Not so strange, kholt. I heard Prime Minister Alawi's original live press conference upon his initial selection by his colleagues. His remarks were in English. I couldn't believe that he was actually expressing thanks for the American led actions of which his election was a consequence. Not long thereafter, I heard President Bush, again at a live hastily assembled Rose Garden appearance, expressing his appreciation to Alawi for "thanking" the American people for leading in the efforts to free Iraq from Saddam's brutality.
When one hears someone speaking during a live telecast, unless one has a tape recorder at hand, it is not likely that one will remember "exactly" what the words were as they were expressed. But one who is paying attention does absorb the "gist" of what is being said. And, if what is being said is significantly important, one finds himself emotionally impressed, amazed, pleased, excited, by what he has just heard someone say.
I heard Alawi thank the Americans and their coalition partners for bringing freedom and democracy to his people. I heard President Bush express his appreciation to Alawi for "thanking" the American led forces.
I thought that the "thank you" was very significant. Later on I went to my usual newspapers (the NYT, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the International Herald Tribune, and others) to enjoy once again READING the newsworthy report of this remarkably newsworthy event.
But alas and alack! I was disappointed. Alawi's "thank you" was largely ignored. It continues to be ignored. Mort Kondracki in his article documents how ignored it was.
And this incident proves, to my satisfaction at least, that the liberal leaning media had no desire or intention to report this remarkable "thank you America" as news.
I may have reported what I heard in terms of my emotional and amazed response to Alawi's words rather than reporting Alawi's exact words. But I got the gist of his words right. I reported his thought as he expressed it correctly. Too bad that the newspapers determined that Alawi's "thank you America" was not important enough to report or that in reporting it they might, just might, make Bush look good to the American voters.
PS: I do want to give the NYT credit though. The NYT, in its Sunday edition of June 6th, on its front page, gave equal billing to its reporting of the death of Ronald Reagan and Smarty Jone's failure to win the Triple Crown at Belmont on Saturday.
Ronnie would be pleased. Ronnie always loved horses. |
