On her October 7 broadcast, CNN‘s Connie Chung took a U.S. congressmember to task for doubting George W. Bush.
After Rep. Mike Thompson (D.-Calif.) told Chung that there seemed to be no evidence that Iraq posed an immediate danger to the people of the United States or its allies, the anchor responded, “Well, let’s listen to something that President Bush said tonight, and you tell me if this doesn’t provide you with the evidence that you want.”
She then aired a clip from the speech that Bush made in Cincinnati:
We’ve learned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb-making, in poisons and deadly gases. And we know that after September 11, Saddam Hussein’s regime gleefully celebrated the terrorist attacks on America.
After this soundbite, Chung continued: “Congressman, doesn’t that tell you that an invasion of Iraq is justified?”
Thompson began to respond: “Connie, we haven’t seen any proof that any of this has happened. I have sat through all the classified briefings on the Armed Services….”
But this questioning of what Bush said appeared to be too much for Chung. She interrupted Thompson’s answer, saying, “You mean you don’t believe what President Bush just said? With all due respect…you know… I mean, what…”
Faced with Chung’s obvious alarm that someone might not take Bush’s word as definitive proof, Thompson tried to reassure her: “No, no, that’s not what I said…. I said that there has been nothing in the committee hearing briefings that have substantiated this. If there is substantiation, we need to see that in Congress, not hear it over the television monitor.”
Later in the broadcast, Chung returned to the question of whether Thompson trusted Bush, suggesting that skepticism toward Bush was equivalent to an endorsement of Saddam Hussein:
Rather than insinuating that it’s unpatriotic to question a commander in chief, Chung might better have looked into the question of whether or not Bush’s statements on Iraq have been trustworthy. That was the approach taken by two reporters for the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain, Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landay, who interviewed more than a dozen military, intelligence and diplomatic officials on this question (10/8/02):
According to Strobel and Landay, none of the officials they interviewed disagreed with this assessment.
The Knight-Ridder story addresses the very issue on which Chung chided Thompson for doubting Bush: “The officials said there’s no ironclad evidence that the Iraqi regime and the terrorist network are working together or that Saddam has ever contemplated giving chemical or biological weapons to Al Qaeda, with whom he has deep ideological differences.”
While it’s Chung’s job to ask tough questions of politicians like Thompson, asking him how he dares to contradict another government official is hardly the way to go about it. A skeptical response to official claims is something Chung would do well to emulate, not attack.
ACTION: Please encourage Connie Chung to show more skepticism of official pronouncements– rather than criticizing those who demonstrate such skepticism.
CONTACT:
CNN
Connie Chung Tonight
conniechungtonight@cnn.com
As always, please remember that your comments are taken more seriously if you maintain a polite tone. Please cc fair@fair.org with your correspondence.
See the Strobel and Landay story at:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.hts/nation/1607676
