Is it editorializing to report on what your experience is, since you are there? Would it had been different if one CNN reporter had reported on what this CNN reporter’s experience in Iraq was?
“Good evening, this is Johnny McPerfecthair reporting for CNN from Iraq, here to see if it is indeed safe to walk in some areas of Iraq. I talked with CNN reporter Michael Ware who has been in Iraq for several months and has seen first hand what it is like. Michael, is Senator McCain correct?”
“Absolutely not, he is living in Neverland if he believes that.”
This just shows the problem when any political type talks about any activity in any land that the vast majority of Americans know nothing about- they can make any statement they want, and since I have never been there, how do I know he is not telling the truth? Kudos to them for calling him on it. Maybe they could call Bush on it as well, if he ever decides to field unscripted questions. Remeber when Clinton used to do that, like, every week?
Wrong way: “Sen. McCain has no credibility/is living in Neverland/is full of shit.”
Right way: “Analyses from military leaders/statements from relief organizations/current events contradict Sen. McCain’s view that Baghad is safer. For example, _____.”
Done the right way, the report persuades fence-sitters that Sen. McCain is indeed full of shit, without the reporter defeating himself by creating perceptions of flagrant bias.
And like it or not, that’s who needs to be convinced - the undecided, sometimes confused and misinformed middle.
Well, the reporter did both of your above examples. He gave reasoned and varied evidence for why McCain was wrong, and then concluded forcefully. And while I disagree with your assessment of what is convincing to the fence-sitting, misinformed middle, I think it has little to do with whether this reporters comments were responsible. My view of responsibility in this sense is about journalistic ethics and not partisan success.
Pretty much everyone who’s not a wingnut, and has more than two neurons to rub together has figured out by this point that Iraq is a giant clusterfuck. It’s far more appropriate for a news organization to point out the spreaders of misinformation than it is for them to engage in ‘convincing’ a possibly nonexistent group of anything.
Bullshit. Convincing cites don’t mean a damned thing in the modern media, and everyone knows it.
You have analyses from “military leaders” who are disagreeing with Bush/Cheney/Petraeus, who are therefore playing partisan politics. You have analyses from “relief organizations” who are obviously a bunch of leftists that hate the Bushies with all their heart. “Current events contradict McCain’s view that Baghdad is safer” - that’s just the media trying to accentuate the negative.
Oh, and look, here’s talking head Righty McGOP’er arguing those exact points. Well, I’ve got one source saying one thing and one saying the other thing. I guess I don’t know what to believe.
Thank you for that. My opinion after watching it was that Ware was unprofessional. And for that, I’d like to thank him. It’s about time the press got some balls. Now if the Congress can just find some…
Well Ware always seems a little showboaty and unprofessional to me. If i were certain that he were motivated out of outrage and/or integrity I’d be a little more comfortable with it. He always strikes me as motivated by ambition.
I’d take an Arwa Damon or a John Burns over him any day. I doubt they’d disagree with him though.
Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed thread, CNN would certainly want you to believe that Iraq is a dangerous place. And they make a good case. Hell, I almost felt pity myself! But, ladies and gentlemen of this supposed thread, I have one final thing I want you to consider. Ladies and gentlemen, consider Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense!Why would a Wookiee, an eight-foot tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of two-foot tall Ewoks? That does not make sense! But more important, you have to ask yourself: What does this have to do with the war? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with the war! It does not make sense! Look at me. I’m a lawyer defending a Presidential Candidate’s interview responses, and I’m talkin’ about Chewbacca! Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense! And so you have to remember, when you’re in this thread deliberatin’ and conjugatin’ the Emancipation Proclamation, does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed thread, it does not make sense! If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you can walk unarmed in Baghdad.
I agree with you here, but I also agree with Jackmannii that the reporter’s behavior was unprofessional. A reporter is supposed to lay the facts down and let viewers/readers decide for themselves. “I don’t know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about” is blatant editorializing. I don’t particularly care, and I’m glad to hear a reporter say that, but I’m not going to fool myself by calling it acceptable journalistic behavior. It’s not.