Base Closure Hurts Thune (at least we sure hope so.)

Just in case there is anyone out there who still doubts the existence of bias in the mainstream media, here’s another recent example:

On my commute home, I happened to catch NPR’s “All things Considered” and heard a story about Senator John Thune’s supposed struggle with the announced closure of a military base in his home state of South Dakota. The gist of the story was that Thune failed to keep a campaign promise by “allowing” the base to appear on the closure list.

Of course, the fact that neither Thune, nor any other senator has any say in which bases are targeted by the commission which makes the selections wasn’t mentioned. The commission is, and properly should be, totally independent. The strong inference was given that if Daschle had been reelected, the base would have been spared and now Thune is reeling because he didn’t “have the ear of President Bush.” Of course this is nonsense. Daschle wouldn’t have had any more influence with the Base Closure Commission than Thune and President Bush doesn’t have anything to do with it. For NPR to suggest otherwise shows pure political bias. Their attitude is that the “rubes” in South Dakota are too stupid to understand that a senator can do precious little to avoid the consequences of an independent commission. The independent commission looks only at numbers, facts, and efficiencies in making their selections for base closures, and not at the political consequences. The fact that NPR assumes their listeners wouldn’t already know that shows the utter contempt they have for their audience.

The only real nugget of truth which the story inadvertently brought out, but which was not emphasized at all by NPR, is that, unlike Clinton during the last round of base closures, President Bush had the honesty, and integrity to stay out of the selection process and not pressure the commission to spare bases even in states represented by powerful allies like Thune. Bush let them just do their job. That is something we all should be celebrating. The people in South Dakota should be celebrating it too. They will survive the base closure. It will be good for the country in the long run and the good people of South Dakota know it. If Thune continues to do a good job representing South Dakota, he need not worry about the base closure. Any negative consequences for Thune relating to this event exist only in the minds of Democrat political operatives who hope to exploit the base closure in the next election and their fellow Democrats at NPR.