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What Did CNN Know and When Did They Know It?
Scott Hogenson
One way in which liberal media bias creeps into network and cable TV news is through innuendo. It raises a question - regardless of truth or fact - but permits the news organization to slip off the hook by claiming it had merely broached an issue and not made a declarative statement.
A fine example of media bias by innuendo was made Wednesday evening by CNN anchor Arron Brown regarding when the Bush administration realized they had relied on forged documents to assert that Iraq was seeking African uranium for a nuclear program.
The White House Monday admitted it was wrong last January when President Bush said in his State of the Union Address that Iraq was trying to get uranium from Niger, prompting many in the news media to pound away on the question of when the president knew about the error.
It's obviously more egregious for a president to deliberately make a false statement in such an address rather than do so inadvertently and realize the error only after the fact.
So Brown took it upon himself Wednesday night to question whether Bush was aware of the mistake before delivering his State of the Union Address.
Yet in spite of the fact that the original source for this report had retracted, corrected and apologized for the error four hours before Brown and Ensor went on the air, the two still managed to work this bogus rumor into their broadcast.
If Brown and Ensor wanted to knock-down a false rumor, they certainly could have done so with either newscaster simply saying, "That report has been retracted. It's entirely false. There's absolutely nothing to it."