Posted on 12/05/2005 7:03:59 AM PST by conservativecorner
This is a war. You can be unhappy about it and sit it out. That's ok. That's what a democracy is about. You're right to dissent. You can criticize the war and vote for another government that will leave the field of battle. That's ok too. That's also what a democracy about. But while an elected government and the young men and women it sends into battle are engaged with a ruthless enemy in the field, you can't work to cripple their efforts , or do the work of the enemy side and expect the rest of us not to regard you as a saboteur and a Judas and an enemy within.
These thoughts are provoked by the lead story in Saturday's Los Angeles Times and then by a missing lead in the paper the next day. On Saturday the lead story headline in the Times was "Bomb Kills 10 Marines At Fallouja." What kind of a lead story is this? We're in a war. What's the big news that ten soldiers have died? And by one roadside bomb? It could happen any day -- even on the last of a war before a peace. There is no story. This is hardly news. It's like running a headline that today 110 people were killed in car accidents. Actually that's a fact (or a ballpark fact -- if 55,000 Americans die every year from car wrecks). But no one writes headlines about it because it's not news. It's life as we know it. As long as there are millions of cars on the roads and they're driven by people like us, there are going to be accidents and deaths. So too with war.
(Excerpt) Read more at frontpagemag.com ...
I have misunderstood NOTHING. I am quite familiar witht the technique you are using: redefining the issue. Why didn't you answer my question about "major" making a difference instead of telling me I misunderstood you. Nothing disproves an accusation like a refutation!
Absof'nlutely !!!!!!
In the Sacramento Bee "Blast kills key al-Qaida deputy" was on page 12.
"Needy feel chill 0f heating costs" was on page 1 of this Sunday's paper. I just bought it because I needed the ads.
I am redefining nothing. I am writing about news judgement, and why the story played the way it did.
I think the reason they are hated so thoroughly is because of their betrayal. They are WORSE than the terrorists because they betray their own.
I hope the next time the Jihadis try to bomb the Palestinian Hotel, our guys just point out to them the best place to park in order to get the most of them.
The war began in March, 2003. Major combat operations ceased several weeks later.
You people are not reading my earlier posts. I agree with you - not disagree.
We should withdraw from California where more Americans are slain every year than soldiers in Iraq. If it were repeated in the news over and over every day as the MSM hammers the bad news from Iraq, maybe a huge exodus from CA would take place. Barbara Boxer should work on her own problems.
There were over 14,000 slayings in the USA last year, a decrease from the previous year. That does not include the thousands of deaths caused by alcohol and drugs. Where are the headlines?
Our republican elected officials don't seem to know the value of repetition and countering the leftist democrats' control of the public perception of the war, the economy, etc.
So, if ten Marines are killed no one cares? And it's not news...to anyone.
55,000 traffic fatalities are incurred annually in the US. If you could create a war or other program which would cause 2000 deaths over a two-year span but would save 55,000 lives in each of those years would you do it? I submit that you would - and that America's military personnel would glory in that mission.The point is that the newspaper is headlining the deaths in Iraq much more than they are emphasizing the far more numerous highway fatalities to which we are accustomed. So, is it your position that "100 Americans are killed on the highway (and more, on the average single day) - and no one cares? Because that is the tenor of the relative newspaper coverage.
bttt
No, you are not. What you are doing is parroting the MSM dodge. I know what "news judgement" is, and what it means, and how it's used to throw "outsiders" off the trail of what's being done.
Answer the question. What is difference does MAJOR make?
I completely agree with you.
It's been rather a long time in Iraq since we lost so many men, in one ambush, due to an IED. That's part of the equation.
I care that they died, and I am sure you do, too.
Read my other posts. Obviously, others are not. I agree with you all - I am merely trying to explain why this received wide reportage(despite the MSM's loathing of the war and President Bush).
I, too, would like to hear more about all the GOOD things going on in Iraq. There's a lot to report in that department, but bad news always plays better than good news. That's a fact. You can't change it.
I already answered that question. You chose not to accpet the answer. Therfore, I cannot help.
Please read my earlier posts on this thread. I agree with you.
No, you didn't. You have consistently dodged answering that question, and blamed your victims by claiming they aren't reading what you wrote. They "read" what you wrote alright, what they are not doing is "buying" it.
I have family in Iraq in the service - both in the USMC. I do not mean to anger you.
You are missing the point I am trying to make. Ten Marines being killed by an IED, at one time, months after the last time that occurred is newsworthy. Bad news will always "play" better than good news. That is the nature of reportage in western newspapers.
I, too, wish to have the GOOD things reported - at least frequently as the bad news. But the likelihood of that occurring is nil - as we all know.
You and your comrades are doing a great job in Iraq. Thank you. And thanks for your comments.
They think telling their employees to take a manditory, unpaid, vacation excuses them from having to pay unemployment.
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