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I've about had it with these CENTCOM briefings. Today's Q from NY reporter was idiotic...

Yes, I completely agree.

I know CENTCOM will "spin". There job is to "sell" the war. Make no mistake. Why? I know because I have to do government communications in my line of work too and I know how you always put a positive spin on stories.

And this is where the press' job comes in. That job is to hold these generals accountable. And they must ask good solid questions. One question I have yet to hear is .... what is the percentage of targets hit by the bombs and can you provide the back up evidence for the question? Is that question ever asked? Nope. Instead you get some stupid liberal CBC Canadian reporter (note I'm Canadian too) asking a stupid question about when is the USA going to show video of the bombs not hitting their targets? That reporter knows the drill and he should know the proper question to ask.

So what I am saying is CENTCOM briefers are doing their job but the lamestream press is not doing theirs. Thus, some of the most stupidest questions on the planet are being asked. And then the press will tell the public that they are "not" being provided the information.

As an example and just two days ago and yesterday, I watched Chinese reporters ask questions about how a farmers shot down AH 64s and how the Veep's daughter was acting as a human shield. Thus, I just couldn't bare watching this today.

One other thing I can tell you about the press and no doubt others on this board who are experts will have their say too. When an "event" occurs the press wants to find out all of the details and decribe the event to the public. They usually will take boths sides and usually just report the news. But once a story lasts more than a few days (such as a war) and the story has "major legs", then the press will start to look for and make their own stories. If anyone in government says even the most wildest thing on or off the record on an event and the press needs a new angle to keep the story alive, then, at this point in the event, the press will start reporting the stories out of context.

This, war is no exception to that rule as you may have noticed in the Washington Post story.

And who loses? We, the public do.

hawk

Did you see what John Podhoretz had to say about one of our favorite pressitudes in the NY Post this morning?

"Ms. vanden Heuvel also complained that Helen Thomas, the ancient White House pseudo-reporter, had been relegated to a "kind of Siberia" because she dared to point out the "irony" of Donald Rumsfeld complaining about Iraqi violations of the Geneva Convention.

Given Helen Thomas' high jinks of late, which have included asking Ari Fleischer why the president "wants to bomb innocent Iraqi children" and comparing Bush to Hitler and Israel to Nazi Germany, I said Helen Thomas shouldn't be sent to Siberia but rather to an old-age home."

Good points. Sounds like the press does not do it's homework on the stories they are working on.
Just winging it.

Thanks for your analysis and insight. I agree. In fact, I believe the Chinese reporters to be more hostile than even those coming from Muslim nations. They are, however, part of the "coalition of the unwilling because we've sold stuff to Saddam" - so I'm not surprised.