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Helen Thomas: "A Picture Worth A Thousand Words" [Warning--graphic images] [Mega-barf alert]
TheBostonChannel.com ^ | 7 May 08 | Our favorite delusional windbag, Helen Thomas!

Posted on 05/12/2008 6:16:33 AM PDT by seanmerc

Some readers resented The Washington Post for publishing an Associated Press photograph of a critically wounded Iraqi child being lifted from the rubble of his home in Baghdad’s Sadr City “after a U.S. airstrike.”

Two-year-old Ali Hussein later died in a hospital.

As the saying goes, the picture was worth a thousand words because it showed the true horrors of this war.

Neither side is immune from the killing of Iraqi civilians. But Americans should be aware of their own responsibility for inflicting death and pain on the innocent.

The Post’s ombudsman, Deborah Howell, said about 20 readers complained about the photo, while a few readers praised the Post for publishing the stark picture on page one.

Some mothers said they were offended that their children might see the picture, though one wonders whether their youngsters watch television and play with violent videos in a pretend world.

From the start of the unprovoked U.S. “shock and awe” invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003, the government tried to bar the news media from photographing flag-draped coffins of American soldiers returning from Iraq. A Freedom of Information lawsuit forced the government to release pictures of returning coffins.

Howell said some readers felt the photo of the Iraqi boy was “an anti-war statement; some thought it was in poor taste.” Well, so is war.

Howell said her boss, Executive Editor Len Downie, “is cautious about such photos.”

“We have seldom been able to show the human impact of the fighting on Iraqis,” Downie was quoted as saying. “We decided this was a rare instance in which we had a powerful image with which to do so.”

It’s unclear to me why this was deemed to be “rare.” After five years of war, there is finally one photo that is supposed to say it all?

Howell said she checked hundreds of U.S. front pages on the Internet but saw the AP photo nowhere else.

This makes me wonder why the media have shied away from telling the story about Iraqi civilian casualties. News people and editors were more courageous during the Vietnam War. What are they afraid of now?

Who can forget the shocking picture of the little Vietnamese girl running down a road, aflame from a napalm attack? And who can forget the picture of South Vietnamese police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan putting a gun to the temple of a young member of the Viet Cong and executing him on a Saigon street?

I don’t remember any American outcry against the press for showing the horror of war when these photographs were published. Were we braver then? Or maybe more conscience stricken?

Of course, the Pentagon did not enjoy such images coming out of Saigon in that era. Most Americans found them appalling, as further evidence of our misbegotten venture in Vietnam. Americans rallied to the streets in protest and eventually persuaded President Lyndon Johnson to give up his dreams of reelection in 1968.

Some Americans believe the media were to blame for the U.S. defeat in Vietnam. Nonsense.

Johnson knew the war was unwinnable, especially after the 1968 Tet offensive and the request by Army Gen. William Westmoreland for 200,000 more troops, in addition to the 500,000 already in Vietnam.

The Pentagon made a command decision after the Vietnam War to get better control of the dissemination of information in future wars.

This led then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to create an office of disinformation at the start of the Iraqi war. It was later disbanded after howls from the media.

More recently we have seen the Pentagon’s propaganda efforts take the form of carefully coaching retired generals about how to spin the Iraq war when they appear on television as alleged military experts. The New York Times’ revelations about these pet generals have cast a pall over their reputations.

Too often in this war, the news media seem to have tried to shield the public from the suffering this war has brought to Americans and Iraqis.

It’s not the job of the media to protect the nation from the reality of war. Rather, it is up to the media to tell the people the truth. They can handle it.

Helen Thomas can be reached at hthomas@hearstdc.com


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: helenthomas; iraq; liberalmeathead; newsbabe; rats; vietnam; wot
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To: brytlea
Here's what she will say:

Too often in this war, the news media seem to have tried to shield the public from the suffering abortion has brought to Americans.

It’s not the job of the media to protect the nation from the reality of abortion. Rather, it is up to the media to tell the people the truth. They can handle it.

DManA@LivingInAFantasyWorld.com

21 posted on 05/12/2008 6:32:59 AM PDT by DManA
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To: seanmerc

AAAHHHH,,, My eyes,,,my eyes!!!!!


22 posted on 05/12/2008 6:33:24 AM PDT by Wildbill22
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To: seanmerc

“More recently we have seen the Pentagon’s propaganda efforts take the form of carefully coaching retired generals about how to spin the Iraq war when they appear on television as alleged military experts.”

Generals are alleged military experts, while Helen Thomas’ expertise is undisputed...


23 posted on 05/12/2008 6:37:13 AM PDT by Flightdeck (Go Longhorns)
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To: seanmerc
Pictures which show the effect of the War on America -- remain hidden by the MSM.


24 posted on 05/12/2008 6:38:01 AM PDT by Diogenesis (Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum)
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To: Diogenesis

That last picture, especially, always gets me.
susie


25 posted on 05/12/2008 6:39:37 AM PDT by brytlea (amnesty--an act of clemency by an authority by which pardon is granted esp. to a group of individual)
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To: reagan_fanatic

Speaking of pictures that show the true horror of war...


26 posted on 05/12/2008 6:47:39 AM PDT by seanmerc
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To: Flightdeck
Johnson knew the war was unwinnable, especially after the 1968 Tet offensive and the request by Army Gen. William Westmoreland for 200,000 more troops, in addition to the 500,000 already in Vietnam.

This lie makes me vomit every time I hear it. The only one that thought the war in Vietnam was "unwinnable" after Tet was the Walter Commiekite -- Westmorland asked for the additional troops to administer the coup de gras, much in the way we had the "surge" over the last year. He was also thinking that if the North became scared we were ramping up to take the war to them after going a long to securing the South with the military victory of Tet, we could get a meanigful peace offer from Ho and Giap.

Never forget people that the US 4th Estate has embraced becoming the 5th column for any enemy this country has. It has been that way since Uncle Joe Stalin and the commies took over the Ivy League Universities. The "America Worst" crowd is the most deadly enemy we face.

27 posted on 05/12/2008 6:51:03 AM PDT by L,TOWM (Liberals, The Other White Meat)
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To: Diogenesis

Come, now. You know that THOSE photos are just TOO inflammatory.


28 posted on 05/12/2008 6:52:57 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (G-d is not a Republican. But Satan is definitely a Democrat.)
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To: seanmerc

In the interest of equal time, they could run graphic pictures of the hundreds of women and children killed by terrorist bombs in Iraq.


29 posted on 05/12/2008 6:58:53 AM PDT by popdonnelly (Concerned about the price of arugula)
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To: Blood of Tyrants
As long as we are remembering that which we would perhaps rather forget, lol!


30 posted on 05/12/2008 7:00:06 AM PDT by C210N (The television has mounted the most serious assault on Republicanism since Das Kapital.)
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To: seanmerc

Good God, Posts #1, #8, #11 and #30 just made me throw up in my mouth.... ALOT, now STOP!!! : )


31 posted on 05/12/2008 7:03:15 AM PDT by Hand em their arse
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To: seanmerc
GOOD!....@ least you gave us an H T. warning.
32 posted on 05/12/2008 7:23:14 AM PDT by skinkinthegrass (just b/c you're paranoid,doesn't mean "they" aren't out to get you..our hopes were dashed by CINOs :)
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To: Wildbill22
AAAHHHH,,, My eyes,,,my eyes!!!!!....but, You were warned!
33 posted on 05/12/2008 7:25:50 AM PDT by skinkinthegrass (just b/c you're paranoid,doesn't mean "they" aren't out to get you..our hopes were dashed by CINOs :)
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To: Emperor Palpatine
Columnist for Hearst News Services

You meant "Hearse News Services," didn't you?

......

Ageless Standards Of Beauty:

Helen of Troy - "The face that launched a thousand ships"

Helen of Thomas - "The face that sank a thousand ships"

34 posted on 05/12/2008 8:38:51 AM PDT by CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC
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To: CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC

Or better yet: Helen of Thomas - “A Face Made for Radio”


35 posted on 05/12/2008 8:58:42 AM PDT by seanmerc
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To: L,TOWM

You nailed it.


36 posted on 05/12/2008 5:24:37 PM PDT by Lumper20
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To: Piquaboy

37 posted on 05/12/2008 8:29:56 PM PDT by Lauren BaRecall (Enlarging my carbon footprint one step at a time.)
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To: skinkinthegrass

Ping!


38 posted on 05/12/2008 8:35:52 PM PDT by Lauren BaRecall (Enlarging my carbon footprint one step at a time.)
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To: seanmerc
This was always one of my favorites:


39 posted on 05/12/2008 8:42:51 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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