Posted by
Zero House on Thursday, July 17, 2008 4:41:59 PM
Like many last weekend, I mourned the passing a great figure for the Conservative cause, Tony Snow. I first heard of Tony when he filled in for Rush Limbaugh back in the mid-90's, and soon became aware of his earlier accomplishments. I was thrilled when he was named to host Fox News Sunday a few years later, and over the years enjoyed him on Fox and on his own show; and most recently when he filled in for O'Reilly on his radio show.
We heard great tributes to Tony Snow by media and political figures on both the left and the right. My favorite tribute came from Bob Beckel, of all people, when he related the time the two hosted a short-lived news program on Fox Network in the early 90's. Across the board we heard about how fair Tony was when he gave an interview, how tough he could be on fellow Conservatives, and many related to how much he read and how informed he was. The latter completely contradicts the [now] infamous AP obituary written by Douglas K. Daniels where he offers an editorial criticism along with the traditional obituary: "Critics suggested that Snow was turning the traditionally informational daily briefing into a personality-driven media event short on facts and long on confrontation."
To me this a highly subjective statement, an opinion that is not likely universally shared. It is not the same as stating a fact, such as a jail record (which Snow didn't have), or the famous confrontation with David Gregory (which did occur). Last Sunday, the ultra-left St. Louis Post-Dispatch chose to run the AP obituary as its story regarding Tony Snow's death. By contrast the same paper gave much more reverent and significant coverage to Tim Russert, which I believe was appropriate as I also admired Russert. That the same respect could not be given to Tony Snow is an indictment on that paper's --ever increasing-- leftist partisan views. One only needs to look at its daily editorial, headlines, and in-house columns to know that the PD is little more than a campaign add for the Missouri state and national Democrats, disguised as news.
As would be predicted, the PD was deluged with emails protesting the way Snow's death was handled in their paper. In response, Deputy Managing Editor Steve Parker cites in his blog other citations from such papers as the left-leaning New York Times, and the conservative Washington Times about an icident where Snow mischaracterized his own opinion about the President's regarding stem cell research, with his own. He apologized for that incident, which in itself does not constitute a pattern of not commanding the facts. This is nothing more than a pathetic rationalization to use the AP's more sweeping critcism. Interestingly enough, I saw the same rationalization used on a blog at the Daily Oregonian website, almost to the letter. That makes me wonder if there isn't a set of talking points being passed around the major media outlets after both Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly criticized the AP story last weekend.