Tag: Press Coverage

Iraq: Obama Creeps Into Action

Everyone has been yelling that Obama needs to make up his mind on what action he will deploy for the Iraq situation……..some want massive military action…..while others want as limited interference as possible…..and then there are people like me that want Iraq to handle their problem…..

Who got their way in yesterday’s presser on the situation in Iraq?

President Obama said today he’s sending 300 US “military advisers” to Iraq as Islamic extremists threaten to overtake Baghdad, reports the AP. Obama reiterated that he will not send regular ground troops and dismissed a concern about “mission creep” in response to a question: “American combat troops are not going to be fighting in Iraq again,” he insisted. But, he added, the US “will be prepared to take targeted and precise military action if we conclude the situation on the ground requires it,” reports the New York Times.

The new US team also could provide intelligence and guide future airstrikes should the US decide to unleash them. Obama again pressured President Nouri al-Maliki to work toward a political solution—one that includes Sunnis and Kurds—amid reports that the US would like to see him go. “It is in our national security interest not to see an all-out civil war in Iraq,” said Obama; his remarks followed a meeting with his national security team.

300 advisers to Iraq to handle training and intel (no doubt)………does that settle exactly what the US will do in the recent Iraqi situation?  NOT for me, sports fans!  Why?  It is an all too familiar scenario…..does anyone recall a little disturbance a few years back?  I am talking about Vietnam….our first troops in that country were advisers to the army and it escalated into a full fledged involvement……

My next problem with the comments in the presser is…..”It is a situation that the Iraqis must solve for themselves”……..to quote the prez…..

Now let me ask……what if the solution does not meet with US approval?  What then? Will an Iraqi solution need American approval?

What Happened To The Nerd Fest?

We know what I think of most of the media and the coverage of the stories of the day…that they drive the worthless conversation and seldom make politics answer questions but instead allow an endless diatribe on the day’s talking points……

The Nerd Fest?  Yep that is what the Correspondents Dinner use to be called….why?  I was just the journalists, their family, some minor celebrities and some low level government speakers….in other words it was just a dinner where the journalists slapped each other on the back and schmoozed a bit…..but all that changed!

Now the Correspondents Dinner is a gala affair….a must have ticket….the A list…..you get the point…..it is the place to be on that specific night…Dana Millbank observes…..

Dana Millbank points out the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner “was a minor annoyance for years, when it was a ‘nerd prom’ for journalists and a few minor celebrities. But, as with so much else in this town, the event has spun out of control… With the proliferation of A-list parties and the infusion of corporate and lobbyist cash, Washington journalists give Americans the impression we have shed our professional detachment and are aspiring to be like the celebrities and power players we cover. “

I have been bitching about the lack of real news offered up by those journalist that cover our politics….and this dinner is why we do NOT get the news we can use……power, money, celebrity…the media is just as bought as our politicians……another reason why I get better info from the papers of the UK…..

I mean come on….when you see a noted journalists having a dance with the chief of WH staff and rapping to each other…..then our news has become the joke that our political system has become…….professional political journalism is DEAD!  All in all a pathetic lack of professionalism!  Long live the Beck’s of the airwaves! (that was sarcasm)……..

A Free Press Is Not As Free

One of our most important freedoms is the freedom of the press.  Some say that a free press is a indicator of a true democratic society.  Just how is the world doing with the free press thing?  “Global declines in press freedom” persisted last year, with setbacks highlighted in Israel, Italy, Taiwan, Hong Kong and elsewhere across the world, an annual survey said Friday.

Freedom House, a nongovernmental organization that supports democracy and freedom of the media, said in its annual press freedom survey that “negative trends” outweighed “positive movements in every region, particularly in the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and North Africa.”

“This marked the seventh straight year of overall deterioration. Improvements in a small number of countries — including bright spots in parts of South Asia and Africa — were overshadowed by a continued, relentless assault on independent news media by a wide range of actions, in both authoritarian states and countries with very open media environments.”

It seems that most of the slide is from countries that are tied closely with the US, so why cannot we use our influence to make it a freer press society?

The Hiding Of Sarah Palin

John McCain’s campaign essentially confirmed over the weekend what some had suspected: Media access to Sarah Palin, would-be vice president of the United States, will be tightly controlled.

Troublemakers need not apply.

And how will we know those troublemakers? They will be the ones unwilling to treat the governor of Alaska with what campaign manager Rick Davis called “some level of respect and deference.”

Deference?

The dictionary definitions I find begin with “respectful submission” and “yielding.”
But it would be wrong — and, dare I say it, even sexist — to suggest that Sarah Barracuda is too meek for a little back-and-forth with the denizens of the Fourth Estate.

Early this year, voters (and a certain “Saturday Night Live” skit) rightly smacked news outlets for falling captive to the Barack Obama “rock star” narrative. They demanded to know more about the Democrat than that he had a knack for drawing big crowds and delivering inspiring speeches.

Those complaints and a time-honored primary season tradition — reporters boring in on candidates after they become front-runners — helped spur a tougher look at Obama. Stories examined his fundraising, picking over his ties to shady fundraiser Antoin Rezko; detailed his apparent comfort in the bare-knuckle world of Chicago politics; and described his awkward attempts to downplay his opposition to the military “surge” in Iraq, even as it appeared to be having some success.
Even without that flimsy standard, Gibson should have no trouble finding the justification to ask Palin a few of these questions:

* You have been skeptical that global warming is caused by humans. On what basis do you reject the scientific consensus that fossil fuels and human activity have contributed to climate change?

* You asked the librarian in your town about the policy for banning books. Are there books you think should be kept from the public?

* You have claimed credit for killing the “bridge to nowhere,” the $398-million link between Ketchikan and Gravina Island. Didn’t you support it until it was clear Congress was not willing to pay for the much-ridiculed project?

* You have said students should be allowed to “debate both sides” of evolution. Should creationism be taught alongside evolution in the public schools? Do you believe in evolution?

* What’s at the root of the terrorist problem in Pakistan? And how would you make progress, which has eluded the Bush administration, in that dangerous country?

* Your opponents claim you and McCain would just extend the Bush administration for another four years. Cite three instances in which you have differed with the president.

These comments were written int LA Times