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz: "I'd like us to have a stronger point of view about things." In Thursday's New York Times, Katharine Seelye listed three other finalists, all liberals, though she did not label them as such: Tina Brown, the former Editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, Jacob Weisberg, the Editor of Slate and Michael Kinsley, the former left half of CNN's Crossfire.

3. Da Vinci Code Actor McKellan: Bible as Much "Fiction" as Movie
Da Vinci Code actor: Bible as much "fiction" as the movie. In a Wednesday Today session in Cannes, France with actors and producers of the Da Vinci Code movie, Matt Lauer asked about how, given how many want the movie to be clearly labeled "fiction," they would have "felt if there was a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie? Would it have been okay with you?" Actor Ian McKellen replied: "Well I've often thought that the, the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying, this is fiction. I mean walking on water? I mean it takes an act of faith. And I have faith in this movie. Not that it's true, not that it's factual but that it's a jolly good story and I, I think, I think audiences are clever enough and bright enough to separate out, separate out fact and fiction and discuss the thing when they've seen it." Unfazed by McKellan's slam at the Bible, Lauer moved ahead with his agenda: "Would it have mattered to the rest of you? Would it have bothered you if there had been a disclaimer?" AUDIO&VIDEO

4. Letterman's "Top Ten Signs the Government Is Spying on You"
Letterman's "Top Ten Signs the Government Is Spying on You."

NBC Pushes as 'New' Murtha's Stale Charge
About Civilians Killed

On the six month anniversary of Democratic Congressman John Murtha's successful publicity stunt call for the U.S. to withdraw from Iraq, Wednesday's NBC Nightly News jumped on the chance to highlight Murtha's charge that last November some Marines deliberately killed more than a dozen innocent Iraqi civilians. But in treating Murtha as some kind of authoritative figure making "new allegations," NBC ignored how the fairly well established as accurate charge (pictures exist of the immediate aftermath and three Marine officers were relieved of their commands) is old and has already been widely-reported -- including on the March 20 NBC Nightly News.

Brian Williams touted: "There are disturbing new allegations tonight from the Congressman and decorated Marine veteran who stunned the Bush administration about six months ago with his call for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq." Following a rundown from Jim Miklaszewski of the allegations, Williams trumpeted Murtha's credibility and relevance: "Jim, we should go over again, why is it significant that John Murtha is the one saying this?" Miklaszewski responded with Murtha's argument that the event bolsters his political point as to why the U.S. should leave Iraq, preceded by the misnomer that Murtha had "recently" turned against the war: "It's important because as somebody who recently turned against the war, Murtha held this up today as one of the reasons the U.S. military should get out of Iraq as soon as possible."

[This item was posted Wednesday night on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org. To share your views, go to: newsbusters.org ]

Back on the Monday, March 20 NBC Nightly News, Miklaszewski himself outlined the November incident:
"A team of Naval investigators on its way to Iraq tonight where 12 US Marines are accused of killing 15 Iraqi civilians including seven women and three children in a vengeful rage after one of their fellow Marines was killed by a roadside bomb. The incident occurred last November in the town of Haditha. Marines had originally claimed that some of the civilians were killed with a subsequent firefight with insurgents when the insurgents used the civilians as human shields, but many Iraqis, including medical staff who examined the bodies, said it appeared all of the civilians were shot with some precision and at close range. The formal criminal investigation was opened after some of the Marines had changed their original stories, and at least one military official said if the revised accounts from some of those Marines is true, this could get very ugly."

On the same night's CBS Evening News, Lara Logan filed a story on the incident and David Martin followed up on the Friday, April 28 CBS Evening News in a story he began: "Pentagon officials tell CBS News the evidence turned up so far shows American Marines deliberately shot Iraqi civilians, including women and children, and tried to cover it up." CNN aired stories in April and early May. A quick search via Nexis located dozens of print articles published throughout April in major newspapers and the wire services.

Nonetheless, NBC apparently saw another chance to champion Murtha. (To mark the six month anniversary of Murtha's November 17 attack on Bush's Iraq policy, Chris Matthews made Murtha his lead guest on Wednesday's Hardball on MSNBC and gave him air time to attribute the November incident to excessive "pressure" felt by stressed Marines forced to serve in a misguided war.)

The November 18, 2005 CyberAlert item, "Nets Lead With Murtha, Highlight His Ridicule of Cheney's Lack of Military Service," recounted how the networks embraced Murtha, including the way Brian Williams led the NBC Nightly News by promoting his supposedly unique newsworthiness:
"Good evening. When one Congressman out of 435 members of Congress speaks out against the war in Iraq, it normally wouldn't be news, but it was today because of who he is. Congressman John Murtha, a Vietnam veteran, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, is a 37-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, who voted for both gulf wars. Vice President Cheney once called him one of his strongest allies in Congress back when Cheney ran the Pentagon. Today, John Murtha said the U.S. must get out of Iraq. It's a debate that has followed President Bush halfway around the world. We begin tonight with NBC's David Gregory, who's traveling with the President in South Korea." For more: www.mediaresearch.org

The MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video for the May 17 NBC Nightly News story. Brian Williams introduced it:
"There are disturbing new allegations tonight from the Congressman and decorated Marine veteran who stunned the Bush administration about six months ago with his call for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. Tonight Congressman Jack Murtha, a Democrat from the state of Pennsylvania, is in the news again, and in a big way, accusing U.S. Marines of killing innocent civilians in cold blood. We're joined for more on this story tonight by our NBC News Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski. Jim, good evening."

Jim Miklaszewski: "Brian, this all stems from an incident that occurred last November, and today the military's investigation is still dragging on. From the very beginning, Iraqis in the town of Haditha claimed U.S. Marines deliberately killed at least 15 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including seven women and three children. This young Iraqi girl claims the Marines killed six members of her family, including her parents. 'The Americans came into the room where my father was praying,' she says, 'and shot him.' Today, in a remarkable statement in Washington, Democratic Congressman John Murtha claims it's true."
Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), in press conference: "There was no firefight. There was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood."
Miklaszewski: "Military officials today tell NBC News the Marine Corps' own evidence appears to show Murtha is right. The Marines first claimed the civilians were killed by the same IED that also killed a fellow Marine or were caught in a crossfire between the Americans and the enemy. But military officials say Marine Corps photos taken immediately after the incident show many of the victims were shot at close range in the head and chest, execution style. One photo shows a mother and young child bent over on the floor as if in prayer, shot dead. One military official familiar with the investigation says it appears the civilians were deliberately killed by the Marines who were outraged at the death of their fellow Marine. Three Marine officers, commanders in Haditha, have been relieved of duty. At least 12 Marines in all are under investigation for what would be the worst single incident involving the deliberate killing of civilians by U.S. military in Iraq. And because the investigation is still open, the Marine Corps said today it can't comment on the case, but one military official tells us this one is ugly. Brian?"
Williams: "And, Jim, we should go over again, why is it significant that John Murtha is the one saying this?"
Miklaszewski: "Well, as a former Marine, he's considered pretty close to the Corps still, and one of the Capitol Hill's ultimate military insiders. In fact, one of his aides said today Murtha got his information from military officials. And it's important because as somebody who recently turned against the war, Murtha held this up today as one of the reasons the U.S. military should get out of Iraq as soon as possible."

Criticizing the war was not new for Murtha in November of 2005. As the May 7, 2004 MRC CyberAlert noted, Ted Koppel featured Murtha's anti-war take as he "opened the May 6 Nightline, over video of bomb-damaged trucks and Humvees and a wounded U.S. soldier: 'No one ever said it would be easy, but few predicted it would be like this. Today, the most hawkish Democrat on the Hill said this: [Murtha]: 'We can not prevail in this war at the policy that's going today.'"

Time Mag Goes Left, Picks Bradley Adviser
as New Managing Editor

Time magazine, which apparently only considered liberals for the position, on Wednesday announced that they've named Richard Stengel, who worked on left-winger Bill Bradley's 2000 presidential campaign, as the new Managing Editor for Time magazine and the Time.com Web site, the top editorial job. As if the magazine isn't already opinionated enough, he told the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz: "I'd like us to have a stronger point of view about things." In Thursday's New York Times, Katharine Seelye listed three other finalists, all liberals, though she did not label them as such: Tina Brown, the former Editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, Jacob Weisberg, the Editor of Slate and Michael Kinsley, the former left half of CNN's Crossfire.

For Kurtz's May 18 article: www.washingtonpost.com

For Seelye's May 18 story: www.nytimes.com

For the Poynter Institute's posting of Time's announcement memo: poynter.org

Stengel, the President of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia since 2004, joined Time magazine in 1981 and held a variety of writing and editing positions, including nation editor and culture editor before and after signing aboard the Bradley campaign in 1999 as a senior advisor and chief speechwriter. He re-joined Time after Bradley's campaign to the left of Al Gore fizzled.

Stengel insisted to Kurtz that liberal ideology had nothing to do with working for Bradley: "Stengel, who played on the 1975 Princeton basketball team that won the National Invitational Tournament -- though not, he admits, as a starter -- said Bradley was 'my idol from the time I was 9 years old' and that he was not a Democratic partisan. He described himself as 'a flaming moderate.'"

A media "moderate" = liberal as defined by those outside the media.

Indeed, the MRC's Scott Whitlock checked the MRC's archive and found some examples of Stengel's "moderate" views: criticizing Whittaker Chambers as a "snitch," characterizing the description of Reaganomics as "voodoo economics" as "the unvarnished truth" and denouncing Steve Forbes, during his 1996 presidential campaign, for supposedly having "attracted to his organization two veterans of Jesse Helms' race-baiting campaigns."

# Stengel on "Dubious Influences," June 14, 1999 Time: "Whittaker Chambers was mostly right about communism and Alger Hiss, but he was a nasty piece of work and nobody likes a snitch. Even Joe McCarthy may have been on to something, but he was a crude and cruel man who ruined people's lives for 48-point type. You might call this the When Bad People Spoil Good Things school of history."

# Time Senior Editor Richard Stengel, August 31, 1998 news story: "Inside the Beltway, the scandal is not the lie but the unvarnished truth. George Bush's campaign barb about Reaganism being voodoo economics raised far more hackles than his claim that Clarence Thomas was the most qualified man in America to be on the Supreme Court."

# The January 1997 MediaWatch noted the lengths to which Mr. Stengel would go to attack then presidential candidate Steve Forbes: "At first glance, Steve Forbes' presidential campaign would seem to fulfill the media's standards for a proper Republican candidate: One with sufficiently soft stands on social issues to avoid the 'divisive' label. Unable to attack Forbes as extremist (he has suitably 'tolerant' stands on such issues as abortion and immigration), in the December 4 [1996] Time, Senior Writer Richard Stengel charged that 'for all his patrician good humor, Forbes' message and his campaign have begun to show a hard edge.' Stengel exploited a tenuous link between Forbes and Senator Jesse Helms' racially-tinged campaigns: 'While Forbes generally shuns the politics of exclusion, he has nonetheless attracted to his organization two veterans of Jesse Helms' race-baiting campaigns.'"

Da Vinci Code Actor McKellan: Bible as
Much "Fiction" as Movie

The MRC's Geoff Dickens provided this transcript of the relevant portion of the 8am half hour outdoor segment on the May 17 Today:

Matt Lauer: "Let me ask you all to jump in on this. There have been calls for some religious groups. They wanted a disclaimer at, at the beginning of this movie saying it is fiction because, again, one of the themes in the book really knocks Christianity right on its ear. If Christ survived the Crucifixion he did not die for our sins and therefore was not resurrected. Tom's looking like, 'what?'"
Tom Hanks: "Was that in the book?"
Lauer: "But what I'm saying, people wanted us to say, 'fiction, fiction, fiction.' How would you have all felt if there was a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie? Would it have been okay with you?"
Sir Ian McKellen: "Well I've often thought that the, the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying, this is fiction. I mean walking on water? I mean it takes an act of faith. And I have faith in this movie. Not that it's true, not that it's factual but that it's a jolly good story and I, I think, I think audiences are clever enough and bright enough to separate out, separate out fact and fiction and discuss the thing when they've seen it."
Lauer: "Would it have mattered to the rest of you? Would it have bothered you if there had been a disclaimer?"
Alfred Molina: "The, the movie's job isn't to be true to be real, the movie's job is to be as plausible and as authentic as, as it can be. And like all good fiction it's underpinned by elements that are plausible and authentic and, and, and, and again like all good fiction it makes the, it provokes the audience into asking what if?"
Ron Howard: "You know and, and, and you know when you do a thriller which this is. This is mystery thriller. It's, it's, you know it's about something unfolding and of course there is a disclaimer. As, as, as in all works of fiction it's on the end of the movie but you wouldn't start off a spy thriller or a, or, or a story about, you know intrigue in the White House by saying this, this couldn't happen. You want the audience to lose themselves in it and then trust the audience they're gonna take what ideas that interest them or not and deal with it later."
Lauer: "Is, is this a case where if people's faith is shaken by this movie the faith probably wasn't strong enough to begin with?"
McKellen: "There ya go."
Lauer: "Is that how you look at it?"
Molina: "Yeah."

On the MRC's NewsBusters blog on Wednesday morning, Mark Finkelstein posted an item about McKellan's take on the Bible, to which the MRC's Michelle Humphrey added video: newsbusters.org

The DrudgeReport.com picked up the item, leading to a big visitor day to NewsBusters, and to ABC's World News Tonight featuring McKellan's comment.

In a Wednesday World News Tonight story on the controversy surrounding the movie based on a novel, Jake Tapper noted: "Today at the Cannes film festival in France, the creators of the film tried to quell the controversy."
Tom Hanks: "This is not a documentary. This is not something that is pulled up and says, 'these are the facts. And this is exactly what happened.'"
Tapper: "Though one actor's comment seems likely to only inflame matters."
Ian McKellan on NBC's Today: "Well, I'd often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer at the front saying, 'this is fiction.'"

The Real and Windows Media video, as well as MP3 audio, will be added to the posted version of this item. In the meantime, check the NewsBusters posting or the MRC's "Hear & See the Bias" page of videos: www.mrc.org

Letterman's "Top Ten Signs the Government
Is Spying on You"

From the May 17 Late Show with David Letterman, the "Top Ten Signs the Government Is Spying on You." Late Show home page: www.cbs.com

10. Post office wall has several photos of you sleeping

9. Your houseplant occasionally sneezes

8. Domino's keeps delivering to unmarked van parked across the street

7. Birthday card from your mom has several words blacked out

6. You get nominated for "Outstanding Lead Performance in an NSA Surveillance Video"

5. Your dishwasher functions are "Wash," "Rinse" and "Record"

4. Local news only reporting things that happen in your living room

3. Every time you say goodbye on the phone, you hear a strange voice say, "Roger that, Chico"

2. You googled a recipe for humus and the FBI raided your house

1. Suddenly discover there's an antenna bolted to your ass

-- Brent Baker