9/11 Family Members With Axes To Grind

05 Mar, 2004 by John Hawkins

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As a general rule of thumb, you should start to get VERY suspicious when the mainstream media runs “anecdotal stories”. I say that because you can find a handful of people who believe JUST ABOUT ANYTHING. That means it’s very easy to decide what sort of story you want write, get a few juicy quotes, and then imply that the people you spoke to represent a majority.

If you want to see a perfect example of how this is done, just look at the “Bush is exploiting 9/11 stories” that the media is playing right now. 9/11 was not only the defining event of the last 4 years, it was one of defining events of the last hundred years. It has been talked about, analyzed, studied, & debated every single day since it happened and it has had a profound effect on America. Yet, Bush runs an ad with a very minimal amount of footage in it from 9/11 & we hear hysterical cries of “exploitation, exploitation”!

But you see, we’re hearing that story because that is the story the media wants to tell you. They could have just as easily done anecdotal stories that said “family members of 9/11 victims like Bush ads” or “family members of 9/11 victims have no strong opinion about Bush ads,” but that doesn’t fit their agenda.

Let me show you a little evidence that’ll back-up what I’m saying. I went through an AP article entitled 9/11 Victims’ Kin Angered by Bush Ads that features 9/11 relatives who are “outraged” over Bush’s ads and I googled every person who had an angry reaction. Interestingly enough, 5 out of the 6 people interviewed had an ax to grind with George Bush. The people who trashed Bush in this one are…

— Coleen Kelly who is a member of an anti-war group called “Peaceful Tomorrows” & spoke at an anti-war rally with Susan Sarandon.

— Jeff Zack & Harold Schaitberger are the spokesman and president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Union who “gave Kerry an early endorsement in the presidential race”.

— I found no previous attacks on Bush by Barbara Minervino who “questioned whether Bush was “capitalizing on the event”‘.

— Like Colleen Kelly, David Potorti is part of an anti-war group called Peaceful Tomorrows. Here’s a quote from an interview he did at Buzzflash back in October of 2003,

“I feel like the foreign policy of the Bush Administration is almost like a second assault on us. We had this terrorist attack and now it’s almost like we have this other attack from our own government which is doing things which clearly are not in our interests, and clearly are not reducing the chances of another terrorist attack happening again. Sometimes I feel quite assaulted from all quarters. And it’s just a very odd place to be — to feel like your own government is not operating in your best interest.”

— Kristen Breitweiser has been claiming for quite a while that the Bush administration is covering up/refusing to investigate 9/11. Read more about it in this 2003 article called “Four 9/11 Moms Battle Bush” — and yes, Breitweiser is one of the moms battling Bush.

Come on folks, this article is a joke! We don’t have any polling data, we don’t know how the reporters chose these people to quote, we don’t know how many pro-Bush quotes weren’t included, all we have are 5 out of 6 people who the reporters MUST HAVE KNOWN were going to trash Bush before they even talked to them.

This piece is liberal bias at its worst and if AP had any integrity, they’d issue a public apology for putting out this sort of slanted bilge.

***Update #1***: The plot thickens! It seems that one of the people criticizing Bush in this article has actually campaigned for Kerry. From “Schaitberger Stumps for Kerry“…

“After Kerry’s surprise victory in Iowa, IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger spent the last week in New Hampshire on the campaign trail helping to keep Kerry’s momentum going.

…As co-chair of the Kerry for President campaign and President of the first union to endorse John Kerry, Schaitberger’s visit generated significant press coverage.

So they’re quoting a “co-chair of the Kerry for President campaign” in the article without even telling their readers about it? Could AP be any more deceptive?

Hat tip to Little Green Footballs for finding this.

***Update #2***: This just keeps getting better and better. Apparently Peaceful Tomorrows has received millions not only from US taxpayers — which is mind-blowing in and of itself — but it has also received “4.3 million…from the Howard Heinz Endowment”. Boy, it’s funny how that worked out isn’t it?