Have the Mainstream Media Ignored Our Heroes?

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

Having slandered members of the working press with this thread and the false premise from which it sprang, I'm going to bounce this entry back up the board until Mr. Merloni contrives a suitable response.

Mr. Merloni -

Quickly this morning, because I have better things to do, here's what you should do when confronted with the question of whether or not the MSM ignores our military heroes: ten minutes worth of research. Rather than swallow the premise whole, especially when it's being fed to you by people with an agenda - like selling books - look up some actual information.

The Weinberger/Hall piece you link to at the top of this thread (which does, L_B, cast aspersions on the patriotism of media members), singles out the New York Times as having ignored the story of Medal of Honor winner Paul Ray Smith. Here's the quote:

Even when Sergeant First Class Paul R. Smith was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the best the New York Times could muster was a story buried on page 13. A nation that ignores or worse attacks its heroes erodes and disparages its own ethos.

"Buried" is an unfortunate choice of words, I think, but the piece is so badly written and poorly conceived that it makes a kind of perverse sense. In any case, that Sgt. Smith was awarded, posthumously of course, the medal in a ceremony two days after the death of the pope, a fact which clearly determined the position of the story, is not mentioned.

Nor does the Weinberger/Hall piece take note of this:

http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F3081FF9345E0C708EDDA00894DB404482

It is a 2895-word story dated September 23, 2003, written by Steven Lee Myers. Headlined THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ: CASUALTIES; Medals for His Valor, Ashes for His Wife, it delineates Sgt. Smith's heroism in some detail. If you can't click through to it, I'll be happy to PM it to you.

Sadly, its existence undermines Weinberger/Hall's entire premise.

I call bullshirt. QED.

And your answer, sir?

Page 13? Two days after the Pope died? If it was the day after - then you would have a point. It was buried on page 13. What other stories did the NYT fill in before the story on Smith recieving this country's HIGHEST MILITARY HONOR.

As far as the pull out - it was written 6 months after the fact. That's like doing a review of the NFL draft 5 years after the fact.

 

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

LouLou is trying to dig up some right-wing blog that might blame the media for Pat Tillman's death.

He'll get back to you next week.

Pat Tillman died from friendly fire. Pat Tillman was not murdered. Do you know think that his comrades feel awful for the events that lead to his death?

Edward O'Hare was also probably killed by friendly fire but the government never tried to investigate that either. Sometimes mistakes happen in the fog of war.

 

[Ace]

LouLou is trying to dig up some right-wing blog that might blame the media for Pat Tillman's death.

He'll get back to you next week.

Pat Tillman died from friendly fire. Pat Tillman was not murdered. Do you know think that his comrades feel awful for the events that lead to his death?

Weird. That's not the story I read in the first months after his death. And I seem to remember something about charges. I'm sure they are probably just charging the liberal reporters with getting the story wrong.

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

Pat Tillman died from friendly fire. Pat Tillman was not murdered. Do you know think that his comrades feel awful for the events that lead to his death?

Tell that to the Tillmans. I'm sure you know more about the whole thing than they do.

 

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

The United States government can deny. today. that the prisons exist and that they are rendering people to them. If they don't exist, what's the problem? Unfortunately, the USG doesn't have the credibility of a Nigerian spam posting any more.

Stop beating your wife yet? That's the logic you are employing.

BTW - I haven't seen any psy-ops links from you on Jessica Lynch

BTWII - in a recent poll just 16% of British adults trust journalists to tell the truth. The results would be just as bad in this country. You need to look into the mirror before stalking about trustworthiness and credibility.

Ted Turner, Jordan Eason, Dan Rather, etc., etc...

 

[HoopsMcCann]

The United States government can deny. today. that the prisons exist and that they are rendering people to them. If they don't exist, what's the problem? Unfortunately, the USG doesn't have the credibility of a Nigerian spam posting any more.

Stop beating your wife yet? That's the logic you are employing.

BTW - I haven't seen any psy-ops links from you on Jessica Lynch

BTWII - in a recent poll just 16% of British adults trust journalists to tell the truth. The results would be just as bad in this country. You need to look into the mirror before stalking about trustworthiness and credibility.

Ted Turner, Jordan Eason, Dan Rather, etc., etc...

and yet you still so badly want to be one of us that you just keep coming back

 

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

Pat Tillman died from friendly fire. Pat Tillman was not murdered. Do you know think that his comrades feel awful for the events that lead to his death?

Tell that to the Tillmans. I'm sure you know more about the whole thing than they do.

I'm willing to give the other Rangers the benefit of the doubt. This was not a pre-planned act. They thought they were firing on the enemy.

Since neither of us was there - I know as much as you - yet I am willing to give the men who have dedicated their lives to protecting our freedom the benefit of the doubt. You are not so willing.

 

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

The United States government can deny. today. that the prisons exist and that they are rendering people to them. If they don't exist, what's the problem? Unfortunately, the USG doesn't have the credibility of a Nigerian spam posting any more.

Stop beating your wife yet? That's the logic you are employing.

BTW - I haven't seen any psy-ops links from you on Jessica Lynch

BTWII - in a recent poll just 16% of British adults trust journalists to tell the truth. The results would be just as bad in this country. You need to look into the mirror before stalking about trustworthiness and credibility.

Ted Turner, Jordan Eason, Dan Rather, etc., etc...

and yet you still so badly want to be one of us that you just keep coming back

I keep coming back because I miss you Hoops.

 

[Ace]

Pat Tillman died from friendly fire. Pat Tillman was not murdered. Do you know think that his comrades feel awful for the events that lead to his death?

Tell that to the Tillmans. I'm sure you know more about the whole thing than they do.

I'm willing to give the other Rangers the benefit of the doubt. This was not a pre-planned act. They thought they were firing on the enemy.

Since neither of us was there - I know as much as you - yet I am willing to give the men who have dedicated their lives to protecting our freedom the benefit of the doubt. You are not so willing.

The point is the Army lied to cover it up.

 

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

Pat Tillman died from friendly fire. Pat Tillman was not murdered. Do you know think that his comrades feel awful for the events that lead to his death?

Tell that to the Tillmans. I'm sure you know more about the whole thing than they do.

I'm willing to give the other Rangers the benefit of the doubt. This was not a pre-planned act. They thought they were firing on the enemy.

Since neither of us was there - I know as much as you - yet I am willing to give the men who have dedicated their lives to protecting our freedom the benefit of the doubt. You are not so willing.

The point is the Army lied to cover it up.

The Army wanted to make sure it had its facts 100% sure before telling the Tillmans. I can't find fault with that. The media is the ones crying "cover up"

Brig. Gen. Gary M. Jones prepared the report in response to questions from Tillman's family and from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz). Jones concluded that there was no official reluctance to report the truth but that "nothing has contributed more to an atmosphere of suspicion by the family than the failure to tell the family that Cpl. Pat Tillman's death was the result of suspected friendly fire, as soon as that information became known within military channels."

"Notifying families in a timely way that they have had a loved one killed or severely injured is complex and imperfect work. We can do better," said Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman. "At the heart of every notification effort is a commitment to compassion and completeness in providing information as it is known to those who sustained the loss. That is what happened in the case of Corporal Tillman, and that effort continues to this day."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/03/AR2005050301502.html

 

[Ace]

You forgot this bit from your own link, spinmeister:

Soldiers on the scene said they were immediately sure Tillman was killed by a barrage of American bullets as he took shelter behind a large boulder during a twilight firefight along a narrow canyon road near the Pakistani border, according to nearly 2,000 pages of interview transcripts and investigative reports obtained by The Washington Post.

The documents also show that officers made erroneous initial reports that Tillman was killed by enemy fire, destroyed critical evidence and initially concealed the truth from Tillman's brother, also an Army Ranger, who was near the attack on April 22, 2004, but did not witness it.

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

... I am willing to give the men who have dedicated their lives to protecting our freedom the benefit of the doubt. You are not so willing.

This line says it all about your purview, Lou. You trotted out all the right phraseology.