I Believe it's time to start a class action against these anti-American Communist network on behalf of our American Soldiers, and if was seated on it's jury I would award every last dollar the traitors had. God Bless America, Bill O|||||||O mailto: snipped-for-privacy@aol.com
Published October 20, 2006
The shot rings out from a terrorist rifle and before the bullet finds its mark in the back of a United States serviceman, the screen fades to black.
This ? CNN says ? is the ?unvarnished truth? of the war in Iraq that the American people must face.
Like a parent to a child, the network knows what is good for us ? even if we don?t.
They American people must also apparently face this ?unvarnished truth? just a few weeks from the Congressional mid-term elections in what might be the most blatant political gift to the Democrats since Dan Rather?s career went down in a blizard of forged Bush military documents.
CNN aired video of sniper attacks on U.S. military personnel provided helpfully by the ?insurgents? ? notice we can?t call them terrorists or murderers.
CNN says it aired the video because it ?concluded the tape meets our criteria for newsworthiness.?
That?s a statement that raises serious questions about how exactly the network goes about making such a determination ? and getting it so painfully wrong.
Apparently, the decision came after it was the subject of ?hours of intense editorial debate,? which I think the American people would love to hear ? you know, as long as we are getting the ?unvarnished truth.?
Can we hear this ?intense editorial debate,? or is that a little too ?unvarnished? for the network to handle?
What did this sniper video provide for Americans ? beyond a reminder that CNN?s journalistic ethics always take a backseat to its agenda?
CNN says Americans need to know what is going on in Iraq ? as if its ceaseless defeatist drum beat wasn?t enough?
We know that our men and women in uniform are dying in the streets of Baghdad.
We know those numbers are real people, with real faces, families, hopes and dreams that ended in the explosion of an IED or ? as the network reminded us ? at the end of a sniper?s bullet.
Unlike some, we don?t view them as flickering numbers on some political tote board.
We know that flag-draped coffins are returning home and that families are gathering to say goodbye.
For those families who get treated to the final moments of their loved ones before their violent end in the network?s pursuit of ?truth,? it is especially cruel.
We already know the ?truth? and the network knows that ? what CNN wants to do is pour salt in the wound.
Hiding behind journalistic principles long-since abandoned, the network has sunk to a new low by essentially becoming the propaganda and public relations arm of a group of thugs and murderers.
Even those opposed to the war in Iraq ? and to act as if that number isn?t large and growing would be absurd ? can recognize this for what it is.
Part of it is a grab for ratings in an era in which Fox News dominates on a nightly basis. CNN, the tottering monarch of days gone by, is making another feeble grasp for a crown that slipped from its grip so long ago ? for many viewers because of manuevers exactly like this one.
I don?t trust CNN anymore ? haven?t since I learned that the network essentially sat on stories about just how bad things were in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was running it in order to maintain access in the country.
Back then we didn?t need to know how bad things were going in Iraq, and CNN said it sat on those stories to protect the lives of people.
Yet, here, just a few years later, CNN says we desparately need to know how bad things are in Iraq and the network can?t wait to show us the end of another series of lives.
CNN hasn?t only lost its way ? it?s a network that?s lost its soul.
Chris Lykins is the managing editor for the Gazette-Enterprise