Have the Mainstream Media Ignored Our Heroes?

[dog428]

Here's what I love about this absolute shirt: Somehow, the media are the bad guys instead of the people who sent these guys to war on a whim, have forced many of them to stay long past their assigned tours, have refused to supply them with the appropriate equipment, have cut their benefits, have lied to them repeatedly and have never showed one ounce of remorse for having killed over 2,500 Americans because they made a long string of mistakes.

Yeah, the media, that's the problem here.  :

 

[BTExpress]

Well, well, well. Lookie what I stumbled on to today.

Seems that the media WANTS to do more positive stories but is being PREVENTED --- with good reason, I might add --- by the AMERICAN officials over there.

CBS war correspondent Lara Logan told CNN that her requests for optimistic stories are often rejected by American officials in Iraq, who tell her, "Sorry, we can't take you to that school project, because if you put that on TV, they're going to be attacked, the teachers are going to be killed, the children might be the victims of the attack, Sorry, we can't show this reconstruction project because then that's going to expose it to sabotage."

Think long and hard about this point the next time you accuse the media of "wilfully" ignoring good news in Iraq.

 

[Ace]

Here's a link to a column on mainstream media member Joe Galloway, who just retired as Knight Ridder's military writer

Perhaps Cap had heard of him?

Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf once said, "Joe Galloway is the finest combat correspondent of our generation -- a soldier's reporter and a soldier's friend." (Galloway earned a Bronze Star for valor, in saving a soldier's life in a 1965 battle in Viet Nam.)

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002690039

 

[Hed bust]

acts of heroism

beyond the call of duty. you mention atrocities - can you name them? What has the military done in Iraq that can be termed atrocities?

I didn't suggest that anyone ignore acts of heroism. un-American Those are not the American values I was brought up to appreciate.

It should also be pointed out that the military moved quickly to punish those involved at Abu Ghraib.

And to hand out Purple Hearts, too. Three of them went out here today.
One guy was burned over 70 percent of his body and was wrapped up with just a ventilator sticking out from his mummified body. Another was sedated with exterior/interior rods bracing his left leg plus a stomach injury. The third had mere staples in his head and might be headed back to Iraq this week if he gets his way.
These are the heroes. They present themselves on a daily basis during this war. We only usually meet the injured ones. And that's a fleeting exchange.

 

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

I guess the whole world is in on keeping those secret CIA prisons a secret:

BRUSSELS -- Investigations into reports that US agents shipped prisoners through European airports to secret detention centers have produced no evidence of illegal CIA activities, the European Union's antiterrorism coordinator said yesterday.

The investigations also have not turned up any proof of secret renditions of terror suspects on EU territory, Gijs de Vries told a European Parliament committee investigating the allegations.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/04/21/eu_official_no_evidence_of_illegal_cia_action/

And Ragu - that guy Maher Arar that you linked to? WTF? The guy was on a suspect list - he knows another guy on the terrorist list - so we deport him to the country of his birth (there was NO mention of him being a Canadian citizen). I have no problem with that at all.

 

[The Big Ragu]

I guess the whole world is in on keeping those secret CIA prisons a secret:

BRUSSELS -- Investigations into reports that US agents shipped prisoners through European airports to secret detention centers have produced no evidence of illegal CIA activities, the European Union's antiterrorism coordinator said yesterday.

The investigations also have not turned up any proof of secret renditions of terror suspects on EU territory, Gijs de Vries told a European Parliament committee investigating the allegations.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/04/21/eu_official_no_evidence_of_illegal_cia_action/

And Ragu - that guy Maher Arar that you linked to? WTF? The guy was on a suspect list - he knows another guy on the terrorist list - so we deport him to the country of his birth (there was NO mention of him being a Canadian citizen). I have no problem with that at all.

Deport?!?!? Did you read the story. He wasn't deported. There were no legal proceedings. He was kidnapped, tossed in a plane, flown to Jordan, driven to Syria in secret and tortured. For a year, "They whipped his hands repeatedly with two-inch-thick electrical cables, and kept him in a windowless underground cell that he likened to a grave." He was never charged with anything, and was only released when the Canadians took up his cause. You might not have a problem with your country behaving that way, but I do. We are supposed to be better than that. We are supposed to be the one place in the world where you can always count on justice, a rule of law that allows everyone due process and a strict adherence to human rights. You scare me, Lou.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Maher Arar was deported the same way that Fallujah was redecorated.
Give it up, Ragu. There are some people who will countenance anything.

 

[JRoyal]

I guess the whole world is in on keeping those secret CIA prisons a secret:

BRUSSELS -- Investigations into reports that US agents shipped prisoners through European airports to secret detention centers have produced no evidence of illegal CIA activities, the European Union's antiterrorism coordinator said yesterday.

The investigations also have not turned up any proof of secret renditions of terror suspects on EU territory, Gijs de Vries told a European Parliament committee investigating the allegations.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/04/21/eu_official_no_evidence_of_illegal_cia_action/

Actually, not the WHOLE world. Quoting the story:

so far investigators have not identified any human rights violations, despite more than 50 hours of testimony by human rights activists and individuals who said they were abducted by US intelligence agents, de Vries said.

''We've heard all kinds of allegations, impressions; we've heard also refutations. It's up to your committee to weigh if they are true. It does not appear to be proven beyond reasonable doubt," he said. ''There has not been, to my knowledge, evidence that these illegal renditions have taken place."

More like all the world who would be in serious trouble if it's true. It's basically boiling down to people who said they were held saying they were held and questioned and the officials who would've been in charge saying, no they weren't. At least, when you read past the first two paragraphs of the story, that's what it says.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

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.

 

[jgmacg]

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?

 

[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.

 

[D-Backs Hack]

Our military has hung in there despite all those Democratic politicians saying there would be thousands and thousands of soldier deaths in the first week in Iraq. That's pretty good news.

And for those scoring at home, it's been three days, and not one shred of evidence produced.