Ted Turner Opposes Media Showing Flags, Unsure of His Side in War on Terror

October 9th, 2006 9:04 PM

These two videos will certainly shock people. Speaking in front of the National Press Club, media mogul Ted Turner actually spoke out against news programs showing the American flag during coverage of the Iraq war. Maybe more shocking, he said that he’s unclear what side to take on the war on terror.

What follows are the full transcripts of both sound bites, with videos here and here (grateful hat tip to Drudge).

I mean, I just really wonder that during the, during the last war, you know, what business did it have in the news sets to have the American flag flying in the background. I mean, it was like the news media covered the Iraq war, at least at the beginning of it, almost as like it was a football game with us versus them. And I can understand that for the U.S. based media, uh, to, to, to do that. But, I really, and certainly it was inappropriate for CNN to do it that way.

You know, this, this, there are a lot of things about this war that disturb me, and one of them is, uh, one of them is the attitude that, you know, that was well-expressed by our president. He said it very clearly, he said “Either you’re with us, or you’re against us.” And, I had a problem with that because I really hadn’t made my mind up yet. You know, what if you haven’t made your mind up. You know, what if you’re thinking about it, doing some studying, doing some reading. Because this is an important decision to go to war or whether or not to go to war. I mean either you’re with us or against us…that’s pretty black and white. 

Liberal media bias? What liberal media bias?