Cenk Calls Out The MSM On The Fable of John McCain (Wash. Post Article Pushed Him Over The Edge)

[ihavenobias]

David Ignatius Presents the Fable of John McCain
By

If ever there was a piece that exemplified the media love affair with John McCain it is today's article by David Ignatius -- . It is obvious from the article that Ignatius is disappointed in the slimy way that McCain has run his campaign so far - but he never explicitly states that for the audience. Instead he does the opposite!

He tells you what a great guy John McCain is and how his actions must not really be what he believes inside. When presented with evidence that John McCain in fact is not the swell guy Ignatius has been fawning over for decades, he turns that evidence on its head and says it is the opposite of the "true" McCain.

How does Ignatius know the true McCain as opposed to the one who is impersonating him on the campaign trail? Because he read his autobiography! Oh, I see. That's some investigative journalism.

It turns out that McCain was humble in his autobiography about the courage of the men he served with when he was held as a prisoner of war. That is true, but what was he supposed to say, "They were all pretty brave, but none as brave as I!"?

There is the additional irony of how people like Ignatius buy into the myth of how John McCain never talks about his time as a POW as they quote a book he wrote about his time as a POW.

It seems nearly every argument defending McCain comes back to this point. He was a POW, and hence, he has a lot of foreign policy experience. He was a POW, and hence, he is fit to be commander in chief. He was a POW, and hence, he must be a great guy who would never knowingly run misleading ads about his political opponent.

These are all non-sequiturs. The real truth is that he was a POW, and he showed extraordinary courage and perseverance. If you want to commend him for that, that makes perfect sense. But these other non-sensical conclusions are nothing but mindless hero-worship. By this same logic, every POW is fit to be our president and would never do anything untoward in their lives again. Should only POWs run for office from now on?

John McCain was a hero at that time. The way he has run his campaign at this time is not heroic. It is downright despicable. Our media has to be bright enough to understand that distinction. The press is not supposed to be myth-makers. Their job is not to build our legends and our fables. Their job is supposed to be to report the truth.

The truth at this time is that John McCain is running a that tries to bury its opponent in a pile of dirty campaign ads ...

For the rest,
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Speaking of how the MSM is in the tank for McCain, check out


www.theyoungturks.com

[Gabi Hayes]

1. Ignatius is just another faux liberal neo con tool

just as bad as all the rest

move over, Richard Cohen

[Overseas]

29. Ignatius has seemed quite pro-Republican over the past 7 years.

An apologist for their failed policies. And for their lying superstars.

[gratuitous]

2. Almost amazing, isn't it?

One guy who barely served with John Kerry starts a propaganda outfit with a lot of questionable financial backing, and suddenly Kerry is no longer deserving of those Purple Hearts. This despite what the official Navy record and every other surviving veteran who served with Kerry had to say.

But McThuselah can go completely potty right in front of David Ignatius' eyes, and Ignatius can see the "true" John McCain lurking in the penumbra of the madman's shadow. And Ignatius is not alone in the popular media.

[Voice for Peace]

3. Nice but I think there's some dispute about this line:

"The real truth is that he was a POW, and he showed extraordinary courage and perseverance."

Not according to what I've read and heard from other POW's and people who served with him.

He survived being a POW. Does that take courage and perseverence? What is your choice, really, when you find yourself in that kind of situation? I'm sick of hearing about how great he was. He came out of that experience and started cheating on his wife, sucking up to the purveyors of cheat and deceit. That doesn't take courage, it takes ambition & self-deception.

[Disturbed]

7. McLame's most despicable moment.

McCain's Big Pittsburg Story He Screwed Up Bigtime. Heard today ...
The interviewer asked him what the first thing was he thought of when he thought of Pittsburg & McCain answered the Steelers. He then proceeded to tell the ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3603602

That he would lie to pander in this way is repugnant!!!

[Just-plain-Kathy]

24. There once was a direct link to this letter (calling for McCain's medals to be revoked) on line....

I originally found it within a post on the on the Freerepublic (2000), I remember the poster had a link to the veterans site where he found it.

Hon. Richard Danzig
U.S. SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
1000 Navy Pentagon
Washington DC 20350-1000

Dear Secretary Danzig:

We are adding our voice to the chorus of veteran’s groups calling for the combat decorations of Senator John McCain to be revoked. National newspaper columns by Col. David Hackworth and former Green Beret Ted Sampley have pointed out that to get the Silver Star and other decorations, the sworn testimony of two witnesses is required.

Why were these requirements waived only for Senator Mccain and his 28 medals?

Is it because he is the son of a 4-star Admiral?

The medals awarded are questionable in themselves as they reward McCain for his alleged “Outstanding Resistance” while a prisoner of war (POW) in Hanoi. McCain has admitted he collaborated and gave vital secrets about the Aircraft Carriers Oriskany and Forrestal in order to get a hospital operation for wounds he received when he ejected. McCain was still signing “War criminal confessions” and making radio broadcasts to American pilots and soldiers urging them to surrender and refuse orders to fight five years after his wounds healed.

Also, returned POWs USAF Colonels Larson and Guy say they doubt McCain was ever tortured at any time in any way. McCain returned from captivity weighing 10 pounds heavier than when captured.

There is a picture of him eating a large meal in the Foreign Ministry where he allowed himself to be interviwed for a newspaper article he knew would be published in Havana. He was wearing a jogging suit under his prison pajamas. No other returned POW said they received hospital surgery, got a jogging suit for the cold winter or had a big meal in the Foreign Ministry. So much for McCain’s “Outstanding Resistance in Keeping with the Navy’s Highest Traditions”!

Secretary Danzig, from your window you can gaze over Arlington National Cemetary — full of real heroes and brave men who earned their medals the hard way, the honest way and we owe these men our highest regards and respect. To allow John McCain to keep his is a travesty and a desecration to all veterans everywhere living and dead. McCain’s posession of these medals renders my own worthless.

We demand a full investigation of this matter as to why strict Navy Regulations were flagrantly violated and that his medals be returned to your desk pending the outcome of the investigation.

Joe L. Jordan
Navy Squadron VQ-1(Ret.)
147 missions over NVN 67-68
[phone] FAX

[ihavenobias]

25. Very interesting Kathy, thanks for posting n/t

[lonestarnot]

11. Excellent observations! A true skank.

K & R!

[kskiska]

17. He's never released his records

McCain III was awarded “medals for valor” equal to nearly a medal-and-a-half for each
hour he spent in combat.

For 23 combat missions (an estimated 20 hours over enemy territory), the U.S. Navy awarded
McCain III, the son of famous admirals, a Silver Star, a Legion of Merit for Valor, a Distinguished
Flying Cross, three Bronze Stars, two Commendation medals plus two Purple Hearts and a
dozen service medals.

“McCain had roughly 20 hours in combat,” explains Bill Bell, a veteran of Vietnam and former
chief of the U.S. Office for POW/MIA Affairs -- the first official U.S. representative in Vietnam
since the 1973 fall of Saigon.

“Since McCain got 28 medals,” Bell continued, “that equals to about a medal-and-a-half for
each hour he spent in combat. There were infantry guys -- grunts on the ground -- who had more
than 7,000 hours in combat and I can tell you that there were times and situations where I’m sure
a prison cell would have looked pretty good to them by comparison. The question really is how
many guys got that number of medals for not being shot down.”

=============

McCain III lost five U.S. Navy aircraft

1 - Student pilot McCain III lost jet number one in 1958 when he plunged into Corpus
Christi Bay while practicing landings.

2 - Pilot McCain III lost another plane two years later while he was deployed in the
Mediterranean. ”Flying too low over the Iberian Peninsula, he took out some power lines
which led to a spate of newspaper stories in which he was predictably identified as the
son of an admiral.

3 - Pilot McCain III lost number three in 1965 when he was returning from flying a Navy
trainer solo to Philadelphia for an Army-Navy football game. McCain III radioed, ”I’ve got
a flameout” and ejected at one thousand feet. The plane crashed to the ground and
McCain III floated to a deserted beach.

4 - Combat pilot McCain III lost his fourth on July 29, 1967, soon after he was assigned to
the USS Forrestal as an A-4 Skyhawk combat pilot. While waiting his turn for takeoff, an
accidently fired rocket slammed into McCain Jr’s. plane. He escaped from the burning
aircraft, but the explosions that followed killed 134 sailors, destroyed at least 20 aircraft,
and threatened to sink the ship.

5 - Combat pilot McCain III lost a fifth plane three months later (Oct. 26, 1967) during his
23rd mission over North Vietnam when he failed to avoid a surface-to-air missile. McCain
III ejected from the plane breaking both arms and a leg in the process and subsequently
parachuted into Truc Bach Lake near Hanoi. After being pulled from the lake by the North
Vietnamese, McCain III was bayoneted in his left foot and shoulder and struck by a rifle
butt. He was then transported to the Hoa Lo Prison, also known as the Hanoi Hilton.

[SoCalDem]

21. Swift-POWs for Truth, anyone?

Sounds odd, but maybe some of these fellow pows need to step up and start talking..

a prisoner..any prisoner will do "whatever it takes" to survive

Survival itself, is NOT the heroic part it's the end-result....just as "terrrrrah" is not a war to be won, but a tactic OF an insurgency war.

[ihavenobias]

23. That'll never happen

Then again, Rove did manage to smear McCain in the 2000 primaries so I guess it's possible.

[Skwmom]

4. John McCain is a media created myth. They knew there was going to be a tipping point

where the American people became fed up with the corruption. So they need their phony white knight to carry the day.

A nice guy doesn't call a woman a *unt (much less his wife), and doesn't act like a lunatic with his constituents

("He went from a smiling, congenial, happy face to a beet red, totally enraged face in an instant," she said. "I have never seen a senator act in this way. We were all dumbfounded how this happened. He threw his arm up, and she goes flying and Jane gets pushed aside as he brushes by her. http://www.matrixmasters.com/blog/bushcrime/2008/06/powmia-families-alleged-mccain-assault.html


Notice how when McCain was caught in the blonde bimbo lobbyist scandal the press shut up just b/c McCain and the paid lobbyist denied the story (surprise, surprise).

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Here's a link to an LAT piece urging Obama to go on the attack --

and erase this false self-portrait McCain has been able to paint for himself:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-chait31-2008jul31,0,2920507.story

[ihavenobias]

6. Thanks! Also, here's a link re: a McCain fundraiser giving money to terrorist groups

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sToSzM71zCA

Watch this story and then imagine it was about Obama. It would've been all over the news 24/7 for MONTHS!

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. McCain seems to me to be a worse bungler than Bush was.

Mostly because McCain is getting old and sloppy. Mostly because McCain is a stereotype whose time is now passed. If we're looking for world respect, McCain is the opposite of what we need. Now, I have heard right-wingers claim they don't like Obama because he doesn't have foreign experience, but, at least, it looks like the world is much more ready to respect Obama, than they are ready to respect McCain.

[matthewf]

9. k&r

[20score]

10. K&R (Just like a DU pro.)

[flashl]

14. Welcome to DU 20score! nt

:hi:

[navarth]

12. Yeah...if I'm going to vote for someone just because he was a POW...

then I vote for Christopher Walken in The Deer Hunter.

[samsingh]

13. that type of shit "i read his autobiography" is the type of

dumb, stupid thinking that has been persvasive in the bush regimin.

really, really stupid people.

[ihavenobias]

28. What are you trying to say, that his autobiography isn't 100% true and objective?

;)

[endarkenment]

15. McCain was never a hero.

McCain lost his 5th plane while bombing a country we were not officially at war with, a plane he was flying only because nobody would wash out Admiral McCain's not so bright son. What exactly were his heroic deeds? Losing the other four planes? His unresolved involvement in the Forrestal disaster? Getting shot down? Bombing vietnam? Violating the military code of conduct for POWs four days into his detention? What exactly were his heroic deeds?

[ihavenobias]

16. Look

Here's a very fair take on this: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=149731&mesg_id=149731

[OhioChick]

18. K&R

:kick:

[Just-plain-Kathy]

19. Only republicans are allowed to become war heroes... :sarcasm:

K&R

[ihavenobias]

20. That's not true, remember how much respect R's and the MSM gave Kerry?!

;)

[pleah]

22. K&R

[AZBlue]

26. I never realized there were McCain kool-aid drinkers until recently.

I hate McCain more than Bush and I find those who make excuses for him more despicable than Bushites.

"Our media has to be bright enough to understand that distinction. The press is not supposed to be myth-makers. Their job is not to build our legends and our fables. Their job is supposed to be to report the truth."

I think the media does know the truth, they just can't say it. Hensley Distributing is too large and the alcohol and energy drink industries spend way too much on print and TV advertising. They're afraid to offend them and therfore they are letting McCain get away with it.

[CherylK]

27. Bump!

:kick: