Brokaw Tells Letterman Iraqis Afraid to Say What They Think

Now he tells us. On Thursday's Late Show on CBS, NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw told David Letterman how people in Iraq “are afraid to say anything because the wrong thing gets them not only in trouble, but probably executed.” Brokaw related how when he was in Baghdad in December, a man approached him and in a loud voice praised Saddam Hussein and promised to fight American invaders, but in a quiet voice he expressed hope that the Americans would arrive before Christmas since “we'll be very happy to have them come here as quickly as possible.”

Brokaw was in Baghdad just before Christmas and so I may not have seen all of his stories, but I certainly do not recall in all that I saw him ever relating what he reported on Letterman's February 7 show.

In explaining on the Late Show what he learned in Baghdad, Brokaw recalled what a man told him and in relaying the guy's comments Brokaw spoke in a loud, gesticulating voice and then in a quiet voice to illustrate how the man spoke to him in a manner so that the Iraqi minder would hear some things and not others. I've conveyed this voice difference by putting Brokaw's loud voice mimicry in ALL CAPS.

Brokaw asserted: “There is also this kind of Manchurian Candidate quality about life there. People are afraid to say anything because the wrong thing gets them not only in trouble, but probably executed. The record is pretty complete on that. “I had a man come up to me in one of the crowded bazaars -- and you don't have this happen very often, he spoke very good English -- he said 'my name is Joe, can I help you with anything?' And I thought, I gotta find out what this guy thinks, so I had minder with me -- this is the guy that's assigned by the government to monitor everything that we're doing -- and I kind of had a little diversionary tactic for him go off with the camera crew, and I went over to this guy Joe and I said, 'Joe, what do you think?' And he said, 'Do you think that the Americans will get here before Christmas?' 'SADDAM HUSSEIN IS OUR LEADER AND OUR UNCLE AND WE WILL DIE FOR SADDAM HUSSEIN!' 'We'll be very happy to have them come here as quickly as possible.' 'WE WILL SHED THE BLOOD IN THE STREETS AGAINST THE AMERICANS AGAINST SADDAM HUSSEIN.' By then we drew a crowd and he couldn't, then he said, 'I have to talk to you later.' I said, 'I don't think we want to risk this.'”

Three months before Brokaw's Baghdad conversation, the NBC Nightly News treated as meaningful and accurate pro-Saddam Hussein and anti-U.S. comments from the Iraqi populace.

In a September 17 story, Ron Allen relayed from Baghdad: “Many Iraqis believe America's true motive is to remove Saddam Hussein from power, install a puppet government and seize Iraq's vast oil wealth. On the streets, many see Hussein's offer to allow the inspectors back as a wise, brave decision showing strength.” As a man on the street spoke, Allen translated his words: “'This will stop America's intent to hurt the Iraqi people and our country,’ he says.”

It seems Brokaw is a bit more discerning than Allen, or at least became so a few months later.

"Is the use of "good English" correct or not? It is grating on my nerves to hear media say this instead of "he spoke English fluently"."

The term "speaks good English" may not win any literary prizes for accuracy, but it DOES differentiate the speaker who has a fair mastery of conversational English from the truly fluent speaker. And it does so with little repugnancy toward correct grammar, so I tend to let it pass. There are far more egregious sins committed by the media every day.

NBC's Ron Allen - and indeed the other networks' on-the-ground parrots - are useful idiots for the networks AND Iraq, as they are their at the host country's pleasure. The network HAS to have someone in Baghdad, and Baghdad wants its propoganda put out. Both sides get what they want.

This entire Iraqi episode has played thru the media with very little sense of perspective. The media never says WHY the likes of France, Chermany, China are against an armed regime change. The media continues to act as though any use of force in Iraq without the UN will be "unilateral," although we already have a sizeable coalition. And the media continues to stare the public in the face and distort and fabricate what ever they want the news of the day to be.

Last night, for instance, NBC's John Siegenthaler said there was "growing opposition among US allies" to the war. Really? GROWING opposition among our allies? The story apparently justified its headline by lumping CHINA in with the naysayers, although China is hardly a US ally. Opposition among US allies was actually the SAME as previously reported. And no one snickered at all when Hans Bix suggested that a beefed-up inspection team could complete its work quickly, in "about a year's time." Ron Allen then added, "That may not be fast enough for the Bush Administration." No shirt, Sherlock.

But if Ron Allen had told viewers how laughably woeful Blix's statement was, Allen would be on the first flight back to New York. So he mouths platitudes and stays put.

It's all one monstrous charade. Everyone knows it. France knows it. Germany knows it. China knows it. Everyone right down to the last info babe in the media knows it.

But they won't say it - because of their obsession of having Bush fail. They, of course, don't REALIZE that they have this obsession, but they do.

Michael

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