| TV War News: Miss Aimee's Motley Crew
KGW TV, Portland, Oregon, morning news, Sunday March 23, 2003 -- The screen has lately been littered with Arabs with angry faces, burning American flags and images of President Bush. But, have you ever seen the images on the Arab streets of Kuwait?
The national press is comfortable running official handouts from the DNC without checking them out for accuracy or logic. The local affiliates just pick up the natinal feeds and air them. That, probably, is why these nincompoops have been presenting without critical comment direct feeds from the official Iraqi television system. One could, I suppose, attribute this professional misfeasance to stupidity, but I tend to believe culturally-dictated ignorance is a better descriptive. If you improperly temper even the best steel, it will will fail to do the job for which it was shaped. These folks think that they represent the sword of enlightened journalism, but are completely unaware that their blade has no edge, and will shatter like glass if it strikes the truth. KGW's Aimee Clark, pretty and as two dimensional as a picture, introduced
this morning's ridiculous segments by calling the grenade incident at Camp But, this is a matter of little interest to those whose profession is not journalism. What is of interest to the general publics is the failure of Miss Aimee to fully report the known facts. It is clear that the people KGW interviewed with respect to this item responded to equally misleading questions by the KGW reporter. Friends or relatives of an Oregon soldier who was in Camp Pennsylvania (Kuwait) at the time, they were clearly under the impression that the assailant was an Iraqi, perhaps a soldier or a terrorist. Early official reports, indeed, suggested that, but as of the time of Miss Aimee’s report, her own network had videotape of the capture of the man accused of the crime. The soldier in custody was identified as Sgt. Asan Akbar of the 326th Engineer Battalion. (“Akbar” is part of the best-known Arabic phrase on Earth, Allah Akbar, one translation of which is “God is great.”) Those questioned during this local television report, being ignorant of all the presently available information, thus expressed open doubt concerning security efficiency at Camp Pennsylvania. One specifically asked how the enemy had penetrated that far in. Eventually, Miss Aimee pointed out that a U.S. soldier had been detained, but once more she left out something important. The man is black. He is an American Moslem who is an engineer with the Army's famed 101st Division (historically called “Airborne,” but now because it travels by helicopter instead of parachuting from airplanes, is by military people often referred to as an “Aircav” division -- short for air cavalry). Ordinarily, the fact that the soldier is black would not be a salient point (being a Moslem in this case automatically is), but in recent days, all America has over and over again seen the image of the black father whose son recently became one of the first soldiers killed in this war. All America has seen this man hold up a photo while telling President Bush that he (Bush) took away this man’s only son. America has not, of course, been equally exposed to the statements by the same man several days later. He explained, quite logically we think, that he was damned upset at the time because he had just lost his only son. What father wouldn’t be? Most wouldn’t react by calling their president a murderer, but one has to give this father some slack in this case, because of the constant media refrain about blacks being victims in America. (They often are, but not victims of the people the media accuses. They are victims of the Left, in particular, this same media and most of their own black “leaders.”) So, we heard what a black father said to the president (minus what he said, later), and saw, during Miss Aimee’s report, nothing of the videotaped capture of the black man who allegedly rolled live grenades into the tents of his fellow soldiers, then ran off to hide in a ditch. He specifically went after officers, by the way. In Vietnam, this type of act was given a name. It was called “fragging.” (As in “fragmentation grenade.”) If I were the news director of KGW (impossible since I am a conservative, and interested in the truth instead of “balance”), Miss Aimee would be in the hotseat. (If these people had covered WWII, they would have “balanced” their broadcasts with propaganda from the Nazis.) Miss Aimee needs some retraining. More proof of that, if any is necessary, came when she next questioned an Oregon combat vet who has experience as part of a bomber crew. She asked him how he felt about dropping bombs on people. Honest to God, that was her question. The root of this specific question is simple, just like liberals. One of the recent tactics that has popped up during press questioning of administration and military leaders involves an implied comparison of the bombing of Leipzig and Dresden during WWII. Not having access to today’s amazingly accurate ordnance, the allies nevertheless had to smash German war production. That meant carpet bombing of German industrial centers. How would anybody feel about doing that? The fellow with Miss Aimee said he looked at this sort of thing as being similar to cancer surgery. Some healthy tissue is damaged when the cancerous cells are cut out, but the alternative to the process is certain death. From that standpoint, which we believe to be a necessary and apt one, what you’ve seen on your television recently, the bombing of Baghdad, is the latest in cancer surgery. The process is spectacular in its ability to single out the bad cells for destruction while harming the fewest healthy cells in the history of warfare. In a word, what the coalition bombers and missiles are doing is without question the kindest, most gentle, most careful destruction it is possible to imagine. The city’s water supplies are still working, the people still have electricity and the only private residences damaged are those which happen to be located quite close to government facilities. Explosive shock waves are taking some of those down – but even so few of those that one is astounded. Saddam Hussein doesn’t need to remain in hiding, assuming he is alive. All he has to do is rent a small home in the suburbs of Baghdad and his teacups won’t even rattle on his shelves. Miss Aimee, apparently, though she has access to the same sources we do, and more, is apparently ignorant of virtually all that you have just read. She is living proof of the reasons for the rise of conservative talk radio. For decades, at least half, probably more, of this nation’s citizens have been looking at reports like this on both the local and national level. In spite of all the heroic efforts of our public education system to turn them all into morons, somehow they retained working intellects. And, when they became aware that suddenly in the American media there was a voice speaking what they, themselves, knew to be true, they flocked to that voice like starving people to food. Miss Aimee, her news director and her network just don’t get it. I don’t think they ever will. Just as they don’t understand where conservative radio came from, it is a mystery to them why FOX is the hot news these days. They must, at least, be astounded that FOX beat CNN during early war coverage. They certainly cannot grasp why conservative books are monster sellers these days. And, they are still shocked that Republicans took back the stolen Senate during the mid-term elections, and gained seats in the House, as well. But their incredulity extends beyond that. Right down to the state level, in fact. A number of them are flat amazed at the reach of this publication after only two years. How, they wonder, could a conservative general interest magazine without a dime of paid promotion, available only to the online public and trapped inside an Oregon media blackout concerning its very existence, become the fastest growing publication in the state? Here’s how. For the same reason Rush Limbaugh has the number one radio audience in this state. Oregon, too, contains people with working brains. People who are sick and tired of being fed a load of liberal, politically-correct crap. The times, Miss Aimee, they are a changing. It ain’t about “balance.” Whether you believe it or not, all opinions are not equally valid, you can’t tax your way to a good economy and America is the finest nation in the history of this planet – and is in Iraq for a whole host of very good reasons, not the least of which is to stop butchers from feeding political prisoners feet first into shredders. What one arab “street” thinks of our wish to remove a local dictator. (LL) © 2003 Oregon Magazine |
That
poster on the back of the bus, the one that demonstrates appreciation for
the war we fought to return their nation out of slavery? I often
wonder how many modern American "broadcast journalists" weep daily over
the demise of Josph Stalin. If he had won, they all would have had a government
job with a great retirement package. And, nobody would dare criticize
their product because the product would be given to them word for word
by a proper, socialist government of the proletariat. One doesn't
criticize the press of the tyrant, and live.
