Discussion for article #232939
Speaking of the American MSM and mistakes made in and about Iraq: Rock throwers, meet glass houses.
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Iâd rather see the bright light of media shine on media all the time and not just one measly anchorman hounded back to his original prompter operator job.
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âLiberalâ Brian Williams lies about 1 thing: pitchforks and torches.
Faux News deliberately and DEMONSTRABLY lies all day, every day about everything: Silence.
IOKIYAR
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Based on what I have read Williams did screw up, but the chopper he was riding in did receive some small arms fire and another chopper was attacked by an RPG⌠Unless these so called media critics are combat veterans I am not going to pay any attention.
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This is such a non-story that it surely says that it must be a slow news week for this to be a prime time discussion item. The pilot of the aircraft that Williams was on said that the aircraft came under fire. OK, this should be the end of the story, except if you WANT to make it a prime time event. So it wasnât an RPG attack. SO WHAT??!!!?? One of the other aircraft in a flight of 4 did take an RPG hit. When you are getting a story third hand on the fly from the person who received the attack to the pilot to the flight engineer to Mr. Williams, it is very, very easy to get the story screwed up. Especially 12 years post facto, I can easily see how the high tension environment of combat playing who said what and what actually happened is a very easy differential and as long as Mr. Williams acknowledged the error and corrected it, itâs all good.
I would be willing to bet that none of these big, loudmouthed âmedia criticsâ (God, is that ever a non sequitur) was ever was an actual combatant in a real combat situation. If they had been, they would know that I can talk to my buddies from Vietnam who were cheek by jowl beside me in a firefight and their memory of the event so radically differs from mine that I often wonder if were were in the same war. But I know we were. And I also know that your perception of what was happening is fixed by so many things (eg., how frightened you were, what your field of fire was like, how frightened you were, whether you were a small arms bearer or a heavy machine gun operator, how frightened you were, which side of the formation you were on, how frightened you were, if you were behind poor cover or had a good bunker (foxhole) to shoot from, etcâŚdid I mention how frightened you were?) that stories are easily screwed up, even by people with no reason to brag or engage in self-aggrandizement.
Itâs the jackasses who werenât there or were in some REMF job who go on and on about how other people did or didnât do certain things (REMF is infantryman lingo for those people with the nice safe jobs back at base campâŚRear Echelon Mother F**kers). The pilot was there. He said they came under fire. He said that Mr. Williams misunderstood that one of the other aircraft was hit by an RPG not their aircraft. As a civilian, Mr. Williams would have no idea what it sounds like when an RPG strike occurs. As one who has been in a helicopter under fire, an AK-47 round hitting the aircraft sounds like the world is ending to someone who hasnât heard it before. After a while, you get where they are just background noise and all you are listening for is that the turbine engine keeps screaming. End of story. A civilian not knowing what in the Hell he was hearing from deep inside a windowless Chinook? Quite understandable. And something that someone who hasnât been there would understand.
Get over it, boys, and try to find something important to write about.
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âWhy did it take pushback from âsome brave men and women in the air crews,â however? Do these folks have to fight our wars and fact-check NBC News?â
Thereâs blood in the water and the sharks are circling.
I saw this yesterday and thought it was appropriate.
This awful Brian Williams story raises only one crucial question: Will Republicans overreach?
â Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) February 5, 2015
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Except, in case you havenât noticed, these are the stories that garner the clicks.
Ugh, another slow news story. Iâm getting tired of the news-on-news conflict. Used as a tool of political or partisan purposes, sure, let me know. A journalist getting too excited about his experience in a live warzone⌠why should we give a shit?
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A war that was waged based on lies.
Itâs just another insult to injury.
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Where is all the demand for fox news to stop lying and abusing the Intelligence of their viewers?
Hey Pimpernel, first let me say âGod bless the infantry!â I agree with what you said and have a memory of an event over there (I flew Hueyâs in I Corps) where many of us had a very consistent description, but some certainly didnât, as you say. Nonetheless, taking AK rounds and being hit by an RPG, as you know, are two very, very different things. Even close calls leave a mark. Sometimes people get carried away with recounting their exploits. Thatâs what I think happened here. Too bad itâs NBC, which has one of the most courageous reporters around, Richard Engle. These two, Williams and Engle are just not comparable in terms of risk. I think Brian W just wanted to puff his cred; it backfired on him.
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Never mind Williamsâjust the idea of people from CNN and WaPo criticizing any newsman for inaccuracy is its own punchline. CNN probably has a staffer whose only job is writing corrections and apologies; the Post numbers Richard Cohen, Jennifer Rubin and George Will on their staffâtheir only response to complaints is the macro: "WTF do you expect, itâs _____________?â
When was the last time someone actually was in a 'copter hit by an RPG but somehow came to ârememberâ that he wasnât?
Williams didnât say anything about âmisunderstandingâ something he was told, did he? He talked about the âfog of memory,â and watching lots of video.
Because thatâs precisely what journalists are supposed not to do.
Brian Williams lie is emblamatic of the entire mentality of the press and mainstream journalism during 2003. At a time when they should have been their most diligent, they were having a d!ck measuring contest, playing GI Joe and living out their puerile Hemmingway fantasies.
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Yes his apology is not enoughâŚhe should be made to self flog and listen to one Ted Nugent song on a loop for 48hrsâŚPlease let it go. He owned his mistake and thatâs enough. Nobody lost an eye or a limb because of it.
Tell one lie in 10 years = big trouble. Tell 10 lies every day = Fock Snooze.