Media Missing the McChrystal Point

[IndianaGreen]

Published on Friday, June 25, 2010 by FAIR

Media Missing the McChrystal Point

by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting

NEW YORK - The media firestorm over the Rolling Stone profile (6/22/10) of General Stanley McChrystal mostly missed the real point of the article, which was a damning portrait of the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

Much of the media coverage stressed the criticism and insults hurled by McChrystal and his staff at various administration figures. Some of these remarks were more substantive than others. A joke about Joe Biden ("Bite Me") has been overblown; McChrystal and his staff seemed to be suggesting a list of possible gaffes the general might make following a speech.

The real significance of the piece is in the criticism--voiced by soldiers in Afghanistan and military experts--of the war itself. "Even those who support McChrystal and his strategy of counterinsurgency know that whatever the general manages to accomplish in Afghanistan, it's going to look more like Vietnam than Desert Storm," wrote Rolling Stone's Michael Hastings.

A senior adviser to McChrystal stated, "If Americans pulled back and started paying attention to this war, it would become even less popular." Hastings added that some officials see the war requiring a much larger troop presence: "Instead of beginning to withdraw troops next year, as Obama promised, the military hopes to ramp up its counterinsurgency campaign even further."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/06/25-7

[BrklynLiberal]

1. "Don't look at the man behind the curtain!!"

One certainly has to wonder just how intentional this slight-of-hand distraction by the media, actually is.

[IndianaGreen]

2. The media's role is to sell to the public whatever the elites want

The demise of real journalism, and the small newspapers which often broke stories about corruption and wrongdoing, is another contributing factor in the MSM becoming mere stenographers for Big Brother.

[dflprincess]

6. Jon Stewart made a comment along the lines about it taking Rolling Stone to break this story

because the MSM sucks so much.

[ellenfl]

3. and they're pulling off that slight of hand. eom

[patrice]

4. Important info here. I wonder if the President would have had to fire him if it had

played out in the media differently.

[bvar22]

5. The replacement of McCrystal with Patraeus was window dressing.

It is more misdirection...distraction for the easily distracted.
The REAL story is that the "Mission" (whatever THAT is) in Afghanistan is a FAILURE.
Obama's "surge" is a FAILURE.

Replacing McCrystal will result in no "Mission Change".
This isn't even rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
It is adding a Potted Palm to the existing deck chair arrangement.

The really bad news is that more American children will have to die,
more innocent Afghans will have to die,
to cover our Politician's asses for this HUGE fuck up while they try to figure a Politically Correct way out of this disaster.