Under the guise of doing a 'fact-check,' Katie Couric and CBS News ran a piece Tuesday evening on Sarah Palin and her claim that she stopped construction on the 'bridge to nowhere' in Alaska.
The bridge had been a Congressional earmark secured for Alaska by one of its U.S. Senators, Ted Stevens. Early on, Palin had supported the project, as she had Stevens.
But as Palin began to discover the corruption within Alaska politics after she became Governor of the state, the bridge to nowhere was one project that she decided to stop.
There is no corruption in supporting something that you think is legit and then changing your mind once you discover 'it ain't legit.'
CBS News, however, spun the story on Palin to suggest that she only put a halt to the bridge when she found out how unpopular it was...right at the last minute, before being selected to run as John McCain's running mate.
Perhaps we should do a 'fact-check' on CBS News.
The CBS spin is clearly FALSE. The facts are that Palin supported Ted Stevens early on and the bridge as well. Then she ran for Governor. Once elected she began a systematic campaign to rid Alaska of corruption in politics.
When she embarked on this gargantuan crusade, some discoveries were made that were hard to swallow. First, she discovered that Ted Stevens, although a Republican, had engaged in some rather underhanded dealings with Alaskan businesses, one of which was the construction firm that began building the 'bridge to nowhere.'
The money for the pork-barrel project had already been sent to Alaska long before Palin was elected Governor.
Once she became aware of the corruption involved in the Stevens scheme concerning the bridge, Palin called a halt to the construction, but kept the money for Alaska to spend on much-needed highway and infrastructure projects.
Thus, the bridge to nowhere was nixed and legitimate projects got the money.
Couric and CBS News conveniently failed to mention the timeline involved in the Palin campaign to rid Alaskan politics of corruption, and what it cost her personally to go up against powerful people in her own Party, such as Stevens.
And they certainly never mentioned the fact that a pork barrel project that was knee-deep in corruption was stopped cold while worthwhile, legitimate projects in the state got a boost.
It would seem that CBS News is in dire need of a 'facts-check' whenever it does a 'facts-check' segment on Palin and McCain.
But then, we all know already that Katie and her cohorts are in the tank for Obama. So what else can we expect?
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
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5 comments:
Hiya Martian,
I've missed you:) Well this is a great post, I don't like McCain/Palin and while I enjoy Obama/Biden I probably won't be voting for them either. If there's one thing I love, it's a reasonable explanation...like the one you have written here, so thanks for that. I wish both parties would allow for and make an attempt to explain the sensationalized claims of the other.
do you have a link for this story?
Priscilla--Martian? Nope, never been to Mars. Where you been, anyway?! Nice to see you, and thanks for the compliment.
Joel--the story is mine. I did the research over several months and wrote the story. The sources are numerous, most of which I don't even remember. Sorry.
Was the hit piece where one of the supposed lies was about how she let the Governor's chef go?
Their explanation of how it was less than truthful was that even though she did fire the chef, that chef was later hired to cook for the state legislature.
Huh? The person got a job somewhere else, so that makes her dishonest about them being let go? What? Just because the job they happened to get was also working for the state? What a crock.
Geek--not this one. This one was solely about the bridge to nowhere.
But they've done several hit-pieces on her hiring and firing practices as a Mayor and Governor in the hopes they can dig up a scandal.
So far, nothing...but give them time. Obama's jackbooted army of lawyers and hit-men have been airdropped into Alaska to dig up anything and everything that can be used to smear Palin.
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