CBS' Schieffer let Cheney falsely claim Reid is "adamantly opposed to any funding for the troops"

[NNN0LHI]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200704170007



Summary: On Face the Nation, Bob Schieffer did not challenge Vice President Dick Cheney's false claim that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "now has said he's adamantly opposed to any funding for the troops." In fact, Reid voted for the supplemental funding bill that the Senate passed March 29.

On the April 15 edition of CBS' Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer left unchallenged Vice President Dick Cheney's false claim that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) "now has said he's adamantly opposed to any funding for the troops." Cheney was apparently referring to Reid's proposal to cut off funding for the Iraq war in 2008 if President Bush vetoes the emergency supplemental funding bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which Bush has vowed to do as long as it contains a timetable for withdrawal. But Schieffer did not note that Reid voted for the supplemental funding bill that the Senate passed March 29, or that Reid's proposal would continue funding for the troops until March 31, 2008.

Contrary to Cheney's claim that Reid is "adamantly opposed" to funding the troops, as Media Matters for America has noted, both Democratic-led houses of Congress have passed legislation providing funding for the troops in the field. The Senate and House are expected to reconcile the bills in conference and send a final version to the president. Regarding the separate bill offered by Reid, the Associated Press reported that "Reid's latest proposal would give the president one year to get troops out, ending funding for combat operations after March 31, 2008." Since announcing his proposal, Reid has specifically stated that "Democrats are determined to make sure the troops have the funds they need."

Later in the program, Schieffer asked about Cheney's claim in May 2005 to CNN's Larry King that the Iraqi insurgency was in its "last throes," but failed to challenge Cheney's response that this remark "was geared specifically to the fact that we'd just had an election in Iraq where some 12 million people defied the car bombers and the assassins and for the first time participated in a free election." In fact, as the weblog Think Progress noted in June 2006 -- when Cheney also claimed that his "last throes" remark was meant to refer to political progress -- Cheney told King that "the level of activity that we see today, from a military standpoint, I think will clearly decline." Cheney went on to mention that "lead terrorist" Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been injured and suggested that this was a sign that "we're making major progress."

[annabanana]

1. Schieffer is blinded by the office. .

and the fact that he plays golf with some of these schmucks.. Sometimes he is on the money.. but NEVER face to face. I don't think he has the guts for it.

[Benhurst]

2. Schieffer is a Bush Crime Family friend. He's a smooth media whore,

but a media whore nonetheless.