Why do miltary crimes get all the media.....

[Archangel M]

...attention but we never hear about people like this from the mainstream media? I didn't even know about this hero until today. I can still recall the name Lynndie England but I never heard of Capt. Chontosh before and that depresses me.

Don't tell me there isn't an agenda at play here.

 

[Sukerkin]

That heroic acts occur even during a conflict that is seen in a chequered light is something that needs to remembered :tup:.

 

[Andy Moynihan]

...attention but we never hear about people like this from the mainstream media? I didn't even know about this hero until today. I can still recall the name Lynndie England but I never heard of Capt. Chontosh before and that depresses me.

Don't tell me there isn't an agenda at play here.

Because the American media "turned Arnold" somewhere during Vietnam and has been on the enemy's side ever since.

 

[grydth]

Good news isn't news to these Axis Sallies.

A friend attached to an Army HQ in Baghdad detailed to me a successful operation where an al-Qaeda commander and 10 terrorists were tracked for days and taken out by an airstrike. No GI casualties, no civilian deaths. He saw the press release go out.... could either of us find the story being picked up in the media? What do you think?

What's worse is when media exposure actually seems intended to help the enemy, as in the exposure of the Prince serving combat in Afganistan? Lucky these s birds weren't around in 1944 when we were trying to keep the place and date of D Day secret!

 

[Archangel M]

That heroic acts occur even during a conflict that is seen in a chequered light is something that needs to remembered :tup:.

Seen by some, not by all. And by very few who are actually fighting over there.

 

[Sukerkin]

It's so not right that the heroism that does occur is not given due respect.

Putting aside any concerns for the roots of the conflict, the chaps taking the fire are still showing courage and that should be recogised.

 

[Steel Tiger]

The media has ceased even trying to appear non-partisan. Now all reports are crafted to support some position or another. With the conflict in Iraq, for instance, most media people are opposed to it either because they genuinely believe it is wrong or because it is obviously the politically correct thing to do (I, personally, think most of them fall into the second category). As a result only those aspects of the conflict that support their position go to air, crimes being commited, servicemen being killed, civilians being killed, episodes of gross incompetence.

The media have painted themselves into a corner - they are willing to use small scale acts to show the negative aspects of the campaign, but by doing so they have denied themselves the ability to applaud the heroic and meritorious behaviour of other individuals and groups. This, by there reasoning, would cast a positive light upon the campaign.

It happens everywhere and in everything, but the military cops it pretty hard. For instance, here is Australia we heard about a load of faulty ammunition delivered to Afghanistan almost immediately because it was bad. It took more than three weeks for reports of an heroic action by Australians troops to filter through to the general public. In this instance they got it well wrong. People were much more interested in how the guys in the field were doing than in a logistics mistake (even though it was a big, dangerous one). It just goes to show I guess.

 

[Archangel M]

Read the thoughts of another hero. SSG David Bellavia.


The MOH! Bellavia who?? The guy has a freakin book out and I never heard of him until I picked up his book from the local bokstore!

Its shameful.

Regardless of how you feel about the way this war has been adjudicated, America united can not be defeated. And today we are not united against this enemy. We choose to not understand why our enemy wants us dead. We do not care about the consequences of failure in Iraq. In my opinion, and I am in daily contact with those who serve, it is more difficult to serve America in Iraq today, than it was when I was there… and this nothing to do with al Qaeda, Sadr or Iran. This has everything to do with the virulent political waters in America. It is beyond shameless… it’s treasonous. And history will be most accurate when it reveals who is responsible for empowering our enemies. -SSG David Bellavia

 

[Archangel M]

It may be a couple of years old, but its still a powerful statement.

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2005/01/media_bias.html

Bias evident in coverage of Iraq war

By Thomas Sowell
Originally published January 27, 2005
THERE ARE still people in the mainstream media who profess bewilderment that they are accused of being biased. But you need to look no further than reporting on the war in Iraq to see the bias staring you in the face, day after day, on the front page of The New York Times and in much of the rest of the media.
If a battle ends with Americans killing a hundred guerrillas and terrorists, while sustaining 10 fatalities, that is an American victory. But not in the mainstream media. The headline is more likely to read: "Ten More Americans Killed in Iraq."

This kind of journalism can turn victory into defeat. Kept up long enough, it can even end up with real defeat, when support for the war collapses at home and abroad.

One of the biggest American victories during World War II was called "the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" because American fighter pilots shot down more than 340 Japanese planes over the Mariana Islands while losing just 30 American planes. But what if our current reporting practices had been used back then? The story, as printed and broadcast, could have been: "Today, 18 American pilots were killed and five more severely wounded as the Japanese blasted more than two dozen American planes out of the sky." A steady diet of that kind of one-sided reporting and our whole war effort against Japan might have collapsed.

Whether the one-sided reporting of the war in Vietnam was a factor in the American defeat there used to be a matter of controversy. But in recent years, high officials of the Communist government of Vietnam have admitted that they lost the war on the battlefields but won it in the U.S. media and on the streets of America, where political pressures from the anti-war movement threw away the victory for which thousands of American lives had been sacrificed.

Too many in the media today regard the reporting of the Vietnam War as one of their greatest triumphs. It certainly showed the power of the media - but also its irresponsibility. Some in the media today seem determined to recapture those glory days by the way they report on events in the Iraq war.

First, there is the mainstream media's almost exclusive focus on American casualties in Iraq, with little or no attention to the often much larger casualties inflicted on the enemy. Since terrorists are pouring into Iraq in response to calls from international terrorist networks, the number of those killed is especially important, for these are people who will no longer be around to launch more attacks on American soil.

With all the turmoil and bloodshed in Iraq, military and civilian people returning from that country are increasingly expressing amazement at the difference between what they have seen and the one-sided picture that the media present to the public here.

Our media cannot even call terrorists "terrorists," but instead give these cutthroats the bland name "insurgents." You might think that these were like the Underground fighters in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II.

Real insurgents want to get the occupying power out of their country. But the fastest way to get Americans out of Iraq would be to do the opposite of what these "insurgents" are doing. Just by letting peace and order return, those who want to see American troops gone would speed their departure.

But the real goal of the guerrillas and terrorists is to prevent democracy from arising in the Middle East.

Still, much of the Western media even cannot call a spade a spade. The Fourth Estate sometimes seems more like a Fifth Column.


Thomas Sowell, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, writes a syndicated column that appears Thursdays in The Sun.


Copyright © 2005, The Baltimore Sun

 

[Marginal]

...attention but we never hear about people like this from the mainstream media? I didn't even know about this hero until today. I can still recall the name Lynndie England but I never heard of Capt. Chontosh before and that depresses me.

Don't tell me there isn't an agenda at play here.

There is an agenda at play. It's as plain as day. Quality of character is expected. Abhorrent moral values are not. Therefore, the twisted people that undermine the image of the US, the US military, and embolden the terrorists and damage our own morale at the same time tend to earn themselves a harsh spotlight. This is to discourage further acts along those lines as they are not welcomed by the basic ideals that have guided the nation for centuries.

If we expected servicemen to behave like deviant cowards most of the time, then a story of heroism would be truly remarkable.