[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

BTTT

[SurferDoc]

I can't think of even one word to add to that wonderful piece. Bravo!

[Diver Dave]

Michelle is preaching to the choir to the readers of FR, but damnit, she's right on target.

Thanks for the post JH2. Not likely that very many newspapers will run this on their opinions pages. They can dish out their tripe, but would be unwilling to give coverage to someone who calls a spade a spade.

[Geronimo]

bump...

[Zon]

Gomer Pyle was as honest and patriotic as the day is long. He was also a doofus. Ernie Pyle was also honest and patriotic as the day is long. Ten to one he was elegant compared to doofus Gomer Pyle.

[brat]

They're simply behaving like the good little Commie Globalists they are!

[primeval patriot]

Somewhere, I read an account of reporters from the AP parachuting/infiltrating (with the US Army) into Nazi occupied territory and getting KIA.

Anyone else know about this?

These days it's difficult to believe any "journalist" would attempt such a thing.

[danmar]

Excellent piece!!!

I did not know that we still have "journalists"! What a novel idea!

[JessicaDragonet]

I might understand some international correspondents not showing outward patriotism...wearing a pin or waving a flag in Afghanistan for instance. It would make their jobs more difficult I'm sure.

But I hardly think that a TV anchor in Columbus MO. is ever going to have that problem. Objectivity?? Hey, that train left the station back in 1992.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Well, it's those brave men and women in uniform who risk their lives everyday so we can sit back and gaze at our navels. It's those intrepid soldiers who will leave their families, their security and their way of life behind to defend all of ours. What's wrong with showing a small token of solidarity and appreciation?

Rick McKay/AA-S Washington
Russell Johnson fights back emotions at a makeshift memorial on a hillside
overlooking the charred gap where a jetliner hijacked by terrorists crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11.

[MarkWar]

>The media snobs are at it again.

The media are lower than low. Their on-going "coverage" of this 911 business makes it plain even to people who didn't catch on during the Klinton years.

But there is another issue here about the "news" that's worth mentioning.

During the WTC attack and the _immediate_ aftermath, has everyone noticed how many flat out false stories the mainstream press put out and elaborated on?! The most obvious one that comes to my mind was that business about "Five fire fighters were found alive in an SUV today..." I saw this on more than one channel, and then the next day someone told me the whole thing just never happened -- there were no five fire fighters found alive in an SUV...

In the tournament chess world, there's a thing called "speed" chess. Players get just 2 or 3 minutes per game. Serious players often play speed chess in part because the way you react in a constant crisis, with no time to make "reasoned" judgements, reveals how well your brain works normally. (I think the idea is that for a professional, certain aspects of a chore have to become second nature.)

Differentiating fabrication from reality should come second nature to a professional reporter or editor. If our media had so much trouble telling fact from fiction in a clutch, if they couldn't separate actual reality from one or another kind of fabriction during a crisis, maybe they're not all that good at doing it normally. Maybe the "press" has become so entranced with its ability to "editorialize" that simple news-gathering doesn't matter much to them.

(An example that really bugged me is when CNN reported that some of the hijackers may have "confused identities" with the sons of a Saudi diplomat. What the hell is that -- how hard would it have been for CNN to call one or another Saudi contact and find out if the diplomat's sons were still alive or not?!)

Mark W.

[aculeus]

This is going to change. Let OBL attack once more with even more casualties and a few Americans will crack. Someone will gun down one or more of these anti-American b******s and the cowards will suddenly discover that they really are on our side.

Not that I'm suggesting violence or anything but in wartime treason is a capital offense.

[VOA]

Stacey Woelfel, news director at KOMU-TV in Columbia, Mo., directed his staff to
"leave the ribbons at home" in order to show viewers "that in no way are we
influenced by the government in informing the public."

In the middle of the USA.
Well, at least they have an excuse: being next door to the U. of Missouri journalism
school that spawned Walter Cronkite (sp?).

I was shocked to find that one of the major network stations in Columbia
(can't remember if ABC, CBS or NBC) is actually owned by Univ. of Missouri.

By the way, I'm still wretching over Dateline NBC's interview of Hillary
Rodham Clinton in the middle of their show last night on the Citizen Soldiers of Flight 93.
I guess Jane Pauley just had to get HRC in the act by interviewing HRC as one of the
people on the ground that might owe their life to the folks on Flight 93.
Too bad Pauley/Dateline NBC decided to interview some white trash from Arkansas.

I have no idea what HRC said as I was too busy screaming at the TV "What the H-ll does
she have to do with this event?!" and retraining myself from destroying the TV.

[prambo]

I don't know how she does it, but this woman nails it every time.

Superbly crafted writing and to the point commentary.

Ms. Malkin is a gem.

prambo

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!