JOURNALIST WHO FILMED BURNING TALIBAN BODIES SAYS MEDIA GOT IT WRONG

Newsbusters ^ | 10-22-05 | Noel Sheppard

[freedom4me]

There has been a lot of outrage in the media concerning the burning of a couple of dead, Taliban fighters in Afghanistan in early October.

Yet, the Australian journalist who videotaped the proceedings, Stephen Dupont, stated in an interview on National Public Radio yesterday that he believed the bodies were burned purely for reasons of hygiene when the local villagers refused to retrieve them, and that the American soldiers didn't do anything wrong.

Go to bareknucklepolitics.com and follow the link to the NPR interview.

[Born in a Rage]

One talking head made a great point...he said that if we say it's okay to burn the bodies, then the next thing will be chopping up body parts and etc. Even though the soldiers may have had their reasons for burning the bodies, we don't want to condone it and say it's okay and soldiers can burn as many bodies as they want to - when they want to.

Another talking head I heard mentioned how Americans felt when our soldiers bodies were burned in Somalia. He made a good point with his comparison. Also, dead bodies themselves don't spread disease unless they died from some sort of plauge...

[Texas Songwriter]

If they did not investigate it and were not squeaky clean, the MSM would crucify Rumsfield, Bush, Cheney, DoD. All the while they are having to deal with the dems, the MSM, and half of the base on Meirs. They have to keep a lot of balls in the air to do it right. I suspect if the truth were known, at the end of his tenure, Bush would like to smile into the cameras and give the MSM the middle finger and a vertical smile after he dropped his drawers.

[RobbyS]

Just supporting the troops, as usual.

[WildTurkey]

How do you fight a war these days with the kind of shit the President and DOD has to put up with?

First, you have to keep the mutineers in line.

[freedom4me]

Agreed. Fighting a war in this PC age is incredibly difficult.

Can you imagine FDR giving an order to Amerian soldiers in the Pacific to be sensitive to Japanese customs?!!

Can you image if FDR had to deal with the 24 hour news cycle?

More than 1,000 guys were killed in a training exercise before D-Day. Can you imagine what today's media would do with a story like that?

In the midst of the bad news, I was encouraged today when I read that the morale amongst the soldiers is high. God bless them and their familes.

I know that the internet makes a difference.

[LibLieSlayer]

It was newsweak. The only reason that I remembered this, was that it came up on Brit's AllStar segment.

LLS

[Cvengr]

Run a Google on cholora.

Problems such as these didn't happen when we used napalm.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Are you telling me that the Liberal MSM LIED to me AGAIN!?!?

[Kaslin]

Bump

[Peace will be here soon]

"On Special Report W/ Brit Hume they showed this guy saying on a BBC interview he thought this was done to "antagonize" and "smoke out" members of the Taliban."

The burning of the bodies was done for hygienic reasons. But a psychological team did use this to antagonize the Taliban. ( I have no issues with that ).

Two different incidences that were melted together by the media to give a false , misleading story.

[Dustbunny]

MSM attempting to make our Military look bad once again. What is their problem?

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

This is no different from the Koran toilet-flush story, in which Newsweek was held "accontable" by having to retract the story, say sorry, and have it all forgotten 5 minutes later. This will turn out the same way.

[Rembrandt]

"Also, dead bodies themselves don't spread disease unless they died from some sort of plauge..."

Dead bodies are easy breeding grounds for diseases carried by rats and other vermin. They DO spread diseases. Read about the Black plague and other disease based disasters.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Yep. All they'll report about the military is that they're poorly trained, unprofessional, and sadistic. But I'm violating a golden rule of the land if I call them on their lack of patriotism and dislike of the guys on the ground over there.

[tertiary01]

Also, dead bodies themselves don't spread disease unless they died from some sort of plauge...

Who are you kidding?

[Burr5]

Much ado about nothing? Well, yeah, if you understand that most of the things warped and anachronistic religions like Islam believe are "nothing". To civilized people this IS nothing. But it has caused another huge P.R. problem for the U.S. at a time we surely don't need one. With our allies in Pakistan and Afghanistan in particular.

Could they not have buried the bodies? No shovels? Could they not have picked them up and carried them a hundred yards or so away? This was a very stupid thing to do in terms of public relations. On the other hand, it would be nice if the Pentagon would stop acting like it really gives a s#@t about the corpse disposal expectations of a couple of Taliban barbarians.

I suggest we tell the world these un-p.c. personell have been re-deployed so they can cause no more offense. Say Pearl Harbor or San Diego.

[RatRipper]

Ain't that the friggin truth!

[BIGLOOK]

War stories.
Who vetted this embed in the first place?


I see you've time in war zones. In VN, there were rules for reporters. While there, reporters were under jurisdiction of MACV. Helped little then too.

[noblejones]

>>
As usual, a quiet correction of a huge MSM piece of disinformation will not even be read or heard by the vast majority of people around the world who now only know the false story.
<<

I just saw an advert on TV for a drug called Enbrel. The ad was clearly a response to a legal challenge of the content of an earlier ad that apparently contained mild exaggerations about the product -- you, know -- like all advertising. Can you imagine if the ACLU focused its energy on policing accuracy in the MSM, instead of hassling companies who actually make products people want and need?