Civility & Double Standards (Corporate Media & Bush Lies Re: FTAA, etc.)

Civility & Double Standards (Corporate Media & Bush Lies Re: FTAA, etc.)

By Robert Parry
April 25, 2001
From The Consortium

It seems like just yesterday when the national news media was quick to accuse leading politicians of lying. But George W. Bush has changed that, with journalists now won to the "civility" that Bush vowed to bring to Washington.

Take how The New York Times delicately stepped around the apparent contradictions in Bush's words at the Quebec free-trade summit. The newspaper noted that Bush promised to proceed with the hemispheric free-trade zone only if it were tied to "a strong commitment to protecting our environment and improving labor standards."

The Times added, however, that "he chose his words with enormous care, leaving unstated the critical question of whether any future trade accord would require all the countries in the hemisphere to adhere to minimum standards, from the wages they pay, to allowing unions to organize, to controlling the pollutants emitted from factories."

The newspaper went on to note that "Mr. Bush sowed even more confusion about his meaning" when he said at a press conference that the trade agreement should contain no "codicils to destroy the spirit of free trade. In other words, a free trade agreement focuses on commerce." [NYT, April 22, 2001]

While it might have sounded like Bush was speaking out of both sides of his mouth, the news media avoided drawing that harsh a conclusion.

The press certainly avoided the word "lying"….

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For the complete story published by The Consortium, click on the link below.

The author, Robert Parry, broke the Iran-Contra story in 1985 while working for Associated Press, a full 18 months before the rest of the corporate media finally picked up the story,