As NBC's Matt Lauer advertised Harry Reid’s "all-nighter" to debate Iraq's funding, his colleague, Jim Miklaszewski, buttressed Reid's theatrics by showcasing military families, whose "anger over the war is growing," and even highlighted a group calling for the war's defunding. On this morning's 'Today' show, Miklaszewki, aired soundbites from three war opponents but he didn’t gave any air-time to supporters of the war effort.
The following is the full, unbalanced, segment as it occurred the July 17th Today show:
Matt Lauer: "As Al mentioned, or as Ann mentioned earlier, the Senate is ready to pull an all-nighter tonight debating the war in Iraq and when it comes, this is happening as more military families are debating whether the sacrifices they're making are worth it. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski is at the Pentagon with more on this. Mik, good morning to you."
[On screen headline: "Military Morale, War Fatigue For Soldiers' Families"]
Jim Miklaszewski: "Good morning, Matt. As a group, these military families openly voicing their opposition to the war is still relatively small but their numbers and their opposition to the war and their anger over the war is growing. With five children at home and her husband in Iraq, Beth Pirits [sp] is a woman on a mission."
Beth Pirits: "I'm supporting my husband in a better way by trying to push a movement to bring them home."
Miklaszewski: "She had fully supported President Bush and the war until her husband was sent back to Iraq for his third tour."
Pirits: "When we went into this I was all gung-ho about it, you know? Let's go, let's do this. And now, you know, I just, I did not want my husband to go this time because I felt he wasn't going for the right reasons."
Miklaszewski: "Beth joins a growing number of military families voicing public opposition to the war, like Nancy Lessin, who founded Military Families Speak Out. As the war drags on membership has grown to 3500 families, 500 more since January, when President Bush ordered additional troops into Iraq for the surge."
Nancy Lessin: "I think it speaks to the horrific and continuing devastation that this war is bringing to our troops and their families."
Miklaszewski: "Longer deployments, multiple tours and the rising number of American dead have taken a heavy toll. Army brass warns morale, among the troops is sinking. In an email to NBC News, one Army official writes, 'Soldiers are really starting to feel the weight of a war with no end in sight. Lots of building frustration with the Iraqi military, government and people. Levels of patience and attitude are much different on second or third deployments.' Baldwin Yen, is an Army veteran of Iraq."
Baldwin Yen: "People don't want to sign up when they know they're going straight to war and people don't want to re-up when they know every other year you're gonna be there for 15 months. While back home Beth Pirits fears the worst."
Pirits: "If my husband were to come home, pray to God he doesn't, but I mean if he were to come home in that flag-draped coffin, I don't feel like I can tell my children he fought defending our country, because I feel, as though, he fought fighting for Iraq's and that's just not his job."
Miklaszewski: "Beth and others like her face a delicate balancing act and, and they emphasize that while they oppose the war, they're still strongly behind the troops but they want them home, Matt."
Lauer: "Hey Mik, there's an interesting interview with General Peter Pace, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, with the Associated Press, talking about the future of Iraq after September and the report from General Patraeus, how the military is reviewing many different options, including, Mik, perhaps an additional surge of troops. Now is this something you're hearing being spoken of seriously at the Pentagon or is this simply covering all bases?"
Miklaszewski: "General Pace, himself, called this 'prudent planning,' and in fact senior military officials say that possibility would be very difficult to do and highly unlikely. And at the same time, Matt, they also have a plan at the Joint Chiefs for a total withdrawal. And General Pace says that if the withdrawal were to start today it would take more than two years to bring home all the American troops and the 100 million tons of gear that they have in that country."
Lauer: "So, so you're saying they're reviewing the full spectrum of options for Iraq."
Miklaszewski: "Absolutely. They never rule out any options here."
Lauer: "Alright, Mik, thanks very much. Jim Miklaszewski at the Pentagon this morning."
—Geoffrey Dickens is the senior news analyst at the Media Research Center.
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
I heard an Interview on the
July 17, 2007 - 10:07 ET by JayTeeI heard an Interview on the Radio this morning, with an Actual Soldier, who is Deployed. He proceeded to Describe congress as people with the minds of a 2 Yr. old, and said he has been deployed 15 months, and would without question go another 15 months, and you would not have to pay him Extra.
So, if the MSM wants to find supporters of the War...they are out there.
The Media is so Dishonest, The media is So Un-American. It's time to kick butt and take names........maybe a nationwide "Turn off the TV" week?
On Sept. 10th, and 15th, the GOE is marching on DC. The 10th is to talk to your local Congressman, the 15th is a counter Demonstration to A N S W E R and the Anti War crowd. Come on down, and join in up close and personal.
What good is a Free Press, if it is a False Press ? David Foote GoE
My brother and two sons
July 17, 2007 - 10:16 ET by rbosqueMy brother and two sons were there, my youngest returned this past week. NBC never asked them how they felt about the war.
The MSM should be collectively hung for treason.
Yeah, but the
July 17, 2007 - 12:06 ET by kathleenirishYeah, but the Islamofascists might get to them first by beheading the Infidels....
Anyone who says they support the troops but not the mission is a liar.
*sigh* the war coverage these days ...
July 17, 2007 - 10:27 ET by pmohbucki just keep imagining today's media reporting World War II ...
* how would they justify the US position of "Germany first" when germany never outright attacked us?
* of the 12-16 million who served and a good portion of them draftees, not volunteers, i wonder how many weren't happy with deployments that lasted not 12 month, not 15 months, but several years?
* how would they portray the relatively unknown horrid and inhumane conditions of the japanese pow camps (which make a stay at abu grahib and gitmo seem like an outing at chuck e. cheese)?
* how would they have reported 292,000 combat deaths in less time than the current war in iraq?
* how would they have reported the internment of 100,000+ japanese americans under the order of a democrat president?
* the annihilation of 2 industrialized cities by means of a nuclear device ... under the order of a democrat president?
* the millions upon millions of civilians killed by bombing campaigns (not single missions)?
* the 800+ deaths during a TRAINING mission for DDay at Slapton Sands?
* the crematoriums at auschwitz? babi yar?
* the casualties incurred at Kasserine Pass, Anzio, Normandy, the Ardennes ... the failure of Operation Market Garden? the 11 US aircraft carriers sunk in the pacific? the losses from the schweinfurt-regensburg raids?
* the appeasement of neville chamberlain? vichy france? stalin's purges? the german liquidation of lidice, czechloslovakia? the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustoff?
* how would they portray the REAL Hitler (not their George Bush version)? Himmler? Tojo? Stalin? Beria? Heyrich? Mengele? Goebbels?
fortunately for us, we know the end results ... i doubt a majority of those reporting the news today could even have an intelligent discussion about 1/4 of the items listed above. the problem with today's press is they not only refuse to see the significance of history ... they refuse to acknowledge that the history even exists.
Then there was this little home-grown fight
July 17, 2007 - 10:31 ET by FastEdAsk too, how would todays cowards report Gettysburg, Antitem, Shiloh, Wilderness?
There is no sense in being stupid, if you can't prove it! - my dad V
re: the little home-grown fight
July 17, 2007 - 11:49 ET by pmohbuckoh, they would have loved that ... i'm sure it would have been classified as nothing other than the most deadly race war in US history ... completely ignoring the other political, social and economic factors involved in that conflict.
Meanwhile - what won't get reported . .
July 17, 2007 - 10:27 ET by FastEdIraqi Army cleans Baghdadi of insurgency - and the link - read paras 4 and 5 -
There is no sense in being stupid, if you can't prove it! - my dad V
I guess that is why all the
July 17, 2007 - 10:48 ET by Prester JohnI guess that is why all the services are meeting their re-enlistment goals--they can't be abused enough!
What I find most maddening
July 17, 2007 - 10:49 ET by dervishWhat I find most maddening is the self-fulfillment of the MSM propaganda. It isn't at all difficult to find demoralized family members -- my wife sounded just like Mrs. Pirits after I was deployed to Somalia for only 4 months. Long separations suck -- especially when NBC nightly makes it sound like we're losing, and when civilian support withers (or is made to look like it is). Now the Congress is trying to turn tail again, with Republocrats waving their French flags -- jeez, who wouldn't be frustrated and anxious? The more they beat on this drum, the more military families will throw in the towel.
God forbid NBC should try to encourage rather than discourage them.
When you consider that ANY
July 17, 2007 - 10:57 ET by JayTeeWhen you consider that ANY discouragement of the US Military, or it's families, is ENCOURAGEMENT of the Enemy.
No wonder the War is taking so long........MSM is supporting the Enemy using all the propoghanda capabilities at it's disposal.
Congresswoman Schultz, from Florida, stated yesterday on the floor of Congress, that Bush "has failed to meet ANY, ANY (she repeated it) of the 18 Benchmarks"
That is Dishonest, and a primo example of Propoghanda...(however you spell it).
What good is a Free Press, if it is a False Press ? David Foote GoE
What a croak of Shite.
July 17, 2007 - 11:10 ET by Airforce_5_OWhat a croak of Shite. This is the reason I no longer watch the alpha networks. I still haven't seen anything on the peace nick who shot the AIrman in NJ. NOPE! Haven't seen it yet Matt my Boy.
he only thing you should feel when shooting insurgents is the rifle recoil.
I am soooo bloody
July 17, 2007 - 11:13 ET by BeowulfI am soooo bloody fed up with these elitist biased morons posing as journalists.
Nancy Lesson: "I think it speaks to the horrific and continuing devastation that this war is bringing to our troops and their families." - WHAT devastation? How about a few specifics instead of the standard sensationalistic generalities?
Baldwin Yen: "People don't want to sign up when they know they're going straight to war and people don't want to re-up when they know every other year you're gonna be there for 15 months. While back home Beth Pirits fears the worst." If this is the case, then where are the droves of former military members supporting this "cause"? Why is enlistment and re-enlistment at or above targets?
Pirits: "When we went into this I was all gung-ho about it, you know? Let's go, let's do this. And now, you know, I just, I did not want my husband to go this time because I felt he wasn't going for the right reasons." Just one little question conveniently NOT asked - What does her husband think of this? If this is all so "devastating" and morale is so low, and everyone's getting out of the military in a stampede, then why are we not hearing from her ex-army husband. Oh, that's right. HE'S DEPLOYED! The whole issue is that SHE didn't want her husband to go.
Miklaszewski: "Longer deployments, multiple tours and the rising number of American dead have taken a heavy toll. Army brass warns morale, among the troops is sinking. In an email to NBC News, one Army official writes, 'Soldiers are really starting to feel the weight of a war with no end in sight. Lots of building frustration with the Iraqi military, government and people. Levels of patience and attitude are much different on second or third deployments.' Baldwin Yen, is an Army veteran of Iraq." "Army brass has warned"... Folllowed by "one Army official writes", ONE Army official, again conveniently unnamed.
200,000 troops deployed, with some 3500 families bitching. Sounds like a normal percentage of disgruntlement. Less than 2/10 of a percent of those deployed (assuming 1 troop for each family).
I've said it before, and I will continue to say it louder each time - IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW OUR TROOPS FEEL ABOUT THE WAR, THEN ASK THEM!!! Stop interviewing people speaking "on behalf" of the troops. Jeeezus, what is it with both the media and the freakin idiots listening to them? Why is this such a difficult concept to comprehend? If you want to know someone's opinion on something, you ASK THEM. You don't ask someone else what they think another's opinion is.
Mattty Lauer is quickly moving to the head of my Biggest Clowns in the MSM list.
The Closed Mind Erects Strong Barriers
Bush Derangement Syndrome,
July 17, 2007 - 12:52 ET by JayTeeBush Derangement Syndrome, Beowolf ? It's a Plague among the Journalists, infection is spreading .......... it is carried by "Talking Heads" and Camera's.
I like the Generic buzzwords un-substantiated by facts or Figures.....like "HEAVY TOLL" and "STRESSED out Military", "Devestation"...as if the Journalist could "Feel their Pain".
What's theh name of the Journalist that got his Head Cut off ..Pearl ? ...well his Wife was Stressed out during his Capture, and the Pictures of his Head being Sawed off was Devestating and took a Heavy Toll on the poor lady.
Did any Journalist "Enlist" to get Even ? How soon they forget.
What good is a Free Press, if it is a False Press ? David Foote GoE
We all know the MSM's point
July 17, 2007 - 12:05 ET by mattmWe all know the MSM's point of view and how wrong it is, but what bugs me is that the President won't do anything about it. Obviously, he can't shut them down, but he could send out spokespeople to call the media on thier lies, to set the record straight, and to call to the carpet any media member who may have aided and/or abetted the enemy.
They already think he's Hitler, he should at least try to act a bit like FDR who put Japanese Americans in concentration camps and who had people executed for spying and who censored tons of "free speech"... They need to storm the gates of the MSM and put those traitors to shame.
I mean if he were to come
July 17, 2007 - 12:33 ET by dscottI mean if he were to come home in that flag-draped coffin, I don't feel like I can tell my children he fought defending our country, because I feel, as though, he fought fighting for Iraq's and that's just not his job."
Interesting idea of supporting someone. What she really said was I am going to undermine everything my husband stands for in my children's eyes. Tell us Beth, does your husband know what you said??? What would his response be??? Ask for a divorce maybe??? What a total lowlife. Why don't you just get it over with and sleep around, because you couldn't have denigrated your husband anymore than you have with your total lack of respect for him as a person. With spouses like you who needs to be single?
How is being in Iraq not his job???? Nonsense, if he is in the military, his job is to defend the nation against all enemies, foreign and domestic. As any soldier or officier in the military knows, the Commander in Chief gives the orders and they must follow. If they didn't believe in what they were doing, they would not re-enlist, he clearly has had ample opportunity not to.
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius