Chris Wallace is rocketing to the front of the hack pack in television journalism. His bias and arrogance is thrusting him to new heights of disrepute.
The latest embarrassment occurred during an interview with President Bush for Fox News Sunday. In an exchange revolving around the Bush administration’s use of torture and wiretapping, Wallace sought to capsulize the question for the President.
WALLACE: …are you ever puzzled by all of the concern in this country about protecting [the] rights of people who want to kill us?
I don’t know when I’ve ever heard a more obsequious inquiry from a supposedly professional reporter. The question is swathed in a fawning concern for whether the poor, put upon President is puzzled by treasonous civil libertarians in league with the enemy.
For the record, Chris, we’re not concerned about “protecting the rights of people who want to kill us.” We’re concerned about protecting the rights of Americans and the innocent who are harmed by the administration’s over-reaching. We’re concerned about preserving the Constitution.
You know that you’ve sunk to pitiful depths when the stupendously idiotic premise of your question is rephrased more fairly by no less a fabulist than George W. Bush:
BUSH: That is an interesting way to put it. I wouldn’t necessarily define some of the critics of my policy that way. I would say that they want to be very careful that we don’t overstep our bounds from protecting the civil liberties of Americans.
This concept is so simple that even George, the C-minus Yalie washout, is able to articulate it. But Wallace doesn’t exhibit the slightest awareness that his query is the sort of premium grade suck-up that demeans his profession. This is the same third-rate miscreant who sought to persuade Democrats to participate in Fox-sponsored debates by calling them “damned fools.”
His father must be so ashamed.
I am concerned because
1. Nobody deserves to be tortured. We didn’t stoop to torture when we were off fighting the Nazis who were more than willing to burn people alive for kicks, why should we soil our national honor with it now?
2. Torture is against our Constitution.
3. Torture does not produce the truth. It produces anything the victim thinks the torturer wants to hear to make the torture stop. Therefore it wastes time and resources tracking down false leads.
4. If we torture, then it will give our enemies free license to do the same. Not just the enemies we’re fighting now, but any enemies we encounter in the future.
5. The use of torture only underscores our enemies argument that our nation is evil and aids him in recruiting more terrorists from a general population that might not have been as sympathetic if we hadn’t been torturing.
6. The President has set himself up so that he and he alone is the sole arbiter to decide who is a terrorist and who is not. The President has already proven that he and his administration is not trust worthy enough not to abuse the power they have. So why should we trust them not to abuse this power? We have checks and balances in our power structure to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the first place because our founders knew it could happen. If all it takes to kidnap, disappear and torture someone is a wave of the President’s hand, and no one can do anything to stop it then how do you know you aren’t next?
7. I am capable of imagining situations wherein innocent people, including my neighbors, myself, my daughter could be tortured not because they are terrorists but because they do not agree with the administration, were in the wrong place at the wrong time, fat fingered a phone call or pissed off some bureaucrat with an ax to grind. Without checks and balances it could just as easily be me strapped to that board as it could be a terrorist.
8. If at this point we are willing to torture for connections to terrorism, how do we know that the bar won’t be lowered. Especially since we’re not allowed to know where the bar is in the first place. Today it’s blowing up a building. Tomorrow its being related to someone who once blew up a building. A week from now it could be having seen a copy of the Anarchist’s Cookbook when you were 9.
I could go on for a long time. But my point is already made. We should not torture. Ever. Anyone who supports torture, even under a ‘ticking time bomb’ scenario is on the slippery slope to tyranny that our founding fathers wanted to keep us off of. These people need to step back and think for a second how easily it could be them on the slab.
Don’t feel so bad for dear old Mike Wallace. Remember, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. To be sure, Daddy is of the same mindset as his son.
As Ronald Reagen and his conservative cronies attacked the “Liberal media” all the time back in the Eighties, officially those at CBS News “pretended” to be so offended by the allegation. Only after Ronnie was out of office were we finally filled in that Mike Wallace is one of Nancy’s closest friends and that then-CBS News bigwig Don Hewitt was a frequent guest at intimate White House get-togethers. These two-faced phonies were bowing to the corporate honchos at their network and assumed the roles that they were purposely cast while secretly sleeping with the Reagen administration by spreading their agenda to their rather large Middle-American viewing base. And they still have yet to be called on it.
But the ultimate proof – when Mike Wallace recently criticized his “friend” Dan Rather for his lawsuit against CBS and even questioning why he would ever want to put his reputation on the line like that in a case “he can’t win”. Make no mistake – Mike Wallace is a diehard rightwinger, no matter what others perceive. I can’t wait to see Rather take the Conservative Brownnoser System to court and prove what they really are once and for all. The real truth is CBS is no better than Fox. They just get more of a free ride to kiss the GOP’s butt!
There are certainly problems with many “respected” news people and organizations. It is not by any means just Fox. But whatever Mike Wallace’s biases, he never asked such asinine, leading questions. So even if he was just better at hiding his prejudice, he still has reason to be ashamed of little Chris.
christopher wallace aka BIG
BIG was an amazing singer i personaly did not no him but i have lisend to his music. i am just saying white cops dont realy care about another colourd man being shot.but emagen presidant obama being shot every police man and women in the world wood be looking for the killer and thair is about a 99% chance of the police finding the killer.all hummans are the same colourd or not. how would you like it if your son was shot.you would want the polece to find them so get them to open the case back up and find hoo ever killed him.
ps i am just a kid but pleas find how killed him i will pay i have saved up 80 dollars