Hmmm - today I listened to Audie Cornish "interview" Richard Williamson, Mitt Romney's senior foreign policy adviser. On NPR's afternoon All things Considered. It was disappointing.
http://www.npr.org/...
I mean - was this supposed to be an interview? By a professional journalist? I couldn’t tell because it turned into a six minute rambling monologue by Richard Williamson, Mitt Romney's senior foreign policy adviser.
"WILLIAMS: "…once Governor Romney made a statement, within minutes, the White House distanced themselves from the embassy statement."
CORNISH: And the State Department later affirmed the statement had not been cleared by Washington.
Hey there Audie! The White House did not “distance itself from the embassy statement”. You should know that. That would have been the first question in a real interview.
“Mr. Williams – why do you claim the White House “distanced” itself from the embassy statement? They clearly said the statement had not been cleared by the White House. Period. They never disallowed the statement at all – merely confirmed it had not been cleared by the White House. Could the lack of clearing have been because the White House was busy dealing with two embassies under attack?
But Audie never asked that question. Instead she implied that the Williams lie was actually true! Good job Audie! Score one for the right wing!
And then she follows with this: “Today, Rich Williamson expressed to us his frustration with questions about the timing of Mitt Romney's statement. He said what people want to hear is not about timing, but substance.”
Score another one for the right wing lie machine. Audie repeats the lie for them! Without question! Good job Audie!
Hmmm- somehow I think the “timing” of Romney’s statement IS the substance. And that IS what people want to hear. I sure wanted to hear Williams explain it. But not Audie!
No, instead Williams was allowed to ramble on repeating unsubstantiated Romney talking points until… Audie interrupted.
“And…” she said.
Good job Audie! Score another one for the right wing!
But wait – Audie actually had something to say that had a question mark at the end.
CORNISH: And on the issue of Libya, this is, after all, where there has been the greatest damage done...
WILLIAMSON: Yes.
CORNISH: ...in the embassy attacks. Are you implying that under President Romney - a President Romney - that the killing of the ambassador would not have happened?
Did you see that? A question mark at the end of that sentence! Good job Audie! But then… Williams was left to ramble and never actually answer the question.
WILLIAMSON: Let me be perfectly clear,… ….. ………..
And Audie followed with, “So Governor Romney would have us be involved in reconstruction efforts in Libya?” Williams rambled, ignored her question, and Audie… well… … … good job Audie!
That was the last statement out of Audies’s mouth that had a question mark after it.
Williamson continued to ignore Audie and ramble on repeating Romney talking points.
And then… Audie finished off with…
“Now a number of assertions made there about President Obama's foreign policy. And in the coming days we plan to talk, as well, with the Obama campaign about foreign policy.”
WOW! That’s… well… pathetic.
Williams gets 7 minutes of airtime to spew out unchallenged lies and “in the coming days…” there will be an opposing viewpoint?
Of course by then the damage is done. The repeated lies will have a life of their own – especially the lies repeated by Audie.
Nothing left to say except – Good job Audie!
