Cry Wolf Criticism

By: Vaughn Ververs
Topics: CBS News Issues

Some days are more challenging than others for partisan media critics and, thus, for us here at PE. I've struggled with this question all day: Can a criticism be so baseless, obtuse and irrational to make it unworthy of response? The answer is many cases, is yes, especially when it involves broad generalizations, name-calling and the like.

When the criticism is specific and nonsensical at the same time, engagement is a tougher call. But, what the heck, here goes.

The conservative media group, Media Research Center, is taking out after CBS correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi (once again) for a line uttered in the first installment of her "Home Front" series which will take Alfonsi across America to examine how Americans are feeling about the war in Iraq.

Video:
Wartime Marine Recruits

To kick off the series, Alfonsi visited Parris Island, South Carolina, and talked to recruits at the historic Marine boot camp. Here's where the "controversy" comes in. Alfonsi wondered what attracts Marine recruits during a war and 19-year old Michael Laurello said he wanted to be "fighting the evils, what they did to us on September 11th." In a voice-over, Alfonsi said:

"All three of the recruits we sat down with say they enlisted because of September 11th. Politicians will argue whether the war and 9/11 are related. But clearly here, to these recruits, the two are inseparable."

And here's how MRC saw it:

"Alfonsi … couldn't let such an apparent link between 9/11 and the war in Iraq go unchallenged and so she quickly admonished the naive recruits as she stressed how 'politicians will argue whether the war and 9/11 are related' -- though she added that 'clearly here, to these recruits, the two are inseparable.'"

When that's the headline complaint, you know it was a slow day in the bias mines for the Media Research Center.

Just for the record, we don't have any idea whether Alfonsi "admonished" the recruits, or whether they were (or treated as though they were) "na?ve." They weren't in the piece that aired. All we know is, with one voiced-over line, Alfonsi acknowledged the very real disagreement about the relationship between 9/11 and the war in Iraq. She also made clear, as MRC acknowledges that all three recruits she spoke to believed they are "inseparable."

This is the type of ticky-tacky criticism I would normally find too small and baseless to spend much time refuting but there are some important points to raise in this instance. First, to my eye, the piece was very uplifting for the military. It showcased young, enthusiastic volunteers gung-ho on getting prepared to fight for their country. I half-anticipated criticism coming from those opposed to the war.

It's also the type of criticism that tends to undermine groups like the MRC when more serious examples of bias actually arise. You know the story about the boy who cried wolf, don't you?

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by bill_paley October 13, 2005 5:10 PM EDT: Can we turn this thread off? Pulllleeeze? Enough digital brownshirts on parade. Enough, don\'t you think?; Reply to this comment


by ikez78 October 13, 2005 1:44 PM EDT: http://63.247.134.60/~pobbs/archives/001411ties_between_al_qaeda_and_the_saddam_hussein_regime.html Don\'t think there\'s an al Qaeda-Iraq connection? Here\'s a list of prominent politicians and intelligence community leaders confirming it.; Reply to this comment


by ikez78 October 13, 2005 12:46 PM EDT: Alpha, Thanks for the reply. I think we agree for the most part. I really don\'t think that CBS has an active agenda to deliberately misreport news to shape public opinion a certain way. I just think that certain people there let there opinions affect what they decide to say and what they decide is newsworthy or not. In the end this adds up. While it\'s not the end of the world-this is a TIME OF WAR, and this is a very important event to report this war properly. Why is it important? Because in this country public opinion actually plays a role in how the war is fought-that puts a huge burden on the news media to report it correctly. Hope you follow what I am saying.; Reply to this comment


by alphaa10-2009 October 13, 2005 7:59 AM EDT: Apologies to ikez78 for any personal offense my comments offered. This CBS forum is a bold and promising experiment in openness, with Americans talking directly with other Americans instead of passively parking their minds on their media channel of choice. Such contact with neighbors is vital, for if people speak only to those who agree with them, our differences widen and public dialogue-- an article of faith with the Founding Fathers-- is jeopardized. Lofty ideal or no, the survival of truth as an absolute requirement for public affairs. When a powerful group takes control by any means at hand, hostile to criticism, thoroughly deceptive, operating as proxy for elites and concentrating wealth and power with a few at the expense of the many, all of us should worry. To some at this forum, that is the Bush administration. To others (I am sure), it is a media network with whose viewpoint they disagree. But one thing is certain-- unless truth remains the ultimate basis, civil order itself is in trouble. Where CBS is found wanting, we must appreciate those who offer reasoned, factual criticism. Likewise, critics of CBS should be equally rigorous with themselves, their own networks and party. Any network, including CBS, is subject to mistakes and errors of judgment, but responding constructively is a rare opportunity to become even better. I know of no other network willing even to approach this model effort and rededication to professional journalism.; Reply to this comment


by ikez78 October 12, 2005 11:15 AM EDT: Alpha, Nice response to. You basically said CBS isn\'t biased but .....well if they are it\'s ok then. Grow up man.; Reply to this comment


by ikez78 October 12, 2005 11:13 AM EDT: AA, Me a Bushbot? I disagree with him on far more things than I agree with him on. Check my posts if you care to make an educated response instead of an uneducated one. Newswer, North Korea is not a bigger threat than Iraq. Kim Jong Il has not invaded other countries, is not in the heart of the Middle East (I don\'t see a lot of fanatical Asians suicide bombing countries) and we have Japan, China, Russia, South Korea and a number of other countries assisting us in trying to disarm them, what is your grand solution for them? About Iran, yes they are a threat, but they they will be less of a threat when we have allies created on all of their borders (Iraq, Afhganistan, Pakistan, etc.); Reply to this comment


by hs_nc October 12, 2005 10:30 AM EDT: Newser: I actually just saw my brother for the last time this weekend...as he will be shipping out to Iraq in the next few days--so thank you for asking. And to be quite honest--he feels very similar to how these recruits that Ms. Alfonsi interviewed feel...he knows he is going off to fight a war without the support of most of his country and he also knows (this being his second depolyment) that the situation there is not what we see on the news. So I admit that I am biased. And I, like many other Americans appreciate her brother\'s service to this country but that does not make CBS less liberal.; Reply to this comment


by alphaa10-2009 October 12, 2005 6:56 AM EDT: Dear Readers, You note the original poster of this thread, a Bush-booster by the name of ?ikez78\", made his entry at 4:32pm, October 11. Miraculously and in defiance of all statistical probability, every Bush-leaning bozo within 2500 miles piled on this forum. All 16 or so of them. Their self-selected sample was supposed to be a monument to truth, but it laughably ends up the opposite? it appears ikez78 congratulated his fellow oxymorons-- \"Good posts, guys.\"-- before they posted. The range of their comments ran from predictable whining about the leftish media (no complaints about Fox, Sinclair and other right-sponsored media, of course), to attempted demographic analysis of the \"left-liberal newsroom\". (No demographic offered for Fox, Sinclair, The Washington Times or The Wall Street Journal). It meandered on to wonder how Democrats could have voted for Iraq or voiced support, if it were not patently obvious 9/11 and Iraq are one and the same. (Non Sequitur of the Year.) If a [pointless] consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, how remarkable their spontaneous posts fall into lock step about the Left-Liberal Empire. And they want to talk about group-think and political bias! So, we congratulate CBS for The Public Eye-- unprecedented on any publication for its scope and possibilities. This is not simply a national debate about Iraq, but soul-searching by America for the truth. Alphaa10; Reply to this comment


by newser-2009 October 12, 2005 2:51 AM EDT: Ye who sit in judgement may want to take note of another Alfonsi post yesterday. You\'ll find it in her blog notes on this road trip: \"It\'s not my first time behind these gates. About 10 years ago my brother Joe went through basic training here. I would write to him everyday and he would write back telling me about the obstacles and challenges he was facing. It was hard to imagine that a place called Parris Island was less than idyllic. A couple months later when our family was allowed to tour the training center, it all came together.\" How many of the critics in this thread have served in the military? How many have family who have served? And for the record, Iran and Korea were and remain far greater threats to our security than Saddam ever posed. He is an evil man and did terrible things to his people, but the N. Koreans have suffered more and continue to AND they have NUKES. This adminstration has not made us safer, they have stirred up a rat\'s nest in Iraq and our undermanned troops continue to die in a war we cannot win and cannot afford to lose. Whatever your beliefs about the veracity of claims that led us into this quagmire, continuing to argue the point is a convenient way of sweeping under the carpet the enormous incompetance and arrogance that has kept us in this botched operation since the day we took Baghdad.; Reply to this comment


by dfrego October 12, 2005 12:56 AM EDT: I have stopped watching the news all together. I am tired of the tickertape body count when ever anything is spoken about Iraq or Afghanistan and it stopping there. Granted these things are an unfortunate part of war, where is the story(s) of the schools that have been started and are now open to women, the peaceful sectors, or the story on the rebuilding of an infrastructure to support themselves. How about the fact that we are not harvesting oil from Iraq but are still buying as if none of this happened to assist the new government to rebuild itself. O and if anyone has a hard time with the idea of Sadaam supporting the attack on the US, I have one heck of a picture for you. Until I hear that the national media can start to get it together I will be looking for information from our troops, the reporters that are there on there own dime and the foreign news sources (including from the countries that do not support the effort). How about a major US news outlet that has no political affiliation and just gives the raw data, who said or did what when. Now wouldn\'t that be nice. (Then the seas parted....); Reply to this comment