This morning on the "Today" show . . .

[Calvinist Basset]

One of the reporters interviewed a husband and wife who are both serving in Iraq. Meanwhile, their 4-year-old child is being cared for by a grandmother.

The whole focus of the interview was on the so-called heroic sacrifice they're making for the service of their country. At no point did anyone bring up the lack of wisdom or poor morality exhibited by a nation that intentionally puts a couple into combat when they have a child at home.

Am I the only person concerned by the fact that this child could potentially become an orphan because of their simultaneous deployment? Yeah, sure, the two parents aren't working in the same location--but what wisdom is there to putting them both in active service at the same time?

[NewHampshireDem]

1. If we had an official, state-run media, how would it be any different

from what we have right now?

These kinds of 'news' stories are straight out of Orwell.

[pretzel4gore]

9. publicly funded media often criticise gov

cuz even if the journos fired, they always have corporate or alternative media to fall back on...the thatcher/reagan and in canada, mulroney 'revolution' had one thing in common: the public funding of the pbs etc were cut to bone, creating dog eat dog atmosphere (fertile soil for creating mediawhores, which was idea) and eventually rightwing management..
the soviet/china/cuba style 'state run' monoply medias are different in that democracy hasn't been a factor...freedom creates a daring and a creativity the old soviet media for example, was such a silly contrast with....remember when our media mocked theirs? Now ours is worse, in terms of effectiveness (no one ever complained about the effectiveness of the NCNA or Radio Moscow etc!)

[Racenut20]

2. In the BushHoover economy they probably need the job.

[Shopaholic]

3. Good point.

Personally, if I see one more story where they show some poor SOB who has had his arms/legs/etc. blown off and who claims to want nothing more than to return to Iraq to fight again with his comrades, I'm going to hurl. How long do they have to search to find these people who claim this sort of thing???? We know that soliders on the ground in Iraq are not happy about what's going on there and we know that they are in the majority--so why the hell do we keep hearing these "feel good" stories like this instead? That was a rhetorical question by the way. I know it's because the military contractors (a la GE, the owner of NBC) need more bodies to go and fight the wars which will enrich their corporate coffers. And that's the way it is, as Walter Cronkite (a guy who'd give it to you straight) used to say. I hope these media whores are held accountable one day for their complicity in sending thousands to their death with their "feel good" stories and bullshit like this.

[ElectroPrincess]

4. Gee ...

I'd get on the "Patriotic Looky at Those Heroes" media frenzied bandwagon IF ONLY all those young college republicans would ALL go down to their local recruiting office and enlist for service in Iraq.

Now there's a HEROIC action: Put your life on the line of your ideological beliefs instead of sending the working class youth to die for the wealthy and connected.

[thecorster]

5. Fuckin A

[spanone]

6. I can't watch the good feely homespun loving 'Today Show'

It is a total spoof of the true America.

[Kota]

7. And this administration pushes the two parents thing.

I can't believe people would make a choice like this. And their family would go along with it.

[Skarbrowe]

8. During the WW2 my step-father was exempt because he

was raising four children. The mother and other relatives were alive, but, he had custody. NOW, they will send the mother and the father regardless of how many children are left at home alone. It's insane. Remember when the Sullivan brothers were all killed on a ship so they made a rule that relatives couldn't at least serve on the same ship at the same time. I might have that messed up a bit, but I know they had made some ruling about not being able to wipe out all the children of a family in the same fighting arena. I guess parents don't count.

Wasn't Saving Private Ryan about getting one of the brothers out of harm's way because the only other son had been killed? It appears that if a whole family, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles have all joined the Guard or Reserves to bring in extra money or save for college, that this government will send them all to Iraq. They don't give a shit.

[pdxmom]

10. So much for the Repubs valuing families

Obviously, there are limits to those family values. It's ok for grandma to raise the kids while the parents go off to fight and possibly die, but heaven forbid gays adopt, cause it's "bad for the children". These people are sick.

[shadowknows69]

11. and Private Ryan would be SOL n/t