Real American Heroes
Posted: July 21, 2009 - 18:44 CT
I just uploaded a post in our new blog about how we can support and honor our troops by sending care packages. It is important to let our troops know that, despite what the media says, there are still many good folks back home who care and realize that they are the real American heroes. While Democratic congresswoman, Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas was drafting a 1600-word congressional resolution proclaiming Michael Jackson as a global hero, Republican representative Peter King of New York lambasted the celebrity-worshiping media circus in a YouTube video (as reported by Michelle Malkin):
"All we hear about is Michael Jackson. Let’s knock out the psychobabble. He was a pervert … and to be giving this much coverage to him, day in and day out, what does it say about us as a country? … I just think we’re too politically correct. No one wants to stand up and say, 'We don’t need Michael Jackson!' He died, he had some talent, but fine, there are people dying every day. There are men and women dying every day in Afghanistan, let’s give them the credit they deserve."
If these real heroes are to be remembered, it will be up to us. Due to lack of media coverage, family members are forced to go to emails, twitter and other internet resources to get the word out. Unless it is a story which portrays our military in a negative light, our major networks (with the exception of Fox) and most major newspapers simply aren’t interested.
On the same day that Michael Jackson died, Army 1st Lt Brian N. Bradshaw was killed in Afghanistan, fighting in a war to protect all Americans. Lt Bradshaw’s aunt, Martha Gillis, wrote a letter published in the Washington Post scolding the media priorities:
My nephew, Brian Bradshaw, was killed by an explosive device in Afghanistan on June 25, the same day that Michael Jackson died. Mr. Jackson received days of wall-to-wall coverage in the media. Where was the coverage of my nephew or the other soldiers who died that week? There were several of them, and our family crossed paths with the family of another fallen soldier at Dover Air Force Base, where the bodies come “home.” Only the media in Brian's hometown [in Washington State] and where he was stationed before his deployment [Alaska] covered his death...
He was a search-and-rescue volunteer, an altar boy, a camp counselor. He carried the hopes and dreams of his parents willingly on his shoulders. What more than that did Michael Jackson do or represent that earned him memorial 'shrines,' while this soldier's death goes unheralded? It makes me want to scream.
We must commend the Post for printing the letter under the headline, "A Life of Worth, Overlooked". Two days after the Post carried Ms Gillis’ letter, attacks in Afghanistan took the lives of seven US soldiers but, as reported by the Media Research Center, their deaths earned a total of less than one minute combined on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts on Monday night -- 1/20th the time devoted to Jackson a week-and-a-half after he passed away.
Emblematic of the disparity in priorities, CBS anchor Katie Couric read her 13-second item on the deaths in Afghanistan as she sat in Los Angeles with the Staples Center, the venue for Jackson's memorial, in the background. Those 13 seconds were squeezed in at just over 13 minute mark, with more than half the newscast's 22 minutes, dedicated to Jackson -- a disparity of 60-to-1 (790 v 13 seconds). ABC and NBC allocated about eight times more time to Jackson than Afghanistan (2:50 v 20 seconds on ABC; 3:00 v 23 seconds on NBC). On CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, news reader Erica Hill and Cooper spent nearly 40 seconds discussing the "Wife-Carrying World Championship" in Sonkajarvi, Finland and how the winner got his wife's weight in beer, but allocated just 15 seconds to Afghanistan.
Media Research Center President Brent Bozell summed up the media’s biased coverage:
This is a prime example of why network television news audiences are disappearing before our eyes. There is no justification for determining that the death of a celebrity over a week ago merits 20 times more news coverage than the tragic deaths of American soldiers in Afghanistan.
For anyone to say – with a straight face – that such a disparity was an "editorial judgment" only further insults the collective intelligence of the audience these newscasts claim to serve. In fact, it’s just more evidence that network "news", for all practical purposes, no longer exists.
We should not be surprised that network newscasts continue to dumb themselves down, but episodes such as this are a disgrace.
This is the same media who, in a three week span in May and June of 2006, devoted 3.5 hours of coverage to military misconduct allegations (which were later proved false), as compared to a grand total of 52 minutes combined coverage over a nearly five year period (Sept 2001 to June 2006) of military heroes being awarded top medals.
Sadly, this dismissal of our troops’ bravery also comes from the liberals in government. When an abortionist who had murdered approximately 60,000 babies was shot and killed, President B Hussein Obama immediately issued a statement that he was "shocked and outraged" at this terrorist act as liberals called for the full power of the government to come against the shooter. Yet, a few days later, when an Islamic terrorist shot up a military recruitment station in Little Rock, killing one soldier and wounded another, BHO was silent for days. When political pressure final forced his hand, he issued a formulaic statement that he was merely "saddened" by the incident. Then rather than proposing measures to protect other military recruiters, he called for steps to insure that Muslims would be protected in case of a backlash.
Fortunately, America still has numerous citizens who still support our brave troops. Michelle Malkin wrote a great response to Lt Bradshaw’s aunt in a recent article:
Please do not despair, Mrs Gillis. While the Rev Al Sharpton screamed, "Thank you, Michael! Thank you, Michael!" at the grotesque Staples Center memorial on Tuesday, many of us whispered in prayer: Thank you, Justin. Thank you, Aaron. Thank you, Brian. The real American heroes won’t be forgotten.