CONFUSION AT CNN

An email from the Web:
Martin Savidge of CNN was embedded with the Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq. One morning he talked on the air with four young marines near his foxhole. He told how well the marines looked out for his safety, of the many hardships they endured since the war began, and how they look after each other.

He turned to the marines and said he had cleared it with their C.O. for them to use his video phone to call home. The 19 year old next to him asked Martin if it was alright for his platoon sergeant to use his call instead. The marine pointed out that his sergeant had not talked to his pregnant wife in three months. A stunned Savidge nodded approval as the young man ran off to get his sergeant.

Savidge recovered and turned back to the men still waiting and asked who would be first. One spoke up without hesitation "Sir, if its all the same, we would like to call the parents of a buddy of ours, Lance Cpl Buesing, that was killed near Nasiriya to see how they're doing." [Lance Cpl Brian Buesing of Cedar Key, Florida was killed 3-23-03.]

For a moment Savidge was speechless. He cleared his throat and said before signing off, "Where do they get young men like this?"

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I received several versions of the above story so I assume it happened. I know that the gist of it is accurate because most of the young people in our military today would react like the marines above and Savidge and other members of the Elite Media would be surprised and confused. People that spend their lives in ivory towers and at cocktail parties with ultra-liberals are apt to be out of touch with a real America filled with decency and courtesy.

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Recently Savidge's network, CNN, announced that it will no longer carry live speeches by U.S. presidents to its international audience because "CNN is an international news organization and doesn't want to appear to favor any particular political group or ideology." [That's an euphemism for "We're un-American but we might lose our U.S. audience if we admit it."]

Now lets see if CNN carries through with their logic. Does the new policy mean that, in America, we no longer have to watch speeches from leaders in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Libya, Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other theocratic Muslim countries?

The announcement not to carry speeches of American presidents came two weeks after CNN acknowledged that, following the first Gulf War, it made a deal with Saddam Hussein's regime to keep CNN in Iraq. The secret agreement allowed CNN to maintain a bureau in Baghdad as long as CNN toed the propaganda line of Hussein's Ba'ath Party.

Another problem: CNN also can't comprehend the difference between:

BRAVERY VS. FOOLISHNESS

Al-Jazeera West (a.k.a. CNN) had other "reporters" in Iraq. New Zealander Bret Saddler was in the north. Two days before the marines arrived in Tikrit he and his crew left Mosul and headed south in a 7-car convoy. The entourage arrived at the outskirts of Tikrit and didn't see any hostile forces. They rode up and down the main highway 3 miles from the city and finally decided to hide out overnight.

The following day (24 hours before the marines arrived) they continued scouting the main highway and Saddler began a three-hour live broadcast. He announced that they were ahead of the coalition forces; there was no resistance; they were "in front of the tip of the arrow."

He led his convoy through two abandoned Iraqi army posts and provided a running commentary on what he found: old tanks, armored vehicles with loaded 50 caliber machine guns, and tons of Saddam's ammunition.

The images from his satellite phone were hazy-green but he described in great detail what he saw and explained that he was ahead of the coalition; he was "in front of the tip of the arrow;" he was sure that he and his crew were the first non-Iraqis to see that the enemy had left and the coalition forces could just "walk right in." He went on -- over-and-over -- implying that Centcom must be exaggerating the dangers in Tikrit or maybe Centcom was incompetent.

In the three-hour broadcast Saddler mentioned that he was "in front of the tip of the arrow" at least ten times.

Finally, headed south (with Tikrit on his left) he halted his convoy by a ramp leading up to an over-pass (he called it a 'fly-over') that branched off the highway into the city. They were about 3 miles from city-center. Continuing his commentary, he pondered whether they should go into town. Anderson Cooper, the anchor in Atlanta, reminded him that they were being seen live around the world but Saddler seemed to think that the broadcast was on closed-circuit.

As he stood pondering his next move, a small white car came out from Tikrit and stopped on the road opposite Saddler's vehicles. The driver motioned them over, told them he was a school teacher from Tikrit, and that everything was under control in town. The 'teacher' offered to lead Saddler's convoy into the city and naturally Saddler accepted the generous hospitality.

The 'teacher' pulled his car across the road and headed up the ramp. Leaving five vehicles behind, Saddler took two cars and followed. At the city limits they came to a checkpoint and were told they would have to register with the broadcast ministry in town. They continued on until the 'teacher' quickly pulled over and stopped. Another car suddenly pulled up beside them and Saddler and crew were greeted by several thugs with automatic rifles. ... As Gomer Pyle might say, surprise, surprise.

Saddler's drivers quickly wheeled around and floored the pedals as gunfire erupted. They quickly passed the city limits checkpoint and guards there opened fire. Saddler's bodyguards fired back. Just past the checkpoint another car overtook them and its occupants began firing pistol shots into their cars and again Saddler's guards returned fire but his drivers didn't slow down, ... they found more speed.

The five waiting cars had been monitoring events and maneuvered around so that the two escaping cars could merge in. The whole convoy raced back up the main highway at top speed. ... It was a sight to behold. The convoy stopped briefly to show off damages -- bullet holes, missing windows, holes in flak jackets, a driver with a slight head wound -- then jumped back in their cars and raced north. The broadcast ended with the convoy headed back toward Mosul at about 100mph. ... They were no longer "ahead of the tip of the arrow."

At the Centcom briefing the next day, Gen. Vincent Brooks casually mentioned that, days earlier, Special Ops had identified abandoned army bases and equipment that was to be preserved for the new Iraqi army and that non-embedded news organizations should exercise simple caution before going off to explore on their own.

Also the next day, CNN ran clips from the episode but carefully omitted the part that showed the foolish way Saddler had got himself into such a fix. Naturally, CNN's editing made the whole thing look heroic. -- But now, ... WE know the rest of the story.

CNN DOENS'T HAVE A MONOPOLY ON FOOLISH BEHAVIOR

Fox aired an episode on Thursday, April 17.

I'm sure you remember Steve Harrigan's reporting from Afghanistan. He became semi-famous as a voice behind a pair of eyes glowing from bunkers as he covered the Northern Alliance before serious combat began.

Early in Operation Iraqi Freedom Harrigan reported from Jordan but by the time the following episode occurred he had moved to Baghdad.

After arriving in Baghdad he decided to investigate rumors that high-ranking thugs from Saddam's regime were escaping to Syria. However, he had apparently missed Centcom's announcements that coalition Special Ops personnel were stationed along the border to intercept people headed for Syria.

Whether he's deaf or just foolish I'll leave to you but, whatever the case, he decided to be a hero so he took off towards Syria. Naturally, as he neared the border, someone shot up his vehicles. He stopped the cars and did an on-camera standup complaining about "bandits" shooting from the surrounding hills. He didn't bother to explain why the bandits didn't come on down and rob them. ... They just shot up the cars with hits low around the edges. One slug was lodged in a bumper. No windows were broken and no shots seem to be aimed into the cars.

Harrigan wasn't satisfied. He decided to push on toward Syria and a mile farther, more shots came from "bandits" but again he wasn't robbed or otherwise bothered in any other way. Nevertheless, he got the message and returned to the safety of Baghdad.

Back in Baghdad he filed another report on the attacks by "bandits" but he didn't explain why there were "bandits" near the Syrian border shooting up vehicles headed west and he never explained how "bandits" could hit the bottom edges (bumpers, fenders) of automobiles but not put shots inside.

Who knows, maybe one day back in his home town one of those "bandits" will buy him a beer.

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P.S., I'm an admirer of Harrigan and his reporting. During this war, I developed high admiration for Greg Kelly, Rick Leventhal, Ollie North and Bob Arnot. Most of the embedded reporters were very good and they provided a great service for loved ones back home, for military commanders, and for the American public. The "internationalist" Elite who stayed in Baghdad, or refused invitations to be embedded, and denied allegiance to their countries, are despicable creatures unworthy of a second thought.

Does anyone besides me remember Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally? They went to jail after WW II but if they had used the Elite Media's argument of today they could have said that they were just covering the war from a different angle.

. . . . . . . . . . . . Frank Laughter