Flip-flopper in Chief

[Nicholas_J]

George Bush's image as a strong and decisive leader is a creation of journalists too lazy to notice that the president has a long history of changing his positions to suit his political needs...

As Columbia Journalism Review, Media Matters for America, and countless others have noted, the media has applied an alarming double standard in covering Bush’s and Kerry’s changes in position – a double standard that has been particularly noteworthy in recent weeks.


An Aug. 30 Washington Post article demonstrated the sometimes subtle ways in which media coverage of the candidates’ position-switches tends to favor the president:



Republicans draw a sharp contrast between what they portray as Bush's directness and what they call rival John F. Kerry's tendency to worry issues to death. … He has also not hesitated to switch positions when necessary, such as when he first opposed, then backed, the creation of a Homeland Security Department.


The Post used Bush’s own words to describe his opponent’s character trait: Kerry tends to “worry issues to death.” Meanwhile, the newspaper presented Bush’s decision-making far more charitably: "Unlike the indecisive Kerry, Bush changes positions only “when necessary.” The Post didn’t explain why Bush’s change in position about the creation of a Homeland Security Department was anything other than a classic “flip-flop”; nor did the article include an explanation of why Bush’s flip was “necessary” – though we can assume that political considerations played a sizable role.

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/19800/