John McCain visited the wholesale market in Bhagdad that was bombed in February and declared, "You read every day about suicide bombings, kidnappings, rocket attacks and other terrible acts. What we don't read about and what is new is a lot of the good news -- the drop in the murders in Baghdad, the establishment of security outposts throughout the city ... the deployment of additional Iraqi brigades to Baghdad," apparently hoping to make some intelligent point. Let's see if I've got it right, 71 people died in multiple car bombings in February in this market and the fact that it didn't happen again the day John McCain was there means all it good? Sure, John, nothing happened there, but a few days ago Tal Afar one of your shining examples from a couple months ago erupted in bombings and police revenge killings.
"Just as we read about all the negative events in Iraq the American people must be aware of the positive developments under this new plan, and the media has a responsibility to report all aspects of what is taking place." I know, at least several families sat down to breakfast and didn't die so that would be news. The media has reported on the drops in violence in Bhagdad, and then noted the uptick outside Bhagdad. Let's be realistic here Mr McCain, that is drops in violence not absence and the folks who live there (as opposed to the USA as Senators) don't find it real reassuring that they're just slightly less likely to get blown up or murdered.
I'm not real sure what John would have the media do about Iraq reporting, which stories should they ignore rather than have to try to put up a minute by minute report? Last week's good news seems to turn into this week's bad news on a regular basis, should the media put several million reporters on the ground and follow around the Iraqis on a daily basis? This little girl made it to school today, that one had her head ripped off by a flying car hood, this neighbor didn't kill his neighbor today, 35 bodies were found in the next neighborhood over. Does the Senator notice that the US news seems a little similar? Nobody followed me to work today and noted that I was neither robbed, murdered, abducted, or ...
Listen up, a single violent episode from a single day in Iraq would be 24/7 news if it were the US it happened in. Who the hell is it that's not being straight here? The media? How stupid is this? Maybe it'll work with the 20+% that backs George II. All it does for me is piss me off.
4 comments:
Mike Ware might be the Steve Irwin of journalism..maybe even Gonzo journalism, but he calls it right on McCain and the thimble-brained Graham. Of course the embedded [ make that propagandist] reporters don't think much of him. He doesn't do his reporting from a hotel bar, he actually goes undercover and ferrets out news we won't get from Fox. Afghanistan and Iraq he's done all of it, Next to Bob Simon there aren't many real journalists left...as in war correspondents.
Go to jibjab.com see What We Call The News
Steve Culley
If your connection can handle streaming video, go to http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2999005 and watch the "Green Room : Will's Bliss" clip. About 2 minutes in, the discussion on Iraq really gets rolling leading up to George Will's comment on the surge: "and that produces the metricts of a false success." at about 3:44.
Can't do videos, I could go have dinner and walk it off before I'd get a 10 min video to watch.
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