Media Bias Killing Our Troops

Accuracy In Media ^ | September 29, 2003 | Cliff Kincaid

[walford]

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Media Bias Killing Our Troops

By Cliff Kincaid

September 29, 2003

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While the Democratic presidential candidates bash the President’s Iraq policy, Democratic Congressman Jim Marshall of Georgia, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, says "we have a problem with overly pessimistic media coverage that emboldens our enemies, discourages our potential allies and lessens our resolve." He says media bias "is killing our troops."

Back from a trip to Iraq, Marshall, a Vietnam combat veteran, says, "There is good news to balance the bad. American soldiers with their typical ‘can do’ attitude and ingenuity are engaging in literally thousands upon thousands of small reconstruction projects working with Iraqi contractors and citizens… For example, hundreds upon hundreds of schools are being renovated, repainted, re-plumbed, and re-roofed…"

The Hill newspaper reported that Marshall "explained that the longer he was in Iraq, the more skeptical he became of his previous assumptions." The coverage had led him to believe that "it was Vietnam revisited," he said. But he found "a disconnect between the reporting and the reality."

The Hill reported, "Marshall also claimed that there now are only 27 reporters in Iraq, down from 779 at the height of the war. "The reporters that are there are all huddled in a hotel. They are not getting out and reporting," he told the paper. "The good news is not being reported in the conventional press."

Another Democrat, Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, was also on the trip. According to The Hill, he said the media stress the injuries and the deaths but that the good news about progress "isn’t being reported." The Hill said that Skelton and other Democrats on the trip said they plan to reach out to members of their caucus and explain what they observed.

The Hill reported that Rep. Joe Wilson, a Republican from South Carolina, said: "We were all like-minded in our conversations, not robotic at all, but we saw the real progress that is being made, that we are not at all mired." Wilson, a former reporter, criticized the lack of balance in the coverage, saying, "Sure, show the bloody side, but get away from this police-blotter mindset. There’s much more going on." In a speech on the House floor, Wilson said U.S. forces "won the war and are now winning the peace in the War on Terror."

Brit Hume of Fox News interviewed Rep. Marshall on his show, Special Report. Hume began by reading part of an e-mail Fox had received from one of its Washington correspondents, Molly Henneberg, who was in Iraq before and had just gone back. She wrote, "What a difference three months makes. Yes, there is still violence here, but oh, my goodness, this place feels like a city again. The city looks, seems so much more alive. More traffic, more stores open, more people coming and going. More parties. Don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of problems here, but the infrastructure, this country appears to be getting its act together."

Marshall said things were going "a good bit better than…the overall American seems to think. And the important thing is for Americans to understand that the news media tends to dwell on the negative. It happens in your own hometown, the typical TV show, the typical newspaper article focuses on murders and rapes. And that's what you're seeing right now. What you don’t see is the progress."

Marshall said the U.S will continue to make progress "as long as the Iraqis step forward" and work with the us. He warned, "They’re less likely to step forward if we’re pessimistic. We’re more likely to be pessimistic if we’re getting a lot of negative news coverage. And that’s the connection."

In a major breakthrough, a story in USA Today by Peter Johnson quoted reporters themselves as saying that the coverage has been too negative and pessimistic. "'It’s the nature of the business," Time’s Brian Bennett was quoted as saying. "What gets in the headlines is the American soldier getting shot, not the American soldiers rebuilding a school or digging a well."

Johnson reported that when Bennett visited the U.S. a few weeks ago, "he realized that, five months after the U.S. invasion, the Iraq he lives in doesn’t mesh with the bleak picture that friends here are getting from the media." Bennett said, "I’m not saying all is hunky-dory. But in the States, people have a misperception of what’s going on."

This is why, Johnson said, Bennett plans to pitch a story about the improving scene in Iraq. But will it be published?

Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of the AIM Report and can be reached at aimeditor@yahoo.com.

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[walford]

The press doesn't have to be a cheerleader for the Bush administration or even the U.S. forces stationed abroad. The press does have a responsibility to provide an accurate picture of what's going on in the world.

The distorted presentation that is being given is encouraging our enemies to think that if they make us bleed enough, we will precipitously withdraw before the job is done.

[Blzbba]

It's landmines, booby-traps, bombs, and bullets that are killing our troops, not the media.

Do you think those stupid towelheads give a damn about what the US Media is saying? I don't think they can even read in whatever-the-hell language they speak, much less read English.

This RAT Rep. needs to stop playing the blame game with the media. Hell, if it IS true (which it's not), then this RAT Marshall is just as guilty for telling the terrorists that their tactics are working.

But no newspaper or liberal TV show has killed a single troop. This is a strawman.

[caisson71]

You need to read the comments of NVA General Giap about the liberal press, anti-war groups, TET, American public opinion and the 20,000+ Americans needlessly killed in Nam.

[Blzbba]

Those poor Americans died because they were in Nam, not due to bad press. Besides, in the case of 'Nam, the press was right - it was an unwinnable quagmire of death. Iraq is different (IMO) for reasons too numerous to be listed here....but I still don't buy that 'bad press' is killing the troops, esp. given the fact that most of the killers can't read and aren't going home and watching CNN.

I feel bad for those 20,000 Americans who died, but I think all Nam deaths were needless. What a waste of life that hell was. I also think the treatment of Nam vets was deplorable, but that's another thread.

[Eala]

"The good news is not being reported in the conventional press."

Which is why, after discussion with several FReepers, I posted the following thread: (Proposal) Spreading the truth about Iraq. People have posted some good ideas there to counter the press.

[Bosco]

Did you read the story? Did you read the quote from Marshall? He was over there, he saw it and his position on the Armed Services Committee carries weight, yours doesn't.

Do you think al-Qaeda reads news US news reports? You bet they do. When the media presents an inaccurate picture of what is going on in Iraq it DOES energize them in their quest to kill as many of us as possible.

Your comments fall under the energizing the enemy category, because they sure don't agree with what the Congressmen had to say in the news story.

Loose lips sink ships.

[walford]

Marshall wasn't the only congressman there. He was part of a House Armed Services Committee delegation. Republicans and Democrats agreed that their media-fed perspectives changed once they were actually there.

http://www.hillnews.com/news/092303/press.aspx

RE: Viet Nam.
If the words of the NVA general citing the media coverage and the anti-war protests are not enough for you... And you're one of those 'quagmire' 'we-couldn't-win-the-VietNam-war' types?

What is your point? Media coverage has no effect on the outcome of a war? The Viet Nam war was eminently winnable. If we could defeat the Imperial Japanese military [that had an Army Navy and Air Force] in the jungle [where our troops and commanders had no prior combat experience], we could defeat the freakin' NVA and VC. I lived in Panama during the VietNam war, I saw the Special Forces training facilities there. The military had what it took to win the war. It was lost at home, because attacking the enemy wherever he was [i.e. victory] was taken off the table. Here is my analysis on the unworkable doctine of limited war and 'containment.'

http://mason.gmu.edu/~walford/IraqNKorea.htm

Let's review your positions:

1. quagmire
2. media coverage has no effect on morale civilian or military
3. the "press was right"

Is the press right now as far as you're concerned? It's just fine with you that they only print the bad things that happen over there and ignore the wells we're drilling, the people who are voting for the first time in their lives, the schools they're building?

there might be a place that you may find more hospitable:

h**p://www.*emocraticunderground.com/discuss/

[TheGunny]

Let me be the first to say that your opinion here is assed up! Before you say such stupid things, check the Al Jazersize web sites or the al-Qaeda site. They use this slanted coverage and irresponsible quotes from our elected officials,(and not just those in washington....even on the local level they are watching very closely) to ralley thier forces and to recuit,as well as to demoralize our troops and the folks they are trying to help. Does it matter, yeah it matters, just as much as the bombs and bullets.

[caisson71]

You obviously did not do what I suggested and are trusting your opinions on uninformed gut reactions. In addition, mimicing the liberal press pontifications about an "unwinable quagmire" - which, by the way, was never the kind of words used during the VietNam era - is really uninformed. VietNam was winnable, and I dare say if George Bush was President at the time, VietNam would probably be another South Korea today. We left VietNam becuse we QUIT in VietNam. The American people and the liberal press betrayed the military and left them out to dry. Nobody will rewrite this history for me. I was there, saw it, felt it, and was it.

[optimistically_conservative]

Not a single printed word killed one of our soldiers.

Now, explain to me if you think the attacks on our soldiers are an effort to win a war of attrition?

What were the strategic goals of attacking the mosque in Najaf, the NBC bureau and UN headquarters in Baghdad, and remotely harrassing our troops?

Why give interviews to Western print and television journalists in Iraq?

Take the media out of the equation and ask yourself if the tactics would stay the same.

[pfflier]

While the Democratic presidential candidates bash the President’s Iraq policy, Democratic Congressman Jim Marshall of Georgia, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, says "we have a problem with overly pessimistic media coverage that emboldens our enemies, discourages our potential allies and lessens our resolve." He says media bias "is killing our troops."

Two Democrats, Ike Skelton and Jim Marshall have said the same thing, the media is lying about Iraq.

Other revelations such as the NYT fraud reporter, the LA Times "closet" war correspondent and CNN wining and dining Iraqis that killed their own civilians, just so they could get a "scoop" indicate a problem way more serious.

It is axiomatic that if the media lied in these cases, then every media story could be suspect. It can also be a presumption that this lying is intentional in an attempt to engineer public opinion and specifically to oust a president and party.

I do not fear that some can see through the bias, I fear those that blindly accept it because it is "All the news thats fit to print".

[Blzbba]

"It's just fine with you that they only print the bad things that happen over there and ignore the wells we're drilling, the people who are voting for the first time in their lives, the schools they're building"


Well, this is what America was promised - success - so, while it'd be nice to read more positive stories re:Iraq, anything positive is expected, as it's what was supposed to happen all along. I don't ignore the newly drilled wells or new schools...I EXPECT these things to occur! It's why we're over there in the first place!

[Blzbba]

"Let me be the first to say that your opinion here is assed up! "


How intelligent. Hey - don't hate me. Rest assured that I am no part of the liberal media. I wish (as I'm sure you do too) that the media would either print nothing, or print only positive info re:Iraq. Then we could test this idea that the media are killing our troops. Because I think that the guerilla tactics and attacks on our troops would continue regardless.

Unfortunately, we won't be able to test this idea, as we both know that the media (liberal or conservative) has an agenda. I hope our boys continue to wear their body armor everywhere - they're gonna need to for a long time.

[Blzbba]

"What were the strategic goals of attacking the mosque in Najaf, the NBC bureau and UN headquarters in Baghdad, and remotely harrassing our troops? "


I dunno (I'm not a raghead terrorist, sorry!). Perhaps the attacks were meant to rally the Iraqi populace against the Americans? I mean, you don't need the American media to broadcast news of an attack on a mosque - I'm sure word spread pretty quickly amongst the locals without aid of any media.

I just hope our troops continue wearing Kevlar all over. They're gonna need it for a long time, unfortunately.

[M1Tanker]

Ok, some background. I will have 10 years in the US Army this next month. I started enlisted and went to ROTC, earned my commission and am now a captain. I have been to Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, all over the USA and spent Iraqi Freedom in Korea re-enforcing troops there in case the North wanted to test out two war stragegy.

1st off, the terrorists DO read and can write. Many top terror leaders are highy educated at Oxford, Yale, Harvard, etc. Most "domestic terrorists" like ELF, ALF, and PEDA are from upper-middle to upper class families and went to the "Best" schools.

Terrorists and the National Socialist Ba-athist party members still trying to oppress the people of Iraq are well versed in media manipulation. They were banking on another Mogadishu where the US fled after an ambush. They are banking on "allied" interests in the USA and Europe (ANSWER, World Workers Party, ELF/ALF, PETA, American achedemia, Red Army Faction, European socialists, and France) to exert pressure on the US, UK, and AUS gov'ts to withdrawl from Iraq. They want the UN to take over Iraq knowing full well it is a socialist organization and will give control of Iraq BACK to the Ba-athist NAZIs.

2nd. Though willing accomplices in the media, they supress "good news" and positive progress and instead focus on bringing death of US soldiers into American and European living rooms every night. Ironic isn't it? The media and the Left could care less how soldiers live (run-down barracks, a Hillary-care HMO forced on them, etc) but they sure do care that these same soldiers, who predominatly vote conservative, die.

By wearing down the resolve on the "home front", these terrorists and their allies hope to force the US out of the Middle East and strip it of its superpower status. They want a socialist UN in charge and absolutly DO NOT WANT a Constitutional Republic anywhere close to the Middle East.

[bray]

Not only did us liberals hang you out to dry in Viet Nam we opened the killing fields to the Communists to butcher over 20 million innocents. We thought Communism was a superior form of Govt and then realized it was tyrany. Yeah, we liberals really won the war in Viet Nam. I am truly sorry.

Pray for GW and Our Troops

[TheGunny]

Ok, let me start over. Speaking as someone who has been there (forward deployed for OIF), and speeking as someone who know a little about the impact of incorrect (us proaganda) or biased news coverage on the deployed serviceman. I can tell you that the over hyping of the negative and under reporting of the gains made is flat out demoralizing to us and gives resolve to the bad guys! To add insult to the fallen, Idiots like Fat Teddy and the like are giving the enemy ammo for their propaganda machine that is in fact contributing to our battlefield casualties. I dont hate, but whether you care ot admit it or not, these things are happening.

[Blzbba]

"I dont hate, but whether you care ot admit it or not, these things are happening"


Well, a coupla things:

A. Thank you for your service to this country!

B. I totally agree with your line of thinking - Regardless of one's opinions, that doesn't change the fact of the situation.

C. Given your personal insight, I will think of this situation differently, as I admittedly have never seen combat.


I do wish the press would either report nothing (impossible, given the amount of money being spent - people want accountability), or report the positives along with the negatives. But even if they did, the liberals would remark that the various successes are expected and should be the norm. If only positive information was being reported, do you think these Iraqi guerillas would cease their attacks?

PLEASE note that I'm not some liberal loser who is anti-American-Troops. Au Contraire (God, I hate the French too -sorry!). I just don't allow myself to get carried away with the ultra-conservative side of this equation that says that Americans can do no wrong anywhere and that anything negative that happens is the fault of the liberals. That type of opinion is as harmful as pacifism/appeasement opinions of the Utopian liberal fools.

Thanks for your response!

[TheGunny]

You and I are very much seeing eye to eye on these things (thanks for clearing things up). I dont think that only "positive" reporting is a good thing, because that is propaganda as well. Im saying that a great deal of what is carelessly thrown into the airwaves does fuel the fire of those who want to kill us. Ya see, they are a force as we are, and there are certain items that inspire us and motivate us to keep up the fight...a comanders motivational speech, good news from the front ect. Thier forces are fed and inspired the same way. The Aljazersize network spews lies and does all it can to infuse the jihad with energy and momentum. I can tell you with all honesty, that as I sit here eating my can of Tuna, waiting for our next deployment order to come down, that the dum@sh!t flowing from the left side of the Isle is demoralizing/harmful to the American service man and to his cuse.

[Blzbba]

Thanks again for your reply and service.

Our posts yesterday got me to thinking about something you touched on below: What exactly IS the role of the media in a situation such as Iraq?

Because I feel (you can enlighten me if I'm offbase here!) that it's disrespectful to the soldiers and their families to NOT report the tragic losses that inevitably will occur to them. I also feel it's disrespectful to fail to even mention the success stories. So, doesn't the press have to report (not by law, but by ideology) both sides? If they do report on the losses and tragedies, doesn't that still give the enemy inspiration and motivation?

It's obvious which 'side' the American media has chosen to focus on - zero arugment there.

Of course, "media" like Al-Jasuckera does no good for anyone, as they are 100% propaganda-based.