When Jonathan “Benghazi email” Karl asked George W. Bush a biased question full of Obama bashing, he was served a dose of praise for the current president and Hillary Clinton from Bush.
Transcript from ABC News:
JONATHAN KARL: –President Obama’s been criticized for some– who say he hasn’t done as much for Africa as you did, that he’s neglected Africa. Is that– is that a bad rap?
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GEORGE W. BUSH: President Obama– cares deeply about whether or not people (UNINTEL PHRASE) continent of Africa. All I can tell ya is– is that the State Department, under his leadership– and under the leadership of Secretary Clinton, has been incredibly helpful in our efforts to deal with cervical cancer.
GEORGE W. BUSH: Doesn’t surprise me that presidents get criticized. (LAUGH)
JONATHAN KARL: You– you saw that every once and a while?
GEORGE W. BUSH: Yeah. Not from you, of course, Jonathan. (LAUGH)
JONATHAN KARL: So– so– so what do you make– I know you’re not into psychoanalysis. // Some– these are your critics– who say that– (COUGH) that all this Africa work you’re doing, that a big part of it is you’re tryin’ to make up for mistakes you made in Iraq or elsewhere–
GEORGE W. BUSH: Oh, yeah.
JONATHAN KARL: –and this is– you know, what do you say to that–
GEORGE W. BUSH: That’s fine. Let ’em continue to babble. (LAUGH)
JONATHAN KARL: –not true?
GEORGE W. BUSH: I’m tryin’ to think of the proper word: Absurd psychobabble.
The tip off that Karl’s question was loaded with bias was that he used Fox News’ ‘some say’ go to move when asking it. A good question would have been, “Do you think President Obama has done enough in Africa?” Instead of asking the proper question, Karl used the Republican talking point that Obama hasn’t done enough in Africa as his basis, and asked the former president if this was an unfair criticism. If Karl was an objective journalist, he would have never included the Republican talking point in his question.
George W. Bush didn’t dive in, and bash Obama. In fact, former President Bush went the complete opposite direction and praised both President Obama and former Sec. of State Clinton. Bush was a terrible president, but he has been a model ex-president. He has pretty much stayed out of politics, and unlike his former vice president, has not gone out of his way to bash the current administration.
Jonathan Karl is an alum of a conservative media training program, and any reputable news network would have fired him after he lied and pushed the Republican edited Benghazi emails as fact.
Part of the problem is that the mainstream media has been infected with Fox News disease. They would rather make the news than report it. The other problem is that conservative media training programs have embedded right wing believers like Karl into the mainstream press.
George W. Bush refused to take the bait. He went out of his way to praise the president, but that won’t stop Jonathan Karl and his fellow conservatives from trying to pass off Republican Obama bashing as fact in the mainstream media.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
