TV news often hides, distorts the real story

If anyone needs proof that our mainstream media is focused on unimportant but titillating stories, witness the stampede to cover ad-nauseam the death of Anna Nicole Smith. But even worse, in my opinion, is how the media twists real news. Here are a couple of examples, one recent, one from long ago.

A recent news report about a car bomb in Afghanistan had the usual undertone of criticism of the imperfect control of such violence by U.S. military forces. But you might have a different view of the story if the TV media had covered it the way real reporters do, probing below the surface layers of appearances and stereotypes.

Captain John Hunt of the U.S. Army sent a message from Afghanistan to his friends at home by e-mail. Here’s the real story in his words, errors and all:

“Hi, everyone.

“I’m still alive but freezing my tail off. We got 8 inches of snow last week and it reached 5 degrees below zero that night. That’s not why I’m e-mailing though.

“You may have heard about a suicide car bomb attack in Kabul last Thursday. It was at one of our FOBs (Forward Observation Bases) about 27 miles from here.

“But the real story is why no one was killed.

“We employ several thousand Afghans on our various bases. Not to mention the economy that is fed by the money these locals are making.

“Some are laborers and builders, but some are skilled workers. We even have one Afghan that just became OSHA qualified, the first ever. Some are skilled HVAC workers.

“Anyway, there is this one Afghan that we call Rambo.

“We have actually given him a couple of sets of the new ACU uniforms (the new Army digital camouflage) with the name tag RAMBO on it.

“His entire family was killed by the Taliban and his home was where our base currently resides. So this guy really had nowhere else to go.

“He has reached such a level of trust with U.S. Forces that his job is to stand at the front gate and basically be the first security screening.

“Since he can’t have a weapon, he found a big red pipe. So he stands there at the front gate in his U.S. Army ACU uniform with his red pipe.

“If a vehicle approaches the gate too fast or fails to stop, he slams his pipe down on their hood.

“Then once the gate is lifted the vehicle moves on to the second gate where the U.S. Army MPs are. So he’s like the first line of defense.

“Last Thursday at 0930 hours a Toyota Corolla packed with explosives and some jackass that thinks he has 72 virgins waiting for him approached the gate.

“When he saw Rambo he must have recognized him and known the gig was up.

“But he needed to get to that second gate to detonate and take American lives. So he slams his foot on the gas which almost causes the metal gate to go up but mostly catches on the now broken windshield.

“Rambo fearlessly ran to the vehicle, reached through the window and jerked the suicide bomber out of the vehicle before he could detonate and commenced to putting some red pipe to his heathen [rear].

“He detained the guy until the MP got there.

“The vehicle only exploded when they tried to push it off base with a robot but no one was hurt.

“I’m still waiting for someone to give this guy a medal or something, nothing less than instant U.S. citizenship or something.

“A hat was passed around and a lot of money was given to him in thanks by both soldiers and civilians that are working over here.

“I guess I just wanted to share this because I want people to know that it’s working over here. They have tasted freedom. This makes it worth it to me.”

John W. Hunt, Captain, U.S. Army
Operations Officer
Bagram, Afghanistan

I’ll share another example to show how long twisted reporting has been going on in war zones to further the agenda which the media has always denied.

Captain Sig Bloom, who now lives in Jonesboro, was a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War. Here is his most memorable encounter with reporters in Vietnam, in his own words.

“Just after we went into Cambodia in May of 1970, we drew a log mission one day in the first or second week there. A company of the 8th Cavalry had moved into a small village and about noon, we loaded the Huey up with hots to take to them and landed just outside the village and shut down to eat lunch with the guys. We took a bunch of mermite cans off so the guys could set up a chow line.

“I saw one of the lieutenants I knew and went over to talk to him. He told us we had wasted a trip out there; most of the guys were not really hungry. I asked why and he took me behind some buildings and showed me a sight which haunts me to this day. The cav guys had found 20-25 men left by the NVA. All were Cambodians impressed as carriers — slaves. Most were in leg irons, all were severely malnourished, and several had a limb black with gangrene. All had thousand-yard stares, and were left simply because they were too weak to keep up with the retreating Reds.

“Both of us were amazed that the brutal NVA did not kill all of them. One of the medics trying to care for them was silently crying; he explained that he had given a couple of them some morphine to ease their pain and they simply went to sleep and died. He blamed himself for the deaths of the men he tried to help. It was tough talking to him. His buddies stayed with him and talked to him; I believe that is what kept him from doing himself. Little was eaten by the grunts; they did try to feed the Cambodians, but with little success.

“Later, we took the mermite cans back to the firebase. There were several reporters there and we decided to take them to the village for a look,telling them that an atrocity was there for them to report on. They hopped on the Huey with gusto.

“We flew them to the village and explained the situation to them. They seemed very unhappy that no U.S. troops were involved with what they found. They were completely uninterested in the story.

“Needless to say, I was pretty [angered] about their attitudes. I asked if they were going to write this up and they said no. I asked why and they answered that this was a culture thing and they did not see any real story. I asked what would have been done if the dead had been killed by U.S. troops, and they answered that, “Now that is something to get excited about.”

“When they wandered away we took off and left them there with the grunts. I know it was a crummy thing to do to the grunts, but I did not want anything to do with the reporters after that. I have had a distinct distrust of reporters since. No negative report on the Reds was ever published about this incident. All the reporters had to do was tell the truth and they could not find it in them to report it.

“My son, just home from Iraq with the 48th, had bad things to say about the media over there, too. There is little truth now as there was little truth then.”

Sig Bloom
B Co, 229th Avn Bn
1st Air Cavalry Division

Both of these examples are about reporting in a war in which public opinion is deeply divided. The full and accurate report of these incidents might not change anyone’s opinion, whether pro or anti, but if you are getting distorted reporting on these issues, what else is slanted to try to push your opinion in one direction or another?

Some say our media discovered during the Vietnam war the power of TV to influence public opinion; TV delivers feelings and moods so much better than print. By now, shaping public opinion has become such a finely honed media skill that voters don’t even seem to notice during an election campaign there is little real information delivered to them about where politicians stand on a host of issues.

Instead, we are treated to a beauty contest where spin and attack ads prevail, appearances trump reality and reporters pose superficial or fawning questions to the candidates they favor.

Even debates are choreographed down to the last detail, including the room temperature, sequence of questions, out of bounds subjects, time limits and so on, so that all we see and hear has been scripted to a fare-thee-well.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing to send the political handlers to the woodshed while the candidates spent a few hours answering real questions from the real public, instead of filtering through the media, which is irrevocably tainted by their own agenda.

Whether that media agenda leans left, as it now does, or right at some other time, makes little difference in the danger it poses to the long-term prospects of our country.

So, as you watch TV news reports that deliver moods to you on presidential candidates, whether Republican or Democrat, be skeptical, look for the truth. But you might have to read a couple of old fashioned newspapers to find the real story.

Anna Nicole and the red pipe

Submitted by bowser on Fri, 02/16/2007 - 4:01pm.

Finally, Garlock and I agree on something! If either of us ever hears the words Anna Nicole Smith again, it will be too soon.

As for the red pipe story, which has made the rounds on the conservative blog echo chamber, the point is what, exactly?

That almost 5 years after arriving we still need fortified FOBs near Kabul? That we have to rely on revenge-crazed Afghans to protect us from revenge-crazed Afghans? With due respect to Capt. Hunt, I fail to see how this tale shows that "things are working over here."

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Big Red Pipe

Submitted by dollaradayandfound on Tue, 02/13/2007 - 7:16pm.

I suppose now that the Taliban know about just the "big red pipe" that they will burst in for sure. Bad stuff to write in public!
This sounds as phoney as a three dollar bill to me.

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phoney

Submitted by hutch866 on Fri, 02/16/2007 - 4:12pm.

Dollar, you live for the negative don't you? this story doesn't support your belief so it must be phoney right. You are the phoney here and I wish you and the taliban could meet in person and they could show you how they really think.

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