Spit Take

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: 4th Estate Debate

(AP)

Do antiwar protesters have a penchant for spitting on veterans? Or is the notion that they spit on returning soldiers a myth? That's the topic of a pair of columns by Slate's Jack Shafer and a story on Sunday's "On The Media."

Squarely on the side of the skeptics is Jerry Lembcke, who wrote a book in 1998 called "Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam." He calls the notion that protesters spit on returning soldiers a "face-saving device." Argues Lembcke: "It helps construct an alibi, the alibi being that we beat ourselves, that we were defeated on the home front, and that we, the most powerful nation on earth, was not defeated by the small upstart nation of Asian others. It's a dangerous myth because, coming out of Vietnam, it kept alive the idea that we could win wars like Vietnam if we just stuck together as a country, if we just stayed solid behind the war effort."

Lembcke, who is himself a veteran, doesn't say the stories are untrue – he can't say for certain one way or another. But he suggests the vast majority are likely fabricated: No news story, he says, has ever documented an instance of a protester spitting on a soldier. Shafer, who agrees with Lembcke's argument, complains that the press has continued to repeat the tale, as evidenced by a recent Newsweek piece reporting that "returning GIs were sometimes jeered and even spat upon in airports."

Writes Shafer: "Like other urban myths, the spit story gains power every time it's repeated and nobody challenges it. Repeated often enough, it finally sears itself into the minds of the writers and editors at Newsweek as fact."

On the other side of the fence are a number of conservative bloggers, as well as those who say they know the spitting took place, since it happened to them.

One such person is Joshua Sparling, whom the New York Times reported was spat on at a recent antiwar protest. Critics complained that the story did not note that Sparling, who was part of an organized counter-protest, is a frequent Fox News guest and has been a guest at the State of the Union. In other words, they think he's trying to score political points, and they don't believe him.

But Sparling and others, including commenters here, say that they were spat on, and they resent the implication that they are lying. This is one of those issues where your politics have a lot to do with whom you believe: Conservatives tend to trust those who say they were spit on, as the notion that such incidents took place paints the antiwar left in an unflattering light. Liberals, meanwhile, are more likely to see the spitting stories as an example of partisan propaganda, misinformation put out by those who want to demonize those who disagree with them.

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by one_american February 7, 2007 4:11 PM EST: Here is JUST ONE ACCOUNT OF LIBERALS SPITTING ON A VIETNAM WAR SOLDIER:

"Scott Brownlee was just 22 years old and a U.S. Army veteran of three years of combat in Vietnam when he returned stateside in December 1967.
Discharged in a short ceremony at the Oakland Army terminal, he was still proudly wearing his military uniform when he took a bus to the San Francisco airport to catch a plane home to Tipp City.
He reached the airport and was headed to a ticket window when he unexpectedly ran into an anti-war demonstration.
"As soon as I got off the escalator, this pimply-faced boy, about 16 or 17, ran up and spit right in my face," said Brownlee, his soft blue eyes suddenly hardening as he recounted the incident recently.
Surprised and enraged, Brownlee said he grabbed the kid by the neck, setting off what he called a "pitched battle" between about 20 fellow servicemen and a like number of demonstrators that went on for at least 10 minutes until it was broken up by the local police."

http://www.tcnewsnet.com/main.asp?SectionID=5&SubSectionID=5&ArticleID=139909&TM=52515.16

THIS IS ONLY ONE ACCOUNT OF MANY THAT OCCURRED, SO THE REPEATED FALSE DENIALS BY LIBERALS ARE A COMPLETE LIE AND COVER-UP. AMERICANS KNOW THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT LIBERALS.; Reply to this comment


by one_american February 7, 2007 3:55 PM EST: TrumpThumper:

Thanks for agreeing with me about the ugly truth about liberals.

I think you are beginning to see the light. (wink); Reply to this comment


by hamhock8 February 6, 2007 9:51 PM EST: I am a 1969 Vietnam vet and I don't know any vet who was spit on. No doubt a vet, somewhere, someplace, must have been spit on. The story is repeated and expanded upon over and over again by *** artists and chicken hawk types filled with self loathing because of what they did to avoid serving. Check hospital records for spit evidence. A hospital is where you would find someone foolish enough to spit at a guy who just spent 12 months staying alive by whatever means necessary.; Reply to this comment


by trumpthumper February 6, 2007 8:41 PM EST: One_American: You're absolutely right - no pun intended (wink-wink). People are indeed beginning to see the ugly truth. Seems like most of "them" voted in the last election. Thanks for pointing that out.; Reply to this comment


by one_american February 6, 2007 8:26 PM EST: TrumpThumper:

My point is that Brian Montopoli, author of the above blog, quotes Lembcke as saying "No news story, he says, has ever documented an instance of a protester spitting on a soldier". That is categorically untrue, but who is it that holds the answer to that question? The liberal media, of course, who will never bring out evidence that they have in their posession, that exposes their own bias.

As I stated before, ABSENCE OF PROOF IS NOT PROOF OF ABSENCE.

You just want to convince people that it didn't happen, because that would expose you and your type for who you are.

Regardless, people are beginning to see the ugly truth about liberals...; Reply to this comment


by trumpthumper February 6, 2007 7:26 PM EST: OK...One_American...(what a perfect place for the underscore)your take on the vast conspiracy by the American media is laughable. With right wing media meglomaniacs like Bill O'Rielly, Jack(s) Hannity and Kemp, Rush Limbaugh and their publish or perish monkey-on-a-string Ann Coulter (who as a team repeatedly demonstrate a mania for grandiose performances marked by their feelings of personal omnipotence and grandeur) I'm amazed that your filmed "proof" of returning soldiers being spit on, has somehow just magically "disappeared". Ohh, Puuhleeeze...if it ever existed, that carload of clowns would certainly have at least one copy mixed in with their family footage. Hmmmm...kind of easy for you to make outrageous claims without any proof to back them up. A tactic you undoubtedly gleened from the current administration. They started it using it about 3,101 American lives ago, or 2961 lives since "Mission Accomplished". Which one is your personal favorite? Stand up for the one you admire most - we'll be looking for you on the right - right?; Reply to this comment


by one_american February 6, 2007 6:02 PM EST: TrumpThumper:

It appears that you agree with my post, because all you did was try to change the subject.

But it's well known that liberals are good at avoiding the truth.

Talk to liberals like Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro about goose-stepping. They're the experts.; Reply to this comment


by trumpthumper February 6, 2007 5:08 PM EST: Geeez..."One American"...I think you put it perfectly when you opened with ..."Who in their RIGHT mind...". OPPS! A bit revealing, huh, drama queen? Rambo used that line in a movie...you use it to condemn generations who want peace. Sound familiar?

Goose-stepping lessons begin at midnight. I'll bet you'll be on time.; Reply to this comment


by one_american February 6, 2007 4:37 PM EST: Who, in their right mind, WOULD NOT BELIEVE that a liberal would spit on a soldier?

Liberals do it every day, with everything they say and do.

I know FOR A FACT that a crowd of hippies were lined up at a local International Airport not far from where I live, and spat on Vietnam soldiers returning home.

It was caught on film at the time, but I guess the liberal media has probably destroyed all evidence of this, no doubt, since they can't find proof of it.

But alas for the liberals; absence of proof is not proof of absence. Too many people were there and saw it first hand.

And the same low-lifes and offspring of the low-lifes are doing the same thing today.; Reply to this comment