WTF? Was the turkey real or fake?

[takebackthewh]

Can't these bozos get their effin facts straight?

:mad:

The Newsroom Iconoclast
The turkey was real; maybe we should kill the First Amendment
Sunday, August 15, 2004
By Michael Bowers, Star columnist

On July 4, the New York Times wrote: "There are also the manufactured surprises, like Mr. Bush's cloak-and-dagger Thanksgiving trip to Baghdad, which drew praise even from Democrats. (The public relations bonanza fizzled after the press reported that Mr. Bush had posed with a mouth-watering — but fake — turkey.)"

On July 11, the Times wrote: "An article last Sunday about surprises in politics referred incorrectly to the turkey carried by President Bush during his unannounced visit to American troops in Baghdad over Thanksgiving. It was real, not fake."

Which proves two things:

--Mark Twain said correctly: "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on."

--Ben Stein, former economic adviser to President Nixon, said correctly: When the president is a Republican, the press smears the president. When the president is a Democrat, the press smears his enemies.

---------------------

Rest of story here:

http://www.starnewspapers.com/star/spedit/col/15-co2.htm

[NYC]

1. The turkey was fake.

[happyslug]

2. It may have been a "Real" Fake.

What I mean is the turkey may have been real but no one EVER intended it to be eaten by ANYONE.

When I was in the service and the Holiday meal was served it was served already SLICED, not as a whole turkey as shown being carried by Bush. Thus even if the turkey he was carrying was a real turkey, it was NOT the turkey eaten by the troops. The sole purposes of that turkey was for a Photo Opt of Bush carrying a recognizable turkey, not the cooked, and sliced turkeys our troops did eat.

I still lean to a fake turkey for it would be lighter than a real one and easier to be made to look as good as it did, but it may have been real. THE REAL ISSUE IS THAT THE TURKEY BUSH CARRIED WAS NOT FOR THE TROOPS BUT FOR THE PHOTO OPT. Thus it is unimportant if that turkey was real or plastic.

[BrotherBuzz]

6. You ate top drawer

I was served genuine turkey roll for all my army Thanksgiving meals - yuck!

[Philostopher]

11. That's what I remember reading, at the time.

It was like one they use in an advertisement -- they use a blowtorch to crisp the skin, then paint it with vegetable oil and liquid smoke so it looks brown. No way in hell anybody was eating that turkey, even if this was the case -- it wasn't even cooked, most likely, if it was a real bird.

So was it a real turkey? Maybe. Was anybody going to eat it? Not if they didn't want to die of salmonella poisoning, since even if it was real, it wasn't cooked sufficiently for human consumption.

[lanparty]

18. Must have been fake ...

The president isn't strong enough to carry a Turkey that size.

[Bozita]

3. Turkeys were roasted, carved, bagged, and frozen here in the states

The bags were merely heated in Iraq.

The only whole turkey in Iraq on Thanksgiving Day was Dubya.

[Massacure]

4. Dubya is a Chimpanzee, damnit!!!

:P

[xray s]

5. The turkey was real? Tough tootie!

Al Gore never said he invented the internet either. Still waiting for the media to retract that one...

[Bluebear]

7. You rang????

nt

[lectrobyte]

8. The articles I read seemed to indicate it was "real" but for display use

only, and our troops were being served pre-sliced turkey... The question of real vs. plastic is ignoring the bigger point, that is was used only for a photo op, and Bush was not serving ThanksGiving dinner to the troops.

[nostamj]

10. it *was* real but.....

not edible and certainly NOT eaten by any troops.

a chemically-treated, preserved PROP like they use in "food" commercials.

[Bluebear]

12. I'm still not changing my screen name lol

It was a photo-op turkey, real or fake. The troops had to wait (a LONG time) for Bush and Chalabi (who???) to arrive and then were fed turkey roll while Bush gleefully held the homey decoration turkey for the cameras.

[Fuzz]

9. From what I understand

It was a real turkey, a frozen one, that was thrown under a broiler to brown it nicely, throw some garnish around it and used for a table decoration.

[tblue37]

13. It was definitely a real turkey.

It was a prop, though, a table decoration, not meant to be eaten.

The turkey was "roasted" and primped up on a platter to look beautiful, and it decorated the table. The troops, however, were served cafeteria-style turkey from a steam table. The phoniness was the fact that Bush picked the decorative real turkey up and posed as if he were going to be serving that luscious-looking prop to the troops.

But I have been battling this false "plastic turkey" story for months, not because I don't like to see Bush picked at, but because it is another example of the way a false story gets into play and no amount of correction can make the truth prevail.

This should make us understand why the right wing media machine finds it so easy to get their Big Lies into circulation and keep them there.

If people like those on DU and other message boards I hang out at can't get their facts straight because of all the BS flying around, then how can we expect someone with two jobs, a couple of kids, and little time for researching on the internet or in alternate news sources to get a clear picture of the lies that the Republicans tell, especially when those lies are backed up by the media they do have regular access to?

[Lisa]

23. Canadian news showed Bush picking up the platter then putting it down ...

... a couple of seconds later. He looked pretty silly (like a goofy uncle who clowns around with the centerpiece) -- evident that he was posing deliberately, not serving the troops their dinner! A ham with a turkey, if you will.

[grasswire]

14. I still don't believe it.

If you look at the footage, you can see that Bush handles the big tray, 25 pound turkey, and assorted garnishes as if it was a plate of potato chips. People lift a heavy tray with their bodies, not just with their forearms.

I don't believe it.

[Bozita]

20. Agreed. If that were Ahnuld handling the tray, it might be real

That "turkey" was huge. No way could Dubya handle it with such ease.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

15. The biggest lie about that whole photo op was the "British Airways"

"Did I just see Air Force One?" story the WH pimped until they were debunked, and then had to back off of it.

Unbelievable. Just to score 1/1000 th of a propaganda point they'd tell a lie, and an easily discovered one, too, and think nothing of it.

[K-W]

16. Yah, Ben Stein is a real visionary.

Im sure that confusion over the nature of a turkey proves that the media is liberal. Nice try.

Edit: Am I the only one who caught his thesis?

[SoCalDem]

17. It was probably a "decoration" turkey..

Buffets do this all the time.. They have the cut up turkey in the warming trays, and a "picture-perfect" one on a tray ABOVE the buffet line..

No doubt this was done in anticipation of the "visitation".. President Photo-Op never does anything that is not stage-managed.. It looks much better to have him with a platter of succulent turkey, "fit-for-Mom's table", than to have him behind a stainless steel pan of pre-cut turkey slices..

Does anyone think that they actually baked 100 turkeys for the soldiers?? Nope.. It was frozen-entree style turkey, flown in frozen and reheated..

The "real turkey" was there for pictures WITH the REAL turkey :)

[progressivebydesign]

19. It was a turkey once...

.. but it was shellacked and presented as a table decoration.. it was NOT edible. It was fake, in that it was NOT what they were eating, it was a prop... That makes it fake in my book. A shellacked piece of fruit or meat or whatever that is not edible, being shown as though someone is serving it.. is fake. It's a prop.


Don't these journalists have something important to do? Like ask Bush why the fuck our soldiers are still over in Iraq? Oh.. wait.. I'll do the journalist's job for them, they're still there ONLY to make it safe for Bush's contractor donors to make their money, and to secure the oil for his other donors. That's why they're still dying.. Okay, journalists, go back to the turkey story or perhaps what Bush is having for lunch tomorrow.

[realFedUp]

21. In the ad biz it's called a "hero"

it's real but it's often coated with stuff
and it's not meant to eat, just look at.

If this is bugging rightwingnuts then they
aren't looking at the bigger problems.

[K-W]

22. Anychance to reinforce thier faulty ideas

that damn liberal media

[Radio-Active]

24. VISUAL AID

[K-W]

25. Read this before you post on this thread!!!!!

the point of the original post in this thread is that the media is liberal.

So perhaps people should stop bumping it.

Read the Ben Stein quote at the end of the post if you dont believe me.