I've been in this very unpleasant repartee with a list of Metairie Republicans -- several of whom were high school friends back in the 80's over the past few days. Today the following message was forwarded to the list.
Follow me over the fold for the internet message I received on that list today regarding alleged reporting dishonesty by Martha Raddatz.
While there's a lot I can say about my experience with this list in the past few days, I'm going to leave that out since I'm so angry I could just spit right now. Better to cool down and remember quietly.
Here I will just show the message:
Subject: Media!
Received this from old friend Mike ___ - and I thank him for it. I don't suppose it will surprise many of you. As to the 'moral of the story' at the end, there's an old Southern expression: "Well, DUH!"
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(This was forwarded to me by a trusted source.)
My niece, Katelyn, stationed at Baluud, Iraq was assigned, with others of her detachment, to be escort/guard/watcher for Martha Raddatz of ABC News as she covered John McCain's recent trip to Iraq.
Katelyn and her Captain stood directly behind Raddatz as she queried GI's walking past. They kept count of the GI's and you should remember these numbers. She asked 60 GI's who they planned to vote for in November. 54 said John McCain, 4 for Obama and 2 for Hillary.
Katelyn called home and told her Mom and Dad to watch ABC news the next night because she was standing directly behind Raddatz and maybe they'd see her on TV. Mom and Dad of course, called and emailed all the kinfolk to watch the newscast and maybe see Katelyn.
Well, of course, we all watched and what we saw wasn't a glimpse of Katelyn, but got a hell'uva view of skewed news.
After a dissertation on McCain's trip and speech, ABC showed 5 GI's being asked by Raddatz how they were going to vote in November; 3 for Obama and 2 for Clinton. No mention of the 54 for McCain.
William Breece
Moral of this story:
Do not believe ALL Audio, Video, Text, or Graphics our media presents us!
While I could certainly believe journalists would alter reality, I find it hard to believe that any sampling of US forces in Iraq would find such 90% support for McCain. If someone believes it is possible in certain units, I'm open to correction on that point. For my money, it's more likely that the internet message is inaccurate than that Martha Raddatz misrepresented any such set of interviews.
So, I sent it to the Obama campaign, and figure it's up to them to do anything more about it now. Now I share it with you - and hope you counter it if it hits your inbox.