Month: March 2003

Embedded journalists get their asses kicked. Na na na na…. na na na na….. hey hey hey…. good bye!

Hooters Girl butt signing Geraldo Rivera has been escorted out of Iraq after drawing a map on television and pointing out where his unit was and where it was heading. Smart man, that Geraldo. They should have broken a chair over his face, would have been just like old times.

Celebrity TV journalist Geraldo Rivera kicked out of Iraq: Pentagon

US Military Moves Reporter Geraldo Rivera from Iraq

Of course, he denies his removal.

Geraldo Denies Being Kicked Out of Iraq

And he’s not the only one in trouble.

NBC Fires Arnett After Iraq TV Interview

NBC fired journalist Peter Arnett on Monday, saying it was wrong for him to give an interview with state-run Iraqi TV saying that the American-led coalition’s first war plan had failed because of Iraq’s resistance. Arnett himself called the interview a “misjudgment.”

Arnett, on NBC’s “Today” show on Monday, said he was sorry for his statement but added, “I said over the weekend what we all know about the war.”

“I want to apologize to the American people for clearly making a misjudgment,” Arnett said.

NBC had defended him on Sunday, saying he had given the interview as a professional courtesy and that his remarks were analytical in nature. But by Monday morning the network switched course and, after Arnett spoke with NBC News President Neal Shapiro, said it would no longer work with Arnett.

“It was wrong for Mr. Arnett to grant an interview to state-controlled Iraqi TV, especially at a time of war,” NBC spokeswoman Allison Gollust said. “And it was wrong for him to discuss his personal observations and opinions in that interview.”

Oops. Guess I should say America screwed up on the enemy’s television station. Better luck next time.

But, wait, he’s not going down without a fight!

This War Is Not Working

I am still in shock and awe at being fired. There is enormous sensitivity within the US government to reports coming out from Baghdad.

They don’t want credible news organisations reporting from here because it presents them with enormous problems.

I reported on the original bombing for NBC and we were half a mile away from those massive explosions. Now I am really shocked that I am no longer reporting this story for the US and awed by the fact that it actually happened.

That overnight my successful NBC reporting career was turned to ashes. And why?

Because I stated the obvious to Iraqi television; that the US war timetable has fallen by the wayside.

I have made those comments to television stations around the world and now I’m making them again in the Daily Mirror.

I’m not angry. I’m not crying. But I’m also awed by this media phenomenon.

The right-wing media and politicians are looking for any opportunity to be critical of the reporters who are here, whatever their nationality. I made the misjudgment which gave them the opportunity to do so.

I gave an impromptu interview to Iraqi television feeling that after four months of interviewing hundreds of them it was only professional courtesy to give them a few comments.

That was my Waterloo – bang!

Yep, you just keep telling yourself that.

God, these people are blowing golden opportunities over there.

Appellate Court Rules Media Can Legally Lie

On February 14, a Florida Appeals court ruled there is absolutely nothing illegal about lying, concealing or distorting information by a major press organization. The court reversed the $425,000 jury verdict in favor of journalist Jane Akre who charged she was pressured by Fox Television management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information. The ruling basically declares it is technically not against any law, rule, or regulation to deliberately lie or distort the news on a television broadcast.

On August 18, 2000, a six-person jury was unanimous in its conclusion that Akre was indeed fired for threatening to report the station’s pressure to broadcast what jurors decided was “a false, distorted, or slanted” story about the widespread use of growth hormone in dairy cows. The court did not dispute the heart of Akre’s claim, that Fox pressured her to broadcast a false story to protect the broadcaster from having to defend the truth in court, as well as suffer the ire of irate advertisers.

Fox argued from the first, and failed on three separate occasions, in front of three different judges, to have the case tossed out on the grounds there is no hard, fast, and written rule against deliberate distortion of the news. The attorneys for Fox, owned by media baron Rupert Murdock, argued the First Amendment gives broadcasters the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on the public airwaves.

In its six-page written decision, the Court of Appeals held that the Federal Communications Commission position against news distortion is only a “policy,” not a promulgated law, rule, or regulation.

Fox aired a report after the ruling saying it was “totally vindicated” by the verdict.

Huh. Public service my ass.

War sparks dueling rallies

Simultaneous rallies for war and peace occur just blocks from each other in Fredericksburg last night.

Citizens, blocks apart, air opinions on conflict

The message from the throng gathered yesterday evening at a rally to support American troops and leaders was direct and simple.

“The time for debate is over,” Del. Mark Cole, a Spotsylvania Republican, told about five dozen rally-goers at the Religious Freedom Monument on Fredericksburg’s Washington Avenue. “The decision has been made. Once the first bullet has been fired, you can’t show support for the troops by trying to undermine leaders on the home front.”

At the same time, not far away in Hurkamp Park on William Street, people on the other side of the issue rallied to express their viewpoint.

Some 25 people gathered for a candlelight vigil touted as being pro-military but antiwar.

Both rallies came one day after the number of casualties in the allies’ campaign against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein reached double digits.

At the Washington Avenue monument, about five dozen people turned out. Carrying signs and U.S. flags, they wore yellow ribbons to indicate their support for American troops in the Middle East and to rally behind President Bush.

The crowd included GOP leaders such as Cole, Shaun Kenney, chairman of the the Fredericksburg Republican Committee; former Stafford County Supervisor Ken Mitchell; and John Morris, chair of the Mary Washington College Republicans. About two dozen other College Republicans came, too.

Susan Spears, vice chairman of the Fredericksburg Democratic Committee, brought her dog Eddie, clad in a Stars-and-Stripes bandanna, to rally alongside those who are normally her political opponents.

“I’m not going to change parties or anything like that,” Spears said. “I just don’t think this should be a partisan issue. I think we should be united in a time of war behind our president and our troops.”

Many of those who attended said they rallied in the hope that the troops would learn that many people in Fredericksburg are behind them, the rally a few blocks away with the opposite message not withstanding.

“Those folks in Hurkamp Park have a right to be there,” Kenney said. “I respect that. But they must understand there are worse things in this life than war.”

“The suffering under Saddam’s regime,” for one, Kenney said.

A few blocks to the northeast, antiwar protesters assembled for their vigil–an event organized after members of the Fredericksburg Area Coalition for Peace heard about the other rally.

“We’re basically just coming together to mourn the lives that have been lost so far,” organizer Katarina Fletcher, a 27-year-old Fredericksburg resident, said before the vigil.

Participants ranged from Fletcher’s baby son, Nesta, to local residents who remembered protests from their youth.

Judith Parker, an associate professor of English and linguistics at Mary Washington College, recalled peace gatherings of yesteryear attended by famous protesters like the late poet Allen Ginsberg.

A few minutes later, as if on cue, a car drove by, Grateful Dead music blaring from its stereo.

The vigil’s participants sat in a circle, candles in front of them, and sipped apple cider while voicing their thoughts about the campaign in Iraq for nearly an hour.

Tony Sanchez said loving one’s country doesn’t mean you have to support all of its policies. That’s a lesson he wanted to show his 7-year-old daughter Dominique, whom he brought to the event.

“I love you, United States, but what you’re doing is wrong,” said Sanchez, who lives in Fredericksburg.

Andrew Sentipal, a Stafford High School senior, embraced his girlfriend, Christine Haines, as others shared their views.

When it was his turn, he said, “Diplomacy wasn’t exhausted before we went to war.”

Others said they couldn’t understand how military action against a country is supposed to liberate it.

But a pink sign on display at the vigil may have summed up participants’ feelings best.

It said, in black block letters, “Stop the War.”

Shaun was sick over the weekend but suddenly cured in time for the rally. It’s a miracle! (Just bustin’ yer balls, Shaun.)

The anti-war rally was in response to the pro-war demonstration and seems to have been hastily arranged, which may account for the small numbers. A larger rally this Saturday may have more folks. But I wouldn’t be surprized if it didn’t.

Is anyone else noticing the following trend? In large cities you have thousands of anti-war demonstrators showing up and only a few hundred supporting the war while in smaller cities there would be a couple hundred folks for the war and only a small group against. Now, it’s probably not that urbanites are more against the war, but that people are more willing to not only travel to larger cities to get their message heard but that knowing these rallies will be larger, a larger variety of groups show up to shout their various messages. The small town anti-war demonstrators are the ones who actually are focusing on their opposition to the war as opposed to the ANSWER rallies with eighteen groups that are protesting capitalism, the drug war, ‘framed’ cop killers, the IMF and a few who are actually against war specifically.

People scream “Look at these crowds, the majority of America is against you, Mister Bush!” but, really, look at the crowds in the smaller towns. There are MORE smaller towns than large cities, more of those towns have larger groups SUPPORTING the President and the smaller town rallies are with the residents of that town as opposed to the large city pulling a crowd of 50,000 from six states.

Just an observation.

The Pro-War Movement Grows! Yeah, all you anti-war folks with your Hollywood suporters, watch out. Corey Haim is on the side of Bush!

Cheers on the Tigris for one that got away

One of the first who said he saw Baghdad anti-aircraft gunners hit the British aircraft on Sunday was 50-something Mohammed Abdul Salkah. Pointing to the west, he said: “I saw the attack – the plane went that way and the pilot jumped into the river. I saw the soldiers find his parachute and helmet.”

At first the searchers tried to smoke the pilot out – dousing the rushes in litres of petrol, which they ignited. When that did not work they called in the Iraqi equivalent of navy SEALs – three overweight men in a dinghy, who wore swimmers and were obliged to share the one half-length wetsuit.

When they failed, troops with sickles stomped through the rushes and whenever they suspected they had the pilot cornered, more than 100 men with Kalashnikovs and pistols opened fire, pouring thousands of rounds into the undergrowth.

Every now and again a shout would go up and the crowd would surge along the river bank, tumbling into the rushes before it was pushed back. “Jibo, jibo”, they yelled, or “Bring him, bring him.”

The exercise had a vital commercial element – Saddam Hussein pays any Iraqi gunner who downs an enemy aircraft the equivalent of $US50,000 ($85,000). Those who bring him a live pilot get $US50,000 and, if the pilot is dead, the reward slips to $US25,000.

At times the crowd broke into pro-Saddam chants, but one bearded Iraqi held back, saying: “This is bad. I’m a pilot and I hate to see another pilot treated this way.”

Soon after that exchange I was joined by an Iraqi mute who explained his view in sign language. At first he said that he wanted to go into the rushes, pull the pilot out, shake him by the shoulders and punch him in the nose.

But then the mute thought about it and, in elaborate gestures, showed that he was capable of a more personal, more humane reaction.

Pointing at his brain to suggest intelligence, he said that the pilot would be hiding underwater; that he might be able to swim to the middle of the river and drift downstream to safety. This would be good, he said with a thumbs-up gesture.

As sunset approached, he circled his watch with a finger to indicate the onset of darkness in an hour; he pinched his nose and used arm movements to demonstrate underwater swimming, away from the rushes; and he smiled a smile of great satisfaction.

Just before dark there was wild cheering as the crowd saw a reed, standing vertically as it floated downstream. Two soldiers stripped off and swam towards it; but as they neared it the Kalashnikovs opened up again.

They scarpered … and the reed got away.