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What Happened To Fair And Balanced Reporting?
March 20, 2007
[Update] 03/20/07 1pm: I contacted one of the officers who was quoted in the article I linked to. As I thought, this reporter used things out of context and twisted the words of what the soldiers said to him. Thank you Kari for sending the article to me. I appreciate that and I’m really glad that I checked into it and was able to help expose this person for the disreputable reporter that he is. I’ll quote part of the officer’s email to me:
Thanks to you and all those who truly support us here and what we do. This was an example of a journalist with a hidden agenda. I took him out with me before I let him get in a vehicle with my soldiers. He never asked me any leading or difficult questions, but waited till he had access to a young soldier and asked him questions like what would the US Army do if Iraq were to implode; totally out of a soldiers purvue. He also embellished and exaggerated statements to add flavor to his point of view.
My intention is to alert others to his deceptive practices so that this doesn’t happen to another unit or their soldiers. The tone of the article is not what my soldiers are feeling and they were very upset that they were portrayed this way. Each is very proud of what they do here…… If any of your readers read this and think that soldiers here are in such disparaging conditions please caveat with the disclaimer that these soldiers were deceived, grossly misqouted, and had fabricated quotes.
Out of all the embedded reporters we have had up to this date, Bryan Pearson is the first negative experience we have had.
I get really outraged when I see accounts of the media taking things our troops say in the heat of the moment, and twisting it around to suit their sole purpose of continuing to bash the current administration of the US and the soldiers who serve the country on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan.
While the troops who are currently serving in Iraq, would love to come home and be back with their loved ones, the majority serving, overwhelmingly feel that the mission they are on is an important one and the US Forces should stay the course and finish what we started. One reporter, however, takes a moment in time, when a platoon of soldiers just found out that they MIGHT be getting their deployment in Iraq extended and twisted it to sound as if their attitude was constantly like that, in an article at Breitbart.com
Having a loved one serving in Iraq myself, on his 3rd Deployment, I can fully understand how upset those soldiers were when they got the news of the possible extension of their deployment. It’s understandable that the soldiers were upset when first hearing the news. BUT the author of the article fails to mention that the comments he quoted and the reaction he reported was in reaction to the news and not necessarily the attitude of the members of that platoon normally. He fails to mention that American Troops are dedicated to doing their job in a professional and thorough manner and they’re trained to complete their mission and make whatever sacrifices necessary to complete that job. I find it shameful that he took comments being made in one moment of time and twisted it to sound as if these soldiers had given up hope. The author of this article should be ashamed of his manipulation of the situation and inaccurate portrayal of the entire situation. So much for fair and balanced reporting. Of course, what more should one expect from the media? They’ve invested way too much of their time and resources in trashing the administration and our troops to reverse and change their course now. As outrageous as it is, it doesn’t surprise me at all. The media could care less about being accurate. Accuracy doesn’t support their agenda.
Every single one of us have found ourselves in situations where things weren’t going the way we would like them to go. We’ve all done our own share of bitching and complaining in those situations and made comments out of anger, frustration and disappointment that do not necessairly reflect our true thoughts and feelings. But of course the author of this article, doesn’t mention that. Instead he makes it sound like the troops he was reporting about were ready to stage a revolt against their superiors. It’s no damn wonder then, that many American’s have such a skewed view of what’s going on in Iraq and Afghanistan.
How the hell can they not, when the media reports in such a biased way with only half truths? It’s pretty sad that so many of our fellow American’s can’t see through the bias and demand FAIR AND BALANCED reporting. This article once again just reinforces the reason I avoid the Main Stream Media and definitely don’t believe anything coming from them.
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6 Responses to “What Happened To Fair And Balanced Reporting?”
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Fair and balanced reporting has become a thing of the past. Anything to further the Liberal/leftist agenda is fair game, whether or not that be to lie. Then again, if reporting was fair and balanced we wouldn’t need this and many other blogs.
You’re exactly right Anthony. When Kari emailed me this morning I got right on it and contacted the Captain who was mentioned in the article. As you can see above, he was NOT happy with the reporter twisting the story to suit his agenda.
I have sent something to AFP to try and send a complaint. They only thing they have is a form for general comments. We will see if they contact me back with any information.
I did so as well Kari. They definitely need to know that when they publish lies about our troops, that some of us WILL stand up and expose those lies. Thanks for the email about this Kari!
What happened to fair and balanced reporting? I thought it never existed!
Once upon a time Ryan it used to. Unfortunately nowdays, they’re more into sensationalism and that’s what sells now.