They Got There First!

A great post by Buck Sargent a few days ago (Thanks to Wordsmith for pointing me to it):

Journalists in theater must come to acknowledge that they are participants in this conflict whether they choose to believe so or not. Far from omniscient observers, these regal noncombatants must necessarily interact with the Iraqi people if they wish to accurately relay facts home to the American public. Or in a perfect world, I should say. The messy Third World we’re really living in is currently teeming with (O)J-school graduates whose investigative skills recall the Search For The Real Killers. If the narrative doesn?t fit, you mustn?t file it.

The lack of security is the story, they say. Frankly, I’d be feeling pretty insecure too if I were so lousy at my job. Do these Green Zone FOBgoblins ever emerge from their Baghdad belfries long or often enough to properly collate the Big Picture they lay such exclusive claim to? Or are they merely hunkering down and ordering in, passively relying on the local Iraqi stringers who are bylining around the block to feed them information and in the process dispensing freelancing blows to the other half of the truth that rarely bleeds but certainly never leads.

“Hello, room service? Yes, I?ll have the sectarian special, medium rare — terrorist toast with insurgent jam — a mosque bombing with a side of corruption, and a chilled can of diet hope. Oh, and hold the progress, please.”

[…]Make no mistake — Al Qaeda?s PR machine stands head and shoulders above our own precisely because they are so adept at using our own satellite feed bloodlust against us; our BOOM mikes recording every second of it in Dolby Surround. Terrorists target journalists because it is a sure-fire page one headline with a ripple effect guaranteed to reverberate throughout every newsroom in America. Telegraphed acts of violence beget televised recounts of violence in a vicious Circle of Death that feeds the impression that all is hopeless. Want more coverage of your handiwork on ABC? Blow up their messengers. (Drop anchor!) I?d like to see a poll taken on how many newsmen are familiar with Bob Woodruff?s ordeal, and then how many are familiar with Paul Ray Smith?s. (Paul Ray who?) The prosecution rests.

[…]Is this what stands today as serious and sober analysis? Is it impossible to believe that incorrigible ideology is trumping age-old idealism in driving this drumbeat of BOOM and gloom? What will it take for the press to finally decide to become more enamored with the solution than with enabling the problem before their myopic defeatism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy? Oh, how they all must long for eight more halcyon years of Billary.

So much more where that came from. I have GOT to make this blog one of my daily reads.

The media’s job is to give an account of events so those of us who are not there can at least understand the situation. But all we get today is the media’s opinions of events. Oh, they say they are reporting the facts but in reality it is their opinions since they CHOOSE to only report the negative. It’s no secret that the majority of the media are liberal’s down to the bone. They hate this war and they hate Bush. So how do they do their part to further their cause? They make it appear that the war is a lost cause. They skew events, they embellish events, and they ignore events that would show the good things that are going on in Iraq.

Our Country and it’s soldiers be damned.

Curt

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