MEDIA BIAS? NAAHHHH

I watched part of this morning\’s Today Show, during which I caught a segment on Jeb Bush.  Here is how that segment was introduced by co-anchor Savannah Guthrie:

“Things getting off to a rocky start on the campaign trail for likely Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush.   He has repeatedly faced sharp questions in recent days about his support for the Iraq war and his brother\’s legacy in foreign policy, and after a town hall meeting in Reno, Nevada, he was confronted, this time by a 19 year old college student, and a Democrat.  Take a listen to what happened.”

Interesting start.  Viewers are now set up to know that things aren\’t going well for that Republican Jeb.  Sharp questions tossed his way, he supports that Iraq war (no context regarding what his “support” actually was), he supports his brother\’s legacy in foreign policy (I suppose that also relates to the Iraq war stand, which remains unexplained)… 

Well, in fairness, they did leave out that Jeb beats his wife and has two priors for grand theft auto.

Ok, now we are shown the video, which has an obnoxious student reciting Democrat talking points and drawing on her vast knowledge of world events to inform Mr. Bush that his brother “created ISIS”.  When Bush responds by asking “Is that a question”, the obnoxious, and now insulted, student\’s comeback is “You don\’t need to be pedantic with me, sir”. 

See, in this young lady\’s world, expecting her to ask a question instead of make an attack speech is “pedantic”… which defines as being arrogantly obsessed with small details and overlooking the big picture.  Yep, who could argue with that.  What\’s wrong with Jeb Bush anyway? 

And, after the video ends, Matt Lauer refers to it as a “testy exchange”.  It seemed to me that the only testy part of the exchange was provided by the participant without testes, but that\’s just my opinion.

Oh, one other thing.  This video would have been a perfect lead-in to contrast the fact that Jeb Bush was asking for questions he could answer, while presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has not answered even one question in a full three weeks, and only 8 reporters\’ questions since she declared on April 12th. 

But no mention of Hillary\’s Q and A blackout was made at all.  Not a word.  On The Today Show, Hillary remains protected.

Media bias?  Naaahhhh

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UPDATE:  Now, courtesy of Michael Barbaro\’s article for the New York Times, I can produce the entire exchange between Jeb Bush and the college student, Ivy Ziedrich, verbatim:

 ZIEDRICH:  “Governor Bush.  Would you take a student question?…(ISIS came to be because your brother, President Bush, disbanded the Iraqi army)…) “It was when 30,000 individuals who were part of the Iraqi military were forced out – they had no employment, they had no income, and they were left with access to all of the same arms and weapons.  Your brother created ISIS.”

BUSH:  “All right. Is that a question?”

ZIEDRICH:  “You don\’t need to be pedantic to me, sir.”

BUSH:  “Pedantic? Wow”

ZIEDRICH:  “Why are you saying that ISIS was created by us not having a presence in the Middle East when it\’s pointless wars where we send young American men to die for the idea of American exceptionalism? Why are you spouting nationalist rhetoric to get us involved in more wars?”

BUSH:  “We respectfully disagree. We have a disagreement. When we left Iraq, security had been arranged, Al Qaeda had been taken out.

“There was a fragile system that could have been brought up to eliminate the sectarian violence.  

“And we had an agreement that the president could have signed that would have kept 10,000 troops, less than we have in Korea, could have created the stability that would have allowed for Iraq to progress.

“The result was the opposite occurred. Immediately, that void was filled.

“Look, you can rewrite history all you want. But the simple fact is that we are in a much more unstable place because American pulled back.”