Nets Exploit Marine Deaths to Prove Ohioans Turning Against War --8/5/2005

1. Nets Exploit Marine Deaths to Prove Ohioans Turning Against War
The deaths in Iraq of several Marine reservists from one Ohio unit led CBS and NBC to exploit the tragedies as they cited anecdotes from one or two people, and a four-month-old poll, to prove that in Ohio, in the words of CBS's Byron Pitts, "there is growing anger over what this war has cost in lives." Pitts posed the question: "Is the war in Iraq still worth it? That's the question" the parents of a killed Marine "now ask." Pitts concluded that "people here clearly still support the warriors, but many now question the war." NBC Nightly News anchor Campbell Brown asserted that "sentiment is turning against the war in this political swing state as the death toll climbs." As proof, Carl Quintanilla went back four months to cite how "a majority of Ohioans -- 53 percent -- disapproved of the President's Iraq policy as of April." Quintanilla maintained that Ohio "nearly awarded a congressional seat to an underdog Democrat in a safe Republican district," and so "some analysts see early signs of a shift." On CNN, Bill Schneider similarly hyped the Democratic loss: "Democratic war critic Paul Hackett very nearly won an upset victory in a heavily Republican congressional district."

2. AP: Unborn Panda "Baby," But with Human Unborn Child a "Fetus"
"Life Begins at Conception -- If You're a Panda," James Taranto noted Wednesday, in the OpinionJournal.com's "Best of the Web" column, in contrasting how August 3 AP dispatches described the offspring of a panda versus a brain-dead woman who was kept on life support until the entity inside her could survive outside the womb. One AP story referred to how "a 13-year-old giant panda gave birth to a cub at San Diego Zoo, but a second baby died in the womb, officials said Wednesday." Another dispatch cited how "a cancer-ravaged woman robbed of consciousness by a stroke has given birth after being kept on life support for three months to give her fetus extra time to develop." Subsequently, however, the AP updated its stories so that the terms were reversed. The "second baby" panda became the "second fetus" and the woman's "fetus" became "the child she was carrying."

3. Film Reviewer Blames U.S. for "Tens of Thousands" of Iraqi Deaths
Weekend-connected left-wing rant, first of two. Reviewing the new action movie Stealth last Friday, the Boston Globe's Ty Burr, a veteran of Time-Warner's Entertainment Weekly magazine, wrote that he could only "recommend it to any and all audiences lacking higher brain functions. Sea cucumbers, perhaps. Ones waving American flags." Burr complained "that this is exactly the sort of movie we don't need right now: a delusional military fantasy in which collateral damage doesn't exist." He inserted his own personal political views as he angrily spouted: "For a movie to pretend, in the face of the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi men, women, and children directly or indirectly caused by our presence there, that we can wage war without anyone really getting hurt isn't naive, or wishful thinking, or a jim-dandy way to spend a Saturday night at the movies. It's an obscenity."

4. HBO Rant: "Oh God, What Are You? Like Some Red-Neck Blogger Pig?"
Weekend-connected left-wing rant, second of two. Sunday night on HBO's Six Feet Under, a drama revolving around a family which runs a funeral home, a major character launched into a rant about the "stupid, evil war" in Iraq and how "we didn't go to war to protect Iraqi civil liberties. That's just a lame justification." The young woman was soon yelling about the Abu Graib abuse and how "those orders came down from the top, the top! And there's memos to prove it!" The show's writers allowed her boyfriend, a minor character in the program, to disagree with, prompting her to spew: "Oh God, what are you? Like some red-neck blogger pig?"

Nets Exploit Marine Deaths to Prove Ohioans
Turning Against War

The deaths in Iraq of several Marine reservists from one Ohio unit led CBS and NBC to exploit the tragedies as they cited anecdotes from one or two people, and a four-month-old poll, to prove that in Ohio, in the words of CBS's Byron Pitts, "there is growing anger over what this war has cost in lives." Pitts posed the question: "Is the war in Iraq still worth it? That's the question" the parents of a killed Marine "now ask." Pitts concluded that "people here clearly still support the warriors, but many now question the war." NBC Nightly News anchor Campbell Brown asserted that "sentiment is turning against the war in this political swing state as the death toll climbs." As proof, Carl Quintanilla went back four months to cite how "a majority of Ohioans -- 53 percent -- disapproved of the President's Iraq policy as of April." Quintanilla maintained that Ohio "nearly awarded a congressional seat to an underdog Democrat in a safe Republican district," and so "some analysts see early signs of a shift." On CNN, Bill Schneider similarly hyped the Democratic loss: "Democratic war critic Paul Hackett very nearly won an upset victory in a heavily Republican congressional district."

Pitts teased his August 4 CBS Evening News story: "I'm Byron Pitts in Ohio, where there is growing anger over what this war has cost in lives."

Anchor Bob Schieffer set up the subsequent Pitts piece: "In his remarks today, President Bush also sent his personal condolences to Brook Park, Ohio. That's the home, of course, of the Marine unit that suffered so many casualties this week. He said the city has suffered mightily. Byron Pitts is there tonight."

Pitts began: "They were all reservists, part-time warriors, who paid freedom's full price. Paul Schroeder's son was one of them."
Paul Schroeder, father of Marine killed in Iraq: "Six weeks shy, you know? Six weeks shy."
Pitts: "Six weeks shy, that's when Lance Corporal Edward Augustine Schroeder would have come home."
Schroeder: "When I talked to him two weeks ago, he had just come back from 26 days in the field. And he said, 'You know, the closer we get to coming home, the less worth it this becomes.'"
Pitts: "Is the war in Iraq still worth it? That's the question Corporal Schroeder's parents now ask."
Rosemary Palmer, mother of Marine killed in Iraq: "The reason we're speaking out is because we want to make sure that his death counts for something."
Pitts, sitting in yard of a home, to the Schroeders: "You're not saying come home now?"
Paul Schroeder: "No, we're saying either do the job or come home."
Pitts: "The Schroeders believe there should be more troops in Iraq to crush the insurgents once and for all. And they're not the only ones. Brook Park, Ohio, is a place where patriotism is more then a punch line. Those dead Marines were neighbors. People here clearly still support the warriors, but many now question the war."
Unidentified woman: "What are they dying for? That's what I want to know."
Pitts: "And it's reservists who are dying at a high rate. So far, 409 Reservists and National Guardsmen have died in this war, compared to just 97 part-time soldiers killed during the entire Vietnam War."
Schroeder: "These are real people, and isn't it about time to say enough is enough?"
Pitts: "We spoke beneath an oak tree planted in the front yard the day their son was born."
Schroeder: "This oak tree is as old as he is. This is the Augie tree."
Pitts concluded: "Old trees, old pictures, mementos of a life loved ones hope was not lost in vain. Byron Pitts, CBS News, Brook Park, Ohio."

Quintanilla's NBC Nightly News story later also aired on MSNBC's Countdown, the MRC's Brad Wilmouth noticed. Anchor Alison Stewart introduced it with the premise that "the mounting body count from Iraq appears to be coinciding with a decline in the President's popularity within the Buckeye State."

Campbell Brown set up the airing on the NBC Nightly News: "Now to the fallout from the Marine deaths this week. Emotional and increasingly political fallout. Ohio has been hit very hard this week -- 20 Ohio-based Marines killed in two incidents. As NBC's Carl Quintanilla tells us, sentiment is turning against the war in this political swing state as the death toll climbs."

With "Turning Point?" on screen, Quintanilla noted: "In Ohio, a second wave of Marines' death notifications today reached the family of Lance Corporal Brett Wightman. On Monday he left this phone message:"
Audio of Lance Corporal Brett Wightman: "I'm just calling to see what's going on, tell you I'm all right. Talk to you later. Bye."
Quintanilla: "But 19 hours later, he was killed."
Pam Saville, mother of Lance Corporal Brett Wightman: "I just met him at the door and said, 'I already know.' And the chaplain said, 'That's what all of the mothers say.'"
Quintanilla, over pictures of several of those killed in Iraq: "Eighty-five Ohio natives have now been killed in Iraq, ranking the state fourth in the number of servicemen lost. Tim Rock's son, Nate, who was killed this week, was an ardent supporter of the war effort. But in his Rust Belt town of Toronto, Ohio, and across the state, a majority of Ohioans -- 53 percent -- disapproved of the President's Iraq policy as of April."
Unidentified man: "Been watching the polls lately, and you see it slipping. And what comes to my mind is like, wow, people are finally catching on."
Quintanilla: "Measuring the political fallout from those killed in action is delicate, some say tactless."
John Kerry at 2004 rally: "The world has a stake in the outcome of Iraq-"
Quintanilla: "But in a state that tipped the last presidential election, and that this week nearly awarded a congressional seat to an underdog Democrat in a safe Republican district, some analysts see early signs of a shift."
Prof. John Mueller, Ohio State University: "It's a very close state, so almost anything bad, from the Republican standpoint, could switch it over to the Democratic side."
George W. Bush in June: "The progress in the past year has been significant."
Quintanilla: "Loyal Republicans in Ohio say this week's casualties, while difficult, are part of a broader mission of protecting the nation."
Unidentified woman #1: "I feel like what we're doing is the right thing."
Quintanilla: "That sentiment now collides with a different one."
Unidentified woman #2: "This is getting to be ridiculous, all of our soldiers dying."
Quintanilla, over more pictures: "In a political bellwether state where the fallen are no longer just names, but neighbors. Carl Quintanilla, NBC News, Toronto, Ohio."

Earlier in the day Thursday, CNN's Inside Politics had picked up on the theme, the MRC's Megan McCormack observed. Anchor Ed Henry asserted: "The news from Iraq this week has been especially painful for many U.S. military families, with more than two dozen troops killed in action. Our senior political analyst Bill Schneider has more on signs that the ongoing operation in Iraq could become a political problem for Republicans here at home."

Schneider suddenly found Newt Gingrich to be a wise sage: "It's been a week of grim news from Iraq. Twenty seven Americans killed, bringing the total to 1825. A single Marine battalion based in Ohio lost at least fourteen members in two days. Republicans also faced some sobering political news from Ohio this week, where Democratic war critic Paul Hackett very nearly won an upset victory in a heavily Republican congressional district. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich called the Ohio election a wake up call for Republicans. Gingrich told the Washington Post, [on screen] 'there is more energy today on the anti-Iraq, anti-gas-price, anti-changing Social Security and I think anti-Washington side. I think the combination of those four are all redounding to weaken Republicans and help Democrats.' Back in 1994, the anti-Washington mood swept Democrats out of power, and swept Gingrich in. If he believes Republicans are now in trouble, it's worth paying attention. At least one analyst believes the concern may be overstated."
Rhodes Cook: "We're in an era now, unlike Watergate a generation ago, or even maybe ten years ago, that it's basically a safe incumbent era. There are very few seats that are really in play, barring a national trauma taking place."
Schneider: "Could Iraq become that national trauma? In a new CBS News poll, nearly 60 percent [59] of Americans say the war in Iraq was not worth the loss of American life and other costs. When American lives are lost, entire communities grieve. It dominates local news coverage for days."
[video of a local news story on deaths in Iraq]
Schneider resurrected the media tributes to one Republican Congressman: "Stories like that lead some voters to question what the U.S. is doing in Iraq. One of them was Republican Congressman Walter Jones from North Carolina."
Walter Jones, June 16: "When I attended Michael Bitz's funeral in April 2003, a Marine, who left three children, twins he never saw...on the way back to my little town of Farmville, North Carolina, I was emotional for seventy two miles."
Schneider: "In June, Representative Jones co-sponsored a resolution calling for the United States to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq by October 2006. That resolution now has 45 co-sponsors, including four Republicans. The public is split according to the CBS News poll over whether the U.S. is making progress in bringing stability and order to Iraq. It's not just losses that demoralize Americans. It's also the concern that not enough is being accomplished to make that sacrifice worthwhile."

AP: Unborn Panda "Baby," But with Human
Unborn Child a "Fetus"

"Life Begins at Conception -- If You're a Panda," James Taranto noted Wednesday, in the OpinionJournal.com's "Best of the Web" column, in contrasting how August 3 AP dispatches described the offspring of a panda versus a brain-dead woman who was kept on life support until the entity inside her could survive outside the womb. One AP story referred to how "a 13-year-old giant panda gave birth to a cub at San Diego Zoo, but a second baby died in the womb, officials said Wednesday." Another dispatch cited how "a cancer-ravaged woman robbed of consciousness by a stroke has given birth after being kept on life support for three months to give her fetus extra time to develop." Subsequently, however, the AP updated its stories so that the terms were reversed. The "second baby" panda became the "second fetus" and the woman's "fetus" became "the child she was carrying."

For Taranto's posting of the contrast: www.opinionjournal.com

Yahoo's AP posting of U.S. AP stories had the wording updated, as described above, but the Asian versions, with the original phrasing, remain posted.

# "Baby" panda version, August 3, 8:21pm: "Baby Giant Panda Born at San Diego Zoo." Lead of un-bylined story: "A 13-year-old giant panda gave birth to a cub at San Diego Zoo, but a second baby died in the womb, officials said Wednesday." See: asia.news.yahoo.com

# "Fetus" panda, August 3, 2:09pm: "Baby Giant Panda Born at San Diego Zoo." Lead: "A 13-year-old giant panda gave birth to a cub at San Diego Zoo, but a second fetus died in the womb, officials said Wednesday." See: news.yahoo.com

# Human "fetus," August 3 at 11:07am: "Brain-Dead Woman in Va. Gives Birth." Lead of un-bylined story: "A brain-dead pregnant woman who has been kept on life support for nearly three months to give her fetus more time to develop gave birth to a baby girl Tuesday, the woman's brother-in-law said." See: asia.news.yahoo.com

# Human "child," August 3, 7:18pm: "Brain-Dead Woman Dies After Giving Birth." Lead of article by Matthew Barakat: "A brain-dead woman who was kept alive for three months so she could deliver the child she was carrying was removed from life support Wednesday and died, a day after giving birth." See: news.yahoo.com

Film Reviewer Blames U.S. for "Tens of
Thousands" of Iraqi Deaths

Weekend-connected left-wing rant, first of two. Reviewing the new action movie Stealth last Friday, the Boston Globe's Ty Burr, a veteran of Time-Warner's Entertainment Weekly magazine, wrote that he could only "recommend it to any and all audiences lacking higher brain functions. Sea cucumbers, perhaps. Ones waving American flags." Burr complained "that this is exactly the sort of movie we don't need right now: a delusional military fantasy in which collateral damage doesn't exist." He inserted his own personal political views as he angrily spouted: "For a movie to pretend, in the face of the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi men, women, and children directly or indirectly caused by our presence there, that we can wage war without anyone really getting hurt isn't naive, or wishful thinking, or a jim-dandy way to spend a Saturday night at the movies. It's an obscenity."

Clay Waters, editor of the MRC's TimesWatch.org site (www.timeswatch.org ), alerted me to the politically-loaded July 29 review, "'Stealth' can't hide a major flaw." An excerpt:

Stealth is a pretty fair military-hardware action movie until you start thinking about it -- at which point it turns incredibly sour in your mouth. I can therefore recommend it to any and all audiences lacking higher brain functions. Sea cucumbers, perhaps. Ones waving American flags....

After the squadron's successful strike on a terrorist cell in Rangoon, EDI is hit by lightning, has its AI scrambled, and becomes jealous of Ben's prowess in the sky. The drone plane turns on the others and heads out to blow up a warlord's stockpile of moldering Russian nukes; Ben scrambles to reel the stray back in while Cummings plots how best to save his career. While ''Stealth" offers a superficial portrait of the "new Navy" -- white, black, female -- [Josh] Lucas quickly becomes the movie's blue-eyed top gun, while [Jamie] Foxx is sidelined and Biel's Kara has to bail out of her stalled Talon fighter. Over North Korea -- where else?

The sequence in which she plummets to earth, dodging the fireball remnants of her jet, is a pulse-quickening visual marvel, by far the strongest moment in the film. All the action sequences, in fact, are everything summer-movie fans could hope for: digitized bursts of retinal overstimulation that play like -- you guessed it -- a video game. EDI's in-cockpit taste for Incubus songs, written by the band for the film, provides the requisite music to pump fists by, although the duet with the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde over the final credits comes as a shock. Chrissie, honey, did you even read the script?...

The issue isn't the quality of the action scenes, because these days that's mostly what Hollywood is good for. The issue isn't even the lurking fears of Defense Department ordnance run amok that Stealth purports to address. The issue is that this is exactly the sort of movie we don't need right now: a delusional military fantasy in which collateral damage doesn't exist.

That initial strike involves dropping an "implosion bomb" on an apartment building in downtown Rangoon that's miraculously occupied only by the terrorists; the cute kids next door remain unhurt. Later, when EDI's assault on the warlord causes radioactive dust to drift over a nearby village, Kara calls in the medics to relieve the terrified villagers -- with what? Gatorade? -- and that's the last we hear of that. Oh, a few North Korean soldiers get killed, but they're as one-dimensional as Purcell's willowy Thai girlfriend (Jaipetch Toonchalong), who nods and smiles uncomprehendingly as he mumbles about the human cost of war.

Am I spoiling the party? Harshing the high-flying flyboy buzz? Tough. For a movie to pretend, in the face of the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi men, women, and children directly or indirectly caused by our presence there, that we can wage war without anyone really getting hurt isn't naive, or wishful thinking, or a jim-dandy way to spend a Saturday night at the movies. It's an obscenity.

END of Excerpt

For the July 29 Boston Globe review in full: www.boston.com
The Globe's bio of Burr reports: "Ty Burr is the film critic for the Boston Globe, a position he has held since July 2002. For ten years prior to that, he worked for Entertainment Weekly as the magazine's chief video critic, and also covered film, music, theater, books, and the internet. He began his career at Home Box Office in the 1980s, serving as an in-house 'film evaluator.'"

For that bio in full and links to Burr's recent reviews: www.boston.com

The plot outline for Stealth, as provided by the Internet Movie Database: "Deeply ensconced in a top-secret military program, three pilots struggle to bring an artificial intelligence program under control...before it initiates the next world war." For IMDb's page on the film: www.imdb.com

For the movie studio's (Sony) Web site for Stealth: www.sonypictures.com

HBO Rant: "Oh God, What Are You? Like
Some Red-Neck Blogger Pig?"

Weekend-connected left-wing rant, second of two. Sunday night on HBO's Six Feet Under, a drama revolving around a family which runs a funeral home, a major character launched into a rant about the "stupid, evil war" in Iraq and how "we didn't go to war to protect Iraqi civil liberties. That's just a lame justification." The young woman was soon yelling about the Abu Graib abuse and how "those orders came down from the top, the top! And there's memos to prove it!" The show's writers allowed her boyfriend, a minor character in the program, to disagree with, prompting her to spew: "Oh God, what are you? Like some red-neck blogger pig?"

[Be warned, this item includes an accurate quotation of a vulgarity.]

On the July 31 episode of the weekly HBO drama, "Claire Fisher" (played by Lauren Ambrose), a struggling artist just out of college who is the sister of two brothers who run a Los Angeles funeral home after the passing of their father, goes on a date with a lawyer at a law firm where she is temping.

Sitting at a table at a fancy restaurant, Claire frets that "we've stumbled upon a Republican nest" and she worries Nancy Reagan might walk in.

Claire then asserts: "Here they feel safe in their fancy restaurant while that stupid, evil war goes on and on."
Her boyfriend counters: "Stupid and evil. I don't think so."
Claire: "Right."
Boyfriend: "We eliminated a murdering asshole dictator. And now we're establishing democracy, which of course takes time. But we have to stabilize the Middle East. War was inevitable."
Claire: "You're not serious?"
Boyfriend: "Of course I'm serious." [Claire glares]

After an unrelated scene involving other characters, the show returned to the restaurant, picking up mid-argument:

Boyfriend: "You don't think they wanted a free election? Did you see those pictures? They were dancing in the streets. Literally."
Claire: "That doesn't mean they wanted to be invaded and slaughtered. I mean I saw the pictures from Abu Ghraib too and nobody was fucking dancing there."
Boyfriend: "That was an isolated group of disturbed individuals."
Claire, angry and pointing: "Oh, don't give me that. Those orders came down from the top, the top! And there's memos to prove it!"
Boyfriend: "Wow. The world is corrupt. How can that be? Freedom isn't free."
Claire: "Oh God, what are you? Like some red-neck blogger pig?"
Boyfriend: "Okay, come on, name one right, one civil liberty that doesn't have blood all over it, that people haven't fought and died for?"
Claire: "Ah, we didn't go to war to protect Iraqi civil liberties. That's just a lame justification."
Boyfriend: "I didn't say it was just, but that's the way human beings make progress. We're violent. It's our nature. It's a little naive to expect anything different."
Claire: "So you just rationalize away all moral responsibility? I guess you learned that in law school."

That was it for the argument as Claire soon learned that one of her brothers had collapsed and he died at the end of the episode, knocking off a major character as the show approaches the end of its five-year run on HBO.

HBO's page for Six Feet Under, which first runs at 9pm EDT/PDT on Sunday nights and repeats throughout the week (above-quoted episode will air again Saturday night): www.hbo.com

The show was created by Alan Ball of American Beauty movie fame. For a list of the producers and writers: www.hbo.com

The page on the "Claire Fisher" character: www.hbo.com

HBO's bio for actress Lauren Ambrose: www.hbo.com

Check the posted version of this CyberAlert item for a still shot of "Claire" in full rant.

# One last thing: You can get a sneak peak at the MRC's new blog, NewsBusters, set to launch next week: www.newsbusters.org

For video and comment on the Bob Novak incident Thursday on CNN, check my blog page: newsbusters.org

-- Brent Baker