what I have always suspected--the MSM are just vultures waiting to pick the carcass--what a wonderful depth they have sunk to--guess CTV needs the heads up so they can 'film through the barbed wire fence the return to Canada of the coffins?

Marine's wife paints portrait of US troops out of control in Haditha

The marine unit involved in the killing of Iraqi civilians in Haditha last November had suffered a "total breakdown" in discipline and had drug and alcohol problems, according to the wife of one of the battalion's staff sergeants.

Bunch of stoned and drug cowboys, what are they gonna be like when they get home?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1790500,00.html

"Marine's wife paints portrait of US troops out of control in Haditha"

Exactly what does this have to do with the Canadian Media?

If you are a reporter or editor or talking head reading this, here's some advice:

Get out before it's too late. When the full fledged war breaks out--and oh yes, it will, despite what you pansy assed liberal academic wankers think--all of you will finally be judged by what both you and I and the rest of society have beleived all along: seditious, vile, scum, unworthy to lick a soldier's boot.

And then, you will be strung up in the manner of the lowlife you truly are.

It has nothing to do with the Canadian media.

Neutralsam - if you don't stay on topic, your comments will be deleted. The place for off topic links is in reader tips threads.

Canadian MSM "Death Watch" in Afghanistan: From National Post, this day, reports by:

Jim Farrell, Kandahar, Afghanistan. CanWest News Service.

Matthew Fisher, Kabul, Afghanistan. National Post.

Photograph by Silvia Pecota. National Post.

I guess the Media could have been reporting on how the Tim Hortons is doing. I wonder about that. Why didn't Bill report about that? Bill had nothing to report so he reported on the media. I guess the media could report about one another for a few days.
My definition of news when you are with the military is to report on any hostilities. They are military on an aggressive seeking out mission so...did they find what they were looking for and how did that go? I think if nobody got killed they would probably still report the activity.

I have seen too few stories about how the coalition forces have literally changed the lives of the people of Afghan-children including girls going to school; kids allowed to fly kites which the Taliban had banned. The Taliban had even banned playing or listening to music. How about stories about the people now making music and dancing and laughing and having homes rebuilt and women allowed to walk free and start businesses thanks to our help.

Thee are I would guess thousands and thousands of stories like the little boy with the cancer on his face that our medics helped. Let us SEE the people we are helping and know about their stories.

Or is GOOD news not considered news at all?

I have seen too few stories about how the coalition forces have literally changed the lives of the people of Afghan-children including girls going to school; kids allowed to fly kites which the Taliban had banned. The Taliban had even banned playing or listening to music. How about stories about the people now making music and dancing and laughing and having homes rebuilt and women allowed to walk free and start businesses thanks to our help.

Thee are I would guess thousands and thousands of stories like the little boy with the cancer on his face that our medics helped. Let us SEE the people we are helping and know about their stories.

Or is GOOD news not considered news at all?

"It's been relatiely quiet around here, so there will be no update today, other than this email."

Gee, I guess that is why he isn't doing an update on all the aggressive action. I do have it on good intel (he told us) that he is planning on heading up to the FOB and PRT whenever he can. Bill is even going to try and get out on a local patrol.

I don't know about anyone else but I like the informal type of reporting that Bill Roggio is doing. I know he is on the ground and getting ready to roll out soon. I also know that the MSM puppeteers back in their safe ivory towers are trying to dictate to the field what is newsworthy.

The blogging reporters out there seem to get a better picture of what is actually happening and for that fact I salute them. MSM journalism will soon be a thing of the past.

It isn't a new thing that the media pracitces a morbid "deathwatch".

I've seen it before... most glaringly of all when the salivating MSM scavengers waited and waited and waited outside the Trudeau home... for the former prime minister to die.

Whatever one thinks of PET's tenure... the behavior of the MSM then I found reprehensible. And I mentioned it to a Liberal who noticed it as well... I asked, "Did you see the media outside PET's house the other day? It was like they were waiting..." I was cut off and the Liberal finished for me: "... for him to die".

Imagine how PET felt when he saw on TV those MSM bastards right outside his house... just waiting for him to die...

Why can't the MSM be on a "good things watch"? I think that the only time this happens is when a Liberal PM gives them the heads-up that they're going to make a nice announcement that'll please the left.

The MSM is one fascinating animal, ain't it? Let's call David Suzuki... he can study its "nature" and then proudly appear bareassed again on TV to discuss it...

This "media death watch" phenomenon in Afghanistan is pretty parallel to what the MSM is doing in Iraq. Numerous reports from quality blogs like Michael Totten and the few reporters actually going into th efield paint a picture of most of the MSM hanging out in the hotels in the Green Zone, using Iraqi stringers to get "news" for them.

Few of the MSM actually go out with the military, Coalition or Iraqi. Nor do they go out to meet and interview mainstream Iraqis to find out what they think and are experiencing.

As the bulk of the Western MSM share left-wing politics and all that entails, they end up sharing left-wing anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-military groupthink with each other in the hotel bars while their Iraqi stringers are out digging up OR manufacturing news stories that their reporters will pay them for.

The Iraqi stringers have found out what "sells" with the MSM reporters for whom they work and who pay them: stories of bombings, violence, ambushes, killings, etc.

Supposedly, even the Ba'athist and Al Qaeda terrorists have figured out the Western MSM's daily news cycle time deadlines and plan explosions, etc. around the outskirts of the Green Zone to give the MSM "more deadly-bombings-in-Iraq-today" stories at the right times.

(This is one example of our Islamofascist enemies, both domestically and in Iraq and Afghanistan are getting pretty sophisticated in playing on our Western weaknesses, ESPECIALLY our lefty MSM, against us.)

Stories of the many Coalition and Iraqi military successes; Reconstruction successes and progress; Iraqi civilians favorable attitudes and helping their new democratic government and Coalition forces and progress in general don't "sell".

Isn't it good that today's MSM and their mindset and habits weren't covering WW2?!

Roggio is akin to what war and foreign correspondents used to be, before the time of "professional" journalists. Curious, intelligent "amateurs" with a talent for obversation and sufficient literacy to relate for the folks back home what was going on. They might have their biases, but don't tell me the "professional" journalists don't (we don't have to go over that, do we?)
Some of the best journalism, war coverage, and travel writing for that matter, - and even some of the best documentary photography - has been done by "amateurs" who just happened to be in the right place at the right time, with the right skills and attitudes to capture some truth of the events.
(I've just finished reading Kane's Wanderings of an Artist, by the way, and that could be just one case in point.)
The Net has allowed legions of such enlightened correspondents to flourish, so long as one retains the discernment to separate the wheat from the chaff (and to keep the wheat, contrary to the old saw about the MSM, which rings true even more so these days.)

The other thing that the enemy has figured out is that when they kill a journalist they get big time coverage. That may be why more journalists have been killed in the last four years than in WW2.

How would more good news stories impact the feeding frenzy of hate and terrorism bred by those who do not want the terrorists to be eradicated; those who just want us to turn tail and leave them alone to torture and kill, to fill the world with heroin and extremism.

Just think, if the world was shown that the war against terror is a GOOD thing for the millions of people who have been liberated from torture, genocide, persecution by their own people would this not help somewhat to tone down the hate mongering rhetoric?

Iraq war's "Marlboro Man" gets married in Kentucky

Miller became the public face of the U.S. military action in Fallujah in Iraq. His picture was shown by correspondent Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, who called it called it ”the best war photograph of recent years.”

Blake Miller's pic is still up at: nealenews.com

In any longstanding military engagement casualties are deemed newsworthy in direct proportion to how much the underlying culture of that particular news organization opposes the engagement. That's why we often see such a spectacular lack of any sense of proportion in such coverage. I mean, in Canada in 2001, almost three thousand people died in motor vehicle accidents, and over twenty four thousand were hospitalized with injures, yet when a vehicle in Afghanistan goes off the road to avoid a goat, injuring several soldiers, it is deemed to be top-of-the hour news on the National, a useful tool to draw attention to the fact that they Canadians are in uniform in a foreign country.

If the culture at CBC were inverted so that they were all, say, collectively opposed to Toronto, the cameramen would no doubt be climbing into the wreck of a car at an intersections and showing the drug deal on the corner through the broken window and twisted metal. Because that's approximately their approach to reporting on events wherever military activity is involved. Their question is always, it seems, "has anything gone wrong here?"

William Thorsell wrote in a fine column in last Monday's Globe and Mail that "Most journalists confine their understanding of investigative journalism to 'what went wrong yesterday'...(..)..There is no more entertaining example of this than the CBC. It reflects a generally morbid producer culture attracted to death, abuse, fraud, tragedy, threats and grievance..."

And this: "CBC newscasters often speak in an offended, scolding tone, as though the listener shares responsbility for the latest car bombing or unusual weather event."

It IS frankly weird when those same who act as if they are morally superior gatekeepers of social responsibility behave for all the world like prurient, thrumming-fingered rubberneckers in order to display their position. They're an army in their own way, fighting to keep 90's GTA Liberalism as our country's underlying narrative.

John Moore's "agents of the people" continue in their scumbag ways.

Again I ask, what is the MSM's and the left's agenda? Is it to toss Israel overboard? If so, then why not state that position and defend it in a public forum.

As much as I find diffulty saying it, the CBC is providing balanced and fair coverage tonight on the broad strata of folks in TO. I always tune into the CBC when there is a "breaking news" story (for critiquing purposes). So far, gulp, no issues. This has got to be a first.

Steved, depends on how you count journalists. However, most of those killed were stringers and drivers. They were the ones out getting killed when the first worlds journalists were sipping tea at the five star hotels.

Those few real journalist wo were killed were actually doing their job and I salute them.

And off course, you know who is doing the killing right?

Shaken asks: "what is the MSM's and the left's agenda?"

Well, reading Lorraine's posts, which I heartily agree with***yes, give us some good news***it occurred to me that the MSM and the lefties are the West's Tokyo Rose.

They're Tokyo Roses.

TR's job was to demoralize the troops and she was consistently relentless about demoralizing them. That's essentially the agenda of our MSM and the left. Of course, it doesn't help that they don't know their history, or if they know any history at all it's the deconstructed, pc, equal rights kind that has no place for war, mainly because they're cowards and don't have the stomach or other parts of the anatomy to fight for anything.

It's such a cliche but it contains a great deal of truth: If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.

Because the left and the largely leftist-leaning MSM seem to have rejected long-held principles which have undergirded Western civilization such as honour, truth, sacrifice, freedom, faith, etc. and have replaced them with hedonism, no-faith, comfort, expediency, self-centredness, etc., they frankly don't feel that there is anything worth fighting for. If I had their values, I wouldn't think there was anything worth fighting for, either.

So, their agenda seems to be to drag the rest of us into their swamp of nihilism. They are deathly afraid of anyone or any belief that asserts with certainty that they know which road to take and where that road is leading. They only "believe" in "the journey" and frankly don't believe that there actually is a destination, so they keep going around and around in circles***which, BTW, keep getting smaller and smaller***to nowhere.

Their world view sucks and deep down, they know it. Essentially, their world view has a death wish and that's their agenda: to foist this death wish on the rest of us.

Yuck.

While everyone's bursting blood vessels here venting against the media, it might be worth pointing out how the Afghan assignment works:

-Journalists embedded with the troops get to do one or, if they're lucky, two patrols a week outside the base. These trips include visits to schools, reconstruction camps, jails, poppy fields that anti-drug agents are clearing, small towns, etc.

-Most journalists eagerly push for as many of these trips outside the base as the media will take them on.

-However, the military can't deploy too many of its resources to babysitting journalists, so these things get spread a little thin.

-So journalists spend most of their days on the base and there's not a whole lot they can do about it.

-On the base, they can surf the Internet, work out, write their 615th story about the base coffee shop, interview soldiers for other pieces, or wait for combat briefings.

-The military does NOT encourage soldiers to go around spilling the beans on operational information to journalists.

-That pretty much leaves the briefings, the Internet, working out, and writing (again) another lame-o story about the coffee shop.

So to Doug -- the as-wipe above who spoke gleefully about the murder of journalists -- and his ilk, I'd like to make sure you have at least a better sense of the working conditions in Afghanistan before you launch another call for the killing of your fellow citizens.

D---head.

While everyone's bursting blood vessels here venting against the media, it might be worth pointing out how the Afghan assignment works:

-Journalists embedded with the troops get to do one or, if they're lucky, two patrols a week outside the base. These trips include visits to schools, reconstruction camps, jails, poppy fields being cleared by anti-drug agents, small towns, etc.

-Most journalists eagerly push for as many of these trips outside the base as the military will take them on.

-However, the military can't deploy too many of its resources to babysitting journalists, so these things get spread a little thin. Which is totally understandable.

-So journalists spend most of their days on the base and there's not a whole lot they can do about it.

-On the base, they can surf the Internet, work out, write their 615th story about the base coffee shop, interview soldiers for other pieces, or wait for combat briefings.

-The military does NOT encourage soldiers to go around spilling the beans on operational information to journalists.

-So that pretty much leaves the briefings, the Internet, working out, and writing (again) another lame-o story about the coffee shop.

-Now, by process of elimination, they (drumroll please) wait for the briefings.

So to Doug -- the as-wipe above who spoke gleefully about the murder of journalists -- and his ilk, I'd like to make sure you have at least a better sense of the working conditions in Afghanistan before you launch another call for the killing of your fellow citizens.

D---head.

As a journalist of nearly 30 years, EBD is right on the money. He's (she is?) probably one too. I liked the phrase "producer culture:" people don't realize who actually shapes and creates the news -- and it isn't reporters. It's the people whose names you never hear. Producers (in TV and radio) and editors.

The shapers don't want to know what is actually happening. They want a preconcieved notion of what they THINK is happening. Anything else gets spiked. (Cancelled. Shelved. Deep-sixed).

Thus, the Toronto Red Star always wants a story about the suffering women and children. The CBC will cover the suffering children and women. And the Grope and Fail across town always wants the same story, except with an 'exclusive' interview with some official the Star missed. Same shi*, different wrapping.

When the reporters get really cynical and ruthless at producing this crap, they get promoted to producer.

"Marine's wife paints portrait of US troops out of control in Haditha"

Exactly what does this have to do with the Canadian Media?

You have to have some sort of negative tenuous tie to the Americans. Even if it is gossip.
Heaven forbid anyone wait for an investigation be completed!

owl,

your comments might reflect a personal experience you've had in a newsroom...

...or maybe not.

I've never met a TV reporter who wanted to be a producer. Usually it's the other way around. Producers are usually kids out of college, and most of them are waiting for their on-screen break.

Just thought I'd point out that detail if you're purpoting to speak on behalf of an entire profession.

Tony,

You couldn't be more wrong. The media is encouraged to leave the bases and embed. No one "babysits" us either on post or at the FOBs. I sat in on the briefings, I heard the PAO talk to the media and saw the media hang their heads in shame, resigned to their fate. Say whay you like, I know what I saw, and heard.

"new kid on the block": "Yuck."

More yuck: search for Ezra Pound; find Lord Haw-Haw, find Walter Duranty.

More Yuck: Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Roger Galloway, and etc.

Yuck.

For an antidote to all their poison, go here and read about Gareth Jones. RSVP

http://colley.co.uk/garethjones/index.htm

Seeing as "tony" is one of those behind the scenes shapers that owl's talking about, and seeing as owl has observed that these shapers have a "preconcieved notion of what they THINK is happening [and] anything else gets spiked. (Cancelled. Shelved. Deep-sixed)" no wonder tony wants to distance himself from these observations.

But, it's hard to escape. There's Bill Roggio denying tony's shaping of the situation and Bill's actually on the scene he's describing.

Nice try, tony. You can run, but you can't hide.

Thanks, maz2. I had never heard of Gareth Jones before. Now I want to know a lot more about him. Truth, obviously, mattered to him.

Truth bothers a lot of people and those who speak it often pay dearly for their honesty and integrity.

The price of dishonesty and selling out, however, is far greater.

Has it ever crossed anyone's mind that the rise of radical extremism and hate against other countries could be instigated and fed by the news media?

Anti-Americanism and George Bush bashing by our Canadian media (and parroted by the NDP and Liberals) feeds hatred of our nearest neighbour and most important trading partner. Not only has it cost us in tourism and business contracts I am certain that it has instilled true hatred of America in people who have extremist tendancies.

Is the media feeding terrorism by only showing the ugly underbelly of the war that is freeing millions of people from tyranny instead of the good?

Is the socialist media, parroted by certain politicians like the NDP, part of the root cause? As someone posted here, that was the role of Tokyo Rose - to demoralize the troops (as our media has done by endless polls and negativity about their role in the fight against terrorism) , by being negative, by turning the people against the value and goals of the big picture and focussing only on the daily nit picks?

Have we now become the victims of our own hate mongering media?

Just a thought.

Hey Bill,

Nice work over there. Keep it up!

I just want to get one thing clear: Are you saying that MSM journalists are refusing to embed once they're on the base? That would be quite surprising.

My understanding is they've pretty much all signed agreements to embed, but then once they're on the base they don't get out too often.

That's what I was referring to when I said there aren't many opportunities to get out. I didn't mean to suggest anyone's refusing to sign on to embedding.

Just wanted to check on that for my own understanding. The reports I'm hearing from journalists out there on the base would seem to indicate that quite a few of them are getting frustrated because the opportunities to leave the base have really dwindled in recent months.

Of course there are a few people content to sit on their fannies -- either through fear of danger, or through sheer journalistic death-watch ass-coverage.

My understanding of what's happening there, however, is that most are getting pretty bummed out about hanging around the base all the time.

Please feel free to set the record straight for me.

And keep up the good work.

Lorraine, would you suggest then, that the fact that you can't ride the main highway in Iraq without fear of getting blown up, or stand in line to sign up for the local police force without worrying about being kidnapped, shot, or exploded, should be IGNORED by the media lest it detract from the president's approval ratings?

Somehow I don't feel that media reports about a troublesome war are fuelling more hatred of the U.S. than oh, I don't know, incidents where two-dozen civilians get mowed down by U.S. troops. Or the time the U.S. government fired every Baathist government employee -- including civil servants, police officers, the military, and justice officials, only to realize they'd created a failed state -- and massive unemployment. Or those pesky friendly fire incidents where a few families see their homes get blown up. Or the fact that thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians have died in a war that was about punishing Saddam for 9/11. No wait, it was about stopping him from using WMDs. No, no, no, it was because he might have TRIED to get WMDs. Wait, wait, I've finally figured it out: it was about planting a democratic tree so that it could take root in the Middle East and bear fruit throughout the Arab world.

At the very least, the next time someone tries conducting a political-science experiment with the lives of soldiers and foreign civilians, they'll make damn sure they've got their story straight first.

The media will be there to report on the success of Iraqi democracy the day it happens -- and it probably will. But in the meantime, they're covering it for what it is: a monumental mess and depressing waste of human life.

The third rate wanna be journalists are just following the lead of the Vietnam generation.

Stuck in the past ( about 40 years ) and without a clue the MSM is going the way of the DODDO.

CBCpravdas latest- if Daddy says so , print it. .

Suspect in bomb plot is against violence, father says
Last Updated Mon, 05 Jun 2006 15:52:40 EDT
CBC News
The father of one of the suspects in an alleged bombing plot in Ontario defended his son Monday, saying he has never expressed any grievance against Canada.

"It never happened. Never happened," Tariq Haleem, the father of 30-year-old Shareef Abdehaleem, told CBC News. "He was raised in this country

their version of balanced coverage is find something no matter what. unbalanced coverage is now starting to look mentally unbalanced.

I have a great deal of respect for many of the stories I have seen filed from the war zones...respect for the reporters especially and admiration for their courage to be there to bring us the stories. I have been moved, inspired, maddened, horrified, jubilant, ...the range of emotions from seeing reports from Afghanistan (I will leave out Iraq as I watch more where our Canadian soldiers are). The live reports filed in interviews and in docu-features by the reporters who are there or have been there..

Somewhere, somehow the stories get transformed, edited, muddied, adulterated once they hit the newspapers or the TV talking heads.

Then the stories get even more adulterated when the special interest groups and politicians start injecting opinion, spin and innuendo instead of facts.

And then pollsters get involved to give the media more headlines and -badda-bing - the original stories and facts obtained and reported by brave and courageous REAL journalists are turned into propaganda or outright fabrications or exageration.

Sometimes the facts are enough - we can form our own opinions. And, sometimes there is good with the bad out there I am sure. Successes, however small could be reported just to balance things and give meaning and human faces of the people we are helping to the mission.

There has been some of that - the little boy with the cancer on his face - a church in Edmonton raised money for him. This made us feel like we could help in some way. More stories like that would be good for the morale of our soldiers too I would think.

Anyways, I always remember that evil can only thrive when good people do nothing.

I've done two reporting rounds in Afghanistan and I will likely go back for a third this fall. I can vouch for part of Tony's version of how it works. Most reporters who go over spend much of their time begging the army for the chance to tag along on something -- anything -- meaningful.
Seats are limited and there is huge interest in Canada right now, so there are more reporters than seats many days.
The soldiers put up with us with admirable patience. Some simply tolerate us, some seem happy to have us along. Some like the fact we're paying attention, others wish they could go back to working in anonymity because their families tended to worry less. But they're almost all patient and professional.
Reporters aren't spending much time in the gym working off the deep fried chicken livers they serve at the US-run mess hall. It's been way too busy for that. Recent events have included the extended battle of Panjwai and the deaths and injuries that have occured there and other places.
At least half a dozen Canadian journalists have had close calls of one sort or another with soldiers in the past four months, often when roadside or suicide bombs have hit their convoys. I've told many of my colleagues considering the assignment that I feel it's only a matter of time until one of us gets hurt. People sign up anyway. Everyone has their reasons. Glory isn't usually one of them. It just isn't that glamourous. Some want adventure. Some want to test themselves. For some of the oldtimers, it's just what they do. Believe it or not, many people are idealists.
Just this week a convoy carrying a bunch of reporters to an event staged by the army with the local governor was hit by a suicide bomber. No Canadians were hurt, though it was a devastating attack that killed several Afghans.
I mention this all just to say most reporters aren't just sitting behind the wire.
We all despise deathwatch. But it will be no secret to anyone that the reason news organizations are in Kandahar in force, say compared to my two months in Kabul in 2004 when there were two reporters by the end, is that the risk to Canadian soldiers is much, much higher now. (Although Cpl. Jamie Murphy was killed in a suicide bombing on Jan. 27, my first day in Kabul. So the capital was far from risk-free, even then.) It's also the more aggressive, out-front role the army has taken. That's the definition of news. That's why people spend so much time talking about Afghanistan on blogs now, compared to 2004.
It's probably true that satellite-dependent operations like TV news crews are staying fairly close to base. There are heavy technical aspects to some media organizations that are unavoidable when they have to file every day. Print and radio types are lucky because we can travel light. Few organizations have the dollars to send crews to Afghanistan to have them disappear into the hills with soldiers for a week or two, although every reporter there would love to do it. Some of us have been lucky enough to have that chance.
There've been lots of good news stories out of Afghanistan since 2002 but not as many lately. When I was there in 2004, good news was falling from the trees. I did stories about de-mining, amputees finding work, the rebuilding of the Afghanistan instituions like the weather office, schools, the fire department. Fewer people were paying attention back then. Hopefully security will improve so we can get back to more of that stuff.

Thanks Bill for the feed. Always interesting to get a truly independent perspective versus the MSM's editorializing which uses events as props. There've been some interesting points made. One that's always intriqued me is "Could we have won WWII with todays's version of the liberal MSM?" I think not. Imagine the headlines/editorials: "Allies Landing in Normandy with no Exit Strategy" (the "exit strategy" was victory). "Allies Bogged Down in Bocage Country -- Another Paschendale". (Breakout came with operation Cobra) "Germans Mount Simultaneous Attacks Around Falaise" (eventually the graveyard of an entire Panzer Army) etc. etc. And those were the good-news events! Would any MSM outlet or the NFB today produce an equivalent of Frank Capra's "Why We Fight"? While I don't believe in blind "King and Country" jingoism, Capra's films were a thoughtful presentation of fundamental values, a moral compass as it were to clearly outline the stakes and the objectives however imperfectly realized at the conclusion of the conflict. The aptly described hedonistic nihilists of today's MSM devoid of such a compass are left to wallow in sordid voyeurism.

Re tony:"incidents where two-dozen civilians get mowed down by U.S. troops."

The Marines are now being consistently targeted by the MSM.

I think it is despicable and tony just did a great imitation of Tokyo Rose.

tony is especially pining for all those fired Ba'athists.

I think if tony were in charge they might get refugee status and Canadian residency and maybe a job at the gun registry./s

Tony & Les (and everyone else)

I want to be clear I am not disparaging the journalists here, it is the media system I have an issue with.

Going out on day-patrols & then returning to Kandahar Airfield, which is what journalists here are doing, and actually going to a FOB and "embed" for more than an afternoon are two entirely different experiences. I know this because I did both while in Iraq.

Right now, I am the only person asking to head out to a FOB. They need to do the day trips so they can return to deathwatch. They hate deathwatch. No doubt about it. Nothing I said is a slight on the Canadian journalists. There are risks in doing the day patrols, and two guys I met experienced an IED attack the other day. If it was up to them, I think most would indeed head out for true embeds.

During our briefing, the PAO basically said the true embed -actually going forward with the troops for more than an afternoon - is all but dead. No one argued against that but me. The PAO was unhappy was heading out to do the true embed.

I wrote and put the link up when I heard the babble coming out of Bill Roggio mouth.

The Marines Have admitted that this went on so thats two incidents that they have laid charges against Marines, one they dispute but the Iraqis disagree with and one other still under investigation. Marines are coming out and saying these things.
So why isn't the media reporting this?

They are starting to report on our troops saving afghani prisoners from execution. Which is something we can take pride in.

But remember the Media doesn't report on the women and children that are killed. This will be something that our grandchildren will be telling their children about, how a not so good thing turned really bad. Maybe now the media will start being real reporters again.

Speaking about the Marlboro Man, James Blake Miller, anybody read about how he's doing and if he's getting taken care of?

'Marlboro Man' Marine Describes Struggle With PTSD

My apologies to Bill and to our hostess Kate for getting too snarky with tony.

tony and the press have already convicted the Haditha Marines and that is not right.

Tony, people have been in Iraq since the beginning, reporting on the success. There is a lengthy series that received attention in the WSJ and the NYT - Arthur Chrenkoff's installments of "Good News From Iraq". You can find it on the sidebar.

However, the likelihood of seeing any of those items on the Canadian TV networks was nil. Instead, we got footage of Lisa LaFlamme and Alan Freyer, editorializing from the Green Zone and in front of the White House, with interjected file footage of the car bombing de jour.

That's why so many now believe that there are elements in the media politically engaged in wishful thinking reporting - actively promoting a drumbeat of defeat, because seeing a Republican president "lose" is more important than national security or democracy in the Middle East.

That's why only real dead Iraqi is one "murdered" by an American. The rest are "second class" dead Iraqis. It's as though they never existed in the first place.

The level of bigotry required for that attitude to persist is difficult to wrap one's mind around. But we see it from so called "professional" media day in and day out, and I regret to say, I recognize it in your comments above.

Bill - God Bless. Thanks for sharing with us and stay safe.

Ignore the wingnuts - they are just examples of what we mean by people who have a twisted view of the world possibly because of a steady diet of the media who present twisted views of the world.

A question: Are there any Afghani reporters that can feed you stories from the communities?

neutralsam,

Unlike you, I hung out with the Marines of the 3/1 for a bit of time. What I saw were a group of Marines dedicated to the mission and and grudgingly understanding the ROE. I never met a "drunk or stoned" Marine during my time there. Your characterizing them this way is disgraceful. Par for the course, I guess.

Kate,

I have to admit I agree with you. You're right; not all the news reporting out of Iraq is negative.

I was kind of playing devil's advocate with Lorraine, who suggested that the media are responsible for people dying in terrorist acts because they report bad news.

I suppose I was trying to make the case about why the media report so much bad news, and I think there's a darned good reason for it.

But in my zest to retort I missed the point you cleverly picked up on: Not all the news from Iraq is bad.

Nor should it be -- not when a brutal dictator gets taken out to the proverbial woodshed. But I think it's foolish to blame the media for pointing out that the ensuing power struggle is, to put it politely, somewhat of a mess. And it's especially wrong, in my opinion, to accuse the media of being RESPONSIBLE for the ensuing bloodshed.

The MSM were lined up like a bunch of cheerleaders when that Saddam statue came down. But they started focusing on the bad news when the bad news, um, kept happening.

Thanks, Lorraine. I am working on developing some contacts in the Afghan public and the expat community. That's part of the mission. So far so good, but I suspect I won't get any Afghan reporters.

"No Bozos,"

No offense taken.

Was far more put-off by the guy who basked in the mental image of members of my profession being lynched.

Being called a "Tokyo Rose" is far less offensive than hearing someone prepare to do a dance of joy at the notion of your own violent demise.

Bill: No offence taken.
The shoe must have switched to the other foot recently at KAF, from your observations.
There were very few seats being offered up on long-term missions from February right up to May, with a brief spurt of activity at the beginning of March when I was there and we ALL went out on extended missions of six to 12 days.
In the month before, many of us felt true embedding was dead too but it was because THE ARMY wasn't letting it happen. Some experienced guys who spent weeks roaming the hills with soldiers on previous Afghan tours were quite upset about it at the time.
In the army's defence, it was a big ramp-up time and nobody was very organized, including reporters.
Afterwards, I went home and heard the big missions stopped again. I had to wonder if the experience of having a dozen reporters and camera people out with the troops, far from HQ and media minders, made the army too nervous.
One part of what you're describing may be a product of every news organization (and foreign editor) in Canada having run big packages on the the Gumbad forward base and marches-in-the-mountains in the spring. The big guys are probably not so keen for that stuff now, so the much-despised deathwatch is taking precedence.
It's too bad, if that's the case. There are lots of other important things that come out of those excursions besides 10,000 word features.

um tony, my apology was not to you.

But I can understand you being put off by the lynching remarks. Tokyo Rose only got 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Bill, good luck and thank you for your efforts. God bless you and all our brave soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

I believe it comes down to this:

We are the soft underbelly of the Snake, and unique in that our identity angst invites a political correctness regime that affords the widest aperture for exploitation by skillful and determined opponents. Consequently, we are a desirable target of this malignancy that besets Islam called Wahibiism. There is no need to agonize over why we deserve... we don't! simply, circumstances have conspired.

This is the backdrop against which our press must play their bit. Some feckle elements in that press are sufficiently rewarded by the mere reflection of their power to shape public opinion, and thus affect history. Others in the press, probably a minority, operate on a deeper agenda.

But this isn't a social program or a spending line item in a budget. We're talking about the very stability of our economy and the underpinnings of our society. The press is thus playing with fire. Let us suppose that their efforts to turn public opinion against our efforts in theatre succeed. In the end, they become beasts of burden of the ruling elite, and lose all power.

It is time for member of the press to grasp what is really going on in this world, to dismiss their petty powerplays and see the larger drama that is unfolding - that without the sacrifice of those men and women for whom they wait in "Death Watch", a society in which they have no real use will swallow them up.

The perception of death watch could change. It could be perceived as a solemn duty, to be attended with reverence and dignity.

Nevermind their fealty with propping up a larcenous, hypocritical regime in this country for decades; what really gets my ire is their craven attempt to use the fallen as though they are merely pawns in a debate that equates to such triviality as who is awarded a road or bridge building contract and other matters of urgent pork.

It is their myopia that raises my ire - their inability to understand or accept the consequences of handing a victory to those that would extinguish us both. I find that inpenetrable.

I am just starting to consider -- awfully late, really -- the extent to which producers/editors are the real gatekeepers, and how reporters within a large organization cannot be seen, read or heard without their consent.

Which brings me to CBC. Having taken so many shots at them, I feel duty-bound in the name of honesty to acknowledge what ol' Schmidt said earlier in this thread: that tonight's National was quite good. And that, not incidentally, it seemed like there was more reporter and less producer. The entire hour seemed less of a promo for GTA Liberalism, and more like a group of real Canadians from across the country had popped their heads out of the CBC cent (and their logo-ed paper suits) to address recent events in Missassauga.

Christina Lawand's story on Mark Bourque's death, too, showed not only that certain reporterly personal integrities can be simultaneously national, unavoidable and important, but also reinforced that her take on Gomery, back when, was just as it appeared: an odd (prescient?) burst of integrity in a dominant, obsequious sub-culture. And Brian Stewart tonight showed a trademark and highly-welcome negative capability and wisdom and reserve -- all quintessentially Canadian qualities -- that was recently unfamiliar, and quite welcome.

Could it be that the death-watch culture has reflected a producer's culture that got pinned on reporters?

A number of comments rather late in the day of this thread. I'm not a night hawk, like so many others!

tony: Yeah, the war in Afghanistan is a mess. What would you expect? An antiseptic operation, done and finished in the time it takes a sitcom to air over a season? Check out WWI and WWII. They were a bloody mess from start to finish, but rather necessary to safeguard and maintain democracy and freedom in the West. Had we not waged these wars, we would be, as shaken points out, "beasts of burden of the ruling elite, and [would have lost] all power."

The entitled and nihilistic members of the MSM seem to have lost all long-term perspective on what this war on terror is all about. Again, as shaken and others so presciently point out, "without the sacrifice of those men and women for whom [the press] wait in 'Death Watch', a society in which they have no real use will swallow them up."

It takes my breath away that the members of the MSM cannot see the magnitude of the threat we are up against: too much left-lib "education" and not enough reality, I guess.

Re the CBC's more or less balanced coverage last night: First, something to be grateful for and second, it might have something to do with the feedback they're getting. I logged onto the letters section of their Web site last night, and except for a few "I'm so worried about a back lash towards the Muslims in Canada," the vast majority were unequivocal in their condemnation of the fanatic Islamists and their call for Canadians to wake up and get serious about this threat to our safety, security, and democracy. Maybe, hopefully, the CBC will wake up to who actually pays for the butter on their bread.

I'm with shaken, too, in his indignation at how the MSM have been using our military as a pawn in making petty, politically correct points and agree with Lorraine, that, yes, "the rise of radical extremism and hate against other countries could be instigated and fed by the news media." I've thought this for years.

The MSM agenda has been to undermine any value that they see as too bourgeois or "traditional," such as being proud of our country and being willing to defend it for the posterity of our children and grandchildren. The MSM seem to have no concept of what it means to defend our democracy for those who will come after us. I sometimes wonder if any of them have families and children.

To Bill Roggio: God bless you. Thank you for your reporting from the front, and for counterbalancing the largely negative reports we all too often are subject to in the Candadian media.

One more thing: Why can't the CBC and others in the MSM acknowledge that war is Hell? Why can't they, instead of using "war is Hell" as a pretext to cutting and running, and insisting that war is therefore "bad," begin to show respect for and support of those brave men and women who are enduring Hell every day for their/ our sake? For the sake of freedom and democracy? For the sake of handing down a life of freedom to future generations?

Maybe the arrests of the Islamist fanatics this past weekend will be a wakeup call for the MSM as well as all Canadians. If the CSIS building had been blown up, the blast would have taken a lot of CBC employees out as well. None of us are immune from this terrorist threat.

I too saw the National.

Hooray, we're all celebrating a balanced story! The CBC acknowlegded that a plan to kill thousands of innocent Canadians is an inherently bad thing!

Kind of says it all doesn't it.

June 6: D-Day plus 62.

Mark
Ottawa

Tuesday, June 06, 2006
How's That?

What happens when you can't talk at a party without anyone misunderstanding you? When you say something hilarious and people go, 'huh?' When there's a world out there that only you can see. When maybe you re-up just to talk to someone. Is it you that's going crazy? Or have you just woken up?

Roger Simon reviews Pat Dollard's film from Iraq, shot in large part by men who were there while they were.

Try Pat Dollard - direct from Iraq. Pat explains what he's doing:

Welcome to the only thing sleazier than overbilling lawyers, overprescribing doctors shilling for pharamaceutical companies, greedy coporate executives, and used car salesmen: the American Journalist. Flawed and crooked and self-centered as the rest of us, but riding around on a high horse, pointing out everyone else's sins, but ignoring their own. This is the last great industry-wide scandal left uncovered in America. Because of course, they'd have to cover it themselves. And none of them have the bravery to take their own inventory, to list their own pathologically self-centered faults. They'd rather just go after yours. mine and those who disagree with them politically.

Do not miss this. (Warning: high raunch factor) (ht: Andrew Breitbart)
... more
http://www.fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/

Maxima debetur puero reverentia. ...

Dishonor (Michael Yon dispatch)
Michael Yon Online Magazine ^ | Friday, June 2nd, 2006

Posted on 06/05/2006 11:48:37 AM PDT by StarCMC

A major new magazine has been launched in the US and Canada by one of the world’s largest magazine publishing empires. HFM is a French company that also publishes such well known periodicals as: American Photo, Boating, Car and Driver, Cycle World, ELLE, ELLE Decor, ELLEgirl, Flying, For Me, Home, Metropolitan Home, Popular Photography & Imaging, Premiere, Road & Track, Road & Track Road Gear, Road & Track Speed, Sound & Vision, Woman’s Day and Woman’s Day Special Interest Publications. Their latest magazine is called SHOCK. In the widely distributed press release announcing its upcoming debut, Mike Hammer, editor-in-chief, coined it as “the Life Magazine for the new millennium.”

The people behind this magazine know well the draw of powerful images; they are banking on that power. Hammer has been quoted in numerous publications and websites saying:

“Shock elicits a strong emotional response from consumers when they see these photos and read the stories behind them. Shock is filling a void for today’s consumer whose visual appetite has grown but has not been effectively served by other media properties. Shock provides a dazzling visual feast with attitude.”

They are certainly filling voids with a lot of something, but there is little dazzling about how SHOCK used one of my most important photographs, without my knowledge or consent, as the centerpiece of the first course of that “visual feast with attitude.” The most prominent image on the cover is my photograph of Major Mark Bieger cradling a young Iraqi girl Farah, who was mortally wounded in an insurgent car bomb attack that brutally targeted a group of children who had run out to greet the soldiers on patrol. But smeared across the photograph was the sensational headline claiming: WAR IS STILL HELL! Jarring Proof that Iraq is the new Vietnam.

The actual article connected to the cover is nothing more than a re-issuing of photographs from both wars, paired in sets that are supposed to “prove” how alike these conflicts are, and using my work might insinuate that this is my opinion.

The circumstances captured in that image, including the key fact that I had taken the photograph, were easily ascertainable. In fact, I don’t know how any professional photo agency or magazine could reasonably claim to not know that it was my photograph, that it was taken immediately after an insurgent car bomber attacked the children, and that I had just emerged from a protracted dispute with the Army in order to protect the copyright. The reason I assert that the team behind SHOCK knew all this and still acted with clear intent is found on the inside cover of the issue.

There, along with the Table of Contents, is a photograph of me, holding a framed copy of the photograph in question. That photograph was taken to accompany an article by Mitch Stacey for the Associated Press. The caption reads:

Picture This: Amateur photographer Michael Yon captured history when he snagged our cover shot while reporting on the war for his blog. Could you be our next cover photographer? Send pics!

And with that caption, no wonder some readers were angry with me. SHOCK implies that I supplied the photo and that I am somehow affiliated with that magazine. But HFM clearly did know that I was the photographer. When confronted, they claimed to have gotten the photo “legally” from a photo agency, Polaris Images, but I have no relationship with Polaris Images and never authorized them to distribute my work.

When we confronted Polaris Images, they at first claimed they might have been given permission to sell the photograph by the wife of the soldier pictured in it. But the Major’s wife has a habit of saving emails that put an end to that nonsense. In the end, it doesn’t really matter outside of the courtroom who learned about it and when they were so enlightened, because once they did learn, the clock started ticking on their obligation to rectify the situation.

That’s why when I learned of this blatant infringement of my copyright on that photograph, I issued an immediate statement clarifying that I had not given anyone authorization for this use, and never would have allowed an image which I’ve called ‘sacred to me’ to be used in a flagrant attempt to profit from discrediting and demonizing American soldiers. What outraged me the most is how the timing of this launch coincided with the Memorial Day weekend, putting 300,000 copies of a slick attack on the very same soldiers Americans were honoring across the country. I am so disgusted with what they did with that image, which to me symbolizes the true nature of our military, that I demanded the publisher take it off the shelves. ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1643779/posts

This tribute is not from the MSM. This tribute is from the Internet; from our friends and allies in the United States.

God Bless America. ...

"O Canada, we stand on guard for thee," valor remembered, Juno Beach

On June 6, 1944, some 21,000 Canadian troops led by its 3rd Infantry Division stormed Juno Beach at Normandy, while American and British forces struck at other main target beachheads. This year, after a long fund-raising and marketing effort led by a Juno Beach veteran, Garth Webb, now 84, the Canadian prime minister unveiled and opened the Juno Beach Centre overlooking the beach-landing zone that so many gallant Canadian warriors assaulted 59 years ago. This is Canada’s first D-Day memorial. As Canada’s neighbor, ally, and friend, we Americans should pause to salute her courageous sons who, like ours, died for freedom. Our photo gallery here tries to do that.

June 8, 2003

Sometimes, we Americans give our Canadian neighbors short shrift. We shouldn’t. They have been terrific neighbors. It is with that in mind that we were attracted to an AP headline we spotted yesterday: “First Canadian D-Day Memorial Inaugurated.” The article was done by Kim Housego, and originated from a place called Courseulles-sur-Mer, France.

Ms. Housego began her article this way:

“Grayed with age but standing proud, nearly 700 Canadian veterans who fought their way ashore in the D-Day offensive to free France from the Nazis returned 59 years later Friday to open the first Normandy memorial to their sacrifice.”

As you might suspect, the description of Canadian veterans “standing proud” caused us to dig in deeper. We learned some things, one of which is they have every right to stand proud.
http://www.talkingproud.us/Military060803.html

Kids in schools often lean against their desks, cross their arms, put their hands in their pockets, and slouch when Canada's National Anthem begins.

I won't let them slouch through O Canada. I tell them that we are "standing on guard" for Canada, and that means standing straight and tall, with arms at our sides, being proud of our country. I don't expect that half of them know what the heck I'm talking about ('sad, isn't it?), but I raise the standard anyway. I figure that if this idea of national pride goes into their "computers" it will be stored somewhere and maybe someday, they'll understand what it's all about.

Every once in awhile, I'll remind them that a soldier died that week for their freedom. If they don't know what I'm talking about, that's OK. If they think I'm an old bag, that's OK. I figure they've got to start somewhere hearing someone talking about patriotism, pride, and courage.

Q .Whats the difference between a suicide bomber , and a Gitmo homebrew suicide.

A.Innoscent people do not get killed .

Q. What is the difference between a suicide bomber and a Gitmo home brew suicide.

A.Innoscent people don't get killed.