Peter Jennings behaves like traitor
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By Stephen M. Black Saturday, August 2, 2003
blueridgenow.com
What would you call a man who would purposely give aid and comfort to our enemies? I don't know about you, but I would call him Peter Jennings, head pooh-bah of ABC News Tonight.
I can't imagine why Jennings does what he does. Perhaps he is truly a complete pacifist at heart. He obviously has an agenda. It is only too obvious how he picks and chooses news items to show only the negative side of the war in Iraq.
All networks are guilty of this but ABC is the most blatant. I recall when President Clinton ordered the bombing of Yugoslavia. One of Jennings' reporters on the scene mentioned the bombing could take many, many months.
When Jennings came back on he sighed deeply, shook his head and said, "Many, many months."
What theatrics!
He is constantly editorializing by his manner and words. This is not the duty of a news anchorman. The networks used to provide a time at the end of a broadcast for an editorial. And they were excellent even if you did not hold to their position.
But note they didn't editorialize during the reporting.
Jennings' recent ploy was to interview a squad of soldiers from the third infantry division. The squad, as all grunts do, were complaining about the war. I should use a stronger term because the word "complain" doesn't describe what grunts do when they are unhappy with their lot. We will always have complaining as long as we have a military.
The squad was simply letting off steam and that is always a good thing in the situation grunts usually find themselves. The big mistake the soldiers made was to complain on national television.
And while some of the remarks they made were perfectly understandable, they were still stupid and unthinking. A direct insult to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld didn't help their case.
And a case it has become indeed. When the head commander of American forces in Iraq witnessed the interview he wasn't happy, to say the least. Every soldier in that interview will in some degree be officially reprimanded and punished.
Rightly so. A public display of demoralization within a fighting outfit only plays right into the hands of the enemy. It encourages pro-Saddam forces, gives them strength and hope while discouraging the people back home. It lengthens the fight. And because of that stupid interview, more of our warriors will be killed and wounded.
Listen, no one complained more than my fellow Marines and me. What we knew by heart, however, was to keep our disgruntlement within the family. And a grunt's family is his fire team and squad. That's as far as it went.
While I believe the soldiers should be disciplined, my true anger is aimed at Jennings. He went far and wide to find a group of grunts who wanted to air their grievances to a national audience.
On the next evening, he reported that the interview was a rare happening. Yet, in the original broadcast he blew it all out of proportion and portrayed it as if all the troops in Iraq are demoralized. That was a lie and Jennings knew it.
Jennings went on to disparage any punishment the soldiers would get. He quoted the old saying, "soldiers are called on to defend democracy ... not practice it."
What foolishness. Of course democracy cannot be practiced in our military. Can you imagine an order being given to attack and then putting it up for a vote?
If Jennings is not a traitor to this country (his country now), he is as close as one can be. It is just this type of irresponsible and slanted so-called "journalism" that gets our warriors killed. Jennings ought to be ashamed of himself.
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