From the WSJ Opinion Archives

by JAMES TARANTO
Tuesday, May 29, 2007 3:23 P.M. EDT

Today's Video on WSJ.com: John Fund on Bill Richardson's blistering exchange with Tim Russert.

'We Are the Only People Preventing Them From Telling the Story'
In a Memorial Day column, David Carr of the New York Times complains about a U.S. military rule requiring that embedded reporters "obtain a signed consent from a wounded soldier before the image can be published. Images that put a face on the dead, that make them identifiable, are simply prohibited."

Why is it so important to show images of hurt and dead Americans? A fellow Timesman gives away the game:

James Glanz, a Baghdad correspondent who will become bureau chief for The New York Times next month, said that although he and others had many great experiences working with the rank-and-file soldiers, some military leaders seem determined to protect something besides the privacy of their troops.

"As the number of reporters there dwindles further and further because of the difficult conditions we work under, the kind of work they are able to publish becomes very important," Mr. Glanz said. "This tiny remaining corps of reporters becomes a greater and greater problem for the military brass because we are the only people preventing them from telling the story the way they want it told."

Hmm, we thought the job of a reporter was to tell stories, not to prevent others from doing so. Furthermore, is it even possible to imagine a Times correspondent saying his job is to prevent the enemy from telling its story?

And here's an example of the kind of journalism the Times's Baghdad bureau produces. This is from a news account, also in yesterday's Times:

On Sunday, American troops freed 42 Iraqi prisoners from what military officials described as a Qaeda hideout northeast of Baghdad. Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a military spokesman, said some of the captives appeared to have been tortured.

The raid was part of a security effort involving 3,000 additional troops sent to Diyala, a violent province north of the capital with a mixed population of Sunnis and Shiites. Colonel Garver said the hideout had been found because of a tip from an Iraqi, and that all 42 freed prisoners were receiving medical care.

"Some of the rescued stated they had been suspended from the ceiling," he said. "Some of them stated they had been there for four months. One young man stated he was 14 years old."

This is a good story, one that points up the brutality of the enemy and the bravery of American servicemen. Given Glanz's ideas about the press's role, you almost have to wonder how reporter Damien Cave managed to sneak it into the paper.

Well, here's how: The passage we quoted above was paragraphs 11 through 13 of a story titled "Roadside Bombing Kills 2 More G.I.'s in Iraq."

The story is not accompanied by a picture of the two dead soldiers' bodies. Do you wish it were?

Two Papers in One!

  • " There is one matter on which American military commanders, many Iraqis and some of the Bush administration's staunchest Congressional critics agree: if the United States withdrew its forces from Baghdad's streets this fall, the murder and mayhem would increase."--news story, New York Times, May 27

  • "It's upsetting to think that Mr. Bush believes the raging sectarian violence in Iraq awaits reigniting. . . . But we have grown accustomed to this president's disconnect from reality and his habit of tilting at straw men, like Americans who . . . don't worry about what will happen after the United States withdraws, as it inevitably must."--editorial, New York Times, May 27

Find Another Fool
Back in January, we noted that Democrats, having won majorities in Congress last November, seemed to have cooled to their onetime sweetheart Cindy Sheehan, as had their allies in the media. Now it looks as though the breakup is complete. In a Memorial Day posting to DailyKos.com, Sheehan writes:

The conclusions that I have slowly and very reluctantly come to are very heartbreaking to me.

The first conclusion is that I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. . . . However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the "left" started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of "right or left", but "right and wrong." . . .

I have also reached the conclusion that if I am doing what I am doing because I am an "attention whore" then I really need to be committed. I have invested everything I have into trying to bring peace with justice to a country that wants neither. . . .

The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing.

In an effort to maintain some shred of dignity, Sheehan presents herself as the one doing the dumping:

I am going to take whatever I have left and go home. I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost. I will try to maintain and nurture some very positive relationships that I have found in the journey that I was forced into when Casey died and try to repair some of the ones that have fallen apart since I began this single-minded crusade to try and change a paradigm that is now, I am afraid, carved in immovable, unbendable and rigidly mendacious marble. . . .

This is my resignation letter as the "face" of the American anti-war movement. . . . Good-bye America...you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can't make you be that country unless you want it.

This column has no ideological sympathy for Sheehan, who espouses noxious and hateful anti-American ideas. At a human level, however, we are appalled by the way in which the left and the media exploited this obviously troubled woman, falsely presenting her as a sainted everymom, then discarding her when she ceased to be of use to them.

"I've been wondering why I'm killing myself," Sheehan tells the Associated Press. "I'm going home for awhile to try and be normal." We hope that she gets whatever help she needs toward that end.

Noooooooo!
If Cindy Sheehan thinks she's disillusioned, just wait till erstwhile supporters of John Kerry* see this piece in yesterday's Boston Globe, headlined "Kerry Said to Weigh Politics in 2002 Vote":

Senator John F. Kerry voted for the Iraq war resolution in 2002 after weighing the political ramifications and being told by his future campaign manager that he would never be elected president in 2004 unless he sided with President Bush on the issue, according to a forthcoming book by Kerry's former strategist.

And here we thought Kerry voted for the war, opposed the war when the actual shooting began, voted against a supplemental appropriation to fund the troops, explained that "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it," continued to defend his vote for the war, and only after the 2004 election announced that he was against the war and for an immediate retreat because it was the right thing to do!

* See "Senator Quagmire," Best of the Web Today, Sept. 10, 2003. We scooped the Globe by almost four years!

Doesn't He Look Pretty in Those Flip-Flops?
The lovely and talented John Edwards backed off from his call to "turn this year's Memorial Day into a day of antiwar activism," reports David Postman of the Seattle Times:

After much criticism of the call for Memorial Day protests, Edwards' site now says Monday should be off limits for such demonstrations.

Buy a bunch of poster-board and markers. At a picnic or with family and friends, make signs that say "SUPPORT THE TROOPS--END THE WAR." Bring them to your local Memorial Day parade. Many parades are held on Saturday or Sunday. If your parade is on Monday, however, we ask that you choose another action to honor the fallen.

Not everyone followed this advice, though, as the Associated Press reports from Orcas Island, Wash.:

Vandals burned dozens of small American flags that decorated veterans' graves for Memorial Day and replaced many of them with hand-drawn swastikas, authorities said Monday.

Forty-six flag standards were found empty and another 33 flags were in charred tatters Sunday in the cemetery, authorities said. Swastikas drawn on paper appeared where 14 of the flags had been.

Hey, we thought dissent was supposed to be patriotic!

Hurry Up and Die
"Ohio Inmate Took Twice as Long to Die," according to an Associated Press headline. Twice as long as his victim? No, that's not what they mean:

The 16 minutes it took Christopher Newton to die once chemicals began flowing into his veins was the longest stretch that any of the state's inmates executed since 1999 has endured, an Associated Press review shows.

During that span Thursday--more than twice as long as usual, and 5 minutes longer than the state's previous longest on record--Newton's stomach heaved, his chin quivered and twitched, and his 6-foot, 265-pound body twice mildly convulsed within the restraints. . . .

"It seems too long," Ohio State University surgeon Jonathan Groner said. "The whole thing seems agonizing."

This is all the story has to say about his victim:

Newton had insisted on the death penalty as punishment for choking and beating Jason Brewer, 27, his cellmate at the Mansfield Correctional Center, over a chess game in 2001.

OK, but how long did Brewer take to die? We finally found a rough estimate in a January 2006 AP dispatch:

Brewer died a few hours after the attack at Ohio State University Medical Center. Newton told authorities he made a rope and later cut a strip from his prison jumpsuit to strangle Brewer when the rope broke. He also stomped on Newton's head, throat and chest.

Presumably "a few hours" means at least three, so that Brewer took at least 164 minutes longer than Newton to die, or at least 11 times as long.

You'd think the criminal-coddling crowd would have some sympathy for the victim in this case, since he was a fellow felon, but he was only in for attempted burglary, which we suppose means his life wasn't as valuable as a murderer's.

We Hear Mitt Romney Likes an Occasional Eschaw
"Utah led the nation, with people in nearly nine out of 10 homes saying smoking was never allowed. The state's large population of Mormons, who eschew tobacco, probably contributed to that statistic, the agency said."--Associated Press, May 25

Beware of Caracas Cartoons

  • "Color Changes in TV Cartoons Cause Seizures"--headline, Science Daily, June 1, 1999

  • "Venezuela Court Orders TV Seizure"--headline, BBC Web site, May 26, 2007

Pistols at 20 Paces
"U.S. Ambassadors To Pursue Duel-Track Strategy in Talks With Iran"--headline, FoxNews.com, May 27

They'll Get DVD Around 2030
"VHS Spreading to Finger Lakes"--headline, DogFlu.ca, May 25

It Was Like a Dagger to His Leg
"Schumer Being Treated After Tick Bite"--headline, Associated Press, May 24

The You-Know-What Hits the Fan

It Remains Armed, Dangerous and Cold-Blooded
"80-Pound Lizard Flees After Shooting"--headline, Chicago Tribune, May 29

That Why Istanbul Go Dark
"Turkey Waste New Power Source"--headline, Herald (Monterey, Calif.), May 26

He Never Should've Gone Down That Well
"Hamas: Journalist Kidnapped in Gaza Well"--headline, Associated Press, May 27

Amid War, an Experiment in Drug Legalization
"Olmert, Abbas to Meth Next Week"--headline, Associated Press, May 29

Freddy Mercury Hated Those 'Exorcist' Spinoffs
"Revealed: Queen's Dismay at Blair Legacy"--headline, Daily Telegraph (London), May 28

News You Can Use

Bottom Stories of the Day

  • "Expert: Lohan Charges No Big Deal"--headline, CBSNews.com, May 28

  • "Seven Years of Little Change for Syria"--headline, Financial Times, May 27

  • "Body Found Is Not Lisa Stebic"--headline, Chicago Sun-Times, May 29

  • "O'Donnell May Never Speak to Hasselbeck"--headline, Associated Press, May 28

Hard-Hitting Journalism
"Illinois Sen. Barack Obama handed his jacket to wife Michelle at one point during a steamy rally Sunday in a school gym, but it was clear she's more than a coat-holder for the Democratic presidential candidate," the Associated Press reports from Conway, N.H.:

When someone in the audience asked Michelle Obama why voters should vote for her husband, she walked confidently onto the stage, took the microphone and smoothly answered.

''He's a man who has put his values before his profit,'' she said. ''He's not running for president because he wants to be president. That's sort of the irony in it. He's running for president because he believes we can do better as a country.''

The line brought a standing ovation.

Wow, talk about hard-hitting journalism, afflicting the comforted, speaking truth to power! But a follow-up AP report reveals strains in the Obama marriage:

Michelle Obama has a few gripes about her husband, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, and she's not shy about sharing them with thousands of people she doesn't know.

He doesn't put his worn socks in with the dirty clothes. He's worse than a 5-year-old at making the bed. And after he eats, he doesn't put away the butter.

"Today, he still didn't put the butter up after he made his breakfast. I was like, 'You're just asking for it, you know I'm giving a speech. Why don't you just put the butter up?' " she told a roaring crowd at a recent Chicago fundraiser for women backing her husband's campaign.

It's the sort of intimate ribbing that makes a famous person seem more regular, and observers say it helps humanize the first-term senator from Illinois who has shot to political stardom.

Ha, there aren't really strains in the Obama marriage! We were just intimately ribbing you, dear reader! Makes us seem regular, doesn't it?

Yet there could be trouble here for Obama. If the AP's in-depth investigation is to be believed, his wife is so adorable that someone just may try to steal her away from him.

(Carol Muller helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Marc Young, Thornton Sanders, Monty Krieger, Stuart Creque, Lewis Scknolick, Michael Segal, Dave Fortney, Matt Knudson, Ethel Fenig, Charlie Gaylord, Joe Perez, Karen Schulthes, Dan O'Shea, Mary Ann Lomascolo, Bryce Elliott, Edward Tannen, Dave Wheeler, John Sanders, Max Lebediuk, Adam Phillips, Peter D'Souza, Mark Van Der Molen, Anne McCaughey, James Chen, Steve Prestegard, Jack Archer, Chris Scibelli, Mark Finkelstein, Alex Miller, Bryan Fischer, Paul Giansante, Thomas Brueckner, Steve Karass, John Neal, Rick Reiss, Sarah Cole, Donald Cofman, Lee Harris, Kyle Kyllan, Alan Goldsmith, William Schultz, Kyle Oliphint, Bud Hammons, Rhonda Cisneros, Bruce Goldman, Don Stewart, Naftali Friedman, John Williamson, Ron Ackert, Yaakov Har-Oz, Dave Wesolowicz, Lee Walus, Rod Pennington, Jason Shanker and Don Kolehouse. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)

Today on OpinionJournal:

  • Peter Berkowitz: The American right is a cauldron of debate; the left isn't.
  • Bret Stephens: The U.S. Navy has always faced unexpected threats.
  • Andrew Roberts: Michael Barone explains how the "Glorious" Revolution led to the American one.

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