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"...analyst Eric Burns mildly chastised Fox's Shepherd Smith for his and other reporters' routine reference to American soldiers as "our troops." Burns said it would be better if reporters didn't taint their objectivity by identifying with America's troops."

Ok I'm gonna step up on my soapbox here for a minute. What the HELL is wrong with referring to U.S. soldiers as "our troops"? Are they not Americans like the reporters covering them? Since when did it become so wrong to cover our troops (oops...there's that nasty "our" word again)in a positive light? If you can gain access to them, go back and listen to the audio reports from the front lines of WW II and Korea. Go back and read the articles filed by Ernie Pyle. Pyle and the other journalists of his era would be absolutely excoriated by today's "experts". They wrote stories in such a way that you felt you were the person or people Pyle was covering. And there was nary a shred of neutrality that the pious media try to maintain today. I say "kudos' to Shep Smith. He's got the stones to not tuck his pro-American feelings in his pocket in the name of "professionalism". when the red light goes on. IMHO, if you wanna see the absolute shining example of restraint on air when it comes to letting his feeling show, I nominate David Asman. His adopted son is a Marine over there in the dirt as we speak. Yet from what I've seen, he's been a pro on the air the entire time. Knowing you've got to report on the deaths, the fighting and the bad as well as the good in this war to MILLIONS of viewers every day while a loved one is over there in harms way and could possible be one of the next casulties you have to announce is the PERFECT example of professionalism in journalism these days. Not arguing over the use of the word "our". Ok sopabox is now back in storage.

I was watching FOX News tonight and one of the FOX regulars came on.

He said, and this is almost an exact quote: "...We're going to surround Baghdad and choke them off, or we're going to go in after the Fedayeen and kill them like the dogs that they are."

Made my day. :-)