Dear Media: Please Give Us More Cindy Sheehan
By Leon H Wolf Posted in Elections — Comments (27) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Please don't misunderstand the title of my post to mean that I'd like to see more media coverage of Sheehan. I think it's pretty obvious at this point that I think her 15 minutes should have been up about half an hour ago. However, the media is what they are, and the helpless suckers for political theater will cover a war-protest, however ill-conceived. I've come to accept this.
Given that they will cover her to excess, what I wish they'd do is cover her. Because what they're providing now is not coverage, it's a gloss. The media has painted a carefully constructed picture of Ms. Sheehan as a grieving mother, who in the throes of her grief is stolidly waging a simple campaign against the President - she's camping out, just looking for answers.
If the media wants to haul their cameras out there to watch, we just wish they'd paint the picture honestly and as it is. Here are a few things we wish the media would do while they are covering Cindy Sheehan:
We wish that ABC would ask Ms. Sheehan about her now well-publicized views of Israel. We'd love for the American people to hear that Ms. Sheehan thinks that the entire war was part of a neo-con plot to benefit Israel:
Am I emotional? Yes, my first born was murdered. Am I angry? Yes, he was killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel.
Also, while CNN is busy telling us that Cindy Sheehan wants to ask George Bush, "What was the noble cause Casey died for," perhaps they could take a couple of seconds of busy airtime to let her finish the rest of her message for Bush:
And the other thing I want him to tell me is 'just what was the noble cause Casey died for?' Was it freedom and democracy? Bull***t! He died for oil. He died to make your friends richer. He died to expand American imperialism in the Middle East. We're not freer here, thanks to your PATRIOT Act. Iraq is not free. You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you'll stop the terrorism.
While they are at it, they might ask about Cindy Sheehan's stance on cancer:
You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil. You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich. You tell me my son died to spread the cancer of Pax Americana, imperialism in the Middle East
Don't worry, members of the mainstream media. Cindy Sheehan won't mind if you reprint some of her more extremist rhetoric. In fact, she wants you to do it:
Since it was taped, I am just wondering if they showed it when I said Bush doesn’t want to see me because he likes to surround himself with “sycophants.”
In the interest of due diligence, perhaps they might ask Cindy whether she has an ultimate goal after getting her answer from George Bush, and they might be shocked (shocked!) to learn that she immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Iraq:
We need to show George Bush and his cabal of neocons that when we say “bring the troops home, now” we mean “bring the troops home, now!”
Perhaps it might interest some other folks that, when her hair is let down a little, Cindy Sheehan sounds a little more like this:
So anyway that filth-spewer and warmonger, George Bush was speaking after the tragedy of the marines in Ohio, he said a couple things that outraged me.
Seriously outraged me.
And I know I don’t look like I’m outraged, I’m always so calm and everything, that’s because if I started hitting something, I wouldn’t stop til it was dead. So I can’t even start, cause I know how dangerous that would be...
Perhaps a prominent media personage (Keith Olberman?) could be motivated to ask Cindy Sheehan an insightful question like, "How would you propose we fight the war on terrorism?" Mr. Olberman and all five of his viewers might be shocked to find out who Cindy Sheehan thinks the terrorists really are:
I agree with most of GWOT, except that Casey was killed in the Global War Of Terrorism waged on the world and its own citizens by the biggest terrorist outfit in the world: George and his destructive Neo-con cabal.
Well, maybe Olberman's viewers wouldn't be surprised, but on any other show, there would be viewers. And they would be surprised.
I'm prepared to accept the fact that the media is determined to make Cindy Sheehan a household name. Fine. I'm also prepared to accept the fact that grief sometimes makes folks irrational. Fine. What I'm not prepared to accept is the gloss-job the media has done in their coverage of this case.
If we have to see the coverage of this grieving woman over and over again, let us see the fact that her grief is not leading her to honestly and sincerely question the war, but rather that her grief is apparently leading her to believe in bizarre Zionist conspiracy theories, bizarre leftist conspiracy theories, personal hatred, and above all, HALLIBURTON@#~$@! It might be of worthwhile interest to at least some folks to consider that perhaps her political proclivities affected her feelings toward the current administration even before Casey died. It might also be interesting to at least some people that by her own admission, she was opposed to her son's enlistment in the first place, and that he enlisted against her express wishes, thus indicating that perhaps her son didn't see as eye-to-eye with her politically as she might have us believe.
So please, mainstream media. Give us more Cindy Sheehan.
And use less time to give it to us.
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Dear Media: Please Give Us More Cindy Sheehan 27 Comments (0 topical, 27 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
I think her very alive, if estranged, husband might disagree.
I intended to say "grieving mother", and got my terms confused. Thanks for pointing that out, I'll correct the story.
If the media covered Sheehan honestly, she'd auto-discredit and be of no more concern to me than, say, Michael Moore.
Which is to say, none at all.
There is no question that the media chooses to manufacture stories based on how appealing they would be. You complicate the plot once you include all of the things you wrote about. You can see why the corporate media would focus on this story right? It has everything, grieving mother, proud dissenter, classic standoff, defiant commander in chief.
Besides, Cindy doesn't really seem qualified to express any views about how the war on terror should be carried out? Or Israeli-Palestine policies. Don't you agree?
Casey's views differed from hers. It's important to follow her self-promoting blogs on Kos. From a recent diary there:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/15/44440/6234
"We didn't want Casey to join the Army, but once he made that decision, we supported him and even encouraged him through boot camp."
In her notorious contradictions about the meeting Bush had with her already, she told us (in the contemporary account) that Casey would not have wanted her and her now ex-husband to confront the President.
Seems Casey Sheehan, hero, is at odds with Cindy Sheehan - anti-American, anti-Israeli protestor - in more ways than one.
Meanwhile, her husband, who while anti-war has not made any comment on this specific protest using his dead son, has filed for divorce. And Michelle Malkin reports that Casey's brother Andy, whilst nominally supportive of his mother, has emailed and asked her to come home instead of protesting. She has refused. From her Kos diary:
"...me setting off on my holy war to bring the troops home, my constant absences, and all of the media attention has put additional stresses on my family.
I chose my path after Casey died. The rest of the family has chosen theirs."
It seems, reading between the lines of her words, that she is implying Casey's father and brother do not support this protest, just as Casey did not agree with her that he ought not to join the army.
PS Leon, why is an old story at the top of the front page. this is newer, shouldn't you move it up? It's ten am Monday. Am missing my redstate fix!
but I don't think the media wants to give us the real Cindy, because if they did, she would hardly be able to stay on the pedestal the media put her on in the first place.
I suspect in the end they are just going to let the whole Cindy Sheehan thing die.
to comment on those issues as she is to make policy on the Iraq War.
for calling Mrs. Sheehan a "media whore". Based on some of her statmentsshe may really be one.
http://judicial-inc.biz/cindy_sheehan_Israel.htm
Sample:"You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you'll stop the terrorism."
Another gem: "PNAC (Project for New American Century) is the same old Zionist swindle. All it says is "Go kill Iraq and Iran to make the world safe". The closest these Neocons ever came to fighting, was driving past an ROTC class on their way to a Hillel meeting of war protestors during the Vietnam War."
Gee and another: "Interlocking relationships of Neocons
An elite group of Zionist Jews inter-marry and infest government. They call themselves Neo-cons, and their sole purpose is directing US policy. Most are dual-citizens and none of them have ever served in the US military."
Could it be that David Duke may be some distant cousin of Mizz Sheehan? Or maybe Howard Dean is tutoring her in shooting off at the lip.
I have more respect for the son than the mother.
Final thoughts:
The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.
- John Adams
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There is no greater compliment to the Jews than the fact that the degree of their unpopularity is always the scientific measure of the cruelty and silliness of the regime under which they live.
- Sinclair Lewis
But the more I hear of this woman, the more I think she clearly came unglued by the death of her son. These are not the statements of a person fully in grasp of her faculties. And the left continues to use her. We should not be piling shame on Mrs. Sheehan, but rather on the lefties who are using this woman's public grief and letting her got further out into the fringe while applauding her.
It is shameful.
"...she may be crazy..."
But she may also be a garden-variety anti-Semite; sadly, they're not extinct.
is that this woman has lost her sanity and contact with reality, as recognized by her family, and that her exploitation by the anti-war left is akin to terriorists using the mentally retarded as suicide bombers.
If Mrs. Sheehan is a "media whore" it is only because creatures like Michael Moore, Code.Pink, et. al. are her "political pimps".
I just love the First Amendment as my blog Daily Speech states.
Leon can freely express his opinion (and I support his righ to do so) and Cindy Sheehan can express hers.
I fully agree it's always best to provide full discloser when expressing your opinion so people know your bias.
Just as religious fundamentalists turned Teri Shiavo's death watch into a fundraising event for their groups, anti-war activists are freely using Cindy Sheehan's courageous efforts to benefit their cause.
Is America great or what?
Steve Wild
Columbus, OH
And of course... she gets a pass from the mainstream media.
Anti-Semitism is reviled when a "conservative" engages in it, and is pointedly ignored when a "liberal" or "progressive" engages in it.
Double standards in play.
Well done! It's very clear the folks over at the Huffington Post are not aware of Cindy's leftist tirades. Neither are the "women" over at CodePink ("Let's send her pink roses"). Get real! No, Cindy needs some good ol' Texas hospitality such as some poison oak right on fire ant-bitten rear.
I g=have noticed something brewing in the last 4 years that has disturbed me greatly, and before I leave for Crawford I thought I would talk about it here.
Since when is it Anti-American to dissent in this country? Were we not a nation founded upon this very principle? That being a free and open exchange of ideas (that includes dissent for those who don't catch the nuance)....
So why is that every single person who disagrees with bush's policies is Anti-American? Can anyone give me a sane answer?
Oh yes, as you all seem ready to judge Cindy and her actions, I think she is the bravest person in this country today. She is standing tall against the meanest, cruelest, and most dishonest smear merchants in the history of this nation, and STILL she stands tall in pursuit of her answers. If something were to happen to my son, I hope I have the guts to to do what she is doing. And, that is why I am going to Crawford for a couple of days in support of her efforts.
a rather quick cameo appearance. We'll miss you. Really, we will.
But Cindy Sheehan definitely fits that description. Check RedHot.
check it out...the You Don't Speak For Me Cindy tour...if anyone is in proximity...:)
The "anti-Semitic" charge is apparently based on this quote:
"Am I emotional? Yes, my first-born was murdered. Am I angry? Yes, he was killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel."
I don't think this rises to the level of anti-Semitism.
is your prerogative.
If you think American troops are being killed to benefit Israel you might wish to examine carefully what you believe anti-Semitism to be.
nobody really knows why we went to war.
And as a Jew I find your remark extremely offensive.
The more stuff I hear from her, the less I am inclined to give her a pass just because her son was KIA in Iraq...