The Chairman of the House Armed Services committee asked the Pentagon to remove CNN reporters embedded with U.S. combat troops because of the terrorist propaganda snuff film CNN aired with impunity.In a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., wrote: "CNN has now served as the publicist for an enemy propaganda film featuring the killing of an American soldier.
I think Americans like to think we're all in this together," Hunter said. "The average American Marine or soldier has concluded after seeing that film that CNN is not on their side."
Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Carlsbad), who with Hunter and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, called the film "nothing short of a terrorist snuff film."
That's exactly what it is.
They have yet to recive a response from Rumsfeld.
CNN, of course, said it broadcast the brief video to show the threat that insurgent snipers posed to U.S. troops.
Horse manure.
There were no dates on the video..is it a coincidence that CNN's Michael Ware received it through `intermediaries' from Islamic Army leader Ibrahim Shammari and CNN aired this a couple of weeks before the elections? Just whom are they trying to kid?
When President Bush made the comparision between what's going on in Baghdad right now and the Tet offensive , he was speaking, I think, more about the strategy the enemy is using than actual similarities in the overall situation - get the leftist Main Stream Media on your side and bring the casualties into America's living rooms so they'll think they're losing.
Tony Snow, White House spokesman alluded to this as well. Snow, at his regular news briefing in Washington, said the video was misleading because it made it appear that Americans were "sitting ducks" and that insurgents were winning the war. In truth, he said, insurgents "are dying in much greater numbers and suffering much greater damage."
Indeed they are. But they have allies here at home.
There were embedded reporters during WWII, men like Ernie Pyle who performed exemplery service in bringing the war home to Americans, letting them know why we were fighting, giving people on the home front an idea of what their loved ones were sacrificing for them. The difference was that unlike many of today's reporters, they considered themselves loyal Americans first, rather than part of `the global village'.
I still recall a clip I heard some pompous ass of a reporter from CBS telling the then head of the US provisonal government in Iraq Paul Bremer that he'd `been talking to a faydayeen fighter..'
"You were in touch with a terrorist?" Bremer inturrupted " why didn't you turn him over to us?"
"Well," the reporter intoned, "that's not our function..we report."
"I'm in charge of security here" Bremer responded "that guy could have American blood on his hands. Next time you run into these guys, you turn them over to me."
That little exchange says it all. Or, as congressman Hunter put it during a followup interview in a direct challenge to CNN's Wolf Blitzer "Do you guys at CNN want us to win this thing?"
Blitzer didn't have a direct answer, but I think the answer's obvious.
What upsets me most about this is not CNN..I expect this sort of nonsense from the network that covered for Saddam's atrocities .
But what makes me livid is that Rumsfeld and the Commander in Chief aren't ripping these boys a new one. A commander in chief should show more concern about his men being treated in this fashion than he does about imprisoning a few of them who may have done their jobs a little too well.
If Bush had the spine, he could rally the whole country on this issue. I wish he would.
5 comments:
I blame the military for not getting out the good info. While it is true that most of the good things from Iraq don't come out, and the bad ones do, it's also true that journalist will go through great lenghts to get their story. To a journalist, a story is like a mission to a soldier-they will accomplish it regardless of what they have to do.
This means that if a journalist can't talk to the soldiers, he will try to contact the family. If he can't talk with the family of the soldiers, he will contact the soldiers' friends. Eventually, he will write the story based on what he has, even if it does not show the whole picture.
Did you know that there are journalists desperate to get the good news out, and they volunteer to be embeded with military units, but they're treated like crap and laundried through a bureaucracy to the point that most of them just give up? At one point, Bremer had up to 250 requests from different journalits who wanted to get the good news out to be embedded with military units!
When the military treats the media with contempt, the military won't be chummy with the media. Broadcasting this video was a rather foolish thing to do, but I'm talking about the big picture here.
One last thing-this Duncan Hunter guy knows next to nothing about embeds. An embed is one of the best things for the military. Embedded reporters get a first-hand feel of the fatique, danger, and deprivations soldiers go through, and this instills a respect for the soldiers that can't be matched by talking heads who sit on their asses and opine.
Let's hope cooler heads prevail, and Mr. Hunter doesn't get his way.
Hi Nazar.
I couldn't disagree with you more.
You seem to suggest that the army or the USMC is somehow in charge of selecting, editing and producing what apears on stations like CNN and al Jazeera.
That isn't the case, needless to say.
Let's also get one thing clear..this particular story is NOT news..merely something CNN threw into the mix for sensationalism and -they hoped-ratings. The characterization of this as a `terrorist snuff film' is fairly accurate.
There's no date on the videos. They COULD have been made two years ago or last week. They could also have been edited over a period of time.There's no way to tell.
Regardless of all that, it's hardly news that jihadis use snipers to target Americans. What CNN and the jihadis both liked about this was the shock value of watching Americans die on camera...that, and the timing, a few weeks before the election.
With some qualifications, President Bush had it exactly right when he compared the Ramadan escalation of violence to Tet, in terms of strategy..the attempt to salvage a defeat on the battlefield by the jihadis into a victory by manipulating the home front politically. CNN was only too happy to play into this.
As the son of an old newspaper man, I will tell you an unpleasant truth about how the news operates, something my father of blessed memory proved to me on numerous occasions.
On a story like Iraq, a `script ' develops among the MSM, a slant on a given story that can be influenced by the reporters' political or personal bias, what might best drive ratings, or what is easiest to sell in a series of short items and soundbites.
Once that script is developed, MSM reporters tend to only publicize things that enhance and emphasize the script and play down anything that doesn't.
For an interesting example of what happens when two opposing scripts on different stories collide, you might like to read this:
J O S H U A P U N D I T: NASCAR Islamophobic Psychosis - The script ain't working out
As for the embedded reporters, some are obviously fine journalists. Many aren't and rely on the `script' for what they file. Not only that, but an embedded reporter, even if he WANTED to portray our military in a favorable light has to get past leftist editors and anchors who permeate the MSM. Given the inherent bias of much of the MSM, is it any wonder that most of their reporters would be treated with contempt by our troops? Hey, they watch CNN/ABC/NBC/CBS too!
In order for embedded reporting to work, you have to have reporters, editors and anchors interested in portraying our men as heroes and our cause as just. That's why it worked with people like Ernie Pyle in WWII.
You also have to have reporters that consider themselves loyal Americans first, rather than part of a `global network.'
That simply isn't the case nowadays.
If I were in charge, I'd get rid of ALL of the imbedded reporters and keep `em in a press pool far away from the action, as was done in the Gulf War.
As for CNN,if I were President Bush I'd kick every one of their reporters out of Iraq and revoke their White House credentials..just to teach the others a lesson and show our troops who side I was on.
What they did was unforgiveable.
Thanks for dropping by, as always.
ff
I suspected you would disagree. Very well, then, but I implore you to at least read this:
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/media/pdf/vox/Lacey_Proceedings_10_04.pdf
It was written by a journalist who spent 12 years in the military-definetely a credible source.
I'm quite familiar with Michael Yon...but he is hardly a MSM journalist, Nazar.
If anything, his approach is exactly the opposite, as you can tell by this quote inthe article you referenced (the link was NG, but I found it):
"My experiences with the U.S. military as a soldier and then as a writer and photographer covering soldiers have been overwhelmingly positive, and I feel no shame in saying I am biased in favor of our troops. Even worse, I feel no shame in calling a terrorist a terrorist. I've seen their deeds and tasted air filled with burning human flesh from their bombs. I've seen terrorists kill children while our people risk their lives to save civilians again, and again, and again."
This is NOT how CNN or the rest of the MSM cover Iraq, and I believe you would acknowledge that.
I agree that Yon is the exception that makes the rule..perhaps because he actually IS pro-military and a patriot, like the WWII correspondants. I would certainly rather read/hear what he has to say than the usual class of MSM embedded reporter.
I can't stomach CNN anymore. Now that I'm wise to their ways. I check them when Fox goes to a commerical, but I keep my finger on the remote!
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