On May 28th, CNN's Crossfire had as their topic the stolen election. Under the guise of presenting 'both sides', their guests were Bill Sammon of the Moonie-controlled Washington Times, author of "At Any Cost: How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Presidency" (which accuses Gore of trying to steal the election and presents Bush as practically heroic), and Jake Tapper, author of "Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency" (which accuses both Gore and Bush equally of trying to steal the election). Such sleazy tactics would be expected from the more blatantly right-wing Faux News, but those of us who have respected Bill Press in the past were jolted to see him let Sammon natter on and on, with occasional anti-Gore comments by Jake Tapper (who basically defines the term 'apologetic liberal').

A good number of us are writing to Bill Press to let him know that he's lost our support. Below are two emails from Lisa Thomas of Mad Grandparents for Justice, one to the fringefolk discussion group about the show, and the other to Bill Press himself - once a hero, but no longer.

Date: Mon, 28 May 2001
From: "Lisa Thomas"
Subject: a retraction on commending CNN by letter

An hour or so ago, I wrote and suggested we bombard CNN with letters, applauding their decision to FINALLY deal with the "questionable" election. It began with a fair presentation on Greta van Susteran's show, where Vincent Bugliosi argued the correct side. I was cheered to discover that the topic would again be discussed on Crossfire tonight, with Jake Tapper of Salon.com taking our side against Bill Sammon of the Washington Times.

I STILL recommend letter-writing, but it will be to tell Bill Press how miserably he failed. NEVER has he let us down so. First, Sammon was on one side and there WAS no one to counter him. Sammon straddled the fence, seeming to imply that EVERYONE tried to grab the presidency, and in the end Press agreed with him. Somehow, judging by the taste in my mouth, Al Gore came out to be the bad guy.

Not once was the felons' list mentioned. Not a word on disenfranchisement. Nothing on the legality of the Supreme Court's stopping the vote. In short, nothing of substance.

I have to wait until I get a printer for a real letter, but I hope some of you will let Bill Press know that a performance like tonight's puts CNN right next to Fox News.

Lisa

From: Lisa Thomas
Sent: Mon, 28 May 2001
To: Bill Press (www.cnn.com/crossfire)
Subject: One more betrayal

Bill Press, I lost a hero tonight. You promised us a fresh look at the 2000 election and then gave us an extremely rightwing representative (Sammon) against a man who seemed to be saying BOTH Al Gore and Bush were just trying to grab the election. Never ONCE did you mention Vincent Bugliosi's arguments regarding the legality of Supreme Court usurpation. Never once did you mention the terribly askew felons' list that cost Gore so many votes. Never once did you mention the obvious attempts through faulty machinery in black/Democratic areas to cut down on Al Gore's votes. You ended up letting stand the idea that perhaps Gore WAS trying to steal the election. You ARE NO BETTER THAN FOX NEWS, obviously ruled by the corporations that gain by having a man like George W. Bush in the White House. I had thought you would stand up with a LOT more backbone than you apparently have.

History will win and in the end, people will see what the Bush Machine did to manipulate this election. Most people who study it objectively already know that Bush DID steal the election. I suspect that you know it yourself. But obviously your paycheck means more to you than the truth.

Lisa Thomas

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