The media should be ashamed of themselves, but you have to have a conscious for that...
In an interview with Laura Ingram Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was asked what he thought about the meida coverage of the Koran mishandling verse the coverage of our wounded soldiers recovering from injuries recieved in Iraq and Afghanistan. And how it affected the soldiers. His comments are very telling on how he and the soldiers feel about the coverage they get.
Here is the interview transcript:
Question(Laura Ingram): We've been playing for the last actually couple of segments on our show, Mr. Secretary, some interviews that CSPAN ran over Memorial Day Weekend of some of our soldiers who have been badly wounded. And these men and women, it brings tears to your eyes, because the commitment of these people, it's just staggering. It makes us all feel like we complain about things that are not important when these young men and women want to just get back to their units and get back to work in the military. Meanwhile we have the mainstream media constantly fluffing up these stories about Koran mishandling.
Are you frustrated by the media coverage? Or do you just brush it off at this point?
Rumsfeld: You can't, in my position you can't spend your days worrying about it. There's no question but that it's harmful to the country and it's harmful to the men and women in uniform and the job they're trying to do. They're doing noble work and they're doing a fabulous job at it and they're going to be successful.
I suppose there has never been a war that there haven't been critics and people who speculated that it either wasn't worth it or it would not be successful. There's no doubt in my mind but that what we're doing is important to the defense of our country and to the freedom of our people and to the security of our people.
After Memorial Day, after we left Arlington Cemetery my wife and I went out to Walter Reed and spent a few hours with the wounded out there, and you are absolutely right Laura. They are amazing people. They are so courageous and so proud of what they do, and their families are so supportive. The first thing out of their mouths is that they want to get back in with their troops and back to the fight and back to helping the Iraqi people and the Afghan people be free countries.
Now after readin ghis comments its easy to see that the media in general is very misleading in their reporting. The only things that make the news is when someone is killed or a bomb goes off. I did an informal study of my local paper (The Gainesville Sun) over a period of 3 weeks. The covered 38 stories about the events in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of those 38, 35 were about death of our soldiers or civilians, bombs or negative issues involving our troops. Thats 92% negative! I also tracked the stories being released by the Department of Defense, the Multi-National Task Force in Iraq and Task Force Bagdad, and several web sites that post news out of the warfront. Of those sites they posted 126 articles, of which 57 were neagtive (death of a soldier, death of civilians or bombs killing or injuring people.) Thats 45%. Now which is more balanced?
Many who read my blog send me e-mails (USArmyVet@cox.net) saying that they appreciate the good news as its hard to find, few and far in between reports in the mass media. If you think I see things only through rose colored glasses you are dead wrong. You want to be sobered by whats going on? Then read my e-mail daily. I get the press releases from the DOD every time a soldier dies in Iraq or Afghanistan. I get e-mails from troops who report that thier best bud was wonded and lost a limb or other serious wound. I also get the good stuff that really tells a lot about whats going on.
Thats why I write mostley about the good things that are happening, because you already know about the negative stuff. Its all over the television, magazines and newspapers. I sift through hundreds of press releases, news and posting from troops to pick those things that I have not heard somewhere else and post them here. If you want the negative stuff, just turn on the idiot box and watch NBC, CBS, ABC or CNN or any of the other networks. Read Newsweek (LOL) or the newspapers. You want something to brighten your day? Then come here and I will try to let you know whats really going on in the war on terror in the middle east and eleswhere when needed.
If you have a specific request for information, a subject you would like to see covered or a question about whats going on e-mail me at USArmyVet@cox.net .