I rarely read much in the MSM any more. The unacknowledged distortions, omissions, and outright bias are potentially infuriating, and serve to make it more difficult to discern what is actually happening in the world as opposed to what the MSM would like to be happening in the world. As it happens, I receive free copies of several news magazines, which are sent to me to leave in my waiting room for my patients to read. I do not bother putting most of then out but have been in the habit of placing Time magazine on my magazine stand. With some free time today, and unable to get on line for a time, I picked up the August 29th issue and scanned it. Joe Klein has a column in this issue that is at times annoying, puzzling, and infuriating; he offers a new meaning to Chutzpah.
In his article, The Danger of Yellow Ribbon Patriotism, sub-titled, "Why Cindy Sheehan's Crawford war vigil spurred a long-awaited dialogue on Iraq", Klein makes so many errors and misstatements that it is mind boggling. [I hesitate to refer to his comments as lies since I will offer him the benefit of the doubt; maybe he doesn't know what he is talking about, rather than that he is making things up to fit his agenda.]
Here is Klein's thesis:
The military is frustrated by both the mission and the sense that the war isn't front and center for the rest of the country. There is a fair amount of anger among the returning troops, especially the noncareer soldiers, the National Guard and reservists whose tours were extended and then extended again....
....More than a few officers told me they were concerned by what was happening back home.
They sensed that public support for the war was waning and feared that once again they had been sent into a difficult situation with less than a total commitment from the country's political leaders, including the Commander in Chief.
Klein quotes a "number" of officers, anonymously, and mentions a book by a Florida National Guardsman who is angry at the country for not keeping the war "front and center". Apparently, most of the fault for this resides with the Commander in Chief, who has done nothing to mobilize the home front and hasn't even had the decency to attend any funerals for fallen soldiers.
Now, keeping in mind that Klein is an important contributor to one of the pillars of the MSM, do you detect anything missing from this discussion. I checked the article carefully and could find no mention of the contribution the MSM itself has had to the "waning public support for the war". It is hard to imagine a discussion about the erosion of support for the war in Iraq without talking about the (mis)reporting of the MSM, but Klein manages the feat. His final paragraph gives away the game, however.
He ends with this punch line:
And that is why the awkward anguish of Cindy Sheehan has struck a chord, despite her naive politics and the ideology of some of her supporters. She represents all the tears not shed when the coffins came home without public notice. She is pain made manifest. It is only with a public acknowledgment of the unutterable agony this war has caused that we can begin a serious and long overdue conversation about Iraq, about why this war—which, unlike Vietnam, cannot be abandoned without serious consequences—is still worth fighting and why we should recommit the entire nation to the struggle. This is a failure of leadership, perhaps the signal failure of the Bush presidency.
Cindy Sheehan is a marginal character inhabiting the far left precincts of our political culture who has made hateful anti-American and anti-Semitic comments, which somehow have not found their way into the MSM. She has attracted a crowd of a few hundred die hard leftists, directed by an accomplished veteran of "direct action" protests for many years, who the MSM has also never heard of. Maybe Joe Klein should read this report from Curt Loftis, posted by Citizen Smash at The Indepundit, who reports about Camp Casey from a first hand look in Infiltrating Camp Casey:
Cindy Sheehan spent most of her time huddled with VIPS in and air-conditioned trailer. When she ventured out it was for a scripted and often televised moment. She was always trailed by her media people, and they were quick to keep her on point. During one conversation I had with her I tried to ask her a pointed question about how much time she would actually be on the bus tour to Washington (I had discovered she would only be on the tour for two days, and would be away giving speeches during the rest of the trip…and I wondered if she were being paid for these speeches) Her media person grabbed her arm and led her back to the trailer, and away from me. The message was protected. I was left standing there…alone, and feeling a little less secure about my status at Camp Casey.
But just a few minutes later, she emerged from the trailer, smiling, and performing for the cameras. Like the chicken at the local carnival that plays tic tac toe, she eagerly performs for any microphone. She is relentless, and professional, well financed and on message.
And the message is “All things bad are America’s fault”.
As for Cindy Sheehan's "naive politics and the ideology of some of her supporters", this is either reporting of the worst quality, overt slanting, or criminal mischaracterization. Klein has to know that Sheehan is working with some of our most accomplished, professional left wing agitators and protest groups. Take a look at this report Freeper Investigation: The Truth behind Cindy Sheehan and theLeft-Wing Propaganda machine:
I have been reading the stories on Cindy Sheehan and her "Valiant Vigil" at "Camp Casey" as the "Peace Mom" on AP, CBS, AFP, Reuters, etc... and now the "I Shall Return" announcements and speeches being reported about in the wires. I noticed a similarity in each and every story I read. Each referenced one or another "Spokesperson" named Michelle Mulkey, Mike Smith, Steve Smith, Ryan Fletcher. Well, I did a quick investigation and I found that with the exception of Ryan Fletcher, each of these persons are "Account Executives for "Fenton Communications".
What is Fenton Communications you ask?
Freepers answers the question by going to the Fenton web site:
Fenton Communications is the largest public interest communications firm in the country. Since 1982, Fenton has contributed to some of the most defining social change movements of the past quarter century, from the fall of apartheid to the rise of MoveOn.org as a grassroots political force.
Or, if you don't like Freepers answer, take a look at this Frontpage article, Exploiting the Dead, by Ben Johnson:
One such radical leftist is Medea Benjamin, the founder of Code Pink, Global Exchange, and the mastermind behind the violent anti-World Trade Center riots in Seattle. Benjamin enjoys a close working relationship with Cindy Sheehan as part of the professional antiwar fringe. Medea, a longtime admirer of Fidel Castro, with the help of fellow Castroite Leslie Cagan, founded the International Occupation Watch. Established in the city of Baghdad during the height of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Benjamin said its stated goal was to get as many U.S. troops as possible to declare themselves conscientious objectors and be sent home. Through Code Pink, she even managed to take $600,000 of cash, medicine, and supplies to “the other side” in the Iraqi terrorist capital of Fallujah (possibly the whereabouts of Casey Sheehan's murderers). In an essay in Nation magazine, Benjamin spelled out a long-term strategy to deflate the U.S. military presence in Iraq and around the world.
Even if Klein agrees with their politics, which is his right, he is misstating the truth when he reports Cindy Sheehan is just a poor, naive, grieving mother. If I did my job as poorly as Klein does his, I would have no patients to see after a while.
The prime example of Chutzpah has always been the person who murders his parents and then pleads for the mercy of the Court because he is now an orphan.
A more modern definition of Chutzpah could be the MSM "journalist" who savages the Military, the Bush administration, and the war effort at every turn and then professes to be deeply distressed that the Bush administration's "failure of leadership, perhaps the(ir) signal failure" to be more supportive of the military.
Have they no shame?
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Dinocrat has some additional information about Fenton Communications. They apparently were involved in the Alar hoax/scare many years ago which decimated a lot of American Apple growers but raised lots of money for Fenton Communications. The Alar scare was a scam and the Cindy Sheehan saga appears to be an artificial construct as well. Take a look at Dinocrat for more.
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