The article “The Failed Presidency of George Bush” by Rodrigue Tremblay; an online guest writer for an online alternative news source called onlinejournal.com, is a good example of the alternatives to mainstream media. According to the website, it offers uncensored and accurate news. The article dwells inside what George Bush has done to mark his place in the history books as one of the worst presidents in United States history. It begins by examining bush’s background before he came into presidency; stating that he was widely known as a below average politician. According to Tremblay, only nine percent of Americans believe that the country is heading in the right direction after Bush’s reign, which has led to the lowest approval rating of any president in the seventy year history of such a poll. Tremblay continues to state that many people think this has been a morally bankrupt administration.
He continues into “International disaster: an illegal war of aggression”. He believes that the Bush administration rushed to use the 9/11 attacks as a pretext to implement a preconceived pro-Israel and pro-oil plan in the middle-east. They marched into Middle East societies as a simplistic response to those attacks, but ended up making matters only worse. He continues, stating that Bush will forever be remembered as the man who launched an illegal and immoral war of aggression against another sovereign nation under false pretences and forged documents. The United Nations never approved the war in Iraq. Bush violated the United Nations Charter, which “Prohibits the use of military force” against any nation without the approval of the United Nations Security Council. Therefore, Bush had no international legal basis to invade Iraq.
Tremblay further accuses Bush of his deliberate and dishonest lies, war crimes, and his disregard for international treaties and constitutional government. The Bush-Cheney Government opted out of five important international treaties and commitments: The Kyoto Protocol, the Anti-Ballistic missile treaty, the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention, the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty and the International Criminal Court. The Cheney Doctrine states that if there is a one percent chance that American interests are in jeopardy anywhere in the world, American military interventions are justified without conclusive or extensive analysis. Bush has used the controversial practice of adding signing statements to new laws, stating that he has the right as president, to violate section of a law should he deem it in the national interest to do so. “For example, on January 28, 2008, Bush signed into law the repeal of the Insurrection Act Rider in the 2006 defense appropriations bill. That rider had given the president sweeping power to use military troops in ways contrary to the Insurrection Act and Posse Comitatus Act and authorized the president to have troops patrol American streets in response to disasters, epidemics, and any “condition” he might cite. But in signing this repeal, Bush attached a signing statement in effect saying he could ignore the law any time he saw fit to do so.” Furthermore, he accuses Bush of trying his best to make the presidents war powers permanent, so the United States could be on a permanent war path, and would have the right to suspend at will, basic constitutional rights. On top of everything, Tremblay declares that Bush will always be remembered as a politician who authorized torture and indefinite detention of prisoners. He exclaims conclusively that the Bush administration has “truly been a shamelessly immoral administration.
This article gives a majority of its information and “evidence” as fact, where in fact most of it is accusations of personal opinion. Where some of Trembaly’s accusations against the Bush-Cheney administration very well may be true, he fails to back up his accusations in the article with any hard or convincing evidence. This is comparative to some other alternative news sources which tell stories that mainstream sources won’t touch, because of legal obligations, and unpopular public opinion. I attempted to find a mainstream collateral article. The only article I could find was “The Worst President in History?” by Sean Wilentz of popular news source Rolling Stone. Wilentz does not make accusations nearly as opinionated or controversial as Tremblay; following the fine inter mechanics of working for an accredited mainstream news source. Where Tremblay blatantly stated accusations as fact, with no evidence to back up his statements, Wilentz takes a different approach. He states well publicized facts over George Bush’s presidency, and does not accuse him that of which cannot be proven as fact. He also mentions in more detail what Tremblay was attempting to say, while still avoiding accusations as bold as onlinejournal.com. Mainstream news outlets such as Rolling Stone cannot accuse the current government of such acts due to legal implications and unpopular public support. Whereas alternative news sources such as onlinejournal.com thrive on providing stories and insights into controversial subject matter that mainstream sources cannot.
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