An editorial in today’s Chronicle reflects a familiar media template — we should honor the troops by grilling the Bush administration. It also reflects a familiar Chron template by being riddled with errors, both grammatical and factual. Let’s take a look:
SOON after masked Iraqi gunman abducted Pfc. Kristian Menchaca of Houston and Pfc. Thomas Tucker of Madras, Ore., dread about their treatment seized those who cared for them.
First of all, it was gunmen. Plural. Secondly, we don’t know that they were Iraqi. The Chronicle reported that the soldiers were killed by Zarqawi successor Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, a pseudonym. Al-Muhajir means "the migrant," indicating he’s not an Iraqi. He’s believed to be Egyptian.
Since the war began, 2,023 Americans have died in combat.
That number appears to have been made up out of whole cloth. The Pentagon has a different number, which I found after less than ten seconds on Google.
It would be wrong, though, to suppose atrocity is unique to the Iraq conflict. Its possibility lurks in any combat situation, one involving soldiers in established armies that observe "traditional values of war," as U.S. Air Force veteran and former Iraqi hostage David Eberly recently put it.
The above quotation is out of context and misleading. It implies that Col. Eberly thinks atrocities will happen in the presence of "traditional values of war." In fact, Col. Eberly (who was a prisoner of war, not a hostage) said just the opposite:
"We are fighting an enemy that doesn’t accept the traditional values of war," said Eberly, author of a book called Faith Beyond Belief, which documented his ordeal. "The Geneva Convention is out the window."
The only major paper in a city the size of Houston should do a better job than this.
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If any one of you fine people at LST knows about the funeral service for Pfc. Menchaca and the route the procession will take, will you please post this info here at LST? Providing that the family will allow us to pay our respects. We are deeply in debt to our Soldiers and their families.
According to the Chronicle, the funeral will be held at “Guadalupe Catholic Church” in Brownsville.
Predictably, the Chron screwed that up, too. There is no Guadalupe Catholic Church. There’s Our Lady of Guadalupe, and there’s Blessed Juan Diego de Guadalupe.
According to the Brownsville Herald, the family attends Our Lady of Guadalupe, so I’m guessing that’s where the funeral will be.
Not sure what part of “we should question the government to make sure our troops have the best protections, weapons, etc.” that you have a problem with.
The government is responsible for those things.
You wonder why I shake my head™
Shakey, that’s a straw man. I commented on the numerous errors in the editorial.
Here’s an example to illustrate what you’re doing:
Let’s say I see some knucklehead spraypainting “Tha sky iz bloo” on a brick wall. I walk by and comment that the guy shouldn’t be tagging walls, and he ought to learn how to write properly.
Then you say, “I’m not sure what part of ‘The sky is blue’ you have a problem with.”
Matt, OK I understand what you’re saying.
So you agree with that part then, right?
Hey, put up the Open Comments! I’m ready!
The first two examples here don’t bother me nearly as much as the third does.
“Gunman” should be gunmen, but I can attribute that to hastiness or poor/lack of review before printing.
2,023 dead could simply be the number from a different source or just plain laziness in fact checking.
So we have one example of ineptitude and one example of laziness. Those are both bad, but not nearly as bad as actively quoting someone out of context to make your point. That took effort and, dare I say it, malice to accomplish.
TWWIHRTPS1993™
BTW, I agree in principle with “we should question the government to make sure our troops have the best protections, weapons, etc.”. But in the editorial, the implication is that the government has done a lousy job of that. I don’t agree with that.
Certainly it hasn’t been perfect, but I’ve noticed that even with the greatest things I’ve done in life, I can always look back and see what I could have done better. I always try to bear that in mind before I make judgements about what other people should or could have done differently.
What an embarrassment to our city.
the media answers to no one. They aren’t concerned with making a profit. If they only reported half the truth, their financial report would never in the red.
Their only mission in life is to assist the liberial left’s constant attack on American values and culture.
The news media, printed/network is nothing more than an arm of the communist party and now an ally to Islamic radicals . Fox being the exception.
rj
#7,
“…the implication is that the government has done a lousy job of that. I don’t agree with that.”
Hmm, I wonder how much you’d agree with that “implication” if YOU were an ill-equipped US soldier, or had an offspring or spouse in Iraq.
Check out the following links
Desperate soldiers attach homemade armor
http://detnews.com/2004/project/0407/13/a06-209336.htm
Ill-equipped soldiers use excess force http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050727-115941-2568r.htm
Miss. soldier calls home, cites safety concerns http://clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041015/NEWS01/410150366/1002
“Certainly it hasn’t been perfect, but I’ve noticed that even with the greatest things I’ve done in life, I can always look back and see what I could have done better. I always try to bear that in mind before I make judgements about what other people should or could have done differently.”
Oh, please…make judgments already (that’s “judgments”, not “judgements”) —but make INFORMED judgments before you build yourself up while sitting there contemplating “the greatest things [you’ve] done in life”.
People who boast inappropriately by making (comparative) judgments are the worst of ALL judges.
Man what was a commentary on the poor job that the comicle does has turned into English class.
When are Benzion and Zilla gonna do a hostile takeover for the Comical?
GlenSam,
Classic example of the “chickenhawk” argument.
While I don’t have an offspring or spouse in Iraq, I do have family over there. I still disagree with the implication. Do I think that things are perfect in Iraq? Absolutely not, but has a war ever been waged where things are perfect? I’ve never personally done anything perfect, so I don’t expect it of our government in something as large-scale as a war.
I wasn’t building myself up at all in my comment. My point was quite the opposite. How you took my #7 to be boasting is beyond me.
I know this is OT, but then it’s the Chron….yesterday the Walmart on 249 in Tomball was completely blocked off with crime scene tape, lots of police officers, etc. Even the side street was blocked off. There are rumors flying about someone tossing hand grenades into the parking lot.
Does anyone have police connections that they could check this out with?
There was nothing on any of the news channels, which is odd considering that a bank building was also, supposedly, involved.
#15 The Dude
Your arrogant and everybody knows it. How dare you get your spelling/ english wrong on a blog for godsakes. Don’t you know we are grading this stuff?
Long live WB!
Smackie, that’s “you’re arrogant”, not “your arrogant”. I know you don’t want WB to sternly reprimand you for your poor writing skills. You’d better watch yourself, young man, or you’re headed for study hall.
Smackie/Dude:
What’s the difference between everybody and everyone?
Does youse knows?
Malcolm,
I’ll bite, what’s the difference?
I’za dunno.
Hey Malcolm,
Who says?
http://www.antimoon.com/forum/2003/1583.htm
There are several things we need to remember about the press:
1) At the time the First Amendment was being debated and voted upon, the many competing newspapers were largely OWNED by the political parties. There was no pretense of objectivity. (That arose after William Randolph Hearst promoted the war with Spain.)The things written by the early U.S. papers about Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, etc. were far worse than anyone in MSM has written/said about Bush or Kerry.
2) The relatively few people who could read in 1800 were steeped in history and the Bible, the best sources of critical thinking skills.
3) While the media today are far more diverse, the political balance is asymetrical: The MSM is dominated by particularly greedy corporations which believe in flash and trash and let the liberal self-haters and folks who celebrate dysfunction run the news side.
The conservatives have the upper hand on the Web in thoughtful commentary. But, in general, the conservative sites do not use video and pictures as well as the liberals.
4) Critical thinking skills are lacking today, partly, maybe largely, because students do not read the “dead, white European males” who formed and built Western civilization.
The problem is multi-faceted. Bias is less of an issue than the lack of critical thinking skills needed to recognize illogical and/or biased stories. If we improve critical thinking skills, the bias will be less of a threat.
If we expect the media to operate without bias, we’re foolish because: 1) It won’t happen 2) We’ll be relying on someone else to control or correct the problem.
Want to have a direct impact yourself? Read good history and the Bible (even if you don’t believe in God) and demand your kids read good history and the Bible.
Otherwise, just sit back and whine about the culture and leave your kids unable to survive the cesspool.
Dust off that old Webster’s collegiate dictionary and thesaurus!
The Magnolia Pycaune-Tribune-Herald-Globe-Gazette-Potpourri is more accurate. These posts come way too often. Maybe it would be easier to post:
“Chronicle gets one right.” “Chronicle writer completes sentence without overtly inserting bias or misspelling, or misquoting”.
Or is that too much to ask for from a newspaper in a city this size?
We don’t need no education…..
We don’t need no thought patrol…
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it’s just another brick in the wall.
All in all you’re just another brick in the wall.
We don’t need no education
We dont need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it’s just another brick in the wall.
All in all you’re just another brick in the wall.
“Wrong, Do it again!”
“If you don’t eat yer meat, you can’t have any pudding. How can you
have any pudding if you don’t eat yer meat?”
“You! Yes, you behind the bikesheds, stand still laddy!”
Glensam, do you have any links from…oh, I dunno, the last year or so?
Smacktle,, a little pink floyd on Thursday.. that is always good.
The Audit Bureau of Circulations (USA) needs to have a division to grade newspapers and magazine content for quality of spelling, diction, punctuation, and syntax. Wouldn’t today’s liberal editors love that?
its funny because tom tucker is the news anchor on family guy.