Posted on 05/29/2004 6:43:42 AM PDT by CorporalTravis
OK, I'm a political junkie with too much time on my hands. I watch C-span for entertainment, but that's just me.
Did anyone catch this exchange between Scott McClellan and an unknown reporter on Friday at the press briefing?
I got the transcript that goes:
Q Scott, I frequently communicate with soldiers stationed in Iraq. And many of them ask me why only the bad news about Iraq is reported in the American media. More than one has told me how demoralizing it is to hear so much about the Abu Ghraib pictures, and so little about the murder and annihilation of American contractors and the beheading of Nicholas Berg. Can I get you to comment on the negative impact our reporting is having on morale of our troops?
MR. McCLELLAN: One, I always try to avoid being a media critic from this podium. I'm here to address your questions.
But let me point out that the President is solidly behind the outstanding jobs that our troops are doing in Iraq. Our troops are performing brilliantly as they work to provide for a secure, democratic and free Iraq for the Iraqi people. And they're doing an outstanding job, and we should always express our gratitude to those who are serving and sacrificing to make the world a better and safer place and to make America more secure.
Q Okay. But is it time to take the filter off again? Is it time to go around the filter? Because, you know -- because there are men and women that we have sent to defend our country that are hearing nothing but bad news in the press.
MR. McCLELLAN: Your point is well taken. There is important progress that is being made in Iraq. The President talked about some of that progress the other night in his remarks at the Army War College. There are also tough days and difficulties that remain.
There are those who are enemies of freedom who want to derail the transition to democracy, and we shouldn't lose sight of what we have accomplished in Iraq to this point. We removed a brutal regime from power, a regime that, when its economy started going down, went and found seven merchants and tried to blame that on those merchants and had their hands cut off and Xs put on their head. That was the kind of brutal, oppressive regime that has been removed from power. And thanks to the gratitude of some Americans, those individuals came to the United States and received prosthetic hands. And they met with the President the other day. And it's a clear reminder of what we have worked to accomplish in Iraq, and there's more to accomplish as we go forth.
Q They met with the President, right, Scott. They met with the President in the Oval Office and not one question was asked to those gentlemen about their torture in Abu Ghraib. The first question was about whether General Sanchez was being rotated out of Iraq because of the scandal.
MR. McCLELLAN: I would say the President was pleased to have them come to the White House and he was pleased to visit with them. They certainly had some powerful stories that were an example of the kind of atrocities committed by the former regime.
Now what's going on with that?
http://www.jeffgannon.com
C-span didn't show anyone's face, but it was a man.
RE: the good news...
the press......."No comment"
I'm pretty sure the reporter was from NewsMax and there's a thread going on the subject now (it's somewhere here, do a search to find it if you want).
There were NO ATROCITIES committed by Saddam against his own people. It's just your imagination. Those mens hands were not really cut off.
According to UNICEF, Saddam was a big supporter of family planning. He only killed 5,000 children a month to prevent families from planning.
Do you have a link? I'm an idiot about this thing.
Sheesh!
Un-f'ing-believable!
"These newspapers, owned and edited by these men, although free from the repulsive vulgarity of the yellow press, were susceptible to influence by the priviledged interests, and were almost or quite as hostile to manliness as they were to unrefined vice...they favored the removal of tariff on works of art; they favored all the proper (and even more strongly all the improper) movements for international peace and arbitration; in short, they favored all good, and many goody-goody, measures so long as they did not cut deep into social wrong or make demands on National and individual virility. They opposed, or were lukewarm about, efforts to build up the army and the navy, for they were not sensitive concerning National honor; and, above all, they opposed every non-milk-and-water effort, however sane, to change our social and economic system in such a fashion as to substitute the ideal justice towards all for the ideal of kindly charity from the favored few to the possibly grateful many."
- Theodore Roosevelt
I used to dislike our press, I'm coming to the point of recognizing that they are our enemies, and I'm not just talking here, I'm serious. They are as deadly to the future of this country as are Al Qaeda.
A man as literate as teddy Roosevelt could not get elected today. He would not be understood by 50% plus of the American population.
Funny thing is...the three soldiers were full of hope and determination about their futures and not against the war. The "investigation" was done over several months and I could actually see when the producers had to change their direction because of a positive or courageous comment from each of the men. They ended with a shot of one of them struggling up a staircase with his prosthetic legs...God bless him. CBS attempted to use these fine young men to make a statement and it backfired.
Who was this masked man?
Jeff, was that you asking those questions?
I pray everyday for "the destruction of the liberal American media."
If I can find it, I'll post the link.
And I was a tad wrong, it was posted yesterday.
McClellan queried on Gore's mental health
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