Patterico's Pontifications

11/2/2005

More on the New York Times and That Selectively Quoted Letter

Filed under: Media Bias,War — Patterico @ 6:58 pm



Michelle Malkin has more on that New York Times story that selectively quoted the letter from the Marine who said that freedom was worth dying for. (For the background, see this post and the links therein.)

The reporter, James Dao, has not responded to Malkin’s e-mail regarding the story — but Malkin does have the reporter’s snippy and classless response to a reader:

Even the portion of [the Marine’s] e-mail that I used, the one that you seem so offended by, does not express anti-war sentiment. It does express the fatalism that many soldiers and Marines seem to feel about multiple tours. Have you been to Iraq, Michael? Or to any other war, for that matter? If you have, you should know the anxiety and fear parents, spouses, and troops themselves feel when they deploy to war. And if you haven’t, what right do you have to object when papers like The New York Times try to describe that anxiety and fear?

There’s lots more in Michelle’s post, but my favorite part is a response to Dao from a soldier who has served in Iraq and is going back:

James, yes, I’ve been to war. Twice now, already in OIF, and I’m heading back to war within the month. Since you do not even have the courage to acknowledge that you used selected quotes from a dead soldier’s last letter home to further your (and your paper’s) agenda, you are not worthy of even writing about a Marine like Corporal Starr, never mind trying to psychoanalyze what he was feeling about being back in the war. You are a coward when only your reputation is on the line. Corporal Starr was courageous, when even his life was on the line.

Should I die in Iraq, on this, my third tour, my wife will have in her posses[s]ion, a letter from me to be released to the press, should some slimy dirtbag like you try to make it look like I served in anything other than an honorable manner. I’m proud of what I do, I do it knowingly and with full knowledge of what the background on this war is. And likely better knowledge of what the outcome can be. I’m not some poor schlep who needs a NYT reporter to “interpret” my thoughts. I’ve live in the Middle East longer than Juan Cole, I’ve met more common Iraqis than has George Galloway, and I know more about the military soldiers I serve with than you will ever know in a lifetime of mis-reporting on soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines.

Well said.

2 Responses to “More on the New York Times and That Selectively Quoted Letter”

  1. soldier: “… should some slimy dirtbag like you..”

    Patterico: “Well said.”

    High standards, I see. And classy, too.

    (Oh, and as regards: “to further your (and your paper’s) agenda”: he seems not to have heard of Judith Miller.)

    m.croche (3fcbbd)

  2. Thank you m.croche for wonderfully illustrating yet again the “cherry pick a selective quote” strategy that liberals so adore. It must be nice to have blinders so you can ignore the ENTIRE point of the letter-exchange and Patterico’s comment to focus on a single 6-word snippet.

    Amused in VA (527a31)


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