Bad News Bearers ("Cindy Sheehan is an Anti-American Crackpot")

WSJ Opinion Journal ^ | 02/01/2006 | James Taranto

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

***SNIP***

So, last summer, we met Cindy Sheehan, whose protest outside President Bush's ranch made her a cause célèbre. Her son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, had died in the liberation of Iraq. She opposed the war and believed he had died in vain. The media portrayed her as a grieving everymom; Maureen Dowd wrote in the New York Times that "the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute."

Ms. Dowd didn't really believe this, of course. The parents of fallen servicemen are a diverse group, but it seems safe to surmise that on average they are more pro-war than the public as a whole. In fact, if the Sheehan protest was news, it was because of the man-bites-dog aspect of it: Her position was at variance with what you would expect from someone who had lost a son in the war.

The problem, though, is that her views were at variance with those of any sane person. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Cindy Sheehan is an anti-American crackpot--and "anti-American crackpot opposes Iraq war" is a dog-bites-man story if ever there was one.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Excerpt from Cindy "Grief Pimp" Sheehan's Online Diary, re: her arrest last night. :)

[Dallas59]

She is the Liberal Village Idiot....

[Dallas59]

The MSN isn't giving it too much space. Had to really look for it.

[shadeaud]

Cindy should be interviewed on the Today Show so she can tell the American Public how she was mistreated and restrained from her civil right to freedom of speech and how terrible her seat in the rotunda was in the nose bleed section not on the floor where she could sit next to Ted Kennedy or Chucky Shuuumah or possibly.......the queen of the senate Missah Hillary.(/s)

[msnimje]

Liberal Villages don't have designated idiots.

[Keith in Iowa]

>>>Liberal Villages don't have designated idiots.<<<

They all share the job like the good little Libs that they are - taking turns. :)

[whershey]

The whole piece is excellent.

[Recon Dad]

Maureen Dowd wrote in the New York Times that "the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute."

Point 1. Does a moral authority come with an end date?

Point 2. What of the mother or father who feels just the opposited regarding the war?

Point 3. When does a moral authority become an industry?

[PogySailor]

bttt

[SkyPilot]

They said on the radio this morning that most Democrats realize she is at 14 minutes and 58 seconds into her fame, and they want nothing to do with her. Her own mouth and actions have been her worst enemy.

This article in the WSJ is an excellent read. A short excerpt:

_____________________________________________________________________________

All these comments were easily available on the Internet, yet they were seldom mentioned in the news coverage of Mrs. Sheehan's protest. They didn't fit the script--a script in which Mrs. Sheehan was playing the role of an ordinary American whose personal tragedy had turned her against the war.

Where did this script come from? Howard Fineman of Newsweek got at it in a provocative essay he wrote in January 2005, after CBS News released the findings of its independent investigation of the phony "60 Minutes" story about President Bush's National Guard service. Mr. Fineman argued that the journalistic establishment had, in effect, transformed itself into a political party; he called it the American Mainstream Media Party, or AMMP. "The notion of a neutral, non-partisan mainstream press," Mr. Fineman wrote, was "pretty much dead":

The seeds of its demise were sown with the best of intentions in the late 1960s, when the AMMP was founded . . . (ironically enough) by CBS. Old folks may remember the moment: Walter Cronkite stepped from behind the podium of presumed objectivity to become an outright foe of the war in Vietnam. Later, he and CBS's star White House reporter, Dan Rather, went to painstaking lengths to make Watergate understandable to viewers, which helped seal Richard Nixon's fate as the first president to resign. The crusades of Vietnam and Watergate seemed like a good idea at the time, even a noble one, not only to the press but perhaps to a majority of Americans. The problem was that, once the AMMP declared its existence by taking sides, there was no going back. A party was born.

[JoeGar]

Excellent article!!!!

[Socratic]

I thought the woman was removed for attending this joint Congressional function in the same stinking shirt she'd been wearing all day long. This woman is not only offensive to the rational mind, but also the working nose.

[Lurker]

Will prosecutors follow the Plame precedent and demand testimony from reporters on penalty of incarceration? If so, adversarial journalists will turn out to have been their own worst enemy.

He says this like it would be a bad thing or something.

L

[libertylover]

Long, but a really good read.

[Alia]

That one photo of her having to be lifted by NY's finest was the snap-end for me: It symbolized Miss Sheehan: "Finally, someone is paying attention to me!". ick. Like that ole cartoon... "It's a MAAAaaaN!"

[TaxRelief]

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CNN said it was because of the banner that she unfolded. Could that be a folded banner in her hand?

[wingman1]

bump

[newnhdad]

Speaking of bad news bearers, we've got on here on the Maine seacoast.
Someone that wrote into the Portsmouth Herald and whined that the president smiles too much, and how could he be so happy even thought thing are so awful.
These people (leftists, Democrats, socialists, progressives, communists, it's all the same) walk around with a perpetual scowl on their faces and they hate people that smile all the time.
It sucks to be them.

[jmaroneps37]

She is a traitorous scumbag who wishes us dead. The only good thing about her is she looks like the Crazy Catwoman from the Simpsons. Because of that she serves us well. She reminds people of what the rat stands for. She was invited in last night by one of them, but she could have been asked in by any of a number of them and people see that.

[edpc]

The likeness is uncanny. If she only had a brain, as well.