Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Defeatism abounds

Now THIS is entertaining. The Media Research Center's "Best Notable Quotables of 2005." The index is on the sidebar to the left. You can literally spend a couple hours reading/listening to what these jackasses say off-cuff, without the crutch of a teleprompter to keep them somewhat objective.

As most of you know, I'm about as stringent anti-WarinIraq as they come, but you have to see the idiocy and agenda-pushing in exchanges like this, a typical example:

Matt Lauer in Baghdad: "Talk to me...about morale here. We’ve heard so much about the insurgent attacks, so much about the uncertainty as to when you folks are going to get to go home. How would you describe morale?"

Chief Warrant Officer Randy Kirgiss: "In my unit morale is pretty good. Every day we go out and do our missions and people are ready to execute their missions. They’re excited to be here."

Lauer: "How much does that uncertainty of [not] knowing how long you’re going to be here impact morale?"

Specialist Steven Chitterer: "Morale is always high. Soldiers know they have a mission. They like taking on new objectives and taking on the new challenges...."

Lauer: "Don’t get me wrong here, I think you are probably telling me the truth, but a lot of people at home are wondering how that could be possible with the conditions you’re facing and with the attacks you’re facing. What would you say to those people who are doubtful that morale can be that high?"

Captain Sherman Powell: "Sir, if I got my news from the newspapers also, I’d be pretty depressed as well."


— Exchange on NBC’s Today, August 17.
This one's my favorite, though:

"An Advocate for the Right."
— Headline over a New York Times "news analysis" of Judge John Roberts’ judicial philosophy, July 28.

vs.

"Balanced Jurist at Home in the Middle."
— Headline over a June 27, 1993 New York Times story on Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
After plodding through these, is there any doubt about the leftism of the mainstream media? I think not. Further, systematic proof is summarized here.

The quote archives go back more than a decade, and are fun to peruse, too. Have fun.

2 Comments:

At 1:41 PM, December 21, 2005, Blogger Mr. Shife said...

Being a former sports journalist myself, it is indeed hard to remain unbiased. You develop relationships with coaches, athletes and it is hard to remain objective when you are writing about them. I was a fan of Orgeon athletics before I got my beat of covering the University of Oregon basketball team, and it is not exactly easy turning off your support for a university to do your job.

 
At 5:27 PM, December 21, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

That's true, Shife, but it is possible to separate reporting from analysis, and I think that the two should be clearly distinguishable. I think the difference between them can clearly be seen and heard while watching local news (the cold, hard facts, however banal they may seem) and network or cable news (usually mostly commentary with a story as a backdrop).

 

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