Littwin: Gag order leaves troops, reporters speechless[no reporting zone]

[truthisfreedom]

this is how bush is maintaining media silence about his visits with military people and using them for PR and photo ops... SILENCE! NOTHING TO TALK ABOUT HERE!

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_2455047,00.html

Littwin: Gag order leaves troops, reporters speechless

November 25, 2003

COLORADO SPRINGS - Before the press was herded into the giant hangar in advance of George W. Bush's pep rally/photo op with the Fort Carson troops, we were given the rules.

No talking to the troops before the rally.

No talking to the troops during the rally.

No talking to the troops after the rally.

In other words, if I've done the math right, that means no conversation at all - at least, while on base - with any soldiers. After all, who knows where that kind of thing could lead?
Just as an example: It could lead to a discussion about why the president has time to get to so many fund-raisers and no time to attend a single funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq.
There could have been debate, and we all know the risks in debate, as to whether it's really the families' privacy that is being guarded by the rule against photos of coffins as they arrive from Iraq. Or whether it's the president's standing - the latest Gallup Poll showed 54 percent disapproved of his handling of Iraq - that is being guarded from what one general once called "the Dover test."

<snip>

[Rex]

1. I'm curious as to what they would do if someone asked a question

Is it illegal to ask questions now? Sheesh!

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Bush dressing up again, and making our military political --

Thanks to this lonely reporter who spoke out --

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

3. I like the cut of this guy's gib....

<snip>
Or it could have been an Elaine Johnson issue.

In his speech, Bush didn't mention Elaine Johnson, whose son Darius Jennings was one of four Fort Carson soldiers on the Chinook helicopter that was shot down Nov. 2.

When Johnson was at the Fort Carson chapel a week ago for her son's memorial service, she wondered aloud why the president had visited South Carolina in the week of her son's funeral but had not bothered to attend or to send any message to her or her family.

"Evidently my son wasn't important enough to him dead for him to visit the family or call the family," she said then. "As long as my son was alive he was important, because he sent him over there to fight a war."

There was no such headline this time. All anyone saw this time was Bush's speech in a visit that was as organized as any presidential campaign stop.

In fact, the last thing anyone heard as the president left the room was some in the audience chanting, "Four more years." And no one got to ask their names.

<snip>

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

4. kick

:kick:

[DUreader]

5. Another reporters view of this treason:

kentuck (1000+ posts)
Tue Nov-25-03 09:44 PM
Original message
Reporters forbidden to talk with soldiers or families at Bush visit ..



The reporters were given ten ground rules.
=================================================================


http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E27772%257E1788871,00.html

<snip>

FORT CARSON - Ground Rule 9 for the media covering President Bush's presidential visit Monday
sounded more like an edict from Beijing or a banana republic.

"Write positive stories about Ft. Carson and the U.S. Army," Ground Rule 9 commanded.

That would have been easier if Ground Rule 3 of the presidential visit had not also forbidden reporters
to talk to any soldiers or their families before, during or after the president's appearance.

<snip>

Monday's Ground Rule 6 - "no roaming" - amounted to a heavy-handed smack at the First Amendment.
But it was an insult to the intelligence of military men and women and their families as much as it was
an indictment of the media.





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