Posted on 07/03/2005 3:35:41 PM PDT by Impeach98
Critics Call Radio Hosts' Trip Propaganda Mission
Sunday, July 03, 2005 By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos
WASHINGTON — A contingent of conservatives talk radio hosts is headed to Iraq this month on a mission to report "the truth" about the war: American troops are winning, despite headlines to the contrary.
The "Truth Tour" has been pulled together by the conservative Web cast radio group Rightalk.com and Move America Forward, a non-profit conservative group backed by a Republican-linked public relations firm in California.
"The reason why we are doing it is we are sick and tired of seeing and hearing headlines by the mainstream media about our defeat in Iraq," Melanie Morgan, a talk radio host (search) for KSFO Radio in San Francisco and co-chair of Move America Forward, said.
Morgan said the media is "imposing a Vietnam template on this war."
"This is not Vietnam," she said. "War is war, and it's dangerous, and the killing is taking place all of the time. At the same time, where there is danger, there is success and there is a mainstream media that is determined to shut out that success."
She said the group is going to Iraq to support American troops, who see a disconnection with what they experience and what's being reported in the United States. She said the incongruence is leading to "morale problems."
But critics, including independent journalists who have reported from Iraq, say the trip is a propaganda mission for the U.S. military and the Bush administration and cannot be considered "journalism" by any standards.
"This is the most pathetic thing I've heard in a long time. They should be ashamed of themselves," Peter Beinart, editor of left-leaning The New Republic magazine, said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Beinart must be refering to his official MSM license.
HA!
You don't need a journalism degree to be a journalist. The only criteria for "journalist" held by the MSM is an idology to the left test.
Fox should take a lesson and just hand our little digicams to ordinary people and pay them to do a 1000% better job than the faceless hairstyles that populate the MSM. (and cheeper too)
FYI...
It will be curious to hear if Tony Snow mentions this on his radio show during the upcoming two weeks.
Al Franken has gone over several times to entertain the troops in Iraq & Afghanistan (not sure the exact number, 3 times I believe). Rush & Hannity have gone zero times as far as I know
Rush went to Afghanistan for a few days back in February. Sean hasn't gone overseas yet, but this coming Friday July 8th he is holding his third annual Freedom Concert at Six Flags in Jackson, NJ. The proceeds goto fund college scholarships for the children of our fallen men and women of the Aarmed forces since 9/11. This event is in concert with the Freedom Alliance.
Shame on them...that's the tactic of the left-wing media... report on conservatives by reporting on how people say they are wrong/bad/evil.
Yes, we should probably get rid of Fox News and go back to having only CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS. That should make you happy.
Get a life. Fox News should not be a "conservative" network. They should be "fair and balanced" and I happen to think that they are doing a great job of that.
Get a life. Fox News should not be a "conservative" network. They should be "fair and balanced" and I happen to think that they are doing a great job of that.
Ditto! times a thousand and then some!
To be fair and balanced one should be fair and balanced. One doesn't gratuitiously attack conservatives to show to prove ones fairness. Least of all, Peter Beinhart should never be passed off as a "journalist". He should be clearly labeled as a left wing hack.
Oh my gosh, the lefties are flipping out over this.
This is one report and nothing to have a panic attack over. You can bet the Sean Hannity, Brit Hume and John Kasich will be covering this in the upcoming weeks during their shows on FoxNews.
I would think he might. FYI Tony is going to be in Gitmo, I believe on Thursday.
BWAHAHAHAHA!!!
I stand corrected (about Rush anyway). I agree that what Hannity is doing is a good cause, but he'd have more credibility with me if he did something which required him to put his a$$ in danger, like the troops are. It's easy to be pro war from a tv/radio station thousands of miles away from the war zone. He should do his show from the green zone for a month if he wants to show support for the troops.
/end rant, I just hate armchair quarterbacks
There are two kinds of journalists: "objective" ones and "conservative talk show hosts.""Objective" belongs in scare quotes because the 'objectivity' is self-proclaimed - and it is arrogant to claim a virtue. The cabal of journalists who call themselves and each other "objective" will spend years trying to make a case against a conservative but will protect each other and those who go along and get along with themselves. For example, 60 Minutes' Ms. Mapes spent years trying to make the case, against all evidence, that Bush benefited from favoritism in TANG. In service of that objective 60 Minutes went public with its famous patent forgeries - and no so-called "objective" journalist will state the obvious facts that CBS was tendentiously wrong."Conservative talk show hosts" are not accepted as journalists by the so-called "objective" journalist because the former to not adhere to the go-along-and-get-along code of the latter. But "conservative talk show hosts" do in fact do journalism - it's just that their journalism is not restricted to only those reports which make good people look bad, and bad people look good. By accepting and adopting the label "conservative", talk show hosts admit that their point of view has a name - in contrast to the "objective" journalist who claims to be "objective" and above mere mortals who might disagree with their so-called "objective" perspective.
"Objective Journalists" are negative and superficial because their jobs depend on crying "Wolf!" So if the wolf is approaching or not, they can be relied on to yell - at regular intervals determined by their deadlines. "Objective Journalists are arrogant (think of CBS stonewalling the fact that their precious "memos" were fraudulent forgeries) because of their individual and collective propaganda power. And "objective" journalists are timid because despite their individual propaganda power, the collective of "objective" journalists have so much greater propaganda power and will attack mercilessly if the individual journalist fails to manifest solidarity (e.g., with CBS over the "TANG memos").
O’Sullivan’s First Law states that "All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing." Given the cynical, bullying nature of negative, superficial, arrogant and timid "objective journalism, it is no wonder that "objective journalism" pulls all but the most principled and courageous toward the left - and labels the principled and courageous "right wing extremists."
I don't know, but, I've decided not to watch them since they've gone to the dark side. And all their stupid missing people reports. Give it a rest.... Are they trying to gain more viewers, more ad revenue? They'll eventually lose us and become another CNN or MSNBC. Pity. I guess all good things come to an end. I'm especially disappointed with Brit Hume, Managing Editor. He's got some pull, but the dollar outdoes everything, even at the expense of our country. IE, China and oil.....
Rush went to Afghanistan. According to him, he's trying to work out and Iraqi deal.
Gah! This will absolutely destroy morale. The guys are clamoring and panting for Jennifer Lopez or Hillary Swank or Rebecca Romijn-Stamos or Hillary Duff or Christina Aguilera or Britney Spears or Sofia Vergara or Paris Hilton or a score of other sweet young underdressed things. And we send Al Franken, who cannot be looked at or listened to without causing hives? Pukey-pukey.
Snow-man bump!
oops, ignore my other post. Sorry....
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