Posted on 11/01/2005 9:09:40 PM PST by smoothsailing
All The News That's Fit To Omit
By Michelle Malkin
November 2, 2005
When you read The New York Times (if you still bother to read it), always ask:
What is the Times NOT telling me?
The answers are invariably more compelling -- and newsworthy -- than what the paper actually deems "fit to print."
Let me give you an example.
Last Wednesday, the Times published a 4,624-word opus on American casualties of war in Iraq. "2,000 Dead: As Iraq Tours Stretch On, a Grim Mark," read the headline. The macabre, Vietnam-evoking piece appeared prominently on page A2. Among those profiled were Marines from the First Battalion of the Fifth Marine Regiment, including Cpl. Jeffrey B. Starr. Here's the relevant passage:
Another member of the 1/5, Cpl. Jeffrey B. Starr, rejected a $24,000 bonus to re-enlist. Corporal Starr believed strongly in the war, his father said, but was tired of the harsh life and nearness of death in Iraq. So he enrolled at Everett Community College near his parents' home in Snohomish, Wash., planning to study psychology after his enlistment ended in August.
But he died in a firefight in Ramadi on April 30 during his third tour in Iraq. He was 22.
Sifting through Corporal Starr's laptop computer after his death, his father found a letter to be delivered to the marine's girlfriend. ''I kind of predicted this,'' Corporal Starr wrote of his own death. ''A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances."
The paper's excerpt of Corporal Starr's letter leaves the reader with the distinct impression that this young Marine was darkly resigned to a senseless death. The truth is exactly the opposite. Late last week, I received a letter from Corporal Starr's uncle, Timothy Lickness. He wanted you to know the rest of the story -- and the parts of Corporal Starr's letter that the Times failed to include:
"Obviously if you are reading this then I have died in Iraq. I kind of predicted this, that is why I'm writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances. I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."
Reader Michael Valois questioned the Times' reporter, James Dao, about his selection bias and forwarded me the exchanges. A defensive Dao (who did not respond to my e-mail inquiry) argued "there is nothing 'anti war' in the way I portrayed Corporal Starr." Dao then had the gall to berate the reader:
"Even the portion of his email that I used, the one that you seem so offended by, does not express anti-war sentiment. It does express the fatalism that many soldiers and marines seem to feel about multiple tours.
Have you been to Iraq, Michael? Or to any other war, for that matter? If you have, you should know the anxiety and fear parents, spouses, and troops themselves feel when they deploy to war. And if you haven't, what right do you have to object when papers like the New York Times try to describe that anxiety and fear?"
Mr. Dao sounds a bit unhinged playing the far-left chickenhawk card. Only people who have traveled to Iraq can criticize a paper's war-related coverage?
And Dao's dead-wrong about Corporal Starr's presumed "fatalism." If you don't believe Corporal Starr's own words, which Dao chose to ignore, listen to Corporal Starr's father, Brian. I asked him this week whether his son was fatalistic. "I don't agree at all. Jeff had an awareness of death, but was very positive about coming home."
Dao apologized to Valois for the tone of his snippy e-mail, but apparently feels no shame or sorrow for distorting a dead Marine's thoughts and feelings about war, sacrifice and freedom.
Will the Times correct Dao's grave sin of omission and apologize? Or will the paper just hope you shrug and look the other way?
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Michelle Malkin is author of the new book "Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild," released this week by Regnery. Michelle Malkin's e-mail address is malkin@comcast.net.
COPYRIGHT 2005 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.
Here's a blogger who complained to the NYTwits about this nonsense and actually got a response. Needless to say, they do a sorry job of defending themselves:
http://iraqnow.blogspot.com/2005/11/ny-times-responds-on-cpl-starr-flap.html
I mean that.FRegards
... cracks in the MSM widening ping ...
Just when you think they have reached the bottom, they manage to dig even lower.
Profound and courageous....upon his like this nation was founded, upon his like this nation remains the beacon of FREEDOM throughout the world......Corporal Starr's epitaph!
Sifting through Corporal Starr's laptop computer after his death, his father found a letter to be delivered to the marine's girlfriend. ''I kind of predicted this,'' Corporal Starr wrote of his own death. ''A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances."The paper's excerpt of Corporal Starr's letter leaves the reader with the distinct impression that this young Marine was darkly resigned to a senseless death. The truth is exactly the opposite. Late last week, I received a letter from Corporal Starr's uncle, Timothy Lickness. He wanted you to know the rest of the story -- and the parts of Corporal Starr's letter that the Times failed to include:
"Obviously if you are reading this then I have died in Iraq. I kind of predicted this, that is why I'm writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances. I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."
Via the Public Editor, I recieved this response from NY Times senior editor Bill Borders:
Jim Dao's article about the 2,000 dead last Wednesday was entirely fair, and so, within it, was our presentation of Corporal Jeffrey Starr.
The most prominent part of the presentation of Starr was the picture and caption at the top of Page A15. The caption represented him this way: "His father, Brian Starr, said his son believed in the war but was tired of the harsh life." article also reported that even after his son's death Brian Starr "remained convinced that invading Iraq was the right thing to do."
It is true that the article did not quote everything that Corporal Starr said in his e-mail, like his reference to Iraqi freedom, any more than it quoted everything said by all the others quoted in the article, who represented all sorts of shades of opinion. But the article was completely fair in its representation of the views of Corporal Starr and his father.
And no one who has read the entire article could possibly conclude that it was colored by an anti-war point of view. Here, for example, is the seventh paragraph, prominently played on the front page:
"Many of those service members returned voluntarily to war because they burned with conviction in the rightness of the mission. Others were driven by powerful loyalty to units and friends. For some it was simply their job."
In its very first paragraph, the article introduces Sgt. Anthony Jones, who was killed in June weeks after the birth of his second son. Farther down in the piece, it quotes his young widow:
"Mrs. Jones, 26, said she struggled at first to contain her anger that her husband was sent to Iraq instead of Germany. But she has consoled herself
with the conviction that he died for a cause he supported. And she firmly rejects the antiwar protests of Cindy Sheehan, saying they dishonor the fallen. ''I hope she doesn't have my husband's name on a cross,'' Mrs. Jones said. ''My husband, if he had a choice, that's how he would want to die. As a soldier.''
Bill
Ameircan born Nazi propagandist Axis Sally engaged in just such edited statements from injured soldiers. The Old Grey Lady is a Whore.
The longer they serve, the more likely they are to die
Young soldiers return to Iraq, and know their chances of survival wane with each tour of duty
Sun Oct 30 2005
By James Dao
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/westview/story/3130520p-3629898c.html
You might want to post Jason's response to this reply, too:
http://iraqnow.blogspot.com/2005/11/my-letter-to-ny-times-public-editor.html
Great title for the book.
My pleasure.
Semper Fi,
Kelly
Canteen ping
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