Is Dan Rather trying to compete with Kos?
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CBS: Job Slump Driving People to Accept Dangerous Jobs in Iraq
“The long job slump,” in George Bush’s America, “has left many Americans desperate enough to risk everything for a decent paycheck," CBS’s Dan Rather suggested Wednesday night. So, that is driving people to “risk death in Iraq” by accepting dangerous civilian jobs over there where some end up paying “the ultimate price.”
That man who was killed opposed Bush’s war with Iraq, reporter Bob McNamara emphasized as he asked the widow: “Was he for this war?” <font size=4>McNamara insisted that the man’s “desperation for work” led him to take the job in Iraq, but he was from Delaware where the unemployment rate is well below the national average.
After Rather teased the lead March 31 story on the gruesome murder of four U.S. civilian contractors in Fallujah, in which the bodies where burned, hacked apart, dragged and hung up, Rather asked, over the “Risking Death” heading on screen with video of people in a job application line: “What drives American civilians to risk death in Iraq? In this economy, it may be, for some, the only job they can find. [jump to picture of American family] This family paid the ultimate price." <font size=3>
Setting up the subsequent story after a piece on the gruesome murders, Rather intoned: "Given such risks, it may be hard to see why any civilian would agree to work in Iraq. But as CBS's Bob McNamara reports, among other reasons, the long job slump has left many Americans desperate enough to risk everything for a decent paycheck."
Over video of a crowd of people, at what turned out to be a Halliburton job hiring session, McNamara began: “The line is hundreds long, job hunters in Houston applying for work as cooks, truck drivers and construction workers in the chaos of Iraq.”
A Man declared: “I'm not afraid. Some of these days I have to go anyway.”
McNamara cautioned: “They're warned the work demands long days and little time off.”
Clark Dunlap, Halliburton recuiter, to those gathered: “It will be living in Hades. Daily air temperature, ambient air temperature, can be 125, 135 degrees.
McNamara: “Still, the Texas unemployment rate is higher than it is nationwide. And lured by potential tax-free, six-figure incomes, some hadn't even told families they were here.”
In fact, while unemployment in Texas in February stood at 6.1 percent, when it’s at 5.6 percent nationwide, that’s down from 6.3 percent in January, and in February Texas was amongst the “states that had the largest hiring gains,” according to an AP dispatch, gaining 9,600 positions. See this March 31 article: news.yahoo.com
For state-by-state unemployment rates: news.yahoo.com
McNamara moved on to the tragic death of a civilian contractor in Iraq: “One thousand miles from Houston and a world apart from Iraq, here in Middletown, Delaware, one family learned ever so tragically where the desperation for work can lead when the job is in the middle of a war.”
Mrs. Linda Linderman, wife of man who was killed: “He said, 'I'm made of steel. I went through Vietnam. I can, you know, I can do this, too.'”
McNamara: “Fifty-eight-year-old Art Linderman was ambushed by Iraqi insurgents at the wheel of his supply truck, so critically wounded he was on life support before dying in late January.”
McNamara to the man’s wife: “Was he for this war?”
Mrs. Linderman: “No, I don't think he was.”
McNamara: “He was over there to make a living?”
Mrs. Linderman: “He was over there to make a living, and that's all there was to it.”
McNamara: “Art Linderman had been out of steady work for over two years. In Iraq, he wore a helmet, flak jacket and carried a gun. Any brushes with danger he did have he never let on to his family.”
Art Linderman’s son: “You could just basically hear it in his voice that, you know, things weren't good.”
McNamara: “Researchers tracking Iraq's rebuilding estimate at least 30 civilian contract workers have been killed since major hostilities were declared over last may.”
Son: “It's not worth it in the long run.”
Mrs. Linderman: “Money's not everything.”
Son: “No.”
McNamara: “Art Linderman risked his life for a financial nest egg he and his wife could retire on.”
Mrs. Linderman: “Sometimes I feel like the phone's going to ring and it'll be him or he'll come walking through the door.”
McNamara concluded: “And tonight four more Americans also won't be coming home. Bob McNamara, CBS News, Middletown, Delaware.”
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Undermining CBS’s case that high unemployment is forcing people to risk death in Iraq: The current unemployment rate in Delaware stands at a mere 3.4 percent, much lower than the national average or the rate in Texas.
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