Open Letter to CBS
My Letter
To Whom It May Concern:
I was utterly dismayed at CBS' handling of a significant piece of news regarding the presidential campaign that arose during Ms. Couric's interview of Senator McCain. As a network news host, Ms. Couric's failure to follow up on Senator McCain's blatant misstatement regarding the "history" of the war in Iraq (as it pertains to the so-called "Anbar Awakening" and the so-called "surge") demonstrates a profound lack of knowledge by your lead newscaster, a complete lack of intellectual curiosity, or an utter lack of journalistic integrity.
But that glaring omission, as disappointing as it was, pales in comparison to your editorial decision to wipe Senator McCain's false statement from the televised record and send it "down the memory hole." Your decision to edit Senator McCain's falsehood out of your televised interview deprived Americans of a crucial piece of information regarding a major-party presidential candidate. Moreover, your decision to edit in a different answer to Ms. Couric's question (while playing the question to which Senator McCain responded with a lie) smacks of blatant bias in your news broadcast.
Ms. Couric's performance during that portion of the interview was inexcusable, Senator McCain's dissembling falsehood was a gross error in judgment, and your decision to conveniently excise those two blatant mistakes is the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Count me among the Americans who will never again watch a single second of a CBS "News" broadcast. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
McCain was right about the surge. The 'surge' is more than adding troops, it was an entirely new strategy, involving a more aggressive pursuit of the enemy into previously enemy held territory. It involved moving troops from large fortified bases into small deployments in the towns and villages that were liberated. The Anbar Awakening happened as the US cleared Al Quaeda from Ramadi under this new approach. That was the start of the surge, additional combat brigades arrived after that to secure and hold more areas. Those troops didn't start arriving for several months, and took several more months before they were all in place, but the surge was in effect long before that.
July 23, 2008 5:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/07/ive-got-your-the-surge-worked.php
The Surge. The Surge.
What was the Surge? It was more soldiers than ever before, sent over to Iraq to keep the peace so that the Iraqi "Government" could get on with the business of forming real, concrete plans set out in numbered steps. How many of those steps did the Iraqi "Government" take? 3 out of 10, I believe the MSM and everyone else reported, last winter.
How many steps has the Iraqi "Government" taken since? Perhaps one or two more, at most.
The Surge failed in that the "Government" is still as screwed up this year as it was last year, before all those US troops arrived.
So much for the Surge and its success.
July 23, 2008 8:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Clearly you are wrong, but it is unlikely you will ever admit it. The fact that Maliki is now talking about troop withdrawls shows his increased confidence in his government. Iraqi army units now perform over 70% of the combat operations, with the US in a support role. Al Quaida is leaving in disarray, the so-called civil war never happened, sectarian violence is fading away. Had Obama had his way Sadaam would still be in charge, raping and murdering hundreds of thousands and helping to spread terror.
July 24, 2008 9:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
When the "surge" was discussed by every political and military analyst, they referred to the influx of extra troops, not the counterinsurgency activity you (and McCain) are now trying to include.
But whatever. Revisionist history can be fun, right? But even if you include those counterinsurgency techniques (and it's not entirely clear that McCain even approved of them), the Anbar awakening began before those counterinsurgency steps took place.
Causality? No.
July 24, 2008 3:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Talk about throwing history down the Memory Hole. This is Ameica, not Oceania: that stuff don't go here. Nice try.
July 23, 2008 11:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Strategic changes were necessary, and if, as you say, they were implemented, then that was probably part of the overall reduction of violence in certain areas, and good military situational response, for once.
The original non-strategy of Bush's army was obvious in its failure, though the administration's absolute, willful and possibly intentional ignorance of the political and sectarian make-up of Iraq going in - something that minimal research had to have revealed - was the cause of this debacle in the first place, which has led to untold suffering and destruction of a sovereign nation and state sponsored war profiteering on a scale that is too vast to imagine.
However, the thing called the Surge was the addition of 30,000 troops, and it seems to be widely acknowledged that it came after the so-called Anbar Awakening, at least in historical record. Whether an earlier strategy began and contributed to the success or not, it was not what they called the Surge. Moreover, McCain specifically names Petraeus as being involved at that time, and he was not as far as I know.
So the fact is, McCain was wrong historically, even if you can attempt to smooth it out for him by redefining his position for him. He's not a great military mind, but, as I have stated in a previous post, even if he were everything you want us to believe he is, his continuation and escalation of a long list of failed and damaging policies by the neocons before whom he now makes obeisance makes it a moot point.
I'll take Obama any day over this man, whose overarching ego and, despite his protestations to the contrary, utter lack of honor and integrity - not to mention competence - cause me truly to fear for this country if he were somehow made Commander-in-Chief.
No doubt you will disagree, but this is how I see it. I can't countenance more of Bush's policies and I certainly cannot support McCain, who I believe will embroil us in more warfare and ultimately will complete the job that BushCo has begun, of impoverishing this country both spiritually and financially, and quite possibly begin a war unlike any in human history.
July 24, 2008 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Does it need to be said that "the Clever Bulldog" is full of shit? I suppose so. The surge has allowed a segregation of the people of Iraq, and there have been concrete wall erected in ethnic neighborhoods in Baghdad. What a way to live...
Yeah, it's been a great success.
July 24, 2008 3:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
The surge was more troops combined with payola. Having more troops there probably helped, but we have also been paying the Sunni sheiks and al Sadr to keep the peace. The Sunni sheiks decided on their own, *before* the surge, to go after al Qaeda, and their change of heart is called the Anbar Awakening.
July 24, 2008 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I also noticed another omission on most of the major networks after checking the site mentioned in Monical's post, HillaryIs44. There was no mention of Rezko's June 4th conviction by -- for instance-- Chris Matthews. News coverage is really beginnning to smell to high heavens. 49% of Americans polled have realized that there's a slant to the press... and that it isn't for McCain.
The journalist Couric, who has recently complained about sexism, may have unconsciously wanted to even up the score by helping the opponent of a candidate who cost the only viable candidate the nomination of a major political party.
July 23, 2008 7:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
"News coverage is really beginnning to smell to high heavens. 49% of Americans polled have realized that there's a slant to the press... and that it isn't for McCain." First of all, Obama's involvement with Rezko was to by a tiny little piece of property that abutted his yard. Big Deal. If you'd read any of the actual facts, YOU'D KNOW THAT. Obama went down to the newsrooms, let him grill him for quite a while, and the newsies in Chicago said, "Nothing to keep this flap up about, here, folks." UNANIMOUSLY. Your story is crap, bud. And Couric isn't fit to draw a real journalists bath water, for fear incompetance can be catchy.
July 24, 2008 3:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rec'd post, and I also wrote a scathing email to CBS today.
July 23, 2008 8:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rec'd, I will be writing an email shortly. This is very alarming.
July 23, 2008 10:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
WE need to write Friedman
at the nyt also. After years of
advocating the great Iraqi struggle,
he's back saying McCain was
right about the surge.
July 24, 2008 1:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
I wrote them yesterday.
Subject: Why did you edit McCain's answer?
Don't you think your viewers ought to see McCain either doesn't know or is lying about recent events in Iraq? Replacing his answer is obscene. John McCain isn't qualified to be president of the United States and you've proven to me you're not qualified to bring me the news.
July 24, 2008 11:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have repeatedly tried to email CBS my complaint. Interestingly enough, once I reach the end of the email, their page refreshes and erases my content. They must sense the evisceration they're about to receive...
Anyone have better contact info?
July 24, 2008 12:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is the email to the CBS ombudsman: publiceye@cbs.com
July 24, 2008 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
CBS violated their own standards (yes, apparently they have standards) with their creative editing.
If a question to an interview subject is used, the answer must be to that specific question. The question and the answer may be edited, but not in a way that would distort the meaning of either. Answers to different questions may not be combined to give the impression of one continuous response. In short, we cannot create an answer merely because we wish the subject had said it better.
July 24, 2008 2:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Do you have a link to their standards?
July 24, 2008 4:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
here's the link where i found the story.
July 24, 2008 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thx raider99
July 24, 2008 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink