This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Media

  • Sally Quinn; irrelevant and tearful

    Washington Post columnist, Sally Quinn who famously slept her way up the Washington power ladder, laments the fact that she has been ingloriously toppled by people with a vision for the future and who left behind the Old Media and their Old Ideas;

    Journalists used to be powerful. But now there are so many 25-year-old bloggers, many of them showing up on the TV talk shows, that the old-timers are struggling to catch up, tweeting their hearts out and using hip language like “hashtags.” And those young bloggers care about money, too. There aren’t enough jobs, and newspapers and Web sites are struggling to make profits. Even the people on top are insecure. Nobody knows when he or she is going to be let go; the guillotine drops on media stars with alarming frequency.

    Well, when you have journalists whose bible is the AP Stylebook, and their stock in trade is their arrogance without substance, what did you expect? To illustrate; yesterday’s example of the Washington Post’s media critic, Howard Kurtz telling us that the president doesn’t make gaffes because the media understands what he’s saying.

    Maybe if the media talked with us instead of to us, maybe if they let us be a part of the conversation instead of complaining that blogs have no standards of ethics, they wouldn’t be losing their influence in the national discourse. Blogs do have standards, you know. If I make a mistake, you people have no problem telling me about it, and I correct it. If the Washington Post makes a mistake, there’s virtually no way to tell them about it, and, if by some miracle, we get through, they sniff and haw about how we must mistaken.

    Yeah, I still have a bug up my ass about how TSO was treated by many in the media last week. We found out who our friends are in the space of a few hours. The Washington Post and the Associated Press ain’t among them. Oddly enough, MSNBC came out the stars.

  • Sanger defends Administration leaks

    The LA Times reports on the defense that David Sanger, chief Washington correspondent for the New York Times, spoke about on CNN yesterday of the leaks that the Obama Administration supplied him with;

    “Did I talk to a lot of people in the administration? Of course,” [Sanger] said, as would be expected when writing a book about national security.

    Sanger contended that how Obama conducts himself in the theater of international military action is key for the public to know, and is a necessary story for the media to report on, regardless of the secrecy associated with national security issues.

    What? Want to spend a moment thinking about that statement, Dave? There’s a reason that we call them “secrets” and “national security” and the use of neither rhyme with the New York Times nor does anyone usually equate publishing secrets in the New York Times as part of our national security. And, “he doubted that any politically motivated leaks were involved.” Why else would the Obama Administration leak secrets to the New York Times, if it’s not politically motivated? Otherwise we could still call them secrets. Are they leaking any failed operations to the New York Times?

    “Can we debate them out in the open? Of course,” he said.

    Then they’re not secrets, are they? The Roosevelt Administration saw no need to debate our secrets during World War II and I’m pretty sure that the editors of the New York Times of that era would agree. How about we let our secrets remain that way until whichever war we’re fighting ends, so we don’t intentionally get mired in the morass that the media made of this last war with their “open debate”.

    And how about someone put a muzzle on the leaks out of the Obama Administration and let them debate the issues instead of smokescreening their failures.

  • The media is so damn smart

    I spent an hour or so at the Milblog Conference listening to the participants from the media telling a room full of milbloggers how the world doesn’t need us anymore because the mainstream media has the military all figured out. I talked with the guy from the New York Times (who knows what his name was) and even though he admitted that he read TAH regularly (he quoted some of my more memorable moments, so I know it’s true), he still had air of arrogance about him because he was from the Times. Then there was Greg Jaffe from the Washington Post who leaned back in his chair onstage and pontificated about how smart he was now after ten years of war. Yeah, I didn’t talk to him at the time because I didn’t trust myself to be face-to-face with him.

    But someone sent us a link to this from Howard Kurtz at the Post who tells America that Obama doesn’t make “gaffes” because he’s talking to the media and the media understands him, but you ignorant f*cks out in the heartland don’t;

    Yeah, that’s why the media interviews asshats like Jake Diliberto and Leo Webb. And they had to rob TSO’s posts last week about Tim Poe, because they don’t need milblogs. When I emailed another media critic at the Post last week about them stealing from us on that Poe story, I was told “if you want credit, go to college”.

    Screw the Post. Call me for another interview – you don’t need the public, you arrogant pricks. How’s that WaPo stock doing?

  • “Got Your Six”, Eh?

    Everyone here’s doubtless heard about the “Got Your Six” campaign out of Hollywood.  NBC – yeah, that NBC, the same one that brings us MSNBC – is a sponsor.

    NBC also now is part owner of the Weather Channel.  I didn’t know that, but it’s also not surprising.  Media companies get bought and sold by other media companies all the time, and NBC is one of the “big dogs” in the industry.

    Well, it looks like NBC might have been caught being just a tad hypocritical.  (What a surprise.)  Seems that a former Weather Channel host, Nicole Mitchell, has brought a lawsuit against NBC her former emloyers.  She’s an officer in the USAF Reserve and a member of the USAFR’s  “Hurricane Hunters”.  And she alleges that NBC fired her as a Weather Channel host because of her military status.

    Mitchell’s allegations on the surface appear fairly damning, assuming they’re accurate.  There appears to be an escalating  pattern of discriminatory behavior, starting after NBC acquired ownership interest in the Weather Channel, culminating in a firing.  And all of it  clearly seems to be be based largely if not entirely on Mitchell’s military reserve status.

    But at this point, they’re just allegations.  They aren’t yet proven.

    The Weather Channel, predictably, has declined to comment on the pending lawsuit other than to say that they don’t discriminate, they follow the law, and that Mitchell’s allegations are “inaccurate” – without providing any specifics, of course.   Figures.  But unlike our “Best Friend” Timmy Poe, at least they seem to know when to keep their mouths shut to avoid eating more foot.

    NBC and the Weather Channel probably should hope Mitchell can’t prove her allegations.  There’s this little thing called the Uniformed Services Employment/Reemployment Rights Act on the books.  Has been since 1994.

    It’s a Federal law.  And it says, very clearly, “You can’t do that. ”

    “Got your six”, eh?  Yeah, NBC – looks like you “got her six”, alright.  But I don’t think what you seem to have done here is exactly what the term means.

    If Mitchell prevails in court, well, here’s hoping she returns the favor and “gets NBC’s seven”.  As in seven figures or more.

  • IVAW intersects with Chris Hayes

    Earlier today, I wrote about Chris Hayes who couldn’t bring himself to call any service members “heroes” because he was afraid it would cause more wars. Always in the market for a good anti-America meme and a way to bash the troops, Geoff “Stolen Valor” Millard of the Iraq Veterans Against the War, steps up to offer his services to Chris Hayes for the next time he wants to bash selfless military service;

    “Yup”, how did Chris not think of IVAW when he was preparing to slam the troops and he might need someone on the panel to back him up. Because Geoff Millard has no problem just making shit up and wearing his uniform like a mannequin for the MSNBC crowd, after all he wears shit he didn’t earn for “the cause”.

    Millard still thinks he has some sort moral authority in the discussion of a war in which he’s never served, wearing a rank he lost when he went AWOL, wearing a CIB he didn’t earn for shuffling a general’s power point slides, and three, count ’em, three Meritorious Service Medals. Did I forget to mention the forged DD214?

    “Yup”. Go ahead and put Millard on your show, Hayes, and you’ll be an even bigger target.

    Thanks to JP for finding that Twitter exchange.

    ADDED: By the way, Chris Hayes apologized for using the right to speak freely about the people who who protect that right for him. Of course those are my words, not his. i think it was Bush’s fault, though;

    But in seeking to discuss the civilian-military divide and the social distance between those who fight and those who don’t, I ended up reinforcing it, conforming to a stereotype of a removed pundit whose views are not anchored in the very real and very wrenching experience of this long decade of war. And for that I am truly sorry.

  • Chris Hayes is uncomfortable with “heroes”

    I have no idea who this idiot is, but, Chris Hayes, on MSNBC announces to the world that he’s uncomfortable with referring to fallen American troops as “heroes” because apparently it is “rhetorically proximate to justification for more war”;

    So, basically, Hayes has thrown away the typical Leftist “support the troops and not the wars” meme. Hayes’ support for the troops is entirely dependent on the political aspects of their missions.

    Hayes is a guy who produces words for the leftist publication “The Nation”, he’s hosted the Keith Olbermann show when it was on MSNBC as well as the Rachel Maddow show. He was going to replace Olbermann when he was canned until it was discovered that he also gave political contributions to the Obama campaign. His wife is a counsel to the Obama Administration.

    If Hayes can’t judge the troops’ individual heroism under adverse conditions, why is he even on television? Obviously, he has nothing to contribute to the discussion of Memorial Day since he lets his politics interfere with a rational discussion.

    The entire transcript of his remarks are at Newsbusters.

    Thanks to ROS and Hellboy for the links.

  • US to blame because Afghans are morons

    The Washington Post in an article entitled “Next to U.S. firing range in Afghanistan, a village of victims” blames the US forces at Bagram Air Base for idiot local villagers near the base who send their children into an impact area to salvage shrapnel and expended brass cartridges and the children end up mangled or otherwise injured.

    Apparently, not all of the 40mm grenades which are supposed to detonate on impact after they’re fired from the soldiers’ rifles explode in the soft sand and children scrounging for metal to “to trade for an ice cream cone”. Of course, that phrase is meant to tug at your heart strings.

    The Post and Afghans complain that there is no fence around the impact area and that the warning signs are all written in English and not Pashto that the locals understand. The Post also complains that locals are poor and and have no other way to earn a living except by salvaging metal from the impact areas. So what are they going to do for a living after the Americans leave? And why is it just kids who are out there scrounging around through the explosives?

    And is a fence really going to protect against stupidity like this;

    Sometimes, the boys step on a grenade unintentionally. Sometimes, they pick up one, thinking that it’s an empty shell.

    That’s how Khaili Jan, 10, lost both of his legs last year. His father had told him to stay away from the grenades and rockets, but the boy knew the shells of larger explosives were worth much more than small bits of shrapnel. When he saw a grenade that appeared to have detonated, he gave it a kick to get a better look, and the egg-size ordnance exploded.

    Now, the boy has two plastic prosthetic legs and crutches that sink into the sand when he walks through the desert.

    “What can he do now?” his father, Amir Jan, asked. “Nothing. He can just sit.”

    Each morning Khaili Jan’s brothers head back to the range where their brother was nearly killed, accompanied by a herd of sheep or towing an empty bag to collect shrapnel. The brothers and fathers of Rahman and Mohammed have already returned to the range, as well.

    They know that it’s an impact area, they have the example of their legless brother to prove it, yet, there they are still trolling the area for metal and explosives. A fence to protect people that stupid would last about ten seconds.

  • That crazy vet with PTSD thing again

    So we get this story, sent to us by Tman from some woman named Amanda Crum at a place called WebProNews. It’s the story of a supposed veteran by the name of Ray Miles who forced his way into WIBW-TV in Topeka, KS to convince the television station to air his grievances against his treatment at the Department of Veterans Affairs. While he was trying to force his way in, some people tried to stop him and he pulled out a knife and stabbed two in their legs. Here’s the video;

    Now, I’m not defending Mr. Miles or condemning the TV station employees, But, I did notice that Mr. Miles is a bit off-balanced, which means that maybe he wasn’t a veteran at all, because the AP story where all of this comes from doesn’t mention that he’s a veteran. At this point, no one really knows if he’s a veteran or not, but they like to say it.

    In fact, he’s homeless and has been for a while and he was asked to leave the shelter where he was staying for violent behavior, according to WIBW. And he’s assaulted a police officer in the recent past. We all know stories of homeless people who try to convince us that they were in the military, and I don’t see anyone checking on Miles’ status. And it looks like no one checked with the VA even, otherwise there might be a quote from the local VA folks.

    But to me the most egregious part of the story is Amanda Crum;

    While the story is disturbing to say the least, it also rings with a sad truth; that veterans who come home with serious emotional and mental issues are often overlooked or even ignored. Many stories have surfaced over the years of deadly prescription pill cocktails being given to veterans to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and unfortunately that seems to be the case all too often when a member of the military seeks help. While it’s not known if Miles was on any medication at the time of the altercation yesterday, officials are aware that Veterans Affairs did play a part in his agitation. Whether or not he will be treated is yet unknown.

    Emphasis is mine.

    It’s not known for certain if Miles was in the military, or if he was taking drugs, or if he has PTS, but that’s not going to stop Ms. Crum from warning us all that the streets are full of drugged up vets each on the cusp of a violent psychotic break.

    I want to warn everyone that the streets are full of doped up, half-witted pseudo-journalists all just waiting to demonstrate how little they know about everything by arriving at completely irrational and unsupported conclusions.

    Ms. Crum, even a cursory internet search would tell you that veterans who suffer from PTS are not likely to be violent or harm people other than themselves. It’s a myth perpetuated by the ignorant rushing to explain things they don’t understand.