What is wrong with the news media? It seems that they have been instructed to put a happy face on the news and bury the bad stuff.
Ten of our troops were killed yesterday bringing the total killed so far to 3,280, but nothing about this appeared on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle. Instead they had stories about “Glass baby bottles making a comeback”, “S.F. moves to stem African American exodus” and the biggest story that took up three full-page columns including a half-page picture was “NEW URBAN CENTERS TAKE ON A STAGE-SET FEEL IN BAY AREA”. That headline really was all in caps.
The story of the ten troops being killed was relegated to page five. And most of that story was really about radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada el-Sadr and his opposition to the American presence in Iraq.
I think that “Support Our Troops” should include front-page coverage of every single soldier who has made the ultimate sacrifice. Right there on the front page where everyone would be forced to see it.
We need to put a face on this war. We need to make people realize that these are real men (boys) who are being killed. We need to have pictures and bios of each of these soldiers staring at us across our comfortable breakfast table.
During WWII, the war was THE news. The front page of every newspaper was full of the war. Pictures taken during battles showed the horror of war. Faces of wounded GIs stared out from hollow eyes. The pictures were horrible and they came to you in your sleep. The “News Reel” at the local theater was full of war pictures.
The people were not insulated from the war. We were involved. It was our war. We saved bacon grease, had war bonds and stamps, meat coupons and gas rationing. We “sacrificed”. We were not told that the best thing the public could do was go shopping (Bush Dec 2006*)
When we are asked to “Support Our Troops” the least we can do is acknowledge their dying.
I still don’t know what they used the bacon grease for.
The California Curmudgeon
* Bush press meeting “A recent report on retail sales shows a strong beginning to the holiday shopping season across the country -- and I encourage you all to go shopping more”.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I wonder how many soldiers and innocent civilians were killed during the time that the British soldiers were held. Story after story was told about those soldiers who were able to return home. How many weren't so lucky during that time period?
Post a Comment