Reader Comments for Righting America >>>
Wow! You don’t watch O’Reilly, you have him inserted in your consciousness intravenously doncha?
You know what I like about you, Timmer?
Your love of free speech! Your support for the freedom of the press! And your insistence that the WH be held accountable and that the world be told the truth, the whole truth and nothing BUT the truth about a war which effects the entire world!
But wait! What’s this? You DON’T support truth, the whole truth and nothing BUT the truth about a war which effects the entire world! And why? Because some footage depicting truth, the whole truth and nothing BUT the truth about a war which effects the entire world has the wrong watermark! Shame, Muslim freedom-fighters, shame!
What is WRONG with you? Do you want it sugar-coated? Can’t you HANDLE the truth? It doesn’t matter two wahzoos WHERE it came from, the fact is it happened and we should be told.
And as for these wacky conspiracy theories that somehow the whole world is waiting until two weeks out from the midterms to commit dastardly acts, well, talk paranoid fantasies! Next you’ll be telling me that Al-quada are responsible for 9/11!
If the bad, nasty liberal media were just pumping bad news (read: true) stories about Iraq, how come the munition dump fire on tuesday which lit up the Baghdad sky for many miles around with mushroom cloud explosions has been completely ignored? And tell me, do you think it should? Are we, the world, only fit for good news tales authorised by the WH? Wouldn’t that be propaganda? A tad North Korea? And what stories SHOULD we be hearing?
Timmer, as usual the Right shoot the messenger and ignore the message. Typical. Why do I expect more?
Cheers
Elroy
Timmer:
Elroy beat me to it, g-ddammit!
What was all that fuss about the Danish cartoons again? Ah, yes, freedom of speech! All of a sudden the Freedom-lovers all became great lovers of all things Danish, a country for which ordinarily they would have nothing but disdain and scorn.
You guys really want to have your cake and eat it...
I think they should simply shut down the Communist News Network, surely something in the Patriot Act can be found to that effect?
And if these g-ddamn Democritters would simply shut up Amewikah
Elroy:
The ninnyhammering popinjay as you call him was actually remarkably nuanced (for once) about this issue: he actually shot down Michelle Malkin, the latter sock puppet really and truly believes that CNN is waging war on the US...
Elroy and Gert -
Ya know, sometimes I think I write articles just because I know how you will react to them. Funny! 
Where in this article do I say that CNN CANNOT do what they did? Nowhere...but please take out your magnifying glasses and have a go....it's okay, I'll wait......................
No, apologies not necessary my friends! I understand, a liberal gut reaction. It happens.
Oh, the bit about "embedding reporters?" Well, if you think the reporter you have allowed to tag along works for an organization that is rooting for the "other team," it might make sense to think twice about that.
Of course you don't agree! I would fall out of this chair if you did!
BTW, in case you guys didn't know it, CNN and other news orgs broadcasting here do not show people dying - on either side of a conflict. They are even careful about showing corpses, long dead.
Basically, CNN broke two of its own tenets:
1)Don't show someone being killed
2)Don't fly a national flag on the broadcast.
Of course, I am assuming that they couldn't possibly have a rule against JUST the American flag, could they??? Hmmmm...
Ya know, sometimes I think I write replies to your articles just because I know how you will react to them. Funny!
The article may not say that CNN CANNOT do what they did, but you do feel that it was ‘audacious’ of them, which at least implies that you don’t think that they should have, or that it was a little naughty. So what IS your beef? Let’s have a look.
An apology for a ‘gut reaction’ to someone who supports a president that starts wars on ‘gut reactions??? I think not. When GWB apologises for trusting his ‘gut’ and not the, ahem, army of military advisors that told him not to do it, I may reconsider.
CNN roots for the other team? Oh, grow up. CNN reported what happened. Your attitude just proves the belief that reporters were not ‘embedded’ to report the truth but to show the Pentagon’s ‘truth’.
‘Embedding’ ensures that reporters are captive and not free to report as they see fit, as the WH relies on the assumption that it is imprudent to criticise those that one depends on for one’s personal safety, and that the reporters will also fall prey to a variation of Stockholm Syndrome and bond with the soldiers they are embedded with.
Why do you think the WH invented ‘embedding’ in the first place? If you answered ‘To ensure that reporters reflect an accurate picture of the conflict’, I believe that they are still taking tenders for the Sydney Opera House. If, however, you replied ‘To ensure that reporters do NOT reflect an accurate picture of the conflict’ then Congratulations! You have passed Propaganda 101!
But of course, for the Right free speech is only OK if they agree with what is said, thereby completely misunderstanding the very concept of free speech.
I really think you just get a little confused sometimes. CNN didn’t actually show anyone dying, so they didn’t break tenet one, and as for tenet two, well, the logo of the ‘Islamic Army’ is not, I hate to break it to you, the national flag of Iraq. Of course, I think that a ban on national flags, including the home team’s, is absolutely correct and proper for any news service purporting to be impartialm but of course I’m just a (yawn) hate-filled liberal that hates America and is full of hate and etc etc ha
Timmer, this is a bit lame, even for you. You really must put aside your partisan rage and THINK for a moment. You say you are liberal on some issues but am yet to discover which; I would appreciate it if you could enlighten me; as you know, I like a laugh!
Cheers
Elroy
Elroy -
You are such a babe in the woods, but in a quasi-familial way (like a bemused uncle watching his bumbling nephew eat a worm) I find you to be strangely endearing in your naivete.
What kind of an idiotic army in history (name any) would allow spies from the other side travel with them and freely communicate with whomever? That is the equivalent to having embedded reporters broadcast to the world (and your enemies) where you are, what you are doing and exactly where you are going next. And you tell ME to grow up? OF COURSE they censure what is reported, Genius!
And OF COURSE, it is hoped that embedded reporters will somehow help the image of our troops who are fighting. Sheeeesh.
The moment of impact (blacked out by CNN) does not necessarily equate to the moment of dying....might very well be while the soldiere is falling. Sheeeeesh!
Okay, so it wasn't a national flag (I misspoke!). But the flag of a terrorist group nonetheless...shown, but no American Flag will be found in that upper-left corner of CNN. And we are NOT talking CNN International here either...CNN Domestic is somewhat different.
I like it when you accuse me of writing lame material, and yet can't help but return for more of the same schooling - day after day. And my "liberal side" will come out once in a great while...you just have to pay closer attention, my boy!
T
Oh dear, Timmer. Where to start? Look, embedded reporters are not spies. Spies are covert, sent from the other side. Embedded reporters are not covert. The reporter was upfront about what he did. And what he did was report the TRUTH about the WAR!
He did not ‘freely communicate’ and ‘broadcast to the world (and [the Army’s] enemies) where [they] are, what [they] are doing and exactly where [they] are going next. The reporters are reporting that US soldiers are being picked off by snipers. I’m sorry, but is this a state secret or something?
So, by your own admission, the WH censor what is reported by embedded reporters at the front lines and it is hoped that embedded reporters will somehow help the image of our troops who are fighting. Censoring. Image control. Sounds like propaganda to me (Go read up on Gobells for more on that subject).
Look, if you can’t handle the truth, fine, go stick your fingers in your ears and go ‘Waaaaaaaaaah! No fair! I’mnotlistening!I’mnotlistening!I’mnotlistening!’
but I want to know what is happening. Free speech is only what the Right say it is. And I’M naive?
On other points, your ‘moment of impact’ quibble would be quite laughable were the subject not so tragic. What do you want CNN to do? Check his pulse? Why is the reality of a war you condone too much for you? Surely you should be prepared to face the consequences of the policies you support?
Oh, I’m sorry, that’s right – you vote Republican, which means automatically exempt from taking personal responsibility. That’s for everyone else, isn’t it. What’s up? Got ‘other priorities’?
No, it wasn't a national flag. Yes, you ‘misspoke’! Another one to me, then. The flag of freedom fighters maybe, but is there a ban on them? If so, it could mean no American Flag. Oh, wait! Because they are so consistent (or is that predictable?) they already do that!
I return because you are my pet project. I am changing the world one Republican at a time.
Your ‘liberal side’ will come out one day, and when it does...my work here will be done.
Cheers
Elroy
Timmer writes:
>>>"1)Don't show someone being killed
Umm...you oughta send that memo out to all the news agencies about war coverage, because apparently, they missed it.
The certainly missed it during the coverage of the Black Hawk Down incident involving 14 Army Rangers in Somalia. They missed it with the 4 contractors in Fallujah. They missed it with the entire "smart bomb" video presentation during Desert Storm.
Whoops.
--Cobra
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