Iraq missions that work out are missing from mainstream media
Tim Chavez
Did you see the big headline or watch the top-of-the-newscast story about the success of our sons and daughters in Samarra, Iraq?
Of course, you didn't.
I found mention deep in stories from The Christian Science Monitor and The Associated Press. But it took e-mails from Marine officers in Iraq to relay the importance of this positive news — so I could tell you.
It shouldn't be this way. Yet journalism in America is broken. It has no foundation of values by which many Americans can relate and depend. The moral of this column is not about one side prevailing in news coverage on the war on terror. It's simply about fairness — about Americans getting both sides with the same prominence.
They're not. And media emphasis on Iraq being in chaos has coincided with John Kerry making the same pitch to voters. It makes you wonder, just as we did on the authenticity of Dan Rather's reporting. And now America knows about Rather's ruse.
''Samarra is a beaming success story over here,'' writes Lt. Col Jim Rose, a Tennessee Marine whose parents live in Old Hickory. ''We were getting ready for a take-down there right after Najaf. We told the locals, 'Hey, see what happened in Najaf? Is that what you want? Cause we're coming.' It took the locals about two days to get the bad guys out.''
Rose is based in the Sunni Triangle. That's where most U.S. casualties occur, where the Sunnis are supportive of terrorists coming in. Fallujah is there, along with Samarra and Najaf, where Marines drove terrorists out of one of Islam's holiest shrines.
Rose verified a message I received from another Marine officer in Iraq. He provided perspective missing in the media: ''Those achievements, more than anything else … account for the surge in violence in recent days — especially the violence directed at Iraqis by the insurgents. Both in Najaf and Samarra, ordinary people stepped out and took sides with the Iraqi government against the insurgents, and the bad guys are hopping mad. They are trying to instill fear once again.''
Rose asked: ''Why isn't the media covering Samarra?''
Instead, we get what reader Jim League of Smyrna complains about. He cited a picture and story featured at the top of Page 13A in Saturday's Tennessean:
''The perhaps 100 protesters get front-and-center billing, and the impression is that all of Iraq is unhappy. What is missing is perspective. Imagine a foreigner perusing the front page of The Tennessean. He reads about a 15-year-old-boy being chained to his bed for six weeks. Would he be justified in believing that all parents in America constrain their children? If he had no perspective and if his impression was selectively reinforced by subtle media or political pundits, this could be possible.''
Exactly. And what we get on TV is also just one side. Consider this story Rose saw reported: ''I was going through the battle damage assessment at my desk with NBC's Today on the TV. The attack occurred in the middle of the night. I had the footage of the attack on my computer, and here's Katie Couric (or whoever hosts it) showing the same bomb location.
''I had pictures of the bombed vehicles, which is how I knew she was talking about the same location. The next shot is kids being carried into a hospital. We had eyes on this for a long time. If there were kids in there, they were toting weapons or the terrorists used them as human shields. …
''I went to our Combat Operations Center and walked into them watching the same thing. I verified what I thought and spoke with our intelligence guys. They said the whole thing was staged and probably old footage. They track the footage and have seen repeat footage shown in the past. They also said to look at the footage and see if it makes sense. More often than not, it doesn't … pulling a child from rubble with relatively clean clothes. ''
Is NBC wrong and the Marines right? Americans deserve both sides to make up their minds.
''The Najaf shrine — HUNDREDS of dead women and children were brought out after Sadr left,'' Rose wrote. ''They (Sadr's supporters) rounded them up during the battle and brought them in to be executed. Why? Because they anticipated the Americans would eventually enter the shrine and walk into a media ambush. We never went in. The people of Najaf love us right now because of that. They hate Sadr and want him dead.
''Have you heard that one yet (in the media)?''
No we haven't. We just get one side. That's bad journalism — by a news media acting in concert with Kerry. Tennessean
'THEY ARE relentless, and that is why we secretly admire them. They just simply never, ever give up. Only 30 percent of the country calls itself Republican, yet they own it all — the White House, both houses of Congress, the Supreme Court and the majority of governorships . . . It's because they eat you and me and every other liberal for breakfast!" This is the letter that controversial filmmaker Michael Moore has sent fellow Democrats. He advises them: "Enough of the hand-wringing! Enough of the doomsaying! Look at us, what a bunch of crybabies!"
What an idiot. And this:
I WAS EAGER to see some early portion of Kitty Kelley's book about the Bush family, but never received a review copy. An early offer of some inside stuff from "The Family" was sent but then withdrawn by one of Kitty's press agents.
Now the correspondence between her publisher, Doubleday, and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), as reported by Richard Leiby in The Washington Post, is making pre-election waves. DeLay was miffed to receive an unsolicited copy of Kitty's opus. He returned the book COD, writing, "The book would reflect poorly on its author, if, in fact, any reasonable person still respected her at this advanced stage of her pathological career.
"Instead . . . it reflects poorly on the Doubleday name and everyone associated with your company. Ms. Kelley is neither journalist nor scholar. She is a junior-high gossipmonger whose writing should be passed in notes during study hall, not printed in books by the same company that published Rudyard Kipling, Booker T. Washington and Anne Frank.
"Her books are malicious, dishonest, undermine political discourse and corrupt the good name of American letters . . . But perhaps I understate."
Doubleday's reps responded: "We certainly respect Mr. DeLay's right to his opinion, but we are proud to publish KK's work." Kelley's own spokeswoman said: "Considering the many ethical inquiries surrounding Rep. DeLay, we understand why he prefers not to accept anything free right now."
Meow! Incidentally, Kitty's TV demeanor has been something to see. No matter how her detractors hammer, she stays cool, confident, poised and smiling sweetly. Her book is the No. 1 best seller. And do I believe that the divorced Sharon Bush, the president's former sister-in-law, gave Kitty the story about George W. Bush's past misbehavior? I do, because Sharon has tried to tell that story to just about anybody in the press who can spell C-A-T.
Our “esteemed” MSM is following in the footsteps of their Great Icon – the spokesman and chief propagandist for the Democratic Republic of North Vietnam and the Viet Nam Cong San – Walter Cronkite.
It is what journalism students are taught. It is what producers and editors expect.