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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Why nobody trusts the media anymore (one of a series) |
| 2008-02-03 |
| Forty Years of the Tet Offensive David Warren, Real Clear Politics . . . The tide was actually turned within a few days by the U.S. and South Vietnamese armies. As they re-took town after town, they discovered massacres the Communists had committed while in possession. The enemy's real object had been to decapitate a whole society. My friend, Uwe Siemon-Netto, a German Lutheran pastor and also life-long journalist, was there as a reporter. Entering Hué as the smoke was clearing: “I made my way to university apartments to obtain news about friends of mine, German professors at the medical school. I learned that their names had been on lists containing some 1,800 Hué residents singled out for liquidation. “Six weeks later the bodies of doctors Alois Altekoester, Raimund Discher, Horst-Guenther Krainick, and Krainick's wife, Elisabeth, were found in shallow graves they had been made to dig for themselves. “Then, enormous mass graves of women and children were found. Most had been clubbed to death, some buried alive; you could tell from the beautifully manicured hands of women who had tried to claw out of their burial place. “As we stood at one such site, Washington Post correspondent Peter Braestrup asked an American TV cameraman, 'Why don't you film this?' He answered, 'I am not here to spread anti-communist propaganda'.” . . . |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #14 My motto regarding the media is the same motto a good banker uses in processing loan requests - "Don't believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see." Well, that was the motto until a few years ago when anyone could get a loan, and now they have a mess on thier hands. |
| Posted by: www 2008-02-03 22:50 |
| #13 I got to Viet Nam the first time about six weeks after the 68 Tet. Everyone in the 4ID was talking about how we kicked their butts....hard. The VC never were able to field anything much larger than a squad sized unit thereafter. The fight was fought exclusively by the NVA. There were articles in Time Magazine about the mass graves in Hue. We heard all about it. I was surprised how several thousand Vietnamese in a mass grave wasn't newsworthy. Of course, it was who did the killing. We accidentialyy napalm a group of refugees and it is on the front page of the Times. We gave away that country and we gave away thousands of lives. Much as the leftist and communists in the news media are doing today with Iraq. It is funny how a major victory by the US forces in the Tet could get spun into a defeat by a few television correspondents who never left Saigon. |
| Posted by: Junior Assistant Sock Puppet of Doom 2008-02-03 22:43 |
| #12 About year ago or maybe more I began to challenge every leftist or Paleo by first casting them as HATERS of America and depending on the topic HATERS of Israel. Right off the bat, as the first order of business in most cases. Interesting, I've only recently started doing the same thing. Amazing how well it works. I've also taken to telling Libtards and traveling companions they are Patriotically Incorrect. You should see their eyes roll around in their heads as they parse that. First the traitors, then the enemy! |
| Posted by: Grease Dark Lord of the Algonquins9226 2008-02-03 22:28 |
| #11 Hell, I even question the ads, and I know what they're selling |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-02-03 20:26 |
| #10 I feel exactly the same way SteveS. I will *never* trust the media for anything ever again. I was even more stunned when I found that soon after Tet the NVA were ready to talk peace but Hanoi Jane talked them out of it and Walter Cronkite's outright lies (that we, the USA, had suffered a 'stunning defeat') on the nightly news convinced them to continue. Walter Cronkite and his MSM (along with Hanoi Jane) were responsible for the extension of the war and the deaths of hundreds of soldiers and most likely thousands of civilians. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2008-02-03 19:35 |
| #9 THe Communists tried a takeover of Hollywood after 1945 for its capacity in molding public opinion. Thay were clumsy, alienated the even lef wing people like Bogart and ended failiing. Wouldn't have been logical to infiltrate something who is far more influent than Holywood ie the press. |
| Posted by: JFM 2008-02-03 17:48 |
| #8 If we had the same type of reporters in WWII We did and they often were the same reporters. The difference was the Nazis attacked the Communists in June 1941. |
| Posted by: ed 2008-02-03 16:08 |
| #7 “As we stood at one such site, Washington Post correspondent Peter Braestrup asked an American TV cameraman, 'Why don't you film this?' He answered, 'I am not here to spread anti-communist propaganda'.” . . . My, how the press has changed. Today, you can't find one who would ask the question in the first place. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2008-02-03 15:46 |
| #6 Therre's a famous (or maybe not so famous) story of Robert Tregaskis, the author of Guadalcanal Diary commenting to David Halberstam about the mendacious conduct of the American press (ptui)in Viet Nam: "I don't know how you people sleep at night." |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2008-02-03 15:05 |
| #5 mini rant, 2¢ worth: Because we are at WAR with every Commie, Socialist, Leftest, every Islamist, every EU-bureaucrat, and almost every Media Clone new or old.... About year ago or maybe more I began to challenge every leftist or Paleo by first casting them as HATERS of America and depending on the topic HATERS of Israel. Right off the bat, as the first order of business in most cases. I no longer begin by relating to these folks that I may have personal knowledge or attempt to lay out some historical facts to them unless some individual truly desires to exchange ideas [a rare situation indeedy]. Surprisingly this armchair battle-strategy works on a couple of levels. 1) It feels good to honestly nail the fuckers even if they are only brainwashed fools without malice. 2) It rightly re-orientates the conversation to the salient facts concerning the motives of the Haters. |
| Posted by: RD 2008-02-03 13:59 |
| #4 It is tragic that he didn't say who that "American TV cameraman" worked for. I would love to know which network. It had to be ABC, NBC, or CBS. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-02-03 13:14 |
| #3 If we had the same type of reporters in WWII we might have quit after the Battle of Bulge and certainly after Iwo Jima. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2008-02-03 13:00 |
| #2 I personally was stunned and amazed to learn Tet was not an overwhelming military victory for the Commies, but rather a last dying gasp. Of course, back then we all got our news from the mainstream media and Walter Cronkite. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2008-02-03 12:45 |
| #1 This is the work of the US Congress. |
| Posted by: newc 2008-02-03 11:29 |