Chasing the Wind

CBS tries to float another bogus story Tuesday night, this time about a woman who fears her son is going to be drafted, just days after John Kerry says that it is “possible” George Bush will institute a draft. Dan Rather implied that the woman was just an average voter who normally votes for Bush but would vote for “Howdy Doody” if he was against the draft.

I guess that’s John Kerry’s new code name. “Howdy Doody.” CBS completely left out the part that the woman was an activist, head of the Pennsylvania People Against the Draft.

Nor did they mention that the only people proposing legislation for a draft are Democrats, something I mentioned over a week ago.

It’s shoddy journalism at it’s worst. They based the entire news story on, of all things, an email being passed around. Snopes.com debunked that months ago.

I guess next CBS will try to convince us that Bill Gates will give you $250 for every person you warn about the draft via email. And give you a Niemen Marcus cookie, too.

This looks like a) the Democratic National Committee (Rangal and Hollings) introducing draft legislation, b) John Kerry suggesting that Bush somehow is behind it, and c) CBS piling on to scare people that if Bush stays in office, you and your child will be drafted. And you won’t get a cookie, either.

Look, I’m an engineer, not a journalist. (Dang it, I sounded like Dr. McCoy of Star Trek when I said that.) But even a non-journalist like me can spend 10 minutes to write a better story than this fearmongering CBS crud. You know where I would start with my story?

I’d start with the ending of the last draft. Republican Richard Nixon abolished the draft in 1973. Illinois congressman Donald Rumsfeld (Yes! that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld!) introduced the legislation for the all-volunteer military.

Once in office in 1969, Nixon found he had made a campaign promise opposed by much of the top military brass, many of his supporters in Congress and his two top military-oriented appointees, national security advisor, Henry Kissinger, and defense secretary, Mel Laird. A very vocal volunteer force supporter was a young congressman from Illinois, Don Rumsfeld, who introduced legislation supporting the proposal; and while Senate and House hearings were held on his bill, nothing happened. Rumsfeld later joined the Nixon staff.

Donald Rumsfeld has been a vocal supporter of an all-volunteer military force for over 30 years. If I can do that kind of research on my lunch hour, why can’t CBS?