News Compass

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

MUST READ !! Bush Owes New York Times for his second Presidency

When New York Times (NYT) editors killed an explosive story that could have changed the results of the 2004 Presidential election.

Investigative journalist Dave Lindorff claims that NYT killed a story that could have changed the election.

On Thursday October 28 the paper was set to run an explosive piece, "exposing how George W. Bush had worn an electronic cueing device in his ear and probably cheated during the presidential debates."

The NYT killed the story even though Dr. Robert M. Nelson, a 30-year Jet Propulsion Laboratory veteran who works on photo imaging for NASA’s various space probes and currently is part of a photo enhancement team for the Cassini Saturn space probe, was willing to go public with his claim that enhanced pictures clearly showed Bush wearing wires under his suit.

Given that exit polls show many who voted for Bush around the country listed "moral values" as a big factor in their decision, it seems reasonable to assume that at least some would have changed their minds had evidence been presented in the nation’s biggest and most influential newspapers that Bush had been dishonest.

Ben Bagdikian, retired dean of U.C. Berkeley's journalism school who had held Woodward's current position at the Washington Post during the time of the Pentagon Papers, says,

"Cheating on a debate should affect an election. The decision not to let people know this story could affect the history of the United States. I cannot imagine a paper I worked for turning down a story like this before an election.

This was credible photographic evidence not about breaking the rules, but of a total lack of integrity on the part of the president, evidence that he'd cheated in the debate, and also of a lack of confidence in his ability on the part of his campaign. I'm shocked to hear top management decided not to run such a story."

Could the last-minute decision by the NYT not to run the Nelson photos story, or the decision by the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times not even to pursue it, have affected the outcome of the recent presidential race? There is no question that if such a story had run in any one of those major venues, instead of just in two online publications, Bulgegate would have been a major issue in the waning days of the campaign.

A few days after the first of the three Presidential debates, the internet was abuzzed that George W Bush was secretly wired on his back and secretly "coached" with answers during the debate. Read here and here and here and here

(click to listen from the Open Newswire): In the middle of an answer, Bush said, "now let me finish" as if someone was interrupting him- yet nobody did- he was talking to the person in his earpiece. Listen to the mp3 yourself- or watch the video at c-span.

The 'let me finish' quip was clearly Bush talking to ( probably Rove) in his earpiece- saying let me finish before you give me the next answer. He blows it 60 sec into his 90 sec reply- so no warning lights had gone off and Jim Lehrer, the mediator, had not motioned for him to end as he had plenty of time left.

Read Here full article by Dave Lindorff ,"The Emperor's New Hump", in Fair Watch

In the weeks leading up to the November 2 election, NYT reporters were hard at work on two hot investigative projects, each of which could have a major impact on the outcome of the tight presidential race. The first was a controversial exposé of the Al-Qaeda ammunition dump which was left unguarded and available to insurgents by U.S. forces after the invasion of Iraq which was published on 25 October 2004.

On 28 October, 2004, NYT was set to run the second more explosive piece, exposing how George W. Bush had worn an electronic cueing device in his ear and probably cheated during the presidential debates. Despite extensive reporting over several weeks by three NYTreporters, never ran. The paper now says the story never existed in the first place.

That the story hadn’t gotten more serious treatment in the mainstream press was largely thanks to a well-organized media effort by the Bush White House and the Bush/Cheney campaign to label those who attempted to investigate the bulge as "conspiracy buffs" (Washington Post, 10/9/04).

The Kerry camp was offering no comment on the matter—perhaps for fear of earning a "conspiracy buff" label for the candidate himself—may also have made reporters skittish. Jeffrey Klein, a founding editor of Mother Jones magazine, told Mother Jones (online edition, 10/30/04) he had called a number of contacts at leading news organizations across the country, and was told that unless the Kerry campaign raised the issue, they couldn’t pursue it.

Village Voice press critic Jarrett Murphy said his source at NYT —whom he would not identify—told him the information about the bulge seen under Bush’s jacket during the debates, provided by a senior astronomer and photo imaging specialist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, had been tossed onto the "nutpile," and was never researched further.

In fact, several sources, including a journalist at the NYT, have told Extra! that the paper put a good deal of effort into this important story about presidential competence and integrity; they claim that a story was written, edited and scheduled to run on several different days, before senior editors finally axed it at the last minute on Wednesday evening, October 27.

A NYT journalist, who said that NYT staffers were "pretty upset" about the killing of the story, claims the senior editors felt Thursday was "too close" to the election to run such a piece. Emails from the NYT to the NASA scientist corroborate these sources’ accounts. Photos depicting the bulge and speculating on just what it might be (a medical device, a radio receiver?) began circulating widely around the Internet, and several special blog sites were established to discuss them.

The suspicion that Bush had been getting cues or answers in his ear was bolstered by his strange behavior in that first debate, which included several uncomfortably long pauses before and during his answers. On one occasion, he burst out angrily with "Now let me finish!" at a time when nobody was interrupting him and his warning light was not flashing. Images of visibly bulging backs from earlier Bush appearances began circulating, along with reports of prior incidents that suggested Bush might have been receiving hidden cues (London Guardian, 10/8/04).

Read here for continuation on the above story on how NYT killed the story.

The evidence is damning that Bush cheated during the debate and the mainstream media chose to self-censor on the story just before the 2004 Presidential election,