posted on April 6, 2007 07:10:07 AM new
Media reported White House criticism of Pelosi Syria trip, but not its silence on GOP-led trip
In reporting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is planning a visit to Syria accompanied by a bipartisan congressional delegation this week, several media outlets highlighted White House criticism of Pelosi's trip but did not note that a Republican-led delegation met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on April 1 -- nor did they note the White House's inconsistency in criticizing Pelosi for her trip but remaining silent on the GOP-led visit.
As the weblog Think Progress noted, during a March 30 White House press briefing, deputy press secretary Dana Perino attacked Pelosi for her decision to spend time in Syria as part of a Mideast tour. Perino stated: "I know that Assad probably really wants people to come and have a photo opportunity and have tea with him, and have discussions about where they're coming from, but we do think that's a really bad idea." But the White House did not criticize Republican lawmakers who were separately slated to visit Syria. Indeed, on April 1, Reps. Frank Wolf (R-VA), Joseph R. Pitts (R-PA) and Robert Aderholt (R-AL) traveled to Damascus and met with Assad, two days before Pelosi's scheduled trip.
Several media outlets subsequently reported the White House's criticism of Pelosi without noting this inconsistency:
On the April 2 edition of CNN Newsroom, CNN Beirut bureau chief Brent Sadler reported that Pelosi's "Middle East shuttle with a bipartisan delegation has drawn fire from the George Bush Republican White House" because Pelosi "plans to meet later this week with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus." Sadler did not mention the Republican-led trip to Syria, although, during an earlier report on the April 2 edition of CNN's American Morning, Sadler did report: "Pelosi shrugged away that criticism, saying that, just 24 hours ago, a Republican three-person delegation also passed through Syria and met with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad."
In an April 2 article (subscription required), The Wall Street Journal reported that "White House officials continued yesterday in their public rebuking of the speaker for the Syria visit." But the Journal did not mention the Republican delegation's reported visit to Syria or the inconsistency of the White House in its criticism.
In a March 30 post on The Politico's Congress weblog, The Crypt, Politico staff writer Patrick O'Connor repeated the White House's attack on Pelosi but did not mention the Republican-led trip. O'Connor wrote: "The White House criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Friday for stopping in Syria during her trip to the Middle East. ... 'We discourage members of Congress to make such visits to Syria,' White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. 'This is a country that is a state sponsor of terror.' " Shortly before O'Connor's entry was posted, Bloomberg published an article on its website mentioning the Republican-led trip to Syria.
As Media Matters for America documented, on the April 1 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, Weekly Standard editor and Fox News contributor Bill Kristol echoed the White House's attack on Pelosi. Several other Fox News personalities have similarly criticized Pelosi while ignoring the Republican-led trip:
On the April 2 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-hosts Steve Doocy, Gretchen Carlson, and Brian Kilmeade sharply criticized Pelosi, while ignoring the Republican-led trip. Doocy asked: "What the heck is she doing in the Middle East?" adding, "This has got the White House flummoxed." Doocy later said, "[I]n our first hour today, about two hours ago, we had this as a question of the day, whether or not you thought she [Pelosi] was actually being helpful and mediating, or do you think she was meddling. The answer, overwhelmingly, meddler." Earlier in the show, on-screen text teasing the segment read: "Syria-ous mistake?"
On the April 1 edition of Fox News' Hannity's America, host Sean Hannity said that Pelosi "decid[ed] to spend her spring break frolicking with Tehran's terrorist minions." The accompanying on-screen text read: "Wrong Time for Pelosi to Hang with Terror Sponsors." Hannity did not note the Republican-led trip.
Also, on the April 1 edition of CBS' Face the Nation, while interviewing White House counselor Dan Bartlett about U.S.-Middle East relations, host Bob Schieffer did not challenge Bartlett for asserting: "We did ask her not to go. We did not believe it would advance the diplomatic efforts in the Middle East. I think most Americans would not think that the leader of the Democratic Party in the Congress should be meeting with the heads of a state sponsor of terror." Schieffer reported that "the president hasn't been too anxious to talk to Syria about what's going on there. Apparently she is."
The selective criticism by some in the media of Pelosi's planned visit to Syria mirrors conservatives' attacks on several Democrats who traveled to Damascus in December 2006. As Media Matters noted, numerous conservative media figures assailed Democratic Sens. Bill Nelson (FL), John Kerry (MA), and Christopher Dodd (CT) for meeting with Assad but ignored Sen. Arlen Specter's (R-PA) meeting with the Syrian president later that month."""
The article goes on and on with more repug DOUBLE STANDARDS.
