Roggio: Canadian Media On “Death Watch”

63 Replies to “Roggio: Canadian Media On “Death Watch””

1. 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?

2. 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

3. “Marine’s wife paints portrait of US troops out of control in Haditha”
   Exactly what does this have to do with the Canadian Media?

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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?

9. 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?

10. “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.

11. 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…

12. 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?!

13. 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.)

14. 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.

15. 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?

16. 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

17. 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.

18. John Moore’s “agents of the people” continue in their scumbag ways.

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. 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?

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. “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!

27. 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.

28. 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.

29. “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

30. 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.

31. 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.

32. 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.

33. 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.

34. 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.

35. 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.

36. 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.

37. 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.

38. 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.

39. 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.

40. 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

41. 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.

42. 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

43. 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.

44. 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.

45. 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?

46. 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.

47. 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.

48. 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.

49. “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.

50. 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.