«

IF ANYTHING GOES CAN DEMOCRACY SURVIVE? | Main | Be Glad You Live in America »

May 31, 2006

Moore, al Haditha and the Media Bias

by Jack Lee...

Seems like the controversy over Moore's Fahrenheit 911 will never end...A Massachusetts national guardsman filed an $85 million lawsuit against Moore last week. He's

accusing Moore of distorting a TV interview to portray him as anti-war in "his scathing 2004 documentary about the Bush administration post-Sept. 11, 2001."

Do you think the media is a friend or foe in wartime? I think mostly foe. Their job is to create headlines and this is often inconsistent with the military mission to win the war by winning the hearts and minds of the people. That's hard to do when the media keeps things stirred up, i.e. "Abu Graib". Which turned out to be a non-event, just pranks by a couple of stupid enlisted people, nothing more. Now al Haditha is their means to headlines. Seems the media can't wait five seconds before pronouncing guilt and inflaming passions. This latest incident is described as another "MeLi". The fact is, our media is making our mission for democracy in Iraq much more difficult. There was simply no strategic need to take this "November incident" to page one, better it was handled quietly and in any other war it would have been, but in Iraq the media is unrestrained. Shootings there are not normally big news, unless it's alleged that one of ours did it, then it's treated like the "man bites dog" story.

Remember when the media pronounced Marine Lt. Pantano guilty of killing two Iraqi's? As Pantano recounted after being acquitted, "...autopsy evidence blew their case out of the water, and the Marine Corps dropped all charges against me." Pantano was declared completely innocent of the charges, yet the media had him guilty from day one! Obviously the media makes a very poor judge and jury. Keep that in mind as you read about the al Haditha incident.

On another front, an Army Lt. Colonel called the Rush Limbaugh show from Iraq today. He said the military could win this war in short order if "they would let us out of our cage." He was pretty angry over the politicians trying to run (or ruin) this war, "it's like Vietnam all over again," he said.

Not the first time we've heard that one, is it? At one point, Limbaugh asked him if he thought his honest comments would get him in trouble? The LTC said, "What are they going to do to me, send me to Iraq?" Good point Colonel, but you can probably kiss off making "bird" now, that's the price of being honest with the public.

_________

Quote of the week: "Does it tell you something about our times when a representative of the Taliban is welcome on the Yale University campus but representatives of our own military forces are not?" - Thomas Sowell

Posted by Melody at May 31, 2006 10:40 PM

Comments

Let me point out the obvious....some idiot putting panties on the head of a prisoner is a far cry from beheading an innocent person with a dull butcher knife.

It's odd that you can't seem to make that distinction?

Better go back and watch the terrorists video again, it's on the internet. Go ahead...watch it! Hear that poor man gurgling on his own blood, hear his screaming and death moans...then report back and tell me how Abu Graib was just the same.

Posted by: Jack Lee at June 1, 2006 12:12 AM

The word perspective comes to mind here. If the words "egregious", "sadistic" and "wanton" is used for scaring a guy with a dog, what adjectives are left for raping and murdering children in front of their parents? Sounds unbalanced to me.

Posted by: Ron acevedo at June 1, 2006 07:26 AM

Tasker, there was no putting words in your mouth and I resent that, but I was definitely trying to give you some perspective to show what "blatant, wanton and egregious" acts really are.

Abu Graib looked like high school pranks compared to the sort of every day brutality we witness by those Muslim fanatics.

Yes, you really should watch that video of the beheadings. Then go back and watch the video of dozens of your fellow Americans jumping out windows at the trade towers. (The media let us off too easy there and too many have already forgot about that horror)

And while you are having this "perspective training", please try imagining how you might react as a soldier, after weeks and months of taking threats, sniper fire, IED's and it suddenly culminates in a few horrific seconds of violence as your best friends, standing nearby, are blown up and lay in bloody heaps with appendages blown off... just imagine how you might react to this.

This is not to excuse any soldiers for making terrible mistakes, but it is reality and this is the perspective I'm talking about.

If the terrorists kill their own people for wearing tennis shorts, what do you think they would do to liberals in America? The only thing that stands between them and you is our military.

Posted by: Jack Lee at June 1, 2006 08:37 AM

You mentioned the interview with a Lt. Col. in Iraq. Truer words were never spoken than when he pointed out that America is not so much "the land of the Free and the Home of the Brave." but "the Land of the Free BECAUSE of the Brave."

Posted by: Mike Wacker at June 1, 2006 11:23 AM

I hope the terrorists get a chance to do to the libedrals what they do to others. Liberals are 9/10ths of the reason why these terrorists hate Americans. They hate the pornography. They hate the Hollywood sluts. They hate gays. They hate dope smokers and drug users. They hate lazy bums, they hate prostitutes and loose morals. These are all things liberals defend.

Liberals think these things are precious commodities to our society. They hate us and there is nothing liberals can do or say to get out of that fact. There is no arguement that would keep a Muslim fanatic from slitting a liberal's throat in second! And the ironic part is if we didn't have a society of free speech liberals would kill me for just saying this, I know I work with a lot of liberals.

Liberals are for the most part really intolerant of opposing voices, they out shout you and won't you let you talk, it's happened to me many times.

Posted by: Cassandra L at June 1, 2006 02:32 PM

Tasker, At the risk of being accused of piling on....

You have answered your own question. The plan was to destroy the economic markets of THE WORLD when they flew those planes into the WORLD TRADE CENTER. Muslims have been imigrating all over the WORLD for quite some time now. European countries have just about said goodbye to their respective cultures. These terrorists are deadly serious, much smarter (and more stealth) than you give them credit for, and their role model is Adolf Hitler...you remember him, the guy who wanted to rule the world and create a master race by illiminating "lessers", including scientific experiments to better determine how to engineer the Master Race?

Also the glaring truth about the media is that they will front page and top story an Abu Graib story for weeks on end but we see Daniel Pearl maybe once or twice before they excuse themselves with some tripe like, "just too terrible to feature...Americans just aren't ready to see that kind of thing!" Additionally, soldiers will be punished if found guilty to resounding applause by the leftist media. We must understand...the Muslim terrorist that cut off Daniel Pearls head are just "freedom fighters" and we should let them be, give them some space.....barfo grande!

Nobody is saying be scared to death every day. It might be wise to "know your enemy" and be smart enough to respect his stated and DEMONSTRATED intent.

Posted by: Tina at June 1, 2006 09:03 PM

I made a mistake in an earlier post when I suggested sending over one of our liberal posters to "reason" with the Iranians. I don't know what i was thinking when I used the word "reason". Obviously "reason" is beyond liberal abilities.

Posted by: Ron Acevedo at June 2, 2006 08:06 AM

Post a comment




Remember Me?

(you may use HTML tags for style)