Jeff Koopersmith

GOP Congressmen Attack Freedom of Speech
So, what's new?
by Jeff Koopersmith

March 31, 2003 -- WASHINGTON (apj.us) -- If you wondered what right wing nutball Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) is up to these days, don't worry. He was recently busy signing a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that urge the Secretary to "review" media packets of American newscasters covering the war in Iraq.

Congressman Cliff Stearns, a leading but unknown neoconservative war monger, claims he was watching television news veteran and ABC news anchor Peter Jennings on March 10th and was "taken aback" by Jennings' interviews with American troops in Kuwait.

Somehow Stearns, by no means the brightest bulb in the congressional chandelier, still managed to focus on the crux of American values and attacked Jennings's questions focused public attention on "hypothetical" situations that could arise from combat -- "such as casualties and the enemy response" that were ghastly.

He accused Mr. Jennings of asking a General, for God's sake, about fear among his troops. I agree -- how dare we expect to know whether or not our boys and girls in some God-forsaken desert might be frightened? Naturally, this will get our kids thinking, "What the heck am I doing here?" or "Why am I following orders from some guy sitting in a warm office in Washington while my ass in on the line here?"

Stearns was also peeved that Jennings asked the troops "to dwell on their worst fears and concerns on national TV" I concur - why should our troops know that we are thinking they might be afraid, and that we're concerned and want to quell their anxiety - an on National television no less?

Stearns, who represents Floridians in the Podunk region called Alachula County -- which surrounds the ripping metropolis of "Ocala" (a recurring word in New York Times crossword puzzles because the town has three vowels) -- is also the wit behind bringing a halt to human cloning, despite the medical breakthroughs that science offers from the technique, and despite the fact that cloning, in one form or another, has been taking place within the wombs of American women for more than two decades.

Stearns is also a backer of a memorial to slaves on the mall in the nation's capitol. He said recently, "It is my earnest hope that a slave memorial will play a role in healing this legacy of slavery. The suffering of those bound in slavery must not be forgotten by the current and future generations of Americans."

What an American humanitarian!

Mr. Stearns, although probably well-intended, should continue impressing the voters of his District with his television viewing habits and 'critical' eye.

His anger also aimed at Mr. Jennings's discussion of the "potential" for our soldiers to kill each other mistakenly during night fighting -- as was the case in Desert Storm, you may recall, when one of helicopters targeted and blew up not one soldier but an entire US-flagged tank.

Why should we bring up this problem - it might alert our troops to be careful?

Joining Stearns in sending the letter to Rumsfeld were internationally-renowned congressmen Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), mysteriously the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and three other members of that committee: Reps. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), Walter Jones (R-NC), and Buck McKeon (R-CA). Also signing the letter were Reps. Dan Burton (R-IN), Sam Johnson (R-TX), John Shimkus (R-IL), Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Dave Weldon (R-FL), and Jerry Weller (R-IL).

Only Burton, the guy who fired rifles at a watermelon in his backyard to "prove" that Bill Clinton killed one of his best friends, is, largely unknown.

Stearns' letter notes that he "understand(s) the underlying basis behind the EMBED program" which stations reporters with military units, but found that Jennings' interviews were "highly inappropriate, specifically those asking American troops questions on impending combat."

I agree again. Why on earth would any reporter ask a soldier about war?

Stearns claims that some of the signatories on his letter to Rumsfeld "are veterans" and "know the sacrifices that come with service - including the loss of life. He believes that our "young" troops do not need to be reminded of that fatal possibility by those who only seek to generate a story. He also believes that families of our troops should not be subjected to these stories because they "exacerbate worries, they may already have."

Well, of course, only Veterans can guess that war causes death, and yes, our troops shouldn't be reminded of this, or at least about the potential for "loss of life," as Stearns so ably points out.

Jennings, I believe, should have only asked "older" troops these questions - after all, they already know they could be wounded or killed while searching for those piles of mystifying weapons of mass destruction that no one seems to able to find.

One can only side with Stearns when he ingeniously points out that Peter Jennings must have gone to Kuwait solely to "remind" our brave soldiers that they could die in this war - merely to generate a story.

Making up news is, in itself, a violation of journalistic integrity. It is sickening really.

And how could a madman like Jennings report, or even imply that some people might get killed in Iraq, especially since the families of our troops, may be concerned that they'll die -- as the Congressman points out proudly, and might I add - self-servingly - on his web site (http://www.house.gov/stearns).

Stearns is no pantywaist: he demands that Rumsfeld tells him why the Department of Defense is embedding newspeople with military units "in a different way" than it did during George H.W. Bush's failed Desert Storm.

He further asks rhetorically how interviews that subject anxious young troops to questions relating to combat deaths and possible enemy responses serve to foster "a better public reception."

Of course, he is correct. Reporters in Iraq are not there to give the American people the truth, or a taste of the horror of war, but merely to "foster" a "better" public perception -- in other words, American reporters should engage in lies, mimicking the Administration to the fullest possible extent in an effort to make the public buy into this mess even more fully than they have.

Finally, Stearns asks Rumsfeld the silver bullet question: why "media products" will not be subject to "review or censorship."

I concur. Why on earth would the Secretary of Defense want the American people to get the straight story? Does this not fly in the face of everything the Bush Administration stands for?

No. We must silence Peter Jennings, and the rest of them.

It's time to protect our Constitution and the freedoms it guarantees!