BCT Editorial – 3/29/06

This page was last updated on March 29, 2006.

Over here; Editorial; Beaver County Times; March 29, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“The Bush administration and its allies have ratcheted up the criticism of the media for not reporting all the positive things that are taking place in Iraq.”

[RWC] No one proposes “reporting all the positive things.” I believe most of us want only a balanced view. While the “if it bleeds it leads” formula for news is bad enough in a normal situation, it’s completely irresponsible for war reporting.

Indeed, we have examples of so-called reporters trying to make bad news. Last summer (August 17, 2005) NBC’s Matt Lauer visited Iraq and was interviewing some soldiers. He kept trying to get them to say something negative. Lauer even got to the point of questioning the truthfulness of the soldiers when he didn’t get the quotes he wanted. Finally, the captain of the group had it and said, “Well sir, I’d tell you, if I got my news from the newspapers also I’d be pretty depressed as well. Sir, I know it’s hard to get out and get on the ground and report the news. But for those of us who have actually had a chance to get out and meet the Iraqi Army and Iraqi police and go on patrols with them, we are very satisfied with the way things are going here and we are confident that if we are allowed to finish the job we started we’ll be very proud of it and our country will be proud of us for doing it.”

I should the note the above quote may not be exact because I could not find an “official” transcript of the show.

“Chris Satullo, editorial page editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, had a good answer to that in a column that appeared on Sunday. Here’s part of it:

“‘What if, inside the triangle defined by New York, Philadelphia and Washington, sectarian tensions were killing 60 people a day? What if St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York had been demolished by a suicide bomber? If a car had exploded yesterday here on Market Street killing 13? If a State Department official had been dragged out of his Georgetown home by masked gunmen last night? Would the mood of the megalopolis be doggedly upbeat? ... If the East Coast were riven by the same anguish as Baghdad is, every citizen of American would be shaken to the core.’”

[RWC] This is the second time in two days I’ve seen a variant of this idiotic response. Cannot the Times or the Inquirer distinguish between New York, Philadelphia, & Washington, DC, and a war zone?

I wonder what the outcome of World War II would have been if the press reported only deaths and casualties, sunk ships, and lost battles on a daily basis without also reporting the victories and progress. Let’s extend this to the Inquirer example. What would be the outcome if we heard all about the destruction by terrorists but next to nothing about successful efforts to defeat the terrorists?

For those of you who care to see what’s going on in Iraq that the mainstream media doesn’t want us to see, “Winning Iraq: The Untold Story” on Fox News Channel (Greg Palkot; December 3, 2005) was an eye opener. In the media I occasionally hear people who have visited Iraq claim the reporting we constantly hear bears little resemblance to what is really going on. “Winning Iraq” really drives that point home. It’s not a “rah, rah” piece; Palkot openly discusses the dangers in today’s Iraq. What sets the piece apart is that Palkot – who spent six weeks crisscrossing Iraq – also shows the good things going on. For example, did you know the liberal Brookings Institution reports the Iraqi standard of living has doubled since 2003, the Iraq economy is expected to grow 16.8% in 2006, and the post-war Iraq dinar has held its value better than the U.S. dollar?

“This administration has been blowing smoke for so long that it can’t distinguish between real news and its propaganda. Fortunately, the American people are starting to discern the difference.”

[RWC] “Can’t distinguish between real news and its propaganda?” People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks. I guess all those servicemen and women serving in Iraq telling us about some of the good things are part of the propaganda effort.

Regarding “the American people are starting to discern the difference,” they’ve known the difference for quite a while, but now they’re getting vocal about it. That’s what worries the Times and its fellow travelers in the mainstream media.

“A warning by Abraham Lincoln is coming back to haunt Bush: ‘If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.’”

[RWC] You’ll note the author doesn’t tell us how President Bush allegedly fooled us.

“Why has Bush been reduced to appearing before carefully screened audiences at so-called public forums? Could it be because this presidency has reached the ‘some people all of the time’ stage because it has forfeited the confidence of the American people?”

[RWC] Wow, what a scoop! Politicians like to appear before “friendly” audiences. Given that history didn’t start until President Bush took office, I guess we have to give him credit for developing this tactic. <g>

Does the author expect President Bush to speak in front of Code Pink, MoveOn.org, et cetera? Who in their right mind would go in front of an audience that would boo them from beginning to end? How dumb does the editorial author think we are?

Let’s examine the friendly audience allegation. First, President Bush spoke to the City Club in Cleveland on March 20^th. The City Club doesn’t allow pre-screened questions and not all the questions were friendly.

The next day, President Bush held a press conference in the White House. Anyone who calls the White House press corps a friendly audience must be smoking something illegal, and I don’t mean Cuban cigars.

Let’s look at the other side. How many of the war bashers have bashed the war in front of a military audience? You can probably guess the answer.