Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (39998)	4/18/2004 5:41:32 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 793914

The reporter could have given us a story on what Franks had to say. But he gets wound up in defending the media. Gen. Franks attacks press April 18, 2004 Corpus Christi News Having labored in the vineyards of the journalism farm for more than three decades, I've always been of the mind that no one cares how many thorns we encounter or how much sweat falls from our brow. If a reporter has to cool his heels for hours before the great person is ready to give an interview and then endure any number of slights to get the story, I don't believe the reader cares, or that the press is under any obligation to pass that on. Like Tommy Lee Jones encountering "The Fugitive" Harrison Ford who professes "I didn't kill my wife," I, too, say, "I don't care" to the ordinary obstacles that a journalist encounters in getting a story. The point is to get the story in the best possible way for the reader. But after hearing Gen. Tommy Franks last week at Spohn's Lyceum, I do care. He started his speech by saying, "Is there anyone from the media here? Let's get after them suckers." Those may have been the kindest words he uttered about the press that night. I admire the service of Gen. Franks. As introducer Marc Cisneros noted, Franks rose from the enlisted ranks to become the general in charge of the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. This is a man who has put his life on the line in service to this country. And he has led Americans who are not only willing to do the same, but have done so. Cisneros noted that he, also a retired Army general, and Franks had been in Vietnam during the Tet offensive. Well, I, too, was in Uncle Sam's Army in Vietnam during the Tet offensive, and that may be one of the few things that Franks and I share. It's obvious that we have different views of how democracy and a free press are supposed to work. Franks peppered his speech with remarks that made the press, with special attention to CNN, somehow an obstacle to peace in Iraq. But the clincher was his belief that if not for the press's criticism of the White House and skewed view, in his eyes, of what was happening in Iraq, the renewed fighting in Iraq would not have occurred. I've become inured to politicians sniping at the press. There is a natural tension between people who produce smoke and those who want to blow it away. But Franks is one of those Americans who is attempting to plant the tree of democracy in Iraq, where it has never flourished before. If he misunderstands the role of the press and need for open and free discussion in a democracy, then we are lost in our Iraq efforts. Frank's view that the news media are the enemy is a dangerous thing. Or, in the same vein, that college professors are the enemy. Or that writers are the enemy, as well as movie makers. In other words, the enemy is anyone who engages in a thought critical of the nation's leaders. The beauty of democracy is that ideas have to withstand the scrutiny of the public forum. And sometimes it isn't pretty, or even comfortable. And unlike soldiers who snap crisply to attention, the press is unruly and skeptical by nature. The press is an imperfect thing, too, but professional journalists work hard to get the best information they can. And they have done their work in Iraq in the face of great danger; 13 journalists died in Iraq last year. We're all trying to make sense of what's going on in Iraq. The insurgents, Franks and the administration say, are only a minority. Perhaps, but it bears noting that a single individual set in motion the train of events that destroyted Imperial Russia. That man was Lenin. Franks deserves our salute and a standing ovation for a job well-done. Without Americans like Tommy Franks on our side, it would be a much more dangerous world for us. But don't ask him to explain democracy and the press.

To: LindyBill who wrote (39998)	4/18/2004 5:52:16 PM
From: Ish	Respond to of 793914

<<The Iraqis killed are always described as communicants on their way to pray. Yeah. Sure. >> They are!! Just stopped off on the way to the Mosque to climb on a rooftop and pop a few caps. Shooters get killed and someone grabs their gun and ammo, then they become civilians.