Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Nets Portray Van Jones as Victim of Conservatives

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Instead of focusing on how the Obama administration found it appropriate to hire a man who added his name to a petition asserting the Bush administration deliberately allowed the 9/11 attacks to occur -- or the incompetence displayed in not knowing about it -- ABC and NBC on Sunday night painted Van Jones as a victim...

With “Under Fire” on screen by a picture of Jones, as if he's the aggrieved party, World News anchor Dan Harris stressed how Jones' remarks on various topics

“were all made before he joined the Obama administration, but made him an easy target for conservatives.” [?]

and repeated Jones' own lame defense

“he said he is the victim of a 'vicious smear campaign of lies and distortion.'”

and put the final spin squarely at Republicans feet with

“Democrats worry that Van Jones is only the first of Mr. Obama's so-called policy czars...that will be targeted by Republicans.”

Inadvertently, presumably, NBC anchor Lester Holt conceded the mainstream media's malfeasance:

“I don't think most Americans had heard of him before this.”

Holt then asked John Harwood:

“Can the Republican Right claim its first scalp in this administration?”

Harwood proceeded to adopt a different tact by then down playing the significance of the entire affair by insisting

“Jones was not an especially important figure within the administration. His job wasn't that big.”

Sunday night, the CBS Evening News limited Jones coverage to a short update by anchor Russ Mitchell. On Friday, CBS was the only broadcast network evening newscast to have run any story on Jones...

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