[BobS]

Laura kicked the garbage can this week. And W slammed garbage can lids together the next day. The next day W got a standing 'O' when he got a question about the media from a military wife in West Virginia that lasted over a minute.

The reporters over there all go to the same hotel bar and once a day go to a balcony for 5 minutes to do a report and you see the same morning shitty-car explosion on all channels overlayed by less than 50 words.

They are not interested in getting out and about and away from their comfy surroundings and actually meeting a bunch of different people over there.

If Laura can do this in 8 days and ride herd all over that country, why can't the lazy, overpaid media people in those hotels do the same thing? Will they miss their next company-paid meal or the visiting hooker on the expense account?

I was in 9 countries and learned a few things about this crap when I was active duty.

[mojo114]

You are so right. Laura did ride herd all over that country while recovering from chemotherapy to boot!

[eeevil conservative]

WOW!

GREAT RANT!

YOU ROCK!

[Fudd Fan]

You are so right. Laura is onto something, take some "reporters" off the Hollywierd beat. They are idiots.

[Just Lori]

LOL. I just had a visual of a hooker in a burka. "You want something special, big boy?" =)

[Timeout]

I just did some Googling and found that Laura isn't the first to make this complaint to NBC. Have we all forgotten a great NBC reporter who was FIRED for filing "positive" reports from Iraq?

A little trip back in time [via Instapundit archives]:

DR. BOB ARNOT HAS LEFT NBC:

In his letter to Mr. Shapiro, [Arnot] wondered why the network wasn’t reporting stories of progress in Iraq, a frequently heard complaint of the Bush administration. "As you know, I have regularly pitched most of these stories contained in the note to Nightly, Today and directly to you," he wrote. "Every single story has been rejected." . . .

A number of high-ranking military officials contacted by NYTV complimented Dr. Arnot’s superior reporting skills, especially in light of what they perceived as the chronically negative war reporting on TV in the United States. Larry DiRita, the Pentagon spokesman for Donald Rumsfeld, said that Dr. Arnot captured Iraq as he experienced it when he visited there himself. "It was complex and nuanced and uneven then, and you had to get around to see it that way—and he does," Mr. DiRita said. "I think his coverage provided an aspect of daily Iraqi life that is being missed by a heck of a lot of coverage."

Maj. Clark Taylor e-mailed NYTV from Baghdad to state that Dr. Arnot "highlighted what is really happening over here …. He generally reported positive things because, generally, that is what is happening. Of course there are occasional bad things … and he reported those as well. The fact was, he reported what he saw—which generally was positive."

The network's excuse is that it was cutting back on coverage. This just serves to underscore blogosphere complaints about the lousy job Big Media outfits are doing.

THIS IS FROM FEB, 2004---over 2 years ago! Unfortunately, the linked story at the New York Observer is in a paid archive now.

But isn't it interesting that one of NBC's own reporters told them way back then the same thing Laura "shocked" them with this week?!

Some enterprising reporter/blogger/radio host needs to go find good ole Dr. Bob for an interview. His comments should be interesting in light of the media's defensive reaction to Laura and President Bush.

(And, while I'm on the subject, why didn't some smart network---cough, cough, FOX---pick up Dr. Bob after he left NBC?! The man speaks fluent Arabic, for cryin' out loud!)