Topic: CNSNews.com
An April 29 CNSNews.com article by Susan Jones regurgitates the Republican National Committee's attacks on an ad by the Democratic National Committee highlighting John McCain's statement that the U.S. needs to maintain a military presence in Iraq for "maybe a hundred" years. Jones not only fails to give the DNC an opportunity to respond to the attack, she also ignores that McCain has flip-flopped on the idea of a military presence in Iraq based on its presence in Korea.
After repeating McCain's statement from the New Hampshire town hall meeting from which his "maybe a hundred" statement claim that "we've been in Japan for 60 years. We've been in South Korea for 50 years or so," Jones adds, "McCain repeatedly has clarified that he does not foresee 100 years of U.S. combat in Iraq -- just a lengthy post-war troop presence."
In fact, on the Nov. 27, 2007, edition of PBS' "Charlie Rose," McCain was asked by Rose if South Korea "is an analogy of where Iraq might be ... in terms of an American presence over the next, say, 20, 25 years, that we will have a significant amount of troops there." McCain replied, "I don't think so." Rose then asked: "Even if there are no casualties?" McCain replied, "No. But I can see an American presence for a while. But eventually I think because of the nature of the society in Iraq and the religious aspects of it that America eventually withdraws."
Isn't that flip-flop newsworthy to Jones and CNS? Doesn't that, as well as the DNC's response to the RNC's complaints that Jones failed to obtain, fall under CNS' stated mission to "fairly present all legitimate sides of a story"? Regurgitating press releases is a pretty sure sign that you're not.
