Cal Thomas: Media Eager to Criticize Bush for Abu Ghraib Now Reluctant to Criticize Obama for Navy SEAL Court Martial

November 28th, 2009 11:55 PM

It's a night and day difference between the media's scrutiny of former President George W. Bush and the current command-in-chief, President Barack Obama. And the coverage of three Navy SEALs now facing a court martial that captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq, who allegedly was the mastermind of the murder of four Blackwater contractors in Fallujah in 2004, is proof.

John Scott, host of "Fox News Watch" noted this story on the show's Nov. 28 episode and asked why there hasn't been more coverage about it.

"Pretty outrageous story came out, in my view, this week," Scott said. "These three Navy SEALs who were involved in capturing one of the most wanted bad guys in Iraq - the guy supposedly responsible for planning the execution of those four Blackwater contractors. The SEALs are now facing charges because the guy somehow wound up with a bloody lip. Is the media paying attention?"

Syndicated columnist and "Fox News Watch" regular Cal Thomas said there was a distinction between this and the coverage of the 2004 accounts of torture and prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. The difference he said was the ruling party in Washington, D.C.

"You know, it's an interesting contrast here with Abu Ghraib," Thomas said. "That's when George W. Bush was president and Republicans were pretty much running things in Washington. ‘This was a horrible violation of human rights. People should be brought up on charges. We put the pictures all over the place.'"

And he was right - Bush was repeatedly condemned in the media for Abu Ghraib. However, the scrutiny of the Obama administration's handling of these Navy SEALs has been lacking.

"Now you got a couple of Navy SEALs who allegedly give a bloody lip to one of these scumbags and where's the outrage?" Thomas continued. "You're only seeing into on Fox and on the New York Post. I haven't discovered it anywhere else."