Spoons reports that some ABC affiliates have declined to air Ted Koppel's Deathfest, during which the Nightline anchor plans to read the names of soldiers killed in Iraq.
In a sense, I'd like to commend the affiliates for the decision. I share the feelings out of which it was made. Ultimately, however, I don't agree with it.
Let every American see Koppel's naked agenda for what it is: Demoralization and exploitation. I'm in favor of letting folks make up their own minds. America is founded on the principle that the people are sovereign; that means sometimes holding back the urge to remove from view any material that might prejudice public opinion.
Ted Koppel thinks he will read that list, and a good number of Americans will go, "Oh, my God. So many. So many names. So many dead." And then what? Dash over to the PC and fire off an e-mail to the administration, urging them to bring the troops home?
Perhaps. Yes, perhaps some will do that. Perhaps some will write their senators and representatives. Perhaps some may even search out a local chapter of A.N.S.W.E.R. Perhaps Koppel's Deathfest will be the moment that some centrists lurch over the line and have a change of heart about our mission in Iraq.
I think, however, that Koppel makes a mistake so common to our enemies: He underestimates our awareness, and he underestimates, badly, our resolve.
Ted Koppel has forgotten that most of us know that with war comes death. Some of us know it through direct experience. Some of us knew it going in, and went anyway, more than once. Some of us gave up finer things, seemingly, to do it.
He has forgotten that many of us know our history beyond--far beyond--the Vietnam era. Before there were benevolent news personalities to "alert us" to that which they deemed important, there were books. There were classrooms. There were personal stories from elderly friends and family who had been there.
Worst of all, it never occurred to him that the current generation might seek to live up to the example of our forebears, and not shirk the duty we found before us. It's tough, I guess, for some members of Koppel's generation. For some baby boomers, no one could be nobler than a peace activist. There could be no cause greater than that of peace, and no means to achieve it save by protest. It must be disorienting and disturbing to realize that their sons and daughters have turned out, often, to be instead a throwback to the very generation baby boomers rebelled against in the first place.
Let the names roll on, Mr. Koppel. We know what's out there. We know what the cost is. And we're ready.
I find it hard to believe that many people are actually going to sit in front of their TVs while he reads the names out one . . . at . . . a . . . time . . . for . . . half . . . an . . . hour . . .
What, you don't find Ted Koppel mesmerizing?
You know. Koppel was embedded with the troops duiring the invasion.
Maybe it's a connection thingie with the fallen?
In any case, it's his call. Bring it on Ted.
Excellent post, Ilyka! I don't remember where I read it, but it's my understanding that there are a lot more conservative leaning students on the campuses these days -- something that must drive the liberal profs crazy!
I happen to be a baby boomer who didn't participate in the Great Rebellion. I'd like to think that means my brain is intact and I don't have to be spoon fed my beliefs like so much pablum.
I expect that everyone involved with this ABC production has their own reasons; some concern, some memorial, some politics and some ratings. Many probably have a combination of these mixed up in an emotional blend they can't quite separate.
Nonetheless, I'll watch, for my own reasons.
Anyone interested in reading the names and seeing the faces and reading some of the hometown stories, without doing it on the ABC time schedule should do so...
http://www.militarycity.com/valor/honor.html
(via Drudge : The List)
I'm in favor of letting folks make up their own minds.
Yeah, and these ABC affiliates have made up theirs. They don't want this hateful garbage spewed on their airwaves. Good for them.
If ABC or whoever set up this program for political reasons and is being insincere about their reasons for reading our heroes names then they are self-righteous pricks.
If anyone's outrage that ABC is doing so is insincere and is really about politics then that "anyone" is a self-righteous prick too.
Everyone ought to take a good look in the mirror or meditate, or pray over where their motives are truly coming from before they open their big fat mouths and besmirch the dead any further.
I have been reading the blog posts and comments about this program all day today and I am just disgusted.
Only half an hour! Yeah, damn straight I can sit in front of my tv and pay attention for only half an hour, regardless of who reads it.
Whatever his personal adgenda for speaking it, I have my own adgenda for watching it. Its good for us to remember, not just that they died ... but that they died for a good and noble cause, that there are tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of Iraqis that won't be tortured this year because those soldiers served with honor and distinction. We should not forget their sacrifice, we must not forget lest their deaths be in vain as we lose our resolve.
I think thats the real reason that some of the affiliates refuse to show it. Not out of respect for the dead, but out of fear that such a list will strengthen America's resolve and fuel our determination. For much the same reason that they quit showing the footage of the WTC being hit. It provoked strong emotion in people, a rage that demanded action and justice. While some find that in and of itself alarming, there are times when strong emotion is appropriate. This is one of those times.
Only half an hour! Yeah, damn straight I can sit in front of my tv and pay attention for only half an hour, regardless of who reads it.
Lucy, you probably got the right attitude about the whole thing.
If the families of the dead wrote to the show and asked that the name of their loved one not be read would that be ok?
If it ended up that only five or six names were left, what then?
Hmm, I said much the same thing. Not as eloquently, though.
This is the case of a non-message gaining a meesage through the messenger. The names of the dead are message-neutral to me on paper, until I read them. Echoes of post-modernism, yes. But between Ted Koppel and Shepard Smith, whose voice do you think would sound more like a tribute? Whose face do you think would show respect for the dead? I'm betting on the latter.
When Nightline helped bring down the Carter administration (DAY 225, America Held Hostage) Republicans said it was news, not propaganda. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, well we know how the story goes, "Praise the Lord, I Saw the Light."
Speaking for myself, I've always found segments that honor the fallen (or deceased) soul-moving (for lack of a better term) and sentimental in a good way. During Academy Awards celebrations, there is always a point in the show where they give a brief tribute to the lives of those in Hollywood who have touched many of our hearts and filled our memories for years but have now passed on. Perhaps the most moving (IMHO) segments is on George Steph's program "In Memoriam" where they highlight those who've died that have made some impact on our world.
While many people may oppose the war for whatever reason, to honor those who have sacrificed cannot be a bad thing, but to EXPLOIT the dead for whatever reason IS a bad thing. I certainly hope that is not Koppel's intention, and I cannot believe it would be. Maybe I'm not that cynical - I'm willing to believe his intentions are honorable. Of course, I'm just a Soldier, what the hell do I know?
Do you really think the best way to honor the fallen is to sweep them under a rug and pretend their individual sacrifices never happened? Or shall we remind ourselves that "our military forces" are not some sort of amorphous, abstract ideal but rather actual, real, flesh-and-blood people---somebody's mom, or son, or lover, or spouse.
Whether you support this war or see it as a for-profit adventure in colonialism, I don't see how you can object to a repectful memorial to the war dead. The tasteful, albeit photo heart-wrenching, photos of the dead returning to US soil and the reading of their names do NOT cheapen their deaths---hopefully they have something to teach us, so that their deaths will not have been in vain.
Interesting that Koppel won't be reading the names of fallen soldiers in Afghanistan. I suppose they don't count with him, because almost everyone supports that war now.
Big media still reports war in the Vietnam style.
They know nothing else. They see all wars through the lens of Vietnam. They try to cast all wars as being another Vietnam.
It seems that it isn't just Kerry who is fixated on Vietnam...it's his friends in the liberal media. And there is a reason for that...to them, Vietnam was their high point because they were able to undermine the will of the nation...because America lost.
That is the sad truth about Kerry and his kind...they are happiest when America loses.
I have not had to endure any sacrifices in this war, so I feel compelled to watch with appreciation, sadness and respect for those who have.
Some know the costs of war, but I don't. So I'll watch with the hope that this will help me personalize instead of intellectualize this war.
And if Koppel uses the soldiers' deaths in any way to further a political agenda, I'll never watch him again.
Actually, Another Thought, I think Koppel SHOULD read the names of the Afghanistan war dead as well. I hadn't thought of that, but you make a good point there.
I wish he'd also read the names of the civilians in both Afghanistan and Iraq who were killed, but you'll never see that in the right-wing corporate media (such as Disney-owned ABC). I'd like to think that their lives mattered as well, even if they were of a different color and spoke a different language.
Fair and balanced. He needs to also read the names of all the US CIVILIANS killed by Islamist terrorists since 1980, when the Department of state started keeping track of them. It's around 9,000 now. It might keep nightline going for another season. Poor Ted, a hopless moroon and totally cluless. But he has the nicest hair money can buy.
"We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you."
-Hussein Massawi, former leader of Hezbollah,
"the general aim of the jihad and the mujahadeen is to strike at the foundations and infrastructure of the Western colonialist program or at the so-called world order.... Their defeat means, simply, the elimination of all forms of nation-states, such that all that remains is the natural existence familiar to Islam, the regional entity under the great Islamic state."
-Osama bin Laden
Blogland seems to be missing the Abu Gharaib scandal big time. I'm highly disappointed by the lack of coverage on this. You rabid "compassionate conservatives" talk the talk but don't walk the walk. This Chip guy and his dominatrix bitch cohort should be dragged out back for the firing squad IMHO. A complete disgrace on all of America and all the brave men who fight the righteous fight. This country is sliding into an abyss of immoral, godless heathen disgust. Perverted homosexuals and trailer trash women now guard our prisoners or war. WHAT A FREAKING DISGRACE THIS COUNTRY HAS BECOME! I DEMAND BETTER!
Settle down, Ralph. Here, eat some paste. If you're really good, I'll let you color later. TWO crayons this time!
Here's one conservative blogger's take on Abu Ghraib:
"General Janice Karpinski is a disgrace to the uniform. With friends like her, we don't need enemies.
What a disgusting business. I want the whole lot of them busting rocks in Leavenworth. I bet the guards there know how to conduct themselves like professionals."
And I don't doubt there are others. But, you know, if all you do is sit around and wait for the CIA to beam the news into your dental fillings, you're not going to be very up-to-date about the issue.
Gee, ilyka, you seem to bring out the tin-hatters!
Anyway, I just wanted to mention something for the folks who think that this is just about Koppel & company dissing Bush's war effort: please note that this is sweeps week.
But then, neither ABC nor Ted Koppel would ever do anything so crass as to exploit genuine grief and respect (from both sides) over the war dead, just to run up a higher Nielsen score...
I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!
The problem with the Vietnam comparison is that militarily we won Vietnam. It was folks like Koppel (at the time, actually Walter Cronkeit) that lost us the war, and lose us the resolve to fight and lose that war. It was Cronkeit and politicians like (and including) Ted Kennedy that snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
It ain't gonna work this time. We know what lost us Vietnam. It was not the military, or its efforts. It was folks like them who want to cut and run at the first sign of any kind of trouble.
Someone recently pointed out that running away from a mountain lion is not the best thing to do. Running away is the strategy of prey, and only emboldens the lion to run you down and eat you. You have to fight back. To protect and defend yourself, and your family. To convince such predators that you are NOT prey.
Ted and Ted would have us run. We did run from Vietnam, and that is one reason why we got 9-11.
I find it unfortunate that the best you two can muster in regards to a discussion about this situation is yammering about dental fillings and tin foil hats. As Dean works hard to get television stations set up in Iraq, you two turn a blind eye to this stuff. I can't wait for Dean's new TV stations to start airing these photos to the people of Iraq:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/29/1083224523783.html
This will certainly win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. On top of that, I'm certain all the decent and brave young soldiers who work hard to rebuild Iraq are much safer now because of the actions of a few demented people.
I don't know which is worse these days: this neocon invasion and hijacking of conservative mores in this country wherein any news that isn't good is to be discarded posthaste or the racist leftist terrorist apologist hijacking of the liberal mores in this country that implements a strict rule of anti-Semitism and hatred.
No sense reading this. I'm certain that old Rush is spewing a half of a story right now for you bleating neocons. You can go back to your regular scheduled programming.
Ralph obviously has no idea how many actual vets serving currently, or having recently returned from, Iraq we know around here. Nor how blindly hateful is his acceptance of the notion that the story he links to is typical of what's going on in Iraq.
By the way, those aren't my TV stations, although I'd be proud as hell if they were.
What are you talking about Dean? Did you bother to read my post. If the best you guys can do around here is insult people who get angry at events like the Abu Ghraib situation, then I better find another blog to read. Quoting my previous post:
"On top of that, I'm certain all the decent and brave young soldiers who work hard to rebuild Iraq are much safer now because of the actions of a few demented people."
I remember you posting about people who suppress anger and how unhealthy it is. I watched that 60 minutes on Wednesday night and trolled the blogs looking for a mention. Nothing. Finally on Friday, people started posting on it. The link I posted came from Lt. Smash. I thought it had all the pictures but I think they removed some. Finally, this issue is being raised. This is an outrage. Sgt. Styker made an excellent post:
http://www.sgtstryker.com/weblog/archives/004403.php#004403
I have a close relative in Iraq right now and these pictures do nothing but make an already dangerous situation far worse. I'm plenty pissed.
I gave you credit for helping the TV station project. Work by you and others made it possible. I was genuine in my credit to you and you seem to take it as a slam. I have been told by someone in Iraq that the only press you see in Iraq is Al Jazeera. I can't think of a better project than the one you took on.