Thursday, April 29, 2004
IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE CYNICAL AND OPTIMISTIC?
ABC News has said that on Friday's Nightline, Ted Koppel is slated to read the names of more than 500 U.S. servicemen killed in the Iraq since the war began March 19, 2003. Executive producer Leroy Sievers acknowledged that the roll call of the dead is a take-off of an anti-war Vietnam project undertaken by Life magazine in 1969, in which the names and faces of 217 of the 242 soldiers killed in one week of that war were assembled.
But Sievers told the New York Times that ABC's venture has "no intended political statement." As for the program airing right at the May 1 anniversary of the President's declaration of the end of major hostilities -- a declaration that has been often distorted by Bush's anti-war critics as some sort of promise of no further casualties -- Koppel incredibly told the Times: "That is purely a coincidence."
I'm torn between believing that this IS a stunt designed to elicit bad feelings about the war and the number of deaths - and believing that the American people will react positively to what they're trying to do. If memory serves me correctly, ALL of the recent anti-Bush publicity has only served to increase the support he has among the American people. I have a sneaking suspicion that this may backfire as well...just like when the newsheads react with surprise when a clearly anti-Semitic movie (sarcasm) like the Passion of the Christ becomes a #1 box office smash.
We'll see...
By the way - just to be fair - I'll be posting the names and states of every member of Congress who voted against providing 87-billion dollars in supplemental support for the members of the military in Afghanistan. Turnabout is fair play.
ABC News has said that on Friday's Nightline, Ted Koppel is slated to read the names of more than 500 U.S. servicemen killed in the Iraq since the war began March 19, 2003. Executive producer Leroy Sievers acknowledged that the roll call of the dead is a take-off of an anti-war Vietnam project undertaken by Life magazine in 1969, in which the names and faces of 217 of the 242 soldiers killed in one week of that war were assembled.
But Sievers told the New York Times that ABC's venture has "no intended political statement." As for the program airing right at the May 1 anniversary of the President's declaration of the end of major hostilities -- a declaration that has been often distorted by Bush's anti-war critics as some sort of promise of no further casualties -- Koppel incredibly told the Times: "That is purely a coincidence."
I'm torn between believing that this IS a stunt designed to elicit bad feelings about the war and the number of deaths - and believing that the American people will react positively to what they're trying to do. If memory serves me correctly, ALL of the recent anti-Bush publicity has only served to increase the support he has among the American people. I have a sneaking suspicion that this may backfire as well...just like when the newsheads react with surprise when a clearly anti-Semitic movie (sarcasm) like the Passion of the Christ becomes a #1 box office smash.
We'll see...
By the way - just to be fair - I'll be posting the names and states of every member of Congress who voted against providing 87-billion dollars in supplemental support for the members of the military in Afghanistan. Turnabout is fair play.
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