Actions, Not Words
Mark Hyman loves to play at supporting the military, and one of his favorite ways of doing this is to use his “Point” segments to pay tribute to various branches of the armed services on the anniversary of their founding. A case in point is his recent paean to the Marine Corps.
But actions speak louder than words. If Hyman and the executives at Sinclair would like to do something tangible, real, and meaningful to show their respect for the men and women of our armed services, there are a host of things they could do instead of the empty babble of anniversary announcements.
Below, I list just a handful of the much more meaningful gestures Hyman and/or Sinclair as a whole could do to truly honor the troops.
Apologize for refusing to allow your ABC affiliated stations to run Nightline’s “The Fallen,” a memorial to the men and women who had given their lives in Iraq.
Criticize the Pentagon and the administration for not providing our soldiers on the ground with more body armor, fully-equipped Humvees, and other essential equipment.
Speak out against the higher ups in the Pentagon who have made scapegoats out of those on the ground in Iraq for the abuses of prisoners, abuses which have blackened the reputation of the United States.
Apologize for slandering the service of a decorated war hero simply because you disagreed with his politics.
Repudiate having given aid and comfort to other groups who slander the heroic service of a veteran for personal political gain.
Stop giving money to politicians who abuse our men and women in uniform by sending them into wars of choice based on misinformation.
Ask the President of the United States to attend just one funeral of the more than 2,000 young men and women who have thus far given their lives in Iraq because of his decisions.
Apologize for savagely smearing a grieving mother who lost her son in Iraq.
Stop attacking as anti-American those people (including veterans and families of active duty personnel) who think serving our troops best would have meant not sending them into a voluntary war without the proper equipment, a plan for getting them home, or a justifiable reason for putting them in harm’s way.
I won't be holding my breath.
And that’s The Counterpoint.
posted by Ted Remington @ 5:09 PM
9 comments
9 Comments:
Hi, people who care about our media!
Glad to see that this blog's traffic is increasing!
Anyone care to guess when our "mysterious" Hyman booster will again post Hyman's latest pearls of wisdom below this space?
http://www.sinclairstations.com/info/military.shtml
Hyman's comment was a straight forward, respectful, happy birthday wish.
http://www.sbgi.net/press/release_2004430_67.shtml
Statement of Sinclair Broadcast Group
The ABC Television Network announced on Tuesday that the Friday, April 30 edition of “Nightline” will consist entirely of Ted Koppel reading aloud the names of U.S. servicemen and women killed in action in Iraq. Despite the denials by a spokeswoman for the show, the action appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq.
There is no organization that holds the members of our military and those soldiers who have sacrificed their lives in service of our country in higher regard than Sinclair Broadcast Group. While Sinclair would support an honest effort to honor the memory of these brave soldiers, we do not believe that is what “Nightline” is doing. Rather, Mr. Koppel and “Nightline” are hiding behind this so-called tribute in an effort to highlight only one aspect of the war effort and in doing so to influence public opinion against the military action in Iraq. Based on published reports, we are aware of the spouse of one soldier who died in Iraq who opposes the reading of her husband’s name to oppose our military action. We suspect she is not alone in this viewpoint. As a result, we have decided to preempt the broadcast of “Nightline’ this Friday on each of our stations which air ABC programming.
We understand that our decision in this matter may be questioned by some. Before you judge our decision, however, we would ask that you first question Mr. Koppel as to why he chose to read the names of 523 troops killed in combat in Iraq, rather than the names of the thousands of private citizens killed in terrorist attacks since and including the events of September 11, 2001. In his answer, we believe you will find the real motivation behind his action scheduled for this Friday. Unfortunately, we may never know for sure because Mr. Koppel has refused repeated requests from Sinclair’s News Central news organization to comment on this Friday’s program.
http://www.newscentral.tv/station/statement.shtml
Ted,
Well, that didn't take long, did it?
Jeez, Ted, you've got a real character on your tail, don't you. Ya gotta figure it's ol SOS, only lurking just a bit deeper behind his Orwellian name.
You've got my vote for refereeing your site against such mindless spamming, although this guy's "Sincloning" sure does provide poster-boy material for your case about the lack of real dialog between these extremists and everyone else.
And I gotta applaud your efforts. a few blogs back, you took every one of his laundry-list complaints and answered it. This guy can only dish it out.
Another nail in the coffin for Intelligent Design.
Best wishes.
To "Anon"-- The point of my post was not that Hyman's "birthday wish" was not sincere (in its way), but that it was empty, given the fact that Hyman and Sinclair have supported people and causes that have undermined current and former members of the armed forces while cynically casting themselves as their defenders (not to mention portraying those with whom they disagree politically as the enemies of the troops--a charge that doesn't pass the giggle test given the numbers of military personnel and their families who have openly criticized the administration and the war).
As to Sinclair's statement about "Stolen Honor," yes, we've all heard the rationale that they've given. The point is that it was transparently political. During "Sinclair-gate," the Newscentral.tv website even ran a poll asking viewers if they thought Sinclair-owned ABC stations should run the tribute, and even those patronizing the Newscentral.tv website (generally a conservative group, if their unscientific polling is to be believed) overwhelmingly said "The Fallen" should run. Just because Sinclair offers a rationalization for their action doesn't mean that rationalization is plausible or valid.
As for Anon/SOS comments, I heartily welcome them, as long as they don't get obscene or insulting toward other guests of the site. I would hope that postings would contain original content. After all, I *do* give Hyman equal time by linking to his commentaries in my posts, as well as including links to Newscentral.tv and the Sinclair corporate website in my sidebar. Regurgitating these links in comments, while not harmful, is superfluous.
TJR
Word count for Hyman's Happy Birthday wish: 161
Word count for Ted's rhetoric: 385
Much ado about nothing perhaps?
http://www.sbgi.net/press/release_2005616_122.shtml
Bush Forcefully Attacks Iraq Critics
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20051111/D8DQE8480.html
TOBYHANNA, Pa. (AP) - President Bush forcefully attacked critics of the war in Iraq on Friday, accusing them of trying to rewrite history and saying they are undercutting American forces on the front lines.
"The stakes in the global war on terror are too high and the national interest is too important for politicians to throw out false charges," the president said in his combative Veterans Day speech.
Defending the march to war, Bush said that foreign intelligence services and Democrats and Republicans alike were convinced at the time that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
"Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and mislead the American people about why we went to war," Bush said.
He said those critics have made those allegations although they know that a Senate investigation "found no evidence" of political pressure to change the intelligence community's assessments related to Saddam's weapons program.
He said they also know that the United Nations passed more than a dozen resolutions citing Saddam's development and possession of weapons of mass destruction.
"More than 100 Democrats in the House and the Senate who had access to the same intelligence voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power," Bush said.
The president's remarks at the Tobyhanna Army Depot were part of the administration's effort to bolster waning U.S. public support for the war in which at least 2,059 U.S. troops have died. Bush offered a forceful defense of the war in Iraq, saying it is the central front in the war on terror and that extremists are trying to establish a radical Muslim empire extending from Spain to Indonesia.
"We will never back down. We will never give in. We will never accept anything less than complete victory," he said Friday.
Bush said the United States and its allies are determined to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of extremists and prevent them from gaining control of any country.
Bush singled out Syria for particular criticism, saying its government had taken "two disturbing steps" in recent days. He cited the arrest of Syria pro-democracy activist Kamal Labwani and a "strident speech" by President Bashar Assad. In that speech, Assad said his government would cooperate with a U.N. investigation that implicated Syrian officials in the killing of a Lebanese leader, but warned he would no longer "play their game" if Syria "is going to be harmed."
Bush said Syria "must stop exporting violence and start importing democracy."
Ted,
I second your desire to keep your blog a place where ideas can be exchanged and people of all stripes feel welcome. That requires some amt of acceptance of us bloggers to each other. Hope we can do that. It's more fun that way.
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