Another Rush Limbaugh paranoia moment

Gonz

Gonz

molṑn labé
Staff member
And you wonder why some think the media is liberal

News anchors glum amid Iraqi jubilation
By Jennifer Harper THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The press did not question the raising of the American flag over Iwo Jima back in 1945.
But only minutes after President Saddam Hussein's statue toppled before overjoyed Iraqis, NBC's Kelly O'Donnell asked Central Command spokesman U.S. Navy Capt. Frank Thorpe whether it was appropriate for Marine Cpl. Edward Chin to briefly cover the statue's face with a U.S. flag. The act implied the United States already had assumed control of the regime, Miss O'Donnell said.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Christiane Amanpour made a similar query a short time later.
"We are sensitive to the Iraq culture," Capt. Thorpe told the networks separately. "We are a liberating force, not an occupying force."
Octavia Nasr, CNN's analyst for Middle Eastern news media, called the flag moment "a mistake," and a "shock ... sending a message that the U.S. was there to invade." Shock changed to relief among Arab audiences, she said, once the American flag was replaced by an Iraqi flag.
In an interview later in the day, Cpl. Chin's sister Connie gave her own perspective.
"We got a call saying he was a real hero," she told CNN. "We're so proud of him."
Perspectives also differed yesterday. While Fox News described the Baghdad scene as "filled with hundreds of joyful people," ABC's Peter Jennings' characterized the throng as "a small crowd."
Collective media doubt even affected Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
"We shouldn't take away from the jubilation these people feel," he told reporters yesterday, noting the situation presented a historic opportunity for journalists to record the stories of newly liberated Iraqi eyewitnesses.
"Truth ultimately finds its way to people's ear and eyes," Mr. Rumsfeld said.
The Media Research Center made light of the skeptical press in an online poll yesterday, asking, "Which journalist do you think is the most glum" after Iraqi cheering started? The poll ranked ABC's Mr. Jennings first with 78 percent of the votes, followed by free-lancer Peter Arnett (17 percent) and CBS' Lara Logan (5 percent.)
The events benefited broadcasters in need of a new plot, however. ABC, NBC and CBS replaced regular programming yesterday with Iraq coverage at 8:45 a.m., ending almost six hours later. CNN is relocating 30 persons to Baghdad to begin reporting without the presence of Iraqi government 'minders.'
The liberation perhaps came just in time. A Pew Research Center poll released yesterday found 39 percent of the respondents said there was "too much coverage" of the war and were "hungry for other news."
Forty percent said they were tired of antiwar coverage, and 36 percent said "ex-military commentary" had received too much attention. Nearly a quarter felt the media were too critical" of the war, though eight in 10 said embedded reporters were "fair and objective."
That new genre of journalists received praise yesterday from Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who said past wars "could well have been much shorter if there had been journalists embedded with the armed forces."
Vice President Dick Cheney, meanwhile, told the American Society of Newspaper editors that press criticism of war plans had been off the mark, calling the chorus of second-guessers "retired military officers embedded in TV studios."
• Contact Jennifer Harper at [email protected] or 202/636-3085.
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I wonder why we aren't seeing any Brit flags being waved around as well? I mean... they are roughly 20% of the overall attack force and have been with us from day one. They've taken it on the chin a few times and are doing a bang up job. Its just that seeing only the Stars and Bars being waved about makes me feel like its a unilateral action with no regard for the 20+ nations that are backing us up in this endeavor. I'd just like to see a few US/UK flags being waved about in pair.

...unless the Brits just have a prohibition against such displays. So.... can any of our UK mambers enlighten me as to wether there is a an unspoken decorum restriction on the military units gloating and celebrating like footie fans?
 
Is that how you see my statement? Some kind of UN unity action? Fuck that.. and quite possibly a big fat bird in your face for trying to make it seem as if I had said as much. You should know better than to try and question my patriotism or my grasp of the fundamentals. The UN isn't there ... the US and the UK are ... thats why I only mentioned the two major players in the fight.
 
Geez unc, take a prozac or something. My comment was a sarcastic quip in response to the ridiculous crap some of the media is writing, as evidenced in the quote above. I'm sorry it came after your post. :retard4:
 
ok.. were cool..

Its just that its timing and context read in line right after my post made it seem like a rabbit punch at my expense.
 
I am curious about the Uk thing now that Unc mentioned it though. Do we just not see it cause we're in the US, or do you guys wave your flag as much as we do?
 
I do not know this as fact but it could be because we're watching American TV coverage & the fact that Basrah has been the focus of the UK's military & we're everywhere.
 
From my limited time in the UK, and from what I have picked up from UK members on this and other forums, the UK flag isn't thought of in quite the same was as the American flag. It's almost like it's "unpopular" in some weird way to display it. I think a lot of people from the UK aren't exactly fond of the background of the union jack flag, and would rather forget about that history or at least put it behind them and move on. In fact, I would venture a guess that the UK flag might be more popular in the US as a kind of hippie/retro/fad/austin powers kind of thing than it is in the UK for patriotic reasons.

I don't know if other countries are more like the US or the UK when it comes to their national flag. I spend several weeks in Europe, but that wasn't enough time to get a good feel for things like that. For all I know, the US could be the one odd-ball in displaying the flag for patriotic reasons. Others might think we're a bit loony. :)
 
Good point OLI. I've never been to England so I can't speak about them, but none of the European countries I've been to had any traditions like ours to hang flags and such. My wife thinks we are strange, and begged and pleaded that we not put up a flag when we decide to buy a house :rolleyes: I guess she didn't like my dad's or any of his neighbors flags or something. I never really noticed it, I mean that they are everywhere. I didn't really think of the absence of them in Europe until she mentioned it. We always had a flag pole in the yard, come to think of it! Stange, i didn't even realize that until now.
 
RD_151 said:
but none of the European countries I've been to had any traditions like ours to hang flags and such.
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Given the history of Europe, I'm sure they associate it with fascism.

I don't know about the British, though. If I were British, I would be proud of the British flag... Britain is the birthplace of individual rights, and has been the single country most responsible for spreading western civilization around the world. There's an associated strain of paternalism and (mild) bigotry that goes with their colonialist period, but I don't think that India would be the world's most populous democracy if it hadn't been for their long association with Britain; and there would be no US, Canada or Australia, if not for the British. That's a damn good legacy for such a small country.
 
I put Spain on an equal footing with Britain insofar as the culture spread goes. 2nd tier kudos to the Portuguese and Dutch.
 
unclehobart said:
I put Spain on an equal footing with Britain insofar as the culture spread goes.
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I was thinking more in terms of spreading freedom than language. The British are unsurpassed in that regard.
 
Funny... I thought the Brits spread a monarchy, step in step alongside the Spanish. The Parliamentary system was pretty much mere window dressing until after the colonial era.

I'm thinking in full terms of ecconomics, language, religion, and sociology.
 
i wrote a thing on why i think the union jack isn't all that popular here a while back, maybe i'll try searching for it some time [searching for 'ris' is kind of hard with the 3-letter search rule ;)]

but to put it briefly we're not big on it here, it's seen as overtly nationalistic and as frequently having powerful racist connertations. the english flag [st george cross] is even more associated with that. basically, for many people here the union jack is in part a reference to a britain that we don't identify with and that today the uk has become a very different place.

as to why you're not seeing much of us on the telly, part of it is the us media watching the us troops i guess and part of it is we've been holed up in the south since the conflict began and having a damn hard time cracking basra. its been defended in a way baghdad wasn't and it took until early this week for us to send columns into it successfully.
without being presumptuous i'd say that british troops are much less likely to be flying the union jack in iraq. if this is a liberating force and not a conquering one then the iraqi flag would be the one i suspect we use, although that has strong meaning to the iraqi people as it is in essence saddam's household flag or somehting similar.

as to the criticism of the use of stars and stripes it smacks of political correctness to me, rather unnecessary as well.
 
Thats true... I forget that the British and Iraqis have a certain hate/hate relationship that spans from like 1917-40s. Its display would be rather provocative.
 
The reason the US flag is being downplayed is because we don't want to upset our Islamic 'friends' over there. By flying the US flag, we become conquerors, and the Islamic world would be quite a bit upset about that. If the Iraqi's want to fly it, then they will put it up. We can't. :grumpy:
 
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