Posted on 12/09/2004 9:22:17 AM PST by Nascardude
Edited on 12/09/2004 10:05:10 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
RUMSFELD SET UP; REPORTER PLANTED QUESTIONS WITH SOLIDER
Thu Dec 09 2004 11:49:38 ET
Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Edward Lee Pitts is embedded with the 278th Regimental Combat Team, now in Kuwait preparing to enter Iraq, and is filing articles for his newspaper. Pitts claims in a purported email that he coached soldiers to ask Defense Secretary Rumsfeld questions!
From: EDWARD LEE PITTS, Chattanooga Times Free Press military reporter
Sent: Wednesday, December 8, 2004 4:44 PM
To: Staffers
Subject: RE: Way to go
I just had one of my best days as a journalist today. As luck would have it, our journey North was delayed just long enough see I could attend a visit today here by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. I was told yesterday that only soldiers could ask questions so I brought two of them along with me as my escorts. Before hand we worked on questions to ask Rumsfeld about the appalling lack of armor their vehicles going into combat have. While waiting for the VIP, I went and found the Sgt. in charge of the microphone for the question and answer session and made sure he knew to get my guys out of the crowd.
So during the Q&A session, one of my guys was the second person called on. When he asked Rumsfeld why after two years here soldiers are still having to dig through trash bins to find rusted scrap metal and cracked ballistic windows for their Humvees, the place erupted in cheers so loud that Rumsfeld had to ask the guy to repeat his question. Then Rumsfeld answered something about it being "not a lack of desire or money but a logistics/physics problem." He said he recently saw about 8 of the special up-armored Humvees guarding Washington, DC, and he promised that they would no longer be used for that and that he would send them over here. Then he asked a three star general standing behind him, the commander of all ground forces here, to also answer the question. The general said it was a problem he is working on.
The great part was that after the event was over the throng of national media following Rumsfeld- The New York Times, AP, all the major networks -- swarmed to the two soldiers I brought from the unit I am embedded with. Out of the 1,000 or so troops at the event there were only a handful of guys from my unit b/c the rest were too busy prepping for our trip north. The national media asked if they were the guys with the armor problem and then stuck cameras in their faces. The NY Times reporter asked me to email him the stories I had already done on it, but I said he could search for them himself on the Internet and he better not steal any of my lines. I have been trying to get this story out for weeks- as soon as I foud out I would be on an unarmored truck- and my paper published two stories on it. But it felt good to hand it off to the national press. I believe lives are at stake with so many soldiers going across the border riding with scrap metal as protection. It may be to late for the unit I am with, but hopefully not for those who come after.
The press officer in charge of my regiment, the 278th, came up to me afterwords and asked if my story would be positive. I replied that I would write the truth. Then I pointed at the horde of national media pointing cameras and mics at the 278th guys and said he had bigger problems on his hands than the Chattanooga Times Free Press. This is what this job is all about - people need to know. The solider who asked the question said he felt good b/c he took his complaints to the top. When he got back to his unit most of the guys patted him on the back but a few of the officers were upset b/c they thought it would make them look bad. From what I understand this is all over the news back home.
Thanks,
Lee
EDWARD LEE PITTS FILED STORY ABOUT THE TROOPS BEFORE THE POW-WOW WITH RUMSFELD
Developing...
Rush is sounding just like a whining, crying baby. Blaming this entire thing on this stupid a$$ reporter.
This is beyond sad.
Quote: The National Guard should pay for their bitching. They have the NERVE to complain when the Marines and ARMY are doing the heavy lifting with any public complaints?
The neighbor kid is in a hospital with major leg and back wounds from a IED. He will be able to walk again..with a limp. He was in the RESERVES.
Joe, you can play MSM all you want. But some of us actually saw the event on tv and know you overstate the "erupting in cheers" part.
In addition, I never criticized the question. I criticized the media misrepresentation of Rumsfeld's answer.
Whatever point you think you may have, it is a stupid one.
If you note in the article .. that problem started in the 90's
Do you have an allergic reaction when confronted with facts and truth or what?
I'm a journalist and as I said in an earlier post, my brother was an embedded reporter during the Iraq war for a weekly magazine and this is just clearly breaking the rules. I have never heard of anyone working with an interview subject to think up questions. It's the most bizarre thing I've ever heard. The journalist and the subjects are supposed to stay on different teams - only in this case they didn't. I showed the Drudge report to my journalist colleagues at work and they couldn't believe it. No one here has heard of anyone doing this.
Really.
Please take us line by line through his entire response and demonstrate your absurd assertion.
This stunt wasn't anti-military, and the soldiers cheered the question. The people under fire are the ones who cheered, not Rummy. And they are understandably impatient, I don't blame them a bit.
They erupted in cheers because every soldier in every unit wants the latest and greatest gear right the f**k now.
Several months ago it was all about the 'shortage' of M-4s, followed by a 'shortage' of small arms ammo. Before that, it was the 'shortage' of Interceptor body armor. In a few months, it will be a 'shortage' of something else. And people like you will pile on, saying "It's all Rumsfeld's and Bush's fault!" Get a clue.
Your name most applies to YOU. This is a superbly equipped military by far the best in history. Its causalties have been few comparatively speaking. Any assisting the RATmedia's attempts to destroy the President are reprehensible.
Rather than discussing the remarkable job that military has done and the fantastic leadership Rummy has provided it quibbles about relatively small problems. It must be remembered that this is the same source of the predictions there would be tens of thousands of soldiers killed in the invasion and getting to Baghdad would take months followed by urban warfare on a massive scale as the entire country rose against us.
It is hard to find any source of "information" which could be more wrong about as many things or more damaging to our cause. This is another example of an attempted RATherization of the President by these sick f#cks. And you fall for it.
Now, I see absolutely nothing wrong with troops wishing to have this problem addressed conferring with a professional wordsmith to best put together their question prior to the Q&A.
In other words, the soldiers involved knew that asking their embedded reporter how best to compose the question maximized the chances of it being publicized. They perceive a problem, they want to get the word out, they want results.
What in the world is wrong with any of this? Judging by the transcript, the question was posed tactfully, the answer given fully and honestly.
This is not "insubordination", it's an honest plea that, I'd imagine, these soldiers have been making for months on end. The journalist did not "plant" these soldiers, only helped them better refine their question; to suggest otherwise is to suggest this reporter acted as some sort of puppetmaster, pulling the strings of some idiot soldier who can't think for himself.
Many of you Dittoheads get angry when liberals accuse you of being "mind-numbed robots"; suggesting this soldier was just some patsy incapable of independent thought is no less insulting.
Here's a hint for you, Lee. It ain't your regiment, especially not now.
cyn, I've been with the President all along on this war. But there is no excuse for the greatest and wealthiest country in the world to send its men and women off to war ill-equipped and ill-supplied.
I watched the whole conference on TV. I don't take my opinion from the edited media reports.
That room BURST INTO CHEERS when the question was asked.
Reservists and Guard should not be treated like some second-class force. They lay their lives on the line every day in Iraq, just like the regulars.
The question was honest and heartfelt, as could be seen from the reaction of the troops, and Rumsfeld's answers were shit-poor.
If it were such a concern to the troops, why did they need to be coached by a non-combatant?
You don't wonder these things?
Dan
He can take it. That's why he makes the big bucks. He's where the attacks should be, not on the troop asking the question.
Also agree about Rush. I just about stopped listening to him. He always leaves out just little bit to make his point. The other day he thought it was nuts that the park service would fine a guy for dumping dirt in a national park from his garage. What he did not tell was that dirt was probaly full of junk or contaminated with oil.
I've seen the quality of dirt that people. My neighbor wanted to fill up a ditch and put up a sign asking for free fill dirt. 60% dirt, rest broken up concrete etc.
Sorry for the rant.
The soldiers I have talked to see the media as another face of the enemy.
Embedded reporters have been a bad idea from the beginning.
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