The Quiet Conservative July 18, 2007
Fake News in the K.C. Star
On Sunday July 15, 2007 on the front page of the Kansas City Star there appeared a story titled “I-
word spreads, but it’s all talk.” The sub heading is “Impeaching the President has become a hot
topic, but most inside politics dismiss the idea.” Now newspapers used to have a general rule that
the front page and the news sections were separate from the editorial section. When you did that,
readers could tell the difference between a factual story and just some guy’s opinion. But this isn’t
the way it’s done at the Kansas City Star. This story, which ran around a thousand words, began
above the fold on the front page complete with a picture. It continued on page A-7 as the only story
on the page. The rest of the page was an advertisement.
Now writing a news based story is simple: who, what, where, when, and sometimes why. The
picture on this front page story is of a billboard with the word “Impeach” on it. The story says it is
on the wheat fields of a 74 year old Republican named Darvin Muchow. It is on I-70 somewhere in
Kansas and the billboard is leased to a national company. Mr. Muchow isn’t happy about the
billboard and knows the “Impeach” word is about the President. That’s just about all the facts. It
certainly isn’t enough to fill a thousand words, and not notable enough to rate space on the front page
of the Sunday Kansas City Star.
As an exercise, let’s ask the journalistic questions missed by the Star: 1) where, exactly, in Kansas
on I-70 is the billboard? 2) Who is the national company that leases the billboard space from Mr.
Muchow? 3) Who paid the company to put up the message? 4) How much does it cost to have the
sign up there? 5) When was it put up? 6) How long is the lease on the sign? 7) Are there other signs
similar to this across Kansas? 8) Are there other signs across the nation with the same message? 9)
Who funded those? 10) Are these individuals or political groups? Those are some basic questions
aren’t they? Wouldn’t you think a reporter would be remotely curious about them if his story was
about a controversial billboard?
Of course, the billboard and poor Mr. Muchow weren’t the story. They were the excuse to have a
thousand word fantasy headlining the Sunday paper about impeaching the President. It quotes
Congressman Emanuel Clever, Congressman John Conyers, Congressman Dennis Moore, Sam
Graves (Republican, must have been a mistake), Senator Barbara Boxer, Bill Moyers from PBS,
political scientist Kenneth Mayer, political scientist Burdett Loomis, David Swanson of the “After
Downing Street” group (Go to the site, there is a great picture of Mr. Swanson wearing an impeach
Bush and Cheney shirt.), liberal Nation author John Nichols, and even Jay Leno from the Tonight
Show joking about Cheney. But apparently not one was asked about, or commented on, Mr.
Muchow’s billboard. Imagine that.
So now we can safely say the story is not a news story at all, but an editorial piece on the front
page. How good an editorial piece was it? The author, the editors, the publishers, and the owners of
the Star are backing the story. They printed it after all. So follow their line of reasons to see if they
back up their hidden agenda.
The fifth paragraph of the front page states that Representative Emanuel Clever received 317 e-
mails on Tuesday and 130 were centered on impeachment -and all were in favor. Were they in favor
because the President hasn’t closed the border? Because he wanted comprehensive immigration
reform? Because he has been too soft prosecuting the war? For not punishing Iran for actively
supporting terrorists in Iraq with money, training, personnel, and weapons/ manufactured IED’s?
How many e-mails does Congressman Clever normally get every day? How many say they support
the President?
Well maybe paragraph six will be better. House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers mentioned
impeachment over the firings of nine U.S. attorneys and the fact the White House wasn’t cooperating
in his hearings. I leaped ahead to page A7 to see the mention that U.S. attorneys serve at the
pleasure and discretion of the President and that former President Bill Clinton fired them all during
his presidency. I looked for the part where this investigation was part of a pattern of over 300
investigations launched by Democrats in their first 100 days of power, but found no mention.
Do we really have to go on and skewer each and every paragraph of this smear job masquerading
as a news story? Yes, yes we do. People are being influenced on politics and their worldview by
editorials such as these hiding as news stories. But if detailing the deception bores you, skip to the
last paragraph.
The first paragraph on page A7 is of a poll of respondents by a group called the American Research
Group. It is listed as a “Republican Group”. It says that 45% approve of impeachment and 46% do
not. What was left out is what the question in the poll actually was, and who the polling group is. It
turns out to be a company in New Hampshire. Once again there are no facts. Did the respondents to
the survey work for Code Pink? What was the ratio of Democrats to Republicans? Were they asked
if they knew the basis for impeachment under the Constitutional provisions? What was the
methodology of the American Research Group? Are they reliable? Since every single named person
in the article, other than the elderly Muchow and Sam Graves, is a Democrat or liberal, why trust a
‘Republican Group’ for your polling data? What else have they done? Are they people that hang
around in malls on a Tuesday morning asking questions on water quality and voting preferences? As
far as the KC Star reader knows, they are two guys with a cell phone calling small town New
Hampshire at dinner to ask leading questions.
The third paragraph down on A7 hints at a reason the numbers from the poll might be skewed.
The poll was taken right after the Lewis Libby commutation. Hmm, was the same question asked
the week before? How about now? What if the numbers were significantly different? Would the
Star put that on the front page? Kind of destroys the value of the poll numbers. Kind of calls into the
question the accuracy of the polling data.
From the fourth paragraph through the sixteenth paragraph is a little friendly advice to the
Democratic Party by the Star reporter. He is saying that impeaching Bush might not be the best
plan. In his place would be an even scarier Republican, Dick Cheney. Plus, it would unify the GOP.
We can’t have that happen.
The next two paragraphs are muddied together. The first is that Dennis Kucinich, a long shot
perennial Presidential candidate, has an impeachment resolution for Vice President Cheney. No
reason why he has the resolution, just that he does. It is followed by the Jay Leno Tonight Show
jokes about Cheney’s heart condition. Almost to the end of the story now and it is still completely
unrelated to poor Mr. Muchow’s billboard. The billboard, as I recall, was the excuse for the article.
Now we get to the unhinged part- the quotations from the liberal groups. First up is a far left group
called “After Downing Street”. Go to their web site. There is a big word “Impeach” across the
headliner. Hmm, maybe it’s their sign on the billboard out West. Somebody should have asked. It
might have been important in a news article.
Let’s look at their grievances in the article. 1) The conduct of the war in Iraq. 2) Authorization of
prisoner torture. 3) Detaining of Americans without due process. 4) Wiretapping of phone calls. 5)
The unmasking of former CIA officer Valerie Plame. 6) The “gross negligence” in the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina. We follow up by the statement of the co-founder David Swanson (The guy with
the t-shirt) “I want to see them tried and convicted and put behind bars.”
Ok, but for what? Do we give his list a pass without inspection? No please, allow me. 1) Only by
going to military web sites and soldiers blogs can you get even a remotely honest view of the situation
on the ground. The press has shamelessly forgone any credibility in reporting the war. They do not
report Iran’s involvement. They do not report any good news. They do not report any
advancement. They do not provide any context. If Americans are unhappy, it is because we feel our
soldiers are not allowed to win. For all we know, we are winning there. But even if we are, the press
will never report it. Never. They are too busy rewriting the reasons we went to war. 2) I am
unaware of any torture or authorization of torture, at least on our side. The cutting off of heads and
the torture manual of Al Qaeda is well known. You can see the pictures of the victims of Al Qaeda
torture on the web. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has publicly denied authorizing the putting of
underwear on detainee’s heads. It just isn’t done. 3) What detaining of Americans without due
process? What fantasy is that? Who was detained, and when do they appear on camera with Jackson
and Sharpton? 4) Wiretapping of phone calls? Oh, you mean people calling known Al Qaeda phone
numbers overseas. I’m OK with that. If you are calling a known bomb maker in Pakistan, I think it
is swell if the US Government knows what you are saying. 5) Everyone knew about Valerie Plame.
What everyone doesn’t know, because the press won’t tell them, is that Richard Armitage at State
blew the non-cover of the non-secret agent which is a non-crime. That’s right. There was no crime
and no one has been, or will ever be, prosecuted for putting Valerie Plame’s picture on the cover of
Vanity Fair.
Finally, 6) the press has been masterful in impressing on the public that Hurricane Katrina hit only
New Orleans, and that the Democratic Mayor, and the Democratic Governor, who panicked and did
everything possibly wrong, were innocent victims. They didn’t follow the established emergency
plans, got the people killed, they turned it political, blamed the Feds and generally acted hysterically.
The same Federal Government that traditionally only supplied money to support the states in
disasters instead found itself handling the emergency while a corrupt and incompetent state and city
government were unable to help themselves. What went unreported by the press were other cities,
such as Mobile, were wiped out by the hurricane too. With Republican leadership, they handled the
situation at the state level with Federal support. Also, the Federal bailout of the Democratic
incompetent mess in New Orleans was a feat that no other nation could have done in the same time
frame. The Coast Guard and military response were magnificent. You probably missed that in the
news along with any accurate reporting of the colossal screw up by the Democratic administrations.
Sorry for the digression. But since we included these baseless, but popular leftist generated myths,
they deserved the contemptible response they earned- a response that was notably absent in this
‘news’ story.
The next paragraph returns to the Libby commutation. This time it is openly referred to as “A fresh
outrage”. To whom is it an outrage? Who was outraged by Libby having his sentence commuted
while he appealed it? Would throwing a man in jail for lying to investigators who already knew they
were not investigating a crime anger someone? If Libby made a mistake it was a political one. He
was trying to protect the administration from a political witch hunt. His conviction had nothing to do
with Valerie Plame’s identity. So who is outraged? Are they the same people who were not
outraged at Sandy Burger stealing documents from the National Archives? Stealing them by hiding
them in his pants and socks and even stashing them under construction trailers near the archives?
Was there outrage when he got probation for destroying documents? Those stolen papers that might
have shown former President Clinton knew, and failed to deal with, Osama Bin Laden when he had
the chance. The next person that says they are, “Outraged!” tell them Libby should have gotten
what Clinton got for lying to a grand jury in his trial- paid speaking endorsements.
Now the pure bias of this front page story is on full display as we gallop to the closing of the
article. Quoting The Nation correspondent calling for impeachment, once again without foundation
and without balance, shreds the final credibility of this thousand word essay on liberalism. No honest
paper would quote The Nation without acknowledging its extreme left wing views.
The final paragraph of the article remembers Mr. Muchow, (The guy with the billboard). It states
he has issues with President Bush, but is mad about the sign: “Enough that I might take a chain saw
and cut it down.” Come to think about it, Mr. Muchow is the sum total of a conservative voice in
the article, one 74 year old farmer in an unidentified wheat field somewhere along I-70.
The press has a responsibility to have a clear demarcation line between news and commentary.
Otherwise you have propaganda. The Star ignored this and demonstrated a hard left bias on the
front page. This bias permeates the paper’s identity to the core. The story of the billboard on the
front page of the Sunday July 15th paper was not a news story. It was dishonestly presented as one.