The friendly confines of Fox News

September 9, 2007

Given that he’s working hand-in-hand with the White House’s public-relations team, Gen. David Petraeus enters tomorrow’s congressional testimony as an advocate for the president’s policy, not a neutral and objective observer. To reinforce this belief, Petraeus has decided to spend some of his evening tomorrow night with the “fair and balanced” team at Fox News.

Tomorrow night, after spending the day telling Congress that President Bush’s Iraq escalation should continue, Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker will take their PR campaign to a more comfortable setting: Fox News.

On Fox News Sunday this morning, host Chris Wallace announced the interview: “Now a special program note. Tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. eastern on the Fox News Channel, Brit [Hume] will have an exclusive interview with General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker about the state of the Iraq war and their testimony to Congress. Please be sure to watch.”

This isn’t an entirely new concern. In July, Petraeus chatted with far-right activist and blogger Hugh Hewitt, prompting Andrew Sullivan to note, “There’s concern [Petraeus is] not a disinterested party in a critical debate. There is worry that by talking to partisans like Hugh Hewitt, he will only undermine his credibility.”

Now, the next question is what other news outlets Petraeus may speak with tomorrow. When FNC claims to have an “exclusive” with Petraeus, that only means that Brit Hume will have a one-on-one discussion with the General. Petraeus can, however, have other “exclusive” interviews with other networks. In fact, given the interest in his perspective, Petraeus could probably get as much airtime as he’d like on every network.

So, will Petraeus stick to the friendly confines of a partisan network, from which he can expect fawning questions, or will Petraeus seek a broader, more mainstream audience?

Propaganda is a way of life in America today. We are being bankrupted and destroyed by these enemies within….the bush white house and the totally corrupt congress. Bunch of whores, and unless people wake up, it is over. I think it already is, we have lost this country and are quickly becoming a totaliarian nation. There are two unendurable governments, one is anarchy (no rules) and the other is a total dictatorship. That is what this once-respected republic has become.
For those of us with a mind, it is time to leave the country. That is what I am going to do. A nation that will allow this madness to continue until 2008 is too weak and sick for me. Throw the bastards out now, or it will be over and done with.
The US constitution is destroyed, yet the congress won’t impeach these bastards? Why? They are just as rotten as the bushies…all of them. People won’t get off their asses and scream, I am tired of fighting apathy, and that is what I see everywhere.
Disgusted in California.

  • Fox is just a more focused version of what’s all over the mainstream. Corporation-approved “news” isn’t news at all. Whatever big business ‘s producing it, it’s still propaganda.

  • General Betrayus.

    I can’t hear the name any other way.
    I can’t say the name any other way.
    I can’t write the name any other way.

    Those of you who can…

    1) I don’t know whether to congratulate you on your sensical and sane perspective…

    2) Or curse you for you refusal to see the rules of engagement for what they are: Catapulting the Propaganda!

    For me…
    It is all #2:
    We the people are being betrayed to,
    And lied to by one of our employees…

    Ergo:

    General Betrayus.

    I can’t hear the name any other way.
    I can’t say the name any other way.
    I can’t write the name any other way.

    And that’s forever.

  • While FoxNews is the worst, let’s not kid ourselves: Petraeus can expect fawning questions from pretty much any US network he chooses to appear on.

  • If Betrayus doesn’t have the guts to go on a non-Pravda network, how can he have the guts to to give King George the truth. Boy, Bush’s yes men are sure wimpy, pretty boy cowards when it comes to appearing on real network news shows where the hosts ask hardball questions, not the softballs that FAUX NEWS throws at the Bushies!

    Betrayus is the top general in Iraq because he knows whose ass to kiss, not whose ass to kick!!

  • After all the work that’s gone into building the administration’s case, Petraeus and Crocker should be capable of going on any network and holding their own against any interviewer. Lesser wingers do it all the time. My guess is that the Fox exclusive is a reward for being loyal Bushies.

  • Speaking of friendly media venues, Bob Novak actually seems a little blue (and not just his lips). The latest Evans/Novak political report showed up in my mailbox yesterday and a couple of paragraphs kind of stood out:

    “The most politically significant element of President George W. Bush’s surprise visit to Iraq was his seemingly offhand comment that there might be troop withdrawals in the offing. That brings out in the open what had been implicit anyway: that the debate over Iraq is no longer whether there should be troop withdrawals, only how rapid they should be.

    “The Bush Administration’s plan for a series of vetoes of individual appropriations bills is being torpedoed by plans of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to wrap all but national security spending into one omnibus bill. That will dare the President to veto it and risk a government shutdown, as he almost certainly will have to do. President Bill Clinton made the majority Republicans take the blame for the shutdown a decade ago. Is Bush skillful enough to do the same?”

    I can’t help thinking Novak may be engaging in a little wishful thinking on that second point. But I also had a feeling Reid might have a right hook or two on tap for anyone watching his lead hand to long. I’d bet he’s got a few more.

  • CalD: My impression is that Novak is a grumpy old fart who has had his “leak to” status taken away and is now belittling all that he loved for the last 7 years. Such Loyalty!!

    Lesson: Throw the underlings under the closest bus, but hell has no fury like a biased writer(journalist would be insulting other journalists) who has his invite taken away.

  • So Bush surrounds himself with a pet rock and a crock pot, trying to serve up a stew that his detractors can choke on. But that “trojan horse” has already been tried. It didn’t work out too well for “the little corporal’ that tried it then—and it will not work for “the intellectually-challenged deciderer” who’s trying it now.

    General Pet Rock—it just sits there and looks important, while American blood continues to spill on the altar of “Mr. Bush’s War….”

  • Since his interview on the Charlie Rose show some months ago and the kid glove respect he gets from interviewers fawning over the desire to kiss his medals Petraeus is shamelessly making the PR tour on TV shows to reach the masses who don’t read but get their news from TV to sell this occupation. It is a surge campaign trail and quite frankly I find it offensive that our General and our Ambassador should be exploited in such a manner to sell military propaganda. It may be legal but it is still shameless, making the general’s report a political campaign, especially when no other acting generals who disagree are allowed the same opportunities without fear of retribution. Brit Hume would go along with anything that supports the occupation. Note that no progressive shows exist to call the general out. One big propaganda campaign where reality is turned into cheerleading.
    The first giant experiment to see how well the military can use a PR propaganda campaign to accomplish its goals. Congress may hold their noses long enough to swallow it but 70% of the nation will see it for what it is…The Bush Lie Continued.

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  • How come after all of this success the heroic General still can’t heroically drive the ten miles to Baghdad International Airport? And how come his heroic Commander in Chief had to land unannounced at Iraq’s equivalent of Mojave Airport to announce our success against the spiders and scorpions?

    Of course Petraeus will be too busy war fightin’ to appear on Keith Olbermann’s “Countdown” or “The Daily Show” after his appearance on Faux News. Anyone who thinks that the General doesn’t have political ambitions should turn their affairs over to a conservator.

  • He’s ‘owned’ by the American people. He’s a soldier.

    He doesn’t have the right to have an exclusive interview with any corporation until he retires.

    Congress… Grr.

  • I just don’t see the other networks as being that much less friendly – if at all unfriendly – to the administration’s PR push, or to Petraeus. I don’t hear the other networks asking why they have to have an actual PR/advertising plan to sell the president’s policy on Iraq. Given the effort that has gone into this, I’m kind of surprised that Petraeus and Crocker will not be appearing on QVC or the Home Shopping Network.

    A war that was built on manufactured evidence,
    By an administration:

    That ignored all the lessons of years of war-gaming,
    That did not properly equip or train the troops,
    That shorted them on services and care when injuries resulted,
    That awarded billions in no-bid contracts that have succeeded only in enriching the contractors and have failed in every other way,
    That forced an expensive strategy to gain political breathing room, against the advice of the Joint Chiefs and “commanders on the ground,”
    That has failed to hold the Iraqis accountable for political progress,
    That is once again monkeying around with statistics in order to sell their failed policy.

    Every single Democrat should not just be voting “no” on continued funding, but “no more,” period. If the Republicans want to support a war and occupation, if they want to drain the treasury, let them – but let them do it all by themselves, without one single Democratic vote. Are you paying attention, Harry Reid? Are you taking notes, Nancy Pelosi?

    The WH doesn’t give a crap about “the troops;” Bush is incapable of caring about anything but himself and his fragile and damaged ego. In Petraeus, he has found a soul mate – someone whose own ego is so invested in this plan that he would rather keep throwing Americans into the maw of blood and violence than admit that the surge was the mistake the Joint Chiefs and the commanders and the Iraq Study Group said it would be.

    But, instead of standing up and facing the ugly truth of all those deaths and injuries that have happened since January, they will continue to offer up Americans to sacrifice, using some twisted logic that says that they have to, or all the other deaths will be in vain.

    It’s going to be an ugly, ugly week, there won’t be any serious examination of what Petraeus and Crocker have to say, the Dems will cave – again – and we will all be angry – still – and we will do it all again in a couple weeks or a couple months.

    I’m just so, so sick of it all.

  • Good to see that Bush’s Pet-raeus hasn’t been transformed from as Army General to a political hack or anything like that.

  • I’ll give Petraeus and Crocker the benefit of the doubt until after the fact, i.e. after their hour on Fox.

  • Brit Hume: “General, isn’t it true that the setbacks in Iraq can be attributed to Bill Clinton’s gutting of the military?”

    “General, would you describe President Bush’s role as Commander-in-Chief as being either ‘Churchilian’ or “Lincolnian’?”

    “General, in your opinion, if the Democrats succeed in retreating from Iraq, how long does the United States have before it is invaded by al Qaeda?”

  • For all those who were “shocked” I would “attack” a respected military leader (“General Betrayus”):

    You want to pull your heads out of your asses NOW, morons?????

    Calling the “professional” American officer class (i.e., the tradeshool boys fom West Point, Annapolis, and Colorado Springs) who are supposed to be the best of the best the careerist traitors they are is merely acknowledging reality.

    Betrayus learned long ago that his West Point Cadet Oath – “we will neither lie, cheat, not steal, nor tolerate among us those who do” – was as “quaint” as the Geneva Accords when it comes to being promoted to Perfumed Prince of Versailles-on-the-Potomac in the Imperial Wehrmacht.

  • Regarding #1 comment
    My constitution and my country are worth fighting for we need people that are willing to fight , so go ahead and run away we dont need your kind here .

  • If Petraeus would stop running away from Glenn Greenwald, and submit to a no holds barred interview with him, then I might give Petraeus some credit. But based upon every act Petraeus has performed over the last few years, from his failures to get the Iraqi forces in shape (despite constantly stating how glorious the training was going), to his pitiful losing of hundreds of thousands of weapons in Iraq, to his politicization of the military by writing op-eds at various times through out this war (with most if not all of of his positions turning out wrong), and giving exclusive interviews to faux news organizations, now coupled with the fact that he refuses to make public the raw data he is using to come to his conclusions and his failure to explain the methodology he is using to make his claims, I fail to see how he has any credibility on anything, and the Dems need to rip him a new one. The public will support that. Not that the Dems would do such a thing, however.

  • Steve Benen: “So, will Petraeus stick to the friendly confines of a partisan network, from which he can expect fawning questions, or will Petraeus seek a broader, more mainstream audience?”

    If Petraeus is reluctant to subject himself to being interviewed by such fawning sycophants as Chris Matthews, Katie Couric, or Tim Russert, yet can make time for Britt Hume at Fox News, then there’s really a problem.

    It’s a pity that it’s Hume instead of Wallace interviewing Petraeus. As much as I find wanting in Wallace, he at least will ask provoking or adversial questions oince in a while. I suppose the same could be said of Matthews as well, though he’s even more of a hit and miss proposition — with Matthews, you never know whether you’ll get the ‘angry populist’ or the overawed fan boy.

    .

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