Lots of catterwauling from right wing radio about the lack of good news

[BOSSHOG]

from Iraq. So how come those doing the catterwauling are not going to Iraq to report on all the good stuff happening over there? I mean we all know how patriotic and manly the limbaughs of our political discourse are. They are badass tough guys (when they are behind their microphones in a closed studio.) Surely they can go to Iraq and find all those good stories they say exist. limbaugh doing a standup in front of a new sewage treatment plant as he blends into the background and seques to the new nightclubs in Fallujah. Maybe he and his kind are just too busy protecting America from terrorism over here. Maybe they are just too brave to lead this country.

[Tyranny of Evil Men]

1. In Fairness

I hate to say this but...

Rush did go to Afganistan and on that tour was not asked to go to Iraq.

Hannity, Savage, Levin and Beck have never gone anywhere as far as I know.

Has anyone from AAR gone anywhere?

[BOSSHOG]

3. Franken has toured with USO on several occasions

And I don't hear anyone on AAR whining about the lack of good news. I'm not talking about going on a carefully orchestrated and well protected tour, I'm suggesting doing the job of a journalist, another reason he and his kind won't go, because they are professional only at hating others.

[jedicord]

10. They know it's dangerous in Iraq, that's why they won't go.

I'd love to hear someone call in and suggest a trip.

[K8-EEE]

6. Let Hannity, Savage, Etc, Take "Man On The Street" Footage

Just stroll around Iraq and get some man on the street interviews, huh? Go to where Saddam's statue was and see how the GWB statue they predicted is coming along. Proudly proclaim you're an American and just wait to be showered with rose petals!!

[jedicord]

7. I believe Al Franken has. n/t

[ET Awful]

8. Rush probably wasn't asked to go anywhere else because he

was standing their telling troops that all Democrats hated them and wanted them dead. Not exactly good for morale.

Then you have Al Franken who has done multiple USO tours and shown unwavering support for the troops (just not their Commander in Chief and the mission he sent them on).

[CottonBear]

9. Al Franken tours w/ the USO as a comedian & not as a partisan commentator.

Hannity, Savage, Levin and Beck and the rest have no other public role other than partisan RW radio hacks. They have nothing in the way of entertainment to offer to the USO or to the service men and women abroad.

Laura Ingraham recently went to Iraq where she was 'embedded" with the military. Of course she saw only what she was allowed to see from her highly aromored and protected bubble.

[gratuitous]

15. Got a link?

I've never heard of Rush Limbaugh venturing too far away from his stash, and the idea that he actually has a passport with an Afghani visa on it staggers my imagination. When did this happen, and where in Afghanistan did he go?

[zbdent]

16. Mrs. ZBDent was watching a comedienne on HBO

who was describing her tour entertaining the troops.

Said that there was a pro 'rassler who went out in front of the troops and really showed his ignorance. (from her description of the person's obsession with shoving things up fill-in-the-blank's ass, it sounded like "The Rock" - funny, he's fit enough to carry a real rifle in the military instead of a BFG in "Doom" . . .)

The 'rassler sounded like a freepturd to me . . . arrogant and ignorant . . .

[TayTay]

2. This is a losing argument

RW radio should know this. They didn't concentrate on all the good news coming out during the Clinton Admin. They focused, quite successfully, on undermining the Democratic argument that things were going well. They created enough unease about Dem public officials to ensure that there would be no turn over in Congress and that GW Bush would be accepted as Prez in 2000, even though the election was screwed up.

This argument is a loser. They should know this and know that their whining about it will only make their case look weaker to the American people. (It plays nicely into a 'what are they hiding' meme, for one.)

[Canuckistanian]

4. And think how their ratings would go up if they were shot!

Or bombed or strafed or kidnapped or stabbed.

Why, the "victimization of white Christian" stories would earn them a place on the speaking tour circuit for YEARS!

They're passing up a great business opportunity, here.

[Strathos]

5. Actually on the TODAY show this morning

Katie and David Gregory both got a reporter from Iraq to admit and Tim Russert that there just isn't that much good news to report. You had to listen closely, but it was there and said and I have to give them points.

[TreasonousBastard]

11. Bingo! There's not much good news reported because...

there's not much good news.

[Arkansas Granny]

12. As I said in an earlier post, if there is good news in Iraq, I would

really love to hear it. To think of all of the lives wasted over there, American and Iraqi, with no good results is really disheartening. Instead of whining about the media only telling us about the bad news, why won't Rush and his compadres tell us the good news? Why? Because there isn't any!

[spag68]

13. spag68

Hey bosshog have you or anyone else heard the report that the UN gave 24B to the US from the oil for food money to help "rebuild" araq.

[snowbear]

14. Tim Russert just covered this on the Today Show....

And surprisingly, he pretty much said Bush is Shit-Outta-Luck.

They showed a segment with numerous reporters from various media sources in Iraq on their way to cover "feel good stories".

The reporters all either encountered too much violence to cover the original story, or they were almost killed trying to cover it..



Russert said the Rethugs are going to have to get used it it. What the media is showing IS THE NEWS.

[yellowcanine]

17. I would donate money to send Rush, Hannity and Savage to Iraq.

But none of this traveling to a secure military base. I want Hannity doing a stand-up in Fallujah. That I would contribute money for.

[BOSSHOG]

18. He'd soil his pants

But he is so damn manly and brave behind that microphone in that studio.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

19. Real Funny - before the war they wanted to eliminate all good news in Iraq

Remember how those 20 seconds in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911, in which he shows an Iraqi boy flying a kite and an Iraqi girl sliding down a slide generated so much controversy? Those 20 seconds of screen time were played up by the right wing nuts into the accusation that Michael Moore ignored all of the bad things that Saddam Hussein had done and only presented Iraq as a peaceful place where people led peaceful lives.

And one of the most moving things I saw before the Iraq war was a program seen on LINK TV called "Bridge To Baghdad". It aired only two weeks BEFORE the war began and was limited to obscure stations like LINK TV and FSTV. It was a simultaneous dialogue between American teens in New York City with Iraqi teens in Baghdad, hooked up by a satellite link. There were also videos taken of the two sets of teens, that filmed their daily activities. The teens in Iraq were shown going to school, playing rock and roll guitar in a heavy metal band, studying English, going to school, having the normal teen issues, and leading the lives that teens in any country might lead. It was an effort to humanize both sides to each other. Yet, the producers of "Bridge To Baghdad" were unable to sell their wonderful and highly interesting show to any major U.S. network including PBS. Every network passed on their show because it showed a human face of the people in Iraq. Every U.S. network backed off the opportunity to show Iraqis leading normal lives, lives we were about to interrupt in a very violent and sudden manner.

I'm not saying we should have in any way failed to report the facts regarding Saddam's attrocities against his own people. But we should have shown both the GOOD AND the bad, the same way we need to show the full picture about present-day Iraq, the good and the bad. But the fascists like Limbaugh do not want truth, they only want power.

[BOSSHOG]

20. Excellent Point

And likewise, there was a lot of good things happening in America in 48 states on September 11th, 2001. The last thing right wing screamers want is truth, you are absolutely right, because truth would ruin their careers.