in their own words
 |
|
|
 Subscribe to the WHPC RSS Feed
|
Press Briefing by Tony Snow 10/20/06 (Topic: Iraq War Media Coverage)
— Saturday, October 21, 2006 — Q Can I ask you something about what the President said today at The Mayflower? He was talking about the terrorists trying to influence public opinion, filming their atrocities, he said, emailing messages and video clips to Middle Eastern cable networks like Al Jazeera and opinion leaders throughout the West. Why the mention of Al Jazeera? And to whom was he referring when he talked about "opinion leaders" in the West? MR. SNOW: Well, your network has shown pictures of snipers hitting Americans, which was used as a propaganda tool, so the fact is that -- it shows real sophistication on the part of these guys, because it creates the impression that Americans are sitting ducks, and that these guys are capable, when, in fact, while you have a capable enemy, they're dying in much greater numbers and suffering much greater damage. Now I know that's hard to -- as General Caldwell said yesterday, you can have this carnage and progress existing side by side. Unfortunately, the pictures are all moving in one way. The President was referring to the attempt to take images like that and use those as a way of not only -- of trying to break the will of the American people. It's not going to work. Q Does the President believe it's wrong for CNN to show that? MR. SNOW: No, we're not -- I'm just telling you what happened. Those are editorial judgments, and I'm not going to tell you what you do and don't run. This is a free country. Q But by mentioning this in a -- MR. SNOW: Well, because you asked the question. You asked who I was referring to. Q Well, by the President raising it, I'm saying. By the President raising that issue, is he sending a message that he thinks it's wrong for networks to air that? MR. SNOW: No, again, I'm going to let -- the President, I think, is smart enough not to tell television networks what they can run and can't run. But all we're doing is making it clear what's going on. I think, perhaps -- I'm sure the editors are savvy enough to know that when they get a video like this, it's designed less to give you a full and complete view of what's going on in the country than to create a sense of triumphalism for the killers of Americans. That's the intention of that. I think that's hard to dispute. That's the only point. White House Press Corps | Press Briefing | Tony Snow | News Media | Bush Administration | Iraq
Posted by WhiteHousePressCorps.org @ 12:34 AM
|
|
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
< whpc home