# Bush whines about media "filter" on Iraq, damn those pesky facts! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 13, 2003, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221 "2003-10-13T17:51:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/21 "2003-10-14T03:43:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mtgman \* > \*\*… But to fire the bullets into it? And THEN run over it with the tank? What kind of cowboyism was this? What possible purpose did it serve to have bullets flying? The destruction of the vehicle was accomplished by running over it with the tank… \*\* Well, you see, the SOP is to punch some holes in the car to let the air come out when the tank flattens it 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/22 "2003-10-14T04:44:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mtgman \* > **Destruction of the vehicle is within the rights of the occupying forces as well. But to fire the bullets into it? And THEN run over it with the tank?** [Dr. Klahn] Now take him to be tortured! [/Dr. Klahn] ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/23 "2003-10-14T05:16:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Reeder \* > \*\*How to win friends and influence people. > > Why doesn’t the Bush admin look to Basra and the way the Brits are handling it down there? They have nowhere near the trouble the US is having. \*\* Without taking the time to check out the BBC, the Guardian, the Times, etc., I would suspect that the U.S. media is concentrating on the places where the U.S. military is centered, and that the British media is concentrating on the British military. Do you have any cites? I certainly can’t remember seeing anything about Basra since early days. Also, the U.S. has the Sunni area of Iraq, which is the most likely to resist. Understandably so. Regardless, the only thing that was planned well and went well was the actual invasion itself. “Flowers and music”, my rosy red. ---
**Author:** ![Short](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Short](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Short)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/24 "2003-10-14T05:43:43Z")
Regarding the looting/wood story, there was also [this](http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=452375) story in the Independent on the destruction of some crops as a form of collective punishment. There was a [GQ Thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=216870) on it a day ago or so. [Commondreams.org](http://www.commondreams.org) picked up the story, but didn’t add anything. Of course, Fox did just [hire](http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1058867,00.html) the second in command at the Iraqi information agency. Clearly they are subversive dupes of the terrorist evil-doers… ---
**Author:** ![Linear\_Crack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Linear\_Crack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linear_Crack)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/25 "2003-10-14T07:27:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elf6c \* > Yep, things are going great! I believe the President is talking about how the media is focusing on the people killed (which is tragic), and excluding the reports on reconstruction. You know, similar to what your post does. > [@](#): > > People, including American troops are dying every day and that’s “better”? Do you honestly think the President is including the deaths of American troops when he speaks of improvements in Iraq? You are truly a stupid-fucking-shitferbrains. -LC ---
**Author:** ![cmason32](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@cmason32](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmason32)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/26 "2003-10-14T07:45:50Z")
What is more interesting, which everyone seems to have missed, is that Bush is complaining about the “filtering” of the media at the same time he is pushing for a relaxing of the media ownership rules. I’m sure making the media more homogeneous will solve that! Hypocrisy at it’s finest. Of course, no major media outlets will bring that little contradiction up. ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/27 "2003-10-14T07:46:24Z")
Is it just me, or are the Adminstration’s pronouncements about how things are going in Iraq beginning to sound more and more as if they’re being delivered by Baghdad Bob, the former Iraqi Information Minister? “The Iraqi people are thrilled to have been liberated. The few remaining insurgents - pitiful, embittered, lowly scum that they are - are being vanquished by our noble forces. They cannot win. Their carcasses will rot in hell.” ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/28 "2003-10-14T13:22:41Z")
> **[Despite some progress, Iraqis losing faith](https://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1014/p01s03-woiq.html)** > > A suicide blast in Baghdad on Sunday adds to a general sense of unease. Improving, but still a long way to go. And this, from a source (CSM) that’s widely regarded as the least slanted major news outlet. For all the cries of “We’re going to bring some professionalism back to the White House” that the Bush Administration made during the transition and early days of their tenure, they’ve proven remarkably inept in a number of areas - diplomacy, economics, public relations, and even the managment of their own team. ---
**Author:** ![Misery\_Loves\_Co](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7cd45c/32.png) [@Misery\_Loves\_Co](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misery_Loves_Co)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/29 "2003-10-14T13:32:40Z")
Well, whether the media is “liberal” or not, they _are_ drawn to sensationalism like flies to shit - mostly because that’s what we like to see on our TV while the drool puddles in our laps. (props to **Blackclaw** who already made this point) What I find . . . deliciously ironic . . . is that it’s the same sensationalist media that helped Bush get us into war in the first place. Geese, Ganders, sauce, shoes, other feet. I love it. ---
**Author:** ![elf6c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@elf6c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elf6c)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/30 "2003-10-14T14:46:26Z")
Cites by me: 8 Cites by **Linear Crack** : 0 Pointless personal insults by me: 0 Pointless personal insults by **Linear Crack** : 1-2 depending on how you count. Let’s see, I backed everything up with a Cite. And all you could muster was a poor assed attempt at a drive-by insulting. Listen chump, leave that sort of things to the pro’s. Here is a small clue for you, as that is all I think your tiny little brain can handle at one time. **As long as American soldiers are dying every day, as long as Iraqi civilians who cooperate are being killed every day “Things” are not getting better.** I am truly sorry you’re too stupid to realize this. Even with the $1.22 Billion in no-bid contracts being poured in Iraq through Cheney’s pals at Haliburton things do not seem to be getting better for the average Iraqi-- just as a trailer for producing hydrogen is not a weapon of mass destruction. Repeating the lie does not actually make it true. * * * More on Bush’s attempt to spin, err get around the filter: > [@](#): > > Presidents for decades have courted regional and specialized media, but the Bush administration has been unusual, according to media experts. Vice President Cheney, who almost never grants newspaper interviews, has been a regular on talk radio and Sunday television shows where his answers are unedited. The White House invited talk radio hosts to set up shop on the North Lawn one day, treating them to a steady stream of administration officials. The White House Web site has hosted dozens of “Ask the White House” chats for the public. And Bush himself has had few news conferences and extended interviews but has made time for specialized outlets such as Runner’s World. > > . . . > > Martha Kumar, a Towson University professor who has studied White House relations with the media, said reaching out to regional media “can give you a temporary lift.” But, she added, “I don’t know in the long run what it really buys you. The president’s problems now are policy problems, not communications problems.” > > The report yesterday on WBAL in Baltimore, owned by Hearst-Argyle, mixed Bush’s words with reminders of the violence in Iraq and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction. “The president is trying to paint a brighter picture of Iraq despite the deaths of more U.S. soldiers today and another deadly car bombing over the weekend,” the report began. Runner’s World? Are you frigging kidding me? Damn, that’s sad. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21714-2003Oct13.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21714-2003Oct13.html) ---
**Author:** ![elf6c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@elf6c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elf6c)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/31 "2003-10-14T15:04:02Z")
Unfortunately, the cycle of violence seems to be getting worse, not better: The first 2 stories on Google news (world): > **[Google News](https://news.google.com/topstories?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en)** > > Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, aggregated from sources all over the world by Google News. 1. A suicide car bomber today attacked the Turkish embassy in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, injuring at least one security guard, Turkish officials and Iraqi police said. 2. BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) – Three more US soldiers were reported dead Tuesday following a series of attacks that killed three other American troops and wounded 13. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/32 "2003-10-14T15:18:08Z")
_President Bush, annoyed by what he considers the “filter” of news reporting, will seek to go around the press on Monday through television outlets that do not routinely cover the White House._ Today’s **Sesime Street** is brought to you by the letter Dubya and the number [79,424,000,000](http://costofwar.com/). ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/33 "2003-10-14T15:19:25Z")
I’m reminded of the scene in Animal House where the ROTC guy is standing in the middle of the chaos that is the parade, with people running by him in a mad dash for safety, and him jumping up and down, screaming at the top of his lungs before the throng “ALL IS WELL! ALL IS WELL!” ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/34 "2003-10-14T15:22:47Z")
Electricy in Baghdad has been restored to pre-war levels, and is nearing pre Gulf War levels. A large part of the problem with the elctricity wasn’t how hard Bremer et al. were working to fix it, it was sabotage. A majority of the Iraqi public is happy to be rid of Saddam. That is the type of news that is getting little or no mention is the US press. I think that is the stuff Bush wants to tout. But he’s so deluded by the good news that he’s put blinders on for the bad. So much of the communication style of this administration is to spin things to a level that it insults my intelligence. I think I’d be much more willing to listen if they came out and said “Things are shit. We know that. Here are some bright spots we’re working on, and slowly, painfully, and begrudgingly, things are getting better in Iraq. We underestimated some of the problems and we’re working to make things right” Wow. It would be a shock to have them communicate to me on an adult level. One issue I do have about the sensationalist coverage is this: No matter how bad you report things to be, could you at least admit that if we truly want things to be better in Iraq long term, we’re going to have to tough it out and take some knocks. It’s just too easy to bash the admin on this point, so it’s almost like flogging a dead horse. Telling a deeper, more involved story of the situation is just beyond the capability of the media as well. They are just as guilty as the administration of not communicating to me as an adult. (this is mostly a bash against the Television media, as a news consumer of above average appetite, I seek out balanced reporting from many sources, but I find many outlets use the expediant quick and easy approach, which is the type I find insulting) ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/35 "2003-10-14T15:37:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by plnnr \* > \*\*I’m reminded of the scene in Animal House where the ROTC guy is standing in the middle of the chaos that is the parade, with people running by him in a mad dash for safety, and him jumping up and down, screaming at the top of his lungs before the throng “ALL IS WELL! ALL IS WELL!” \*\* That is it exactly! Then you have others who are walking around with the sandwich board that says “The End of the World is near” What do both of those fools take me for? ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/36 "2003-10-14T15:58:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr2001 \* > \*\*[Dr. Klahn] Now take him to be tortured! [/Dr. Klahn] \*\* I think that was the bit which really disturbed me. As I mentioned, it just seemed cruel. Impound the vehicle. Establish in a court of law, or at least a military tribunal, that it should be kept/destroyed. Then keep/destroy it. But to have the guys on the street make those decisions? And then execute them, literally, right in front of the eyes of the former owner? And LAUGH?!? That’s right. Look at the video and you can hear at least one soldier laugh as they crush the car. Motherfucking LAUGHTER. That isn’t justice. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/37 "2003-10-14T17:47:22Z")
As badly as Iraq and the world at large need a successfully rehabilitated and functioning Iraq, I’m afraid I’ve long since reached the point where I feel that the US and the world at large have an even greater need, i.e., the bringing to an end of the Bush administration, which would be better served by things continuing to go to hell in Iraq and/or be reported and covered as such. Does that constitute a confession? ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/38 "2003-10-14T18:14:12Z")
I was saving this for an OP but untiil I get aound to it, it might fit here. This from a BBC journo last week: \*"I have just returned from the Arab Media Summit in Dubai, which is a chance for Arab and Western journalists to meet, argue, debate and possibly even learn a little of each other. And I’m still reeling from one Arab delegate who said that the Arab media were not dangerous because everyone knows Arab journalists write nonsense and no one believes them anyway, but the western media are truly dangerous - he passionately argued - because we in the West suffer from the delusion that we are truly free. Moreover, people DO believe what they see and hear on the western media. Food for thought."\* Interesting stuff. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/39 "2003-10-14T19:29:15Z")
Coming next week: Donald Rumsfeld informs US soldiers in Iraq that dying in-country will be reclassified as a treasonous activity. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221/40 "2003-10-14T21:13:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rjung \* > **So, where’s George going to appear first? Oprah? Good Morning America? Entertainment Tonight? Wait, I know – Judge Judy!** 😃 I think George will stay away from Judge Judy. I’ll bet he’s afraid she might try to impeach him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-whines-about-media-filter-on-iraq-damn-those-pesky-facts/207221.md?page=3)