It's the Media's Fault! - Progress Pond

It looks like the Bush stance on the war in Iraq is not only should the dead be buried without publicity, without fanfare, but that we shouldn’t even mention when they’re killed.

Your husband’s been killed? Who cares about that — we painted a school last week! You lost your daddy? Don’t be so negative — freedom’s on the march! It’s all sweetness and light over there — but you’ll never know it if you keep focusing on the negative media that hates America and the troops!

And the right-wing is eager to join the “happy happy joy joy” bandwagon.
On “The Today Show”, conservative talking head Laura Ingraham had this to say about the news reporting from Iraq:

The “TODAY” show spends all this money to send people to the Olympics, which is great, it was great programming. All this money for “Where in the World Is Matt Lauer?” Bring the “TODAY” show to Iraq. Bring the “TODAY” show to Tal Afar. Do the show from the 4th ID at Camp Victory.

And then, when you talk to those soldiers on the ground, when you go out with the Iraqi military, when you talk to the villagers when you see the children, then I want NBC to report on only the IEDs, only the killings, only the reprisals.

To do a show from Iraq means to talk to the Iraqi military, to go out with the Iraqi military, to actually have a conversation with the people, instead of reporting from hotel balconies about the latest IEDs going off.

She said similar things on “The Factor with Bill O’Reilly”.

And Keith Olbermann on “Countdown” was highly and righteously pissed:

OLBERMANN: Let`s analyze the restarted war against the media on this with Richard Wolffe of “Newsweek” magazine.

But before we do, a note about Laura Ingraham`s comments. I`ve known her a long time. I`ll in fact give you the caveat that I`ve known her socially.

But that hotel balcony crack was unforgivable. It was unforgivable to the memory of David Bloom, it was unforgivable in consideration of Bob Woodruff and Doug Vogt, it was unforgivable in the light of what happened to Michael Kelly and what happened to Michael Weiskopf. It was unforgivable with Jill Carroll still a hostage in Iraq.

And it`s not only unforgivable of her, it was desperate, and it was stupid.

[For the whole transcript of the show, click here.]

I’d like to see Laura Ingraham and her ilk venture into Iraq, away from the Green Zone and their hotel balconies. I’d like her to talk to the Iraqi families…though she’ll have to wait till they finish burying their family members. Talk to the military about the lack of equipment and the low morale as they wonder when(if) they’ll see their families. Hell, stay here in the States and talk to military families who are tired of the lies and uncertainties — I’m sure our own Militarytracy and her spouse would have some choice words (a few possibly fit for public airwaves).

I’m sick of this “blame the media” for reporting what is happening in Iraq, just because it’s not the “sweetness and light” that was expected…if it wasn’t happening, it wouldn’t be reported. Thank goodness our media appears to be finally finding its spine…I just hope it’s not too little, too late.

10 Comments

Cali Scribe on March 23, 2006 at 5:51 pm

Will hopefully be available in orange — dKos is running slower than me on the treadmill…

Damnit Janet on March 23, 2006 at 6:16 pm

A Pollyanna Press??

Yesterday a woman was raped but her attacker was considerate enough to not punch out ALL her teeth.

Today a nursing home burnt to the ground, arson is suspected… but the elderly people who waiting to die anyways and we got word that the First “Lady” says she she’s sure that the victims are better off where they are now”.

Breaking news: A shoot out at a nearby McDonalds has erupted. Thankfully this didn’t happen where the rich people have their luncheons.

Now back to you…

Cali Scribe on March 23, 2006 at 5:58 pm

of the transcript, but I think it’s perfect — from Richard Wolffe of Newsweek:

Of course, the media focuses on bad news, on death and violence. First of all, this is a war which has been hugely expensive in terms of blood and treasure. And secondly, that`s the way life is. It`s not a bias of the media. If it was a bias, then why has cable news talked about murders? Why don`t they have whole shows that talk about childbirth?

You know, it just doesn`t work like that. So it`s incredibly naive, it`s partisan, and it`s ironic for people who claim to be rooting out bias to start saying we should be biased in how we report the war.

Arcturus on March 23, 2006 at 7:46 pm

From Robert Fisk’s article (the UK Independent’s Middle East correspondent for nearly 30 years) Telling It Like It Isn’t:

Back in the old days, we used to believe — did we not? — that journalists should “tell it how it is.” Read the great journalism of World War II and you’ll see what I mean. The Ed Murrows and Richard Dimblebys, the Howard K. Smiths and Alan Moorheads didn’t mince their words or change their descriptions or run mealy-mouthed from the truth because listeners or readers didn’t want to know or preferred a different version.

So let’s call a colony a colony, let’s call occupation what it is, let’s call a wall a wall. And maybe express the reality of war by showing that it represents not, primarily, victory or defeat, but the total failure of the human spirit.

& from the intro to his book, The Great War for Civilization, talking with Israeli reporter Amira Haas:

I was insisting that we had a vocation to write the first pages of history but she interrupted me. “No Robert, you’re wrong,” she said. “Our job is to monitor the centers of power.” And I think, in the end, that is the best definition of journalism I have heard: to challenge authority — all authority – especially so when governments and politicians take us to war, when they have decided that they will kill and others will die. (p. xxii)

He explains >elsewhere what this type of reporting entails:

. . . But in foreign affairs, in a part of the world that is cloaked in injustice, where thousands are torn apart and shredded by weapons every year, you’re entering a new kind of world. One in which the standards of neutrality used in a small-town court case fall by the wayside because they are no longer relevant.

When you see child victims piled up at the site of a massacre it’s not the time to give equal time to the murderers. If you were covering the slave trade in the 19th century, you wouldn’t give 50 per cent to the slave ship captain; you would focus on the slaves who died and on the survivors. If you are present at the liberation of an extermination camp in Nazi Germany, you don’t search out the SS for 50 per cent of the comment.

When I was close to a pizzeria bombing in Israeli West Jerusalem in 2001, in which 20 were killed, more than half children, I didn’t give half the time to Hamas. In 1982, in Sabra and Shatila, I wrote about the victims, the dead who I physically climbed over and the survivors. I did not give 50 per cent to the Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia who massacred them nor to the Israeli army who watched the murders and did nothing.

In the realm of warfare, which represents the total failure of the human spirit, you are morally bound as a journalist to show eloquent compassion to the victims, to be unafraid to name the murderers, and you’re allowed to be angry. The waitress who’s serving us coffee, the taxi driver who brought me here, they have feelings about atrocities. Why shouldn’t we?

Second Nature on March 23, 2006 at 6:00 pm

They always trot out this blame the media crap out of desperation. The problem is the public doesn’t blame the media. They trust the media more than they trust this president.

Plus, we bombed the hell out of their country…of course we’re rebuilding schools and bridges!!!!

Damnit Janet on March 23, 2006 at 6:12 pm

But are we?? I mean are we really rebuilding anything but constructing prisons and bases?? We’ve only been told they’ve reconstructed water treatment facilites and bridges and such..

I’ve only seen them blowing shit up.

Damnit Janet on March 23, 2006 at 6:10 pm

I happen to think the media has blood on it’s hands for being Bush’s propaganda whore. But yes Cali it does seem to be waking up. We need to keep pressure on the … press.

Got an email in thru CP about the media. I’m hoping to go to the screening of it here in PDX. Will be helping them pass out fliers about it.

http://www.independentintervention.com

stormkite on March 23, 2006 at 6:22 pm

Hey, Laura, sweetheart…

You think there should be reporting of different things from Iraq? You’re a reporter, right? GET YOUR SORRY ASS OVER THERE AND GET THE FREAKIN’ STORY.

Those of us who do it for real cover stories on our own nickel all the goddam time because the networks and the major press want talking heads rather than news, so don’t sit there and shovel shit about “can’t afford it.” You make a HELLUVA lot more money than the majority of us out here in the trenches; hell, you were probably paid more for that one liner than most of us will make all MONTH.

Or STFU. More real journalists have DIED in Iraq than will EVER work for Faux News, and any one of them was a thousand times better than you could ever HOPE to be.

Put up or shut up. GO.

Steven D on March 23, 2006 at 7:08 pm

I heart Keith O!

storiesinamerica on March 24, 2006 at 4:17 am

If only Americans knew half the story. LinkTV compiles a daily 30 minute TV show of translated news segments aired throughout the Middle East. It’s called Mosaic. The pieces on Iraq actually show and quote average Iraqi people.

Independent journalist Dahr Jamail recently started posting Mosaic on his website:
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/mosaic/

I’m addicted.

Cali Scribe on March 23, 2006 at 5:51 pm

Will hopefully be available in orange — dKos is running slower than me on the treadmill…
- Damnit Janet on March 23, 2006 at 6:16 pm
  
  A Pollyanna Press??
  
  Yesterday a woman was raped but her attacker was considerate enough to not punch out ALL her teeth.
  
  Today a nursing home burnt to the ground, arson is suspected… but the elderly people who waiting to die anyways and we got word that the First “Lady” says she she’s sure that the victims are better off where they are now”.
  
  Breaking news: A shoot out at a nearby McDonalds has erupted. Thankfully this didn’t happen where the rich people have their luncheons.
  
  Now back to you…
Cali Scribe on March 23, 2006 at 5:58 pm

of the transcript, but I think it’s perfect — from Richard Wolffe of Newsweek:

Of course, the media focuses on bad news, on death and violence. First of all, this is a war which has been hugely expensive in terms of blood and treasure. And secondly, that`s the way life is. It`s not a bias of the media. If it was a bias, then why has cable news talked about murders? Why don`t they have whole shows that talk about childbirth?

You know, it just doesn`t work like that. So it`s incredibly naive, it`s partisan, and it`s ironic for people who claim to be rooting out bias to start saying we should be biased in how we report the war.
- Arcturus on March 23, 2006 at 7:46 pm
  
  From Robert Fisk’s article (the UK Independent’s Middle East correspondent for nearly 30 years) Telling It Like It Isn’t:
  
  Back in the old days, we used to believe — did we not? — that journalists should “tell it how it is.” Read the great journalism of World War II and you’ll see what I mean. The Ed Murrows and Richard Dimblebys, the Howard K. Smiths and Alan Moorheads didn’t mince their words or change their descriptions or run mealy-mouthed from the truth because listeners or readers didn’t want to know or preferred a different version.
  
  So let’s call a colony a colony, let’s call occupation what it is, let’s call a wall a wall. And maybe express the reality of war by showing that it represents not, primarily, victory or defeat, but the total failure of the human spirit.
  
  & from the intro to his book, The Great War for Civilization, talking with Israeli reporter Amira Haas:
  
  I was insisting that we had a vocation to write the first pages of history but she interrupted me. “No Robert, you’re wrong,” she said. “Our job is to monitor the centers of power.” And I think, in the end, that is the best definition of journalism I have heard: to challenge authority — all authority – especially so when governments and politicians take us to war, when they have decided that they will kill and others will die. (p. xxii)
  
  He explains >elsewhere what this type of reporting entails:
  
  . . . But in foreign affairs, in a part of the world that is cloaked in injustice, where thousands are torn apart and shredded by weapons every year, you’re entering a new kind of world. One in which the standards of neutrality used in a small-town court case fall by the wayside because they are no longer relevant.
  
  When you see child victims piled up at the site of a massacre it’s not the time to give equal time to the murderers. If you were covering the slave trade in the 19th century, you wouldn’t give 50 per cent to the slave ship captain; you would focus on the slaves who died and on the survivors. If you are present at the liberation of an extermination camp in Nazi Germany, you don’t search out the SS for 50 per cent of the comment.
  
  When I was close to a pizzeria bombing in Israeli West Jerusalem in 2001, in which 20 were killed, more than half children, I didn’t give half the time to Hamas. In 1982, in Sabra and Shatila, I wrote about the victims, the dead who I physically climbed over and the survivors. I did not give 50 per cent to the Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia who massacred them nor to the Israeli army who watched the murders and did nothing.
  
  In the realm of warfare, which represents the total failure of the human spirit, you are morally bound as a journalist to show eloquent compassion to the victims, to be unafraid to name the murderers, and you’re allowed to be angry. The waitress who’s serving us coffee, the taxi driver who brought me here, they have feelings about atrocities. Why shouldn’t we?
Second Nature on March 23, 2006 at 6:00 pm

They always trot out this blame the media crap out of desperation. The problem is the public doesn’t blame the media. They trust the media more than they trust this president.

Plus, we bombed the hell out of their country…of course we’re rebuilding schools and bridges!!!!
- Damnit Janet on March 23, 2006 at 6:12 pm
  
  But are we?? I mean are we really rebuilding anything but constructing prisons and bases?? We’ve only been told they’ve reconstructed water treatment facilites and bridges and such..
  
  I’ve only seen them blowing shit up.
Damnit Janet on March 23, 2006 at 6:10 pm

I happen to think the media has blood on it’s hands for being Bush’s propaganda whore. But yes Cali it does seem to be waking up. We need to keep pressure on the … press.

Got an email in thru CP about the media. I’m hoping to go to the screening of it here in PDX. Will be helping them pass out fliers about it.

http://www.independentintervention.com
stormkite on March 23, 2006 at 6:22 pm

Hey, Laura, sweetheart…

You think there should be reporting of different things from Iraq? You’re a reporter, right? GET YOUR SORRY ASS OVER THERE AND GET THE FREAKIN’ STORY.

Those of us who do it for real cover stories on our own nickel all the goddam time because the networks and the major press want talking heads rather than news, so don’t sit there and shovel shit about “can’t afford it.” You make a HELLUVA lot more money than the majority of us out here in the trenches; hell, you were probably paid more for that one liner than most of us will make all MONTH.

Or STFU. More real journalists have DIED in Iraq than will EVER work for Faux News, and any one of them was a thousand times better than you could ever HOPE to be.

Put up or shut up. GO.
Steven D on March 23, 2006 at 7:08 pm

I heart Keith O!
storiesinamerica on March 24, 2006 at 4:17 am

If only Americans knew half the story. LinkTV compiles a daily 30 minute TV show of translated news segments aired throughout the Middle East. It’s called Mosaic. The pieces on Iraq actually show and quote average Iraqi people.

Independent journalist Dahr Jamail recently started posting Mosaic on his website:
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/mosaic/

I’m addicted.

It’s the Media’s Fault!

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