Sunday, June 04, 2006

The Press Haditha Feeding Frenzy Continues

Shameful. Just shameful. But don't question their patriotism. And their slander proves they support the troops!



Is it too much to ask that the American press at least pretend to hope we succeed in Iraq?
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny. I saw that picture on some other American publication. Where was that? Oh yeah, the Army Times carried about 4 in depth stories about this incident. You should check it out. It is a fairly unbiased look at what happened. I really don't know if you could justify a claim that the Army Times wants us to lose the war. It's just something that needs to be discussed so that something like this doesn't happen again.

http://www.armytimes.com/channel.php?GQID=ARMYPAPER

June 05, 2006 7:42 PM
Orrin Johnson said...

I'm not upset that they're covering it. That's important. But it deserves to be covered CAREFULLY in the civilian press, and it's not. I don't know how well the AT is covering it (a subscription is required to view that link), but I DO know the mainstream press are NOT being unbiased or careful - they are determined to pin this on Bush as if he had been their shooting at children himself.

The problem is that it's playing in the press (as evidenced by the headlines on the magazines) as evidence of wider phenomenon, indeed, as official Bush Administration policy, and that's simply false, libelous, and harmful to our efforts. Click the link in the post for more. Read what they're actually writing.

The story deserves to be told, but why with such sensationalism, and before the investigation is complete? Why not Saddam's mass graves, one of which was uncovered just this week? And do Time and Newsweek honestly think this is a widespread phenomenon? Because if they do, then our troops really are war criminals because they're not reporting it and are participating in it. If it's widespread, our troops are generally complicit in warcrimes. If it's not, Bush it's ridiculous to think of this as a "wider issue."

The only way Bush can be blamed is if it IS widespread. Otherwise, it's an isolated incident, of a type that's happened in every American conflict no matter how noble, that's being dealt with via the system in place. The press loathes Bush, but are so entrenched in the victim culture of liberalism that they want to paint the alleged wrongdoers of responsiblity. They also want us to withdrawal from Iraq immediately, and are willing to wieght their news coverage to accomplish that goal. I'm sorry - I find that shameful and unacceptable. Remember the damage Newsweek did in printing their false story about the fluched Koran?

It reminds me of the time two sailors from the USS Abraham Lincoln raped a 14 year old girl in Everett. The headline was "EVERETT SAILORS RAPE GIRL" That wasn't Rumsfeld's fault. It wasn't Bush's fault. It wasn't the CNO's fault. It wasn't CINCPAC's fault. It wasn't the CO of the ship's fault, although he bore responsibility for their actions, but not such that he should have been fired. But that didn't stop the local press from painting the entire Everett Navy community with the same unfair brush, and from blaming the "Navy culture" in part for the rape. That's just not reasonable, and is indicative of reporters and analysts who rely on stereotypes and Oliver Stone movies for their view of military culture. That doesn't do anyone any favors - not us, not the Iraqis, not the soldiers. It only helps the insurgency.

And the Army Times is hardly immune from self aggrandizing sensationalism. They've called for Sec. Rumsfeld's resignation, and I remember when it (or rather, its subsidiary publication, the Navy Times) hounded ADM Boorda (Navy CNO) about the veracity of his ribbons until he committed suicide. Their claims about him later turned out to be baseless.

That, and you find mostly GOOD news about military operations in the Army/Navy/AF Times, something you have an awfully hard time seeing in MSM publications. I don't doubt that by and large it's much more ballanced. Helping that is their audience is more discerning, and have a much deeper grasp of the context in which those stories take place and are written. Joe Civilian in Seattle who's never worn a uniform doesn't read the story in the same way.

I don't think the AT wants us to lose, but I think they're a little too interested in going out of their way to "prove" their independence. It's a great forum for disgruntled former officers who didn't get a promotion they thought was their due to spout off.

June 07, 2006 10:34 PM

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