Comments on: The Public Eye Chat With…Allen Pizzey

[jmbreland]

Ha, ha! Thanks, Mr. Pizzey, for the greatest punch line of the day: "All we're doing is reporting what we can see and understand." Which ain't much based on my experience.

I served with the U.S. Army in Iraq for a year. My job, as a civil affairs team leader, was to mingle with the population and help restore a legitimate, civil society. Folks like Mr. Pizzey and his cohorts were invariably 180 degrees off target. It seemed as if we were reporting from entirely different locations. And then it occurred to me that we were. I was observing the real world; these reporter types mostly were reporting from their posh hotel rooms in the protected zones where they ran quivering behind the furniture every time someone said "bang!"

Most of their news is second-hand rumors fresh from the enemy's propoganda machinery. It's no accident that since returning from my deployment I spend little if any time reading worthless, misguided news accounts of what's happening there. I would rather hear the truth, be it good or bad, from people I know (Iraqis and Americans alike) who have a clue.

[jellie16]

Just one little comment about Darfur and Africa, while the things going on over are deplorable and newsworthy, those people are not currently promising the annilihation of the U.S.

Major news outlets and networks being objective?Hmm...I thought they were extinct. If the blogs I'm reading are realiable and they appeare to be since the major networks and cable are usually publish/air the same info about 3 weeks later, things in Iraq are growing more peaceful and the people are feeling more confident with each day. Why, a liquor store re-opened in Baghdad the other day. A particularly good sign that Al Quaida has pulled out of that neighborhood. I should think some of those green zone reporting correspondents would be grateful enough to go out and support this grand re-opening. I'd like to suggest that all these wellpaid green zone reporters go out and find those reopened liquor stores, give them some business then sit down try to reevaluate the way they are reporting and why they are so addicted to politically propagandizing
everything with an anti-Bush slant.

[jellie16]

Just one little comment about Darfur and Africa, while the things going on over are deplorable and newsworthy, those people are not currently promising the annilihation of the U.S.

Major news outlets and networks being objective?Hmm...I thought they were extinct. If the blogs I'm reading are realiable and they appeare to be since the major networks and cable are usually publish/air the same info about 3 weeks later, things in Iraq are growing more peaceful and the people are feeling more confident with each day. Why, a liquor store re-opened in Baghdad the other day. A particularly good sign that Al Quaida has pulled out of that neighborhood. I should think some of those green zone reporting correspondents would be grateful enough to go out and support this grand re-opening. I'd like to suggest that all these wellpaid green zone reporters go out and find those reopened liquor stores, give them some business then sit down try to reevaluate the way they are reporting and why they are so addicted to politically propagandizing
everything with an anti-Bush slant.

[jellie16]

Just one little comment about Darfur and Africa, while the things going on over are deplorable and newsworthy, those people are not currently promising the annilihation of the U.S.

Major news outlets and networks being objective?Hmm...I thought they were extinct. If the blogs I'm reading are realiable and they appeare to be since the major networks and cable are usually publish/air the same info about 3 weeks later, things in Iraq are growing more peaceful and the people are feeling more confident with each day. Why, a liquor store re-opened in Baghdad the other day. A particularly good sign that Al Quaida has pulled out of that neighborhood. I should think some of those green zone reporting correspondents would be grateful enough to go out and support this grand re-opening. I'd like to suggest that all these wellpaid green zone reporters go out and find those reopened liquor stores, give them some business then sit down try to reevaluate the way they are reporting and why they are so addicted to politically propagandizing
everything with an anti-Bush slant.

[ghentian]

oh look, a cbs reporter interviewing....who? head of state? famed scientist? this being cbs, after all, a pop star in rehab?

no, of course not. too much trouble; besides, what can *those* people tell us? noooo, what's needed here - for REAL minitruth-approved propaganda - we need to hear the unsourced *opinions* of....another reporter.

that small wee buzzing noise you guys hear? that's you, as you (& your audience) shrink ever smaller to little bitty insect size. preaching only to the choir. and the choir gets smaller every day. what's the analogy wanted? france, 1788? louis and marie droning on about politics to their glitttering court?? that about it? (the "royalty" thing WOULD explain your contempt for real news reporting....)

[nevadarules]

The real news is Romney has pulled even with McCain in New Hampshire on http://www.solidpolitics.com

[ronmwanga]

Congratulations on the debate you've got going here. It's the most robust I've seen since first posting comments to Public Eye. I'd like to get to something Pizzey said at the beginning about Africa reporting, which is an obsession with me. I agree that there isn't that much excitement for it, and I also agree that it ought to be told. The problem is that it is always told from the prespective of Africa's latest crisis. I interviewed Ishmael Beah a few weeks ago -- he is the former child soldier in Sierra Leone with the bestselling book -- and he said much the same thing. This is a quote:"I believe that newspapers have been unwilling to report on Africa unless it is something that's really shocking ... people don't see the Africa that I know, that before the war people lived there.

"It's not newsworthy until it is bad. For example, there is no more amputation (in Sierra Leone), ... that is not newsworthy."

Rescue dogs eventually get tired and depressed if they find only dead bodies, so trainers will sometimes hide other trainers in a rubble heap and play with the dogs as a reward for a "find." Similarly, we must acknowledge that there is a "Tragedy Threshhold" for how much death and dying there is in Africa and find the new millionaires, and the good times on the Dark Continent. For further reference, Tivo: "Inside Africa" on CNN.

[micktoll]

It is Pizzey's comments that are rubbish. If objectivity is the goal of today's mass media reporters then they fail miserably. Their sympathies lie so painfully obvious with the left wing appeasers of Ms. Pelozi's ilk that it is almost treasonous. Neville Chamberlain thought dealing with Hitler was diplomatically correct. As history has shown he couldn't have been more wrong. History will deal the same way with the likes of Pizzey and Pelozi.

[drdr59]

Clearly none of you has been there. It is incredibly dangerous. I have been to different regions three times on med aid missions and it's scary as hell. Pizzey is right and if all of you are so sure of yourselves and your viewpoints, get mom to pack your bags and head over there. There are plenty of opportunities as there is a lot of turnover. Judging from the time of many of your posts, none of you have any jobs, so you shouldn't have any time conflicts.

[fastaire-2009]

I don't think McCAin was talking about that there are parts of Baghdad safe for white western reporters to walk around. I think he was talking about Iraqis walking around safely. The guys a liberal moron.