Friday, June 20, 2008

Why Does She Have To Be So Annoying?


On the way home from work yesterday, I had a chance to hear the Mark Levin Show. He's a guy from back East and the sound of his voice honestly grates on my nerves...but today he was ranting about one CBS reporter Lara Logan. Having seen some of her work while I was in the sandbox I was familiar with her "style". Seems she was on "The Daily Show" and had a few things to say about the war in Iraq and the First Lady that Mr. Levin didn't agree with.

From Newsbusters here's a little of what she had to say.

host Jon Stewart proceeded to question her about Iraqi violence not getting enough media coverage. The Comedy Central anchor queried, "Have we lost our humanity with this entire situation?" "Yeah, we have," Logan agreed...

...Logan, who in late 2007, complained to "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno that "we're doing extremely badly" in Iraq, also used her appearance on the program to bash First Lady Laura Bush. After dismissing "armchair academics" who don't really know what the situation is like in Afghanistan or Iraq, she scolded, "See Laura Bush saying this is my third time in Afghanistan. She doesn't mention that she was only there for a few seconds..." When Stewart wondered if such individuals might not really be looking for the truth of the situation, Logan playfully shrugged her shoulders.

The reporter, who has made several trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, repeatedly implied that very few have the understanding she has about the Middle East. After agreeing with Stewart's assessment that Americans have lost their humanity over the situation in Iraq, Logan made this statement about reporting bad news:

LARA LOGAN: You know, I was asked once do you feel responsible for the American public having a bad view, a negative view of the war in Iraq? And I looked at the reporter and I said tell me the last time you saw the body of a dead American soldier. What does that look like? Who in America knows what that looks like? 'Cause I know what that looks like. And I feel responsible for the fact that no one else does.


Now in some respects I understand that she means the American public in general doesn't know or care much about Iraq, and for the most part I would agree with her.

But her rant about nobody knowing what it looks like or feels like is ridiculous...tell that to the families, their friends, fellow soldiers. Having heard her before it is obvious she believes this war to be wrong, and she believes that if only people saw "the truth" that it would all end. To her, "the truth" consists of dead Americans on TV not the whole truth just selected sections of it chosen to manipulate people's feelings.

She castigates the First Lady for only spending a limited time in Afghanistan and then having the nerve to talk about it. She intimates that only someone like herself who has spent countless days and weeks in the war zone could possibly understand the situation. Well, there is something known as the "big picture"...sometimes you have to take a step back to see the entirety of what is happening. If you live your life looking for the next suicide bomb attack it is very unlikely (unless you make an effort to do so) that you will see what is happening in the region as a whole.

While I was there, I had to stop and look around and get outside of what I was doing on a day to day basis, because let's face it, my job is to go to where bad stuff happens. If that's all I judged the situation by, I would have her take on things. But if you step back and look at the number and severity of events that are occurring now versus a year ago...you would be dishonest to say that nothing has changed.

It's sad also because she's pretty hot. Why does she have to be so dim?

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