Media Tells GOP Lies, Without Abandon: GOP Rep. Joe Pitts In Syria Before Pelosi, at Bush's Request

George Bush said he wants to isolate Syria, so no one should be talking to them. He denounced Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and this denunciation got a great deal of press. Virtually simultaneously, GOP Rep. Joe Pitts, along with 3 other Republican Congresspersons, was dispatched to Syria, by the White House. And it is not like the media didn't know. Pelosi told the media about it, but mostly - they didn't report it very prominently or appropriately as they conveyed the Bushista propaganda. This is a big part of the problem with the nation's media. If you didn't look for the news carefully, your head would be filled with garbage that generally is only propaganda meant to steer your emotions in a particular direction. That is why it is called, propaganda. And our Nation's "private" media does it better than anyone else's.

The Intelligencer Journal reports the details the mainstream media ("MSM") seems to have intentionally missed reporting on:

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - While U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's upcoming visit to Syria has caused the White House to bristle, a little-publicized rendezvous took place Sunday between Syria's president and Lancaster County's congressman.

And though Bush administration officials have been criticizing Pelosi, it's not clear what role the White House and the U.S. Department of State played when U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts and two other Republican congressmen met with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

. . .

Gabe Neville, Pitts' chief of staff, said Monday . . . "It was done in cooperation with the administration," he said.

However, White House spokesman Alex Conant said Monday the Bush administration — as a blanket policy — "discourages all of (Congress') visits" to Syria, a country believed by the White House to sponsor terrorism.

The House Speaker's office criticized the Bush administration for focusing their criticisms — until Monday — on Pelosi, the top House Democrat, for leading a congressional delegation to meet with Assad later this week.

"There's a Republican trip going before her, and no one is criticizing that," Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said. "So clearly the White House's motives here are in question."

Details about Pitts' trip to Syria, including when the White House learned of it and whether and how the Department of State was involved, were not available from Neville, who said, "I'll let (Pitts) answer that when he gets back."

. . .

The Republicans' conference with Assad was first reported by The Associated Press in a story about Pelosi. Pitts' office made no public announcements preceding the Damascus visit.

The Bush administration has accused Syria of supporting terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah in their efforts against Israel, meddling in the affairs of nearby Lebanon and allowing foreign fighters to cross the Iraqi border to engage U.S. forces.

Administration critics from both political parties and the recent bipartisan Iraq Study Group have recommended open talks with Syria to resolve these issues.

Pelosi, in published reports, characterized her planned meeting with Assad as a "fact finding" mission through which her delegation can "hopefully build the confidence" between the United States and Syria.

Pelosi is leading a seven-member congressional delegation that includes six Democrats and one Republican through the Middle East with planned visits to Israel and Lebanon, as well as Syria.

Sunday, White House counselor Dan Bartlett said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that "most Americans would not think that the leader of the Democratic Party should be meeting with the heads of a state sponsor of terror."

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, who last week called Pelosi's planned meeting with Assad a "bad idea," told White House reporters Monday she did not talk about the trio of Republicans in Syria because she was asked specifically about Pelosi.