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Think Dan Rather Has A Liberal Bias ?
Compared To The European Media, He's Rush Limbaugh.

by Randy Barker

CBS's Dan Rather has recently been showing his true Left-leaning colors, not taking as long as CBS's Walter Cronkite did to come out of the closet. Cronkite at least waited until after he retired to proclaim he favors a one-world socialist government that would take precedence over the U.S. Constitution. Rather, on the other hand, has already started attending Democrat fundraisers while still an "objective" reporter. Not to mention getting his hair spiked and growing sideburns, presumably to attract round-heeled interns attending those fundraisers.

But "Spike" Rather pales in comparison to the insufferable socialist European newscasters that were shown on C-SPAN at the start of George Bush's trip to Europe. C-SPAN was replaying excerpts from foreign newscasts commenting on the protests about Bush's stance against the Kyoto Treaty and for capital punishment, particularly the execution of Tim McVeigh. These segments started with the China Central News, and went on to a news program in Germany, to the BBC in England, to France, and finally to Canada. All broadcasts were in English, except for France, which was good because you could catch all the haughty, sneering superiority in European voices that could have been lost in translation. It was like everyone had a Northeast liberal attitude on steroids.

Newscasters editorialized about the insanity of capital punishment in the U.S., interviewed people who called Americans "bloodthirsty", and equated America with "barbarous" Belarus, all the while showing protestors in Madrid holding "Kill Bush" signs. But what was absolutely amazing was that the Canadian Broadcasting System, in an effort to get "America's view" about this subject, switched to Christopher Hitchins, the unkempt, unshaven, and unwashed un-American liberal journalist from Britain.

The other area of European arrogance  was on the environment, and the Kyoto Treaty.  Newscasters snarled their disapproval of Bush for not aligning himself with Europe on this subject. But in reality, Bush is exactly where the hypocritical European governments are. No member of the European Community has signed the Kyoto Treaty, either. No advanced country in their right mind would sign such a thing. Romania has been the only country in the world crazy enough to sign it!

My infuriating exposure to the unabashed socialist journalists in Europe has made me realize something I never knew before. The news from Communist China is far more fair and balanced than that of our "allies" in Europe. And maybe more so than that coming from  Peter, Tom and  "Spike".

Mario Showed Jack Welch The Full Monti.

What's worse than the socialist European media beating up on George Bush ?  Socialist European regulators. The European Union's Commission on Competition has a unique position on competition. They don't want any, and will do anything they can to protect inferior European businesses from efficient American businesses. Last year, the EU nixed the merger of WorldCom and Sprint, two American companies. This year, they're screwing over the merger of GE and Honeywell, two more American companies and ones who contribute to our vital national defense. And Mario Monti is showing how big of an ass an EU Commissioner can be. Even after agreeing to divest $2.2 billion in Honeywell assets, Monti wanted GE's Jack Welch to kiss his bum even more by getting rid of Honeywell's Capital Aviation Services. Welch has refused. The fallout from this could be an undeclared trade war. Monti is reportedly already looking into "competitive issues" with Microsoft. And the Deutsche Telecom takeover of VoiceStream may be in big trouble in the U.S.

If we're going to have free trade, we need to have truly free trade!


Excerpts from NotSo SERIOUS MONEY,
a weekly online financial newsletter written by
randybarker@aol.com