Ney's emphasis on being honest a lesson he should also employ
I almost fell of my chair in disbelief after reading Rep. Bob Ney's recent column in The Advocate (May 28), "Media needs to get it right."
It was filled with the most outlandish comments I have read from a representative in our area in a long time, and failed to mention the real reason why Bob Ney is so irate at Newsweek and Michael Isikoff in particular.
Newsweek relied upon a single source to report a true story. In fact, on May 23, Scott McClellan, the White House Press Secretary, categorically stated that Newsweek was not responsible for the riots regarding the desecration of the Quaran.
"As I said last week, and as President (Hamed) Karzai said today, and as General (Richard) Myers had said previously, the protest may well have been pre-staged," he said.
So not only is Bob Ney contradicted by the White House, but also the Department of Defense chief of staff and the president of Afghanistan!
Furthermore, the desecration of the Koran was widely reported as early as 2002, and recent FBI investigations have revealed that many instances of Koran desecration have taken place at Guantanamo, as reported by the Washington Post on May 27, in an article titled Pentagon Confirms Koran Incidents."
Bob Ney is the one being irresponsible. Why? Well, Bob Ney has problems of his own, tied closely to the dealings of lobbyist Jack Abrahmoff and his "overseas junkets" and Indian casinos. A story Michael Isikoff of Newsweek has been working on.
It is only reasonable to assume that Bob Ney is seeking to unfairly discredit a reporter who is writing a story unfavorable to our Congressman.
Finally, If Bob Ney wants to look at irresponsible untruths, he has to look no further than his own vote to authorize the war in Iraq, a war based upon misleading and outright false claims of weapons of mass destruction and ties to al-Qaida, as the recently leaked Downing Street memo shows. This memo states clearly that the intelligence was being fixed around the facts.
Untruths that have lead to tens of thousands of Iraqi dead, and almost 2,000 U.S. dead and billions of dollars of tax payers money spent to hold up an increasingly unstable country.
Bob Ney needs to put aside his false indignation and get back to work fixing this countries real problems.
Russell Hughlock is a member of Licking County Pro-Active Citizens. Visit the organization's Web site at www.licopac.org.
Comments