by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
July 30, 2004
On the first day of the Democratic National Convention, the CBC used the opportunity to do nothing other than to bash George W. Bush.
On The National, Mark Kelly introduced the piece from Boston by saying that the Democrats are trying to focus on boosting John Kerry, not bashing George W. Bush. He then went to the floor of the convention for a report by CBC correspondent David Halton.
Halton first spoke about how united the Democratic Party is saying, "just about everyone is towing the line behind John Kerry, less because of enthusiasm for their presidential candidate than because of their intense dislike of George Bush". Halton had obviously searched the convention floor to find delegates who would provide sound bites consistent with the Bush-hating theme of the report.
and find them he did. The first delegate interviewed said, "I think he’s (Bush) probably the most dangerous man that ever sat in this office. I think, we are closer to a Mussolini-style dictatorship than we’ve ever been".
This guy was a hard act to follow but two other delegates were interviewed. The first described Bush by saying, "he’s a moron, absolutely". The second said that the president has sullied democracy.
Halton then sadly went on to explain that the audience won’t hear much Bush-bashing from the podium because John Kerry had asked them to tone it down in order not to turn off independent voters. This was not good news for the CBC so Halton had to come up with someone who disagreed with playing down of the attacks against George W. Bush at the convention. Halton then produced, film director, Michael Moore.
Moore seemed like a Bushie when compared to the first guy who accused the president of bringing in a "Mussolini-style dictatorship". Moore merely urged the Democrats not to become wishy-washy in letting up their attacks on Bush.
Following Michael Moore and seemingly out of context, the piece spoke about the incident in which Teresa Heinz Kerry told a reporter to "just shove it". The CBC didn’t bother explaining what had happened just prior to Heinz Kerry making the remark to put it in context. (the reporter for a conservative paper kept asking her what she meant by the term "un-american" in a speech that she had just made--Heinz Kerry kept denying that she used that word). The CBC omitted the fact that the reporter was right - Teresa did in fact describe some people as un-american during her speech.
a reinvigorated David Halton later said that not everyone who took the podium was following the advice not to bash the president. The CBC then showed a clip of al Gore’s speech to the delegates who was described by Halton as "at least one prominent Democrat who did take after Bush".
Halton then closed the segment by talking about how important John Kerry’s speech on Thursday would be.
The entire convention segment was nothing other more than an opportunity to go after Bush. If viewers were hoping to learn anything about John Kerry or Democratic Party policies, they were sadly disappointed.