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Cheering for the Enemy - The legacy media has an airplane problem.
American Thinker ^ | 6 Apr, 2-26 | J.R. Dunn

Posted on 04/06/2026 4:42:30 AM PDT by MtnClimber

There’s nothing really new in the uproar surrounding the loss of a USAF F-15E Strike Eagle over Iran this past weekend. Media hysteria over the downing of a single U.S. aircraft has become a commonplace schtick in coverage of American wars over the past three decades.

During WW II, the U.S. lost over 23,000 planes in combat. I kid you not, playmates: 23,000+ – and that’s only combat losses. Overall losses, including accidents, amounted to 65,164. The media talking heads would have had to be carried out in straitjackets if they’d been active at the time.

Losses dropped sharply following WW II. In Korea, the USAF lost 147 shot down out of a total of 1,000+ losses. During the Vietnam War, 67 USAF planes were lost to North Vietnamese MiGs. The majority of the 1737 lost in combat were targeted by SAMs and anti-aircraft artillery.

Media acting out over relatively miniscule losses began in 1991 with the First Gulf War. On January 17, 1991, the opening night of the war, an F/A-18 piloted by Lt. Scott Speicher was shot down over Iraq, the war’s first fatality.

SNIP

As this piece is being drafted, word has come down that the WSO of the downed F-15 has been rescued by Special Forces troops after a dramatic battle with IRGC forces. A fine gift on this Easter morn.

Not that the Left, within the media or out, is going to appreciate it. That’s not what they want. They want American aircraft downed by the bushel. They want Navy ships ablaze in the Gulf. They want our troops captured, battered by mobs, and tortured. But if they can’t get that, they’ll do their best with the occasional aircraft downing.

We haven’t heard the last aircraft shootdown frenzy.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: cheeringforiran; declaringdefeat; democrats; domesticenemies; enemedia; iran; irgc; koranimals; leftism; propaganda; tds; tdsjournos; terrorists

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1 posted on 04/06/2026 4:42:30 AM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber
CNN gleefully reported that Iranian citizens were out in great numbers helping the IRGC search for the missing pilot.

They had to retract their story when it turned out that the Iranian citizens were pulling their vehicles into the road and turning them off to block the roads from being used by the IRGC searchers.

2 posted on 04/06/2026 4:43:20 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber
During WW II, the U.S. lost over 23,000 planes in combat. I kid you not, playmates: 23,000+ – and that’s only combat losses. Overall losses, including accidents, amounted to 65,164. The media talking heads would have had to be carried out in straitjackets if they’d been active at the time.

Our corrupt 'media' would have spent their time explaining how and why Hitler was winning...

3 posted on 04/06/2026 4:45:10 AM PDT by GOPJ (Oil was over $100 for three and a half years of Obama’s term without daily headlines - MSM sucks...)
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To: MtnClimber

“ The media talking heads would have had to be carried out in straitjackets if they’d been active at the time.”

Only if there had been a Republican in charge😎

13 dead in Afghanistan , Benghazi… crickets


4 posted on 04/06/2026 4:48:15 AM PDT by blitz128
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To: GOPJ

The “media” is nothing but clueless America-hating bunch of Saturday Night Live slobs who leave “college” with many more unresolved mental issues than they went into college with.


5 posted on 04/06/2026 4:50:33 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Illegally "born in the U.S." doesn't make you an American. It makes you a thieving ANCHOR BABY. )
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To: MtnClimber

Add to the above points, there are about 15+ military aircraft lost each year to peace-time training and maintenance issues.


6 posted on 04/06/2026 4:53:31 AM PDT by Psalm 73 ("You'll never hear surf music again" - J. Hendrix)
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To: MtnClimber
Missed point:

"Trump's fault."

7 posted on 04/06/2026 5:00:05 AM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 "/!i!! &@$%&*(@ -')
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To: MtnClimber

The news media remind me of the picture of Jane Fonda sitting at the controls of a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun, clapping, with grin and a wild look in her eyes, excited at US aircraft being shot down.


8 posted on 04/06/2026 5:01:14 AM PDT by Rockingham
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To: MtnClimber

legacy media are communist color revolutionaries

can we stop calling them the media

they lie about everything all the time


9 posted on 04/06/2026 5:16:01 AM PDT by WeaslesRippedMyFlesh
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To: MtnClimber

“During WW II, the U.S. lost over 23,000 planes in combat. I kid you not, playmates: 23,000+”

When you’re producing 100 planes a day, you can survive a bit more attrition than when you’re lucky to produce 100 planes a year (and relying on your main enemy for materials and piece-parts).


10 posted on 04/06/2026 5:18:42 AM PDT by BobL (Trusting one's doctor is the #1 health mistake one can make.)
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To: GOPJ

This is why President Trump limited access to his White House.


11 posted on 04/06/2026 5:19:41 AM PDT by healy61
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To: MtnClimber

I make my living off the evening news
Just give me something, something I can use
People love it when you lose
They love dirty laundry
… Well, I could’a been an actor, but I wound up here
I just have to look good, I don’t have to be clear
Come and whisper in my ear
Give us dirty laundry
… Kick ‘em when they’re up
Kick ‘em when they’re down
Kick ‘em when they’re up
Kick ‘em when they’re down
… Kick ‘em when they’re up
Kick ‘em when they’re down
Kick ‘em when they’re up
Kick ‘em all around
… We got the bubble-headed bleach blonde who comes on at five
She can tell you ‘bout the plane crash with a gleam in her eye
It’s interesting when people die
Give us dirty laundry
… Can we film the operation? Is the head dead yet?
You know, the boys in the newsroom got a running bet
Get the widow on the set
We need dirty laundry
… You don’t really want to find out what’s going on
You don’t really want to know just how far it’s gone
Just leave well enough alone
Eat your dirty laundry
… Kick ‘em when they’re up
Kick ‘em when they’re down
Kick ‘em when they’re up
Kick ‘em when they’re down


12 posted on 04/06/2026 5:20:39 AM PDT by Theophilus (covfefe)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

“The “media” is nothing but clueless America-hating bunch of Saturday Night Live slobs who leave “college” with many more unresolved mental issues than they went into college with.”

Quote of the day, and highly accurate.


13 posted on 04/06/2026 5:24:25 AM PDT by BlueStateRightist (Government is best which governs least.)
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To: MtnClimber

“Internationalism, illustrated by the Bolshevik and by the men to whom all countries are alike provided they can make money out of them, is to me repulsive.”

Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, Sr., August 12, 1919

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/04/04/nato-head-coming-to-washington-dc-as-germany-passes-law-requiring-17-to-45-year-old-men-to-get-govt-permission-for-travel/#comments


14 posted on 04/06/2026 5:33:54 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: MtnClimber

Heck, John McCain lost four planes all by himself.


15 posted on 04/06/2026 5:34:09 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." (John 2:5))
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To: MtnClimber

We could fly in three old helicopters by remote control, make one have its engine run poorly, make it land, then have drones pick off people trying to capture a crew.


16 posted on 04/06/2026 5:39:17 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: MtnClimber

Controlling the media’s message is right out of Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals - a 1971 book by American community activist and writer Saul Alinsky about how to successfully run a movement for change.


17 posted on 04/06/2026 5:44:09 AM PDT by stars & stripes forever (Blessed is the nation whose GOD is the LORD. ~ Psalm 33:12)
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To: blitz128

“13 dead in Afghanistan”

NPR said a deadly attack was likely beforehand.


18 posted on 04/06/2026 5:44:23 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: GOPJ

Our corrupt ‘media’ would have spent their time explaining how and why Hitler was winning...


Maybe not. The American Left was all in for helping out Stalin and Soviet Union.


19 posted on 04/06/2026 5:51:55 AM PDT by marktwain (----------------------)
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To: marktwain

I think it should be noted that when the Third Reich and the Soviet Union had a non-aggression pact in place, the American left were strongly isolationist. Hey, maybe France and the UK were having trouble with Hitler’s military expansion, but that was not America’s problem!

But then Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, and good ol’ Uncle Joe was in trouble, and at that point, the American Left starting pushing FDR to do something. They didn’t see it as a war to save the world, or to save Europe, or to save the Jews. It was a war to save communism.


20 posted on 04/06/2026 5:58:59 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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