Thursday, December 31, 2009
Good times at Delisle High.
Calgary Herald journo Michelle Lang dies in Afghanistan. Somewhere, Blogging Tory Kate McMillan is cracking open a cold one and smiling quietly to herself.
AFTERSNARK: Apparently, a number of Blogging Tories are reporting on Lang's death, and publicly weeping crocodile tears over it. Wouldn't it be amusing to cross-check and see if any of those folks who are allegedly heartbroken over this were over at Kate's earlier, chuckling over murdered journalists and making jokes like, "Journalist. Rope. Tree. Some assembly required."
I'm not interested enough to invest the time to find out, but the hypocrisy sure would be entertaining, wouldn't it?
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9 comments:
The needless death of Ms. Lang, whom I am sure was a fine young woman, will be used by Blogging Tories and their ilk in the mainstream media to pump the wasteful and tragic "mission" to Afghanistan. One can sense the unseemly glee in the "news" reports of Ms. Lang's death that "one of ours was killed too," proving the media's patriotism and willingness to sacrifice in the occupation of Afghanistan it has been cheerleading, hitherto from the sidelines. Of course, there will be no reporting of the pressure put on CanWest journalists to provide jingoistic and misleading "embedded" coverage of this pointless and ultimately doomed occupation. Likewise, there will be no coverage of the impossibility of providing independent, unbiased coverage of the occupation. Sad to say, as fine a person as I am sure she was, Ms. Lang's reporting was just as biased in favour of the occupiers and the imperialistic job they are doing under the guise of "reconstruction" as that of every other CanWest reporter who has been stationed there. Every Canadian killed in Afghanistan is a pointless and tragic loss. Bring the troops home now - and the journos with them!
dr roy, a product of the marianapolis private college honours the dead journalist by misspelling her name...
dr roy then goes on to censor the comments but of course leaves this gem up in the comment section directed at bigcitylib:
you might try removing your diseased genes from the pool and earning some carbon credits. I guess respecting the grief of the dead is anathema for you progressive shites. No wonder those of us with brains hate your ilk with a passion.
Now go play chicken with a 16 wheeler - it's the best you can do for your society, since you progressives don't have the spine to go where the going is tough. And yeah, you pustulent SOB - I'm a vet so blow the chickenhawk cliched comeback forming in your syphillitic mind out your slack rectal sphincter.
I'm not one to say but I wonder if Marianopolis College really wants someone so stupid on their alumni board of directors... Who knows, he may be the perfect poster child for private education...
But stay classy dr roy, stay classy....
Upon reflection, I have very little pity for a journalist that is killed while being embedded with soldiers.
She was being used as a propaganda tool by the army (shades of that harridan ) and it was only bad luck that she was killed. I'm sure that the bomber(s) had no clue that a journalist was in the armoured vehicle.
Individually, yes it it sad, but overall I don't give a shit. I'm not laughing at this, just indifferent to it. She certainly knew of the risk involved.
In other news, 8 CIA died yesterday (of a suicide bomber) - This farce in Afghanistan has been lost since the beginning.
CWTF - the bomb was an improvised explosive device.
Perhaps you're the one who should get a clue.
What you're saying about Michelle Lang and her colleagues isn't much different from what the slimy dickheads spewed in the KKKate's combox, you know.
Except perhaps for the part wishing untimely death upon all of them. Thanks for the self-restraint.
Thanks deBeaux0s,
The calousness on display is on par with the classy Dr Roy.
You know deBeauxOs, I really don't give much of a fuck for a journalist that decides to get embedded with the military and gets the fuck blown up.
I don't wish it upon anyone but that is the risk that you take when you decide to place yourself in a high danger area.
The difference is that KKKate seems happy when a journalist get killed on the job.
My criticism of journalists that decide to embed themselves with the army is that they are basically whoring themselves out to the propaganda arm of the military and by proxy the Canadian government.
The Army is happy to have the biased reports and spin going their way (see Christie Blatchford for the result they are looking for).
I've said it many times, if you join the army there is a chance that you will be send to a military conflict and that you may get injured or killed. That's a chance that you take when you join. Soldiers can't decide (for the most part) where they are posted. Because of that, I've always had a certain level of respect for the job that they do.
Soldiers are certainly not responsible for the clusterfuck over there and are doing the best job under difficult circumstances directed by bonehead generals and political hacks....
dr roy, seems to revere dead soldiers and a journalist but can't even be bothered to get the name right... You'd expect that if you respect someone to get that right... And of course, it's ironic in a post that wants to be honour someone who was killed, he'd allow someone to wish BCL would get killed.... In other words, he's fine with Liberals getting killed...
Not that I'm expecting you to understand the subtlety there deBeauxOs...
Unlike dr. roy, I'm not a hypocrite when it comes to this short of thing. On an individual level, it is saddening when someone gets killed over in Afganistan but in the larger schemes of things, I don't really give a fuck.
Michelle Lang decided to travel with members of the Canadian forces (in a war we have been winning for years) and was killed by a roadside explosive... Well, those are the risks that you take. Are you seriously telling me that you think you can traipse around Afghanistan and not be at risk? As if war is some kind of video game were others get killed and you suffer no consequences...
As yes, I don't have much respect for those that decide to get chummy with soldiers for fear (nay, certainty) that their reports are tainted.
Jeff Lee wrote today:
Former Edmonton Journal reporter Jim Farrell (whom my wife calls "The Whirling Dervish" because when he blows in and blows out he leaves everyone breathless) was with me in Baghdad in 2003 just after the city fell to American forces.
Jim and I had been sent there as "unimbedded unilaterals", a euphemism for being war correspondents without the safety of an armed security service and without being imbedded with U.S. forces, as was the case with many journalists following the war as it moved up from Kuwait through Basra, Karbala, through Baghdad and into the Kurdish north.
We'd been sent in to replace Matthew Fisher, Canwest's crack war correspondent who has also covered the Afghan theatre and who Michelle had replaced in December so that he might have a short break from Khandahar.
As Canadian journalists, we were still respected since Canada had chosen not to join the Iraq war. It was the only time I carried a Canadian flag on my clothing, and it many times saved me from trouble and danger from Iraqis angry at their American "liberators".
But Michelle Lang had none of that protection, even though she had the protection of the Canadian military and lived in their camp. Her death underscores the reality that journalists today hold no special value to people engaged in war, other than perhaps as propaganda. The Taliban who killed her don't see journalists as impartial recorders of fact and life.
She was not seen as a journalist, but just another soldier travelling in a pack.
The fact that Canada is complicit in torture there will not endear us to any citizen of Afghanistan.
Thank you CWTF for your heart-felt expression of petulant sentiment.
I can understand that you'd not want to spout faux humanitarian words that you clearly do not feel, but your nasty little ideological temper tantrum degrades the rest of us.
C_WTF
I don't pay enough attention to the comments to know if you're always a douchbag or just being one on this issue, but either way you need to read this from the Winnipeg Free Press:
http://tiny.cc/7khzT
A couple of choice quotes:
"It is so dangerous in the Kandahar region that journalists cannot do their jobs."
and:
"The CBC has used private security agents to move its reporters around the area, but Murray said they are somewhat unreliable and their presence, like the army's, alters or tempers answers reporters get from locals.
"They (private security) tend to want to get out of the car and kill everyone so it's safe to conduct the interview," Murray said, only half-joking.
In such a dangerous situation, and with such a small Canadian media presence, it's difficult to know if the whole story is being properly and accurately told."
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