Thursday's NBC Nightly News combined the usual with the unusual for an evening newscast story: A breast cancer survivor story which would appeal to woman and a look at an Army Sergeant who has now fulfilled her 'dream' of getting to serve in Iraq, hardly a view expressed very often on network news. Anchor Brian Williams introduced the profile: “Tonight we have a story of a woman who is serving her country and serving as an example, in her bravery, to the rest of us.” Checking in on the state-side training being undergone by Army Sergeant Elizabeth Cowie, reporter Jennifer London explained how “it's been her dream to serve in Iraq.” Cowie, however, was sidelined by breast cancer. But now that she successfully treated it, her dream has been “realized,” London related, as “this was Sergeant Cowie's final training mission before deployment.” Cowie expressed her idealism and commitment: “We have a lot of liberties, we have a lot of freedoms that other people around the world don't have, and so for me that's important, so I'm willing to do what I have to do and put my own life at risk.”
After London's piece, Williams followed up with how Cowie arrived in Iraq and sent an e-mail to NBC News “with the following request, quote: 'Keep our soldiers in your prayers. They are the best of America.'”
A transcript of the July 26 NBC Nightly News story for which I corrected the closed-captioning against the video:
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Tonight we have a story of a woman who is serving her country and serving as an example, in her bravery, to the rest of us. Tonight she's on the job in Iraq as part of the U.S. armed forces there. Before going there, she had to wage another battle. NBC's Jennifer London has her story from Indiana.JENNIFER LONDON: Behind the wheel of her Humvee, Sergeant Elizabeth Cowie is focused on her mission. She's training to guide her convoy through an Iraqi village under attack from roadside bombs. She's been in the military for 16 years, but has never seen combat. It's been her dream to serve in Iraq.
SERGEANT ELIZABETH COWIE: It's something I truly believe in with my heart.
LONDON: But then, devastating news. In April, Sergeant Cowie's military career was seriously jeopardized after an Army-mandated mammogram revealed she had breast cancer. Her treatment? She had the tumor removed and underwent targeted radiation. The aggressive treatment worked and Sergeant Cowie was declared cancer-free last month.
SERGEANT COWIE: It was an ecstatic moment both on the medical side and personal, but also that I could stay with my team. I made a commitment to this group and I'm going to stick by that commitment.
LONDON: A commitment her family understands.
KRISTINA COWIE, DAUGHTER, READING FROM COMPUTER SCREEN: Please keep all the soldiers in your prayers, take care and keep in touch.
KRISTINA COWIE: I never would make her set aside like a dream for me because I know this is what she really wants.
LONDON: Mama Cowie, as she's fondly called, is also a mother to her military family. Sergeant Jerry Faulkner says she has inspired her entire unit.
SERGEANT FAULKNER: Words can't describe her. She's just outstanding. An outstanding soldier, mother and a lady.
LONDON: And now, a dream realized. This was Sergeant Cowie's final training mission before deployment.
SERGEANT COWIE: We have a lot of liberties, we have a lot of freedoms that other people around the world don't have, and so for me that's important, so I'm willing to do what I have to do and put my own life at risk.
LONDON: And despite all she's been through and all that lies ahead, Sergeant Cowie says she's nothing special -- just a soldier going off to war. Jennifer London, NBC News, Camp Atterbury, Indiana.
WILLIAMS: One final note here: We received an e-mail from Sergeant Cowie. After two long days of traveling, she told us, she had finally arrived in Iraq, was reunited with her unit and was doing just fine. She signed off with the following request, quote: “Keep our soldiers in your prayers. They are the best of America.”
—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center
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And Sgt. Crowie is typical but outstanding.
July 26, 2007 - 21:56 ET by acaiguana"It was an ecstatic moment both on the medical side and personal, but also that I could stay with my team."
Having a son-in-law who went to Afghanistan with no complaint and with pride; I salute this brave Sergeant.
Soldiers like this have no place on the floor of the Senate with their grandstanding and political games staying "up all night" when in fact they did not.
The Senators should all be ashamed of themselves. If the Senate would have been honest they would have stayed at home; rejected a Quorum; and spotlighted Harry Reid as what he really has shown himself to be...
A coward.
ACA
...
Quoted from: 'Acaiguana Notes from the Bomb Shelter' (soon to be a movie at theaters near you)
Desperate Liberals always use Women
July 26, 2007 - 23:01 ET by Lame CherryI will always go with my first reaction as it usually proves correct.
Brian Williams started off his anchor career his first week featuring patriotic, Christian, Conservative and American stories. His ratings beat both ABC and CBS. Once on the throne though he flipped Americans the bird and went back to being a Democrat.
As his rating fell he did what all liberals do in going even more malevolent against Americans. The liberals though did not rally to his ratings..........so it is a good bet that since Chris Matthews was chosen by Al Gore and the cartel to run the Elizabeth Edwards ambush of Ann Coulter and did so well that he is in the whisper running to replace liberal Williams.
Williams is no dolt and knows his only salvation is swinging hard right. So he trots a real story firing on all cylinders in what he thinks will draw in that flyover sucker crowd picking their teeth with hay needles:
A woman, a patriot, a soldier, a cancer survivor and good ole Brian topping it off with "a prayer to God" message.
Williams is playing his last card to try and save his career.
I would like to point out something that no bloggers, no MSM and regrettably this site does not feature often enough as it is vital. When Bush wanted to be elected time one and two...he went Right.
When Karl Rove screwed things up Bush went Right and got saved. When Bush screwed up on Harriet Miers.......he came back hard right and go saved.
Right now Bush is screwed up again by going left on immigration and listening to the CRF Rice in talking terrorists to death which only gets Americans murdered.
Bush will come back hard right..........just like you noticed Hillary on policy is hard right in trying to win votes and Obama is lurching hard right too.
It isn't left these people go when they want to win or when they get into trouble......left is what gets them into trouble and the right gets them saved.
Brian Williams showed just how desperate his situation is in having to go Right........but he is using a sick woman to get what he wants and I find that disgusting.
But then not enough people know that Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota to get into the Senate used his wife's breast cancer to make headlines, gain sympathy and rode her all he way to Washington.
Perhaps it is something about liberal males who play this card which I thankfully do not understand, but it is a pattern.
Desperate liberals always use women to try and save themselves........you know like Bill Clinton with his porn on the beach pics with Hillary, John Edwards using his cancer suffering wife Elizabeth to attack people as no on will take on a sick person.I would like it to not work in Brian Williams case if my instincts prove correct.
*HIC IACET ARTORIVS REX QVONDAM REXQVE FVTVRVS
So, even when the hideous
July 26, 2007 - 23:07 ET by balboaSo, even when the hideous liberal media does a story you'd approve of, they're still wrong.
Yes, because they're doing
July 26, 2007 - 23:29 ET by zfYes, because they're doing it for the wrong reasons. This story was certaintly not done because of the media's overwhelming support of our soldiers and the mission they are on.
It's not the media's job to
July 27, 2007 - 10:10 ET by balboaIt's not the media's job to do a story in an effort to show "overwhelming support" for the subject matter.
No, it's the media's job to
July 27, 2007 - 11:47 ET by BeowulfNo, it's the media's job to report the news. REPORT. Not promote or create as so many have recently been caught doing. And reporting the news, without promoting an agenda, political or otherwise, requires unbiased reporting of ALL aspects of a story, not the one-sided "reporting" that we have been having inflicted on us for the last several years. If NBC and Williams had been reporting the good with the bad since '03, no one would have any reason to challenge his motives in presenting this story.
No one doubts that there are many seriously bad aspects of the war. But the many good things happening, the progress being made, is rarely if ever reported in the MSM. Hell, Leiberman's own party turned into attack dogs on him because he went over, saw the progress for himself, and had the temerity to tell the public the unvarnished truth. He was their VP nominee in 2000, which I would consider to be a glowing recommendation as to his credentials within the party. Yet they viciously turned on him for speaking the truth that they don't want the average American to hear.
Is it any wonder such a percentage of Americans and Europeans are so down on the war? If the only news they ever hear is bad, human nature compels people to want the situation ended. But if they had the full story, including all the positive things being accomplished by our troops, the poll numbers would be very different.
How else how could anyone justify Sgt. Cowies' adamant desire to serve in Iraq (along with tens of thousands of other G.I.s of all branches)? Unless you buy the Kerry tripe that our troops are morons, or A. Whitney Brown's insinuation that they are brainwashed murderers. Why would anyone want to go to such a deadly place and serve in an already lost conflict? Unless the media is only reporting half the story, and our troops know the rest of the story. I have been there myself, more than once, and I KNOW the media is full of $hit!
And covering up the positive aspects seems to be high on the Libs agenda, else why have they been caught several times having to make up negative stories, even going so far at times as to create the authors of these false stories?
But after setting a standard of negativism, anyone with sense would wonder not at the story, but the reason for it. Lame Cherry probably hit it spot-on.
The Closed Mind Erects Strong Barriers
I agree with what you're
July 27, 2007 - 11:54 ET by balboaI agree with what you're saying, but the previous poster said that NBC was "doing it for the wrong reasons. This story was certaintly not done
because of the media's overwhelming support of our soldiers and the
mission they are on." Implying the right reason to do the story is none of things you just mentioned.
I understand what you're
July 27, 2007 - 13:32 ET by BeowulfI understand what you're saying. The point being made is that NBC in general, and Williams in particular, didn't report the story to provide the other perspective on the war. They/He did it to present an appearance of objectivity and in an attempt to retain viewers.
What I was saying about overwhelming support might have been misleading. Technically, the press would be just as wrong to promote a view of their overwhelming support as they are to promote their current disdain for the war. It isn't their job to promote either position. It's their job to report the news, period. Good and bad. What I was saying referred to overwhelming public support. Their bias is demonstrated by their reporting and sensationalization of anti-war demonstrations and total disregard of pro-war rallys.
The Closed Mind Erects Strong Barriers
It's not the media's job to
July 27, 2007 - 11:49 ET by BeowulfIt's not the media's job to do a story in an effort to show "overwhelming support" for the subject matter. - Oh and BTW, if there is "overwhelming support" for the subject matter, then it is the media's job to report it. That's what is called news...
The Closed Mind Erects Strong Barriers
So much for "overwhelming support"
July 27, 2007 - 13:35 ET by SFCMACNah, they just show overwhelming negative bias. What is the area code of your planet? They don't think it's their job to just report....oh wait, that's right, they only report "if it bleeds it leads" (Americans, that is) stories. When we kill the bad guys, capture al Qadea, confiscate weapons, and gain the confidence and support of the Iraqi population against the Islamofascists, that doesn't make the evening news.
"On the Eighth Day God Created the United States Army and the Devil Stood at Attention"
In your opinion they show
July 27, 2007 - 13:40 ET by balboaIn your opinion they show negative bias. The news does skew negative because that's the nature of news.
In your opinion
July 27, 2007 - 15:45 ET by BeowulfIn your opinion they show negative bias. The news does skew negative because that's the nature of news. - They have been proven time and again to skew the news to the negative. And they do this while promoting Leftist talking points.
And no, it isn't the nature of news. It's the nature of the dollar. News comes in all shapes and forms - good and bad. Yet we only hear the bad.
While I conditionally agree to a point - a train wreck with mass casualties draws more viewers than a puppy getting rescued from a well - the war issue isn't in the same category. Neither of the above examples have such blanket importance to everyone as does the war, and by extension, US politics. Neither the train wreck nor the puppy will affect how other nations deal with us, or how terrorists will receive motivation from our public division, nor will either affect the outcome of who will be leading this country in '08. Or marginally important, how our troops are supported and treated. [sarc]
Now, I know this isn't a perfect world, where all journalists live up to an unbiased code of behavior and report the news excluding every one of their personal thoughts and beliefs. But couldn't they at least make some effort at professionalism?
The Closed Mind Erects Strong Barriers
House Democrat calls Republicans "jihadists"
July 27, 2007 - 01:53 ET by mastersofdeceitWill they still talk to her if they find out she's a republican?
An OT here-
The Old Media will probably ignore it, but hopefully this will get around the blogs and that damned talk radio tomorrow. Just up at jihad watch
House Democrat calls Republicans "jihadists"
Robert Spencer in his usual brief dead on clarity nails it in 2 sentences. read it
double post
July 27, 2007 - 13:37 ET by SFCMACdouble post
SGT Cowie
July 27, 2007 - 13:30 ET by SFCMAC"Tonight we have a story of a woman who is serving her country and serving as an example, in her bravery, to the rest of us."
This would be an honorable statement if it were not uttered by a liberal MSM hypocrite. I always consider the source, especially when it comes from a network notorious for its dim view of the country and the military. I find William's statement to be disingenuous and chock full of bogus empathy; like Bubba Clinton's ability to turn on the staged waterworks. (Ron Brown's funeral).
As for SGT Cowie, she's a hell of a gal! Keep up the good work! HOOAH!
"On the Eighth Day God Created the United States Army and the Devil Stood at Attention"