A Response to Powerline: My Editorial Stint At Newsweek
The gents at powerline provide a wry chuckle. In the powerline scenario, Newsweek’s petulant staff asks “Who appointed Austin Bay its editor?”
Okay, I’ve got a lot on my plate at the moment, including a pending two week trip to the Middle East (as a writer– I’ve been re-retired as a reserve officer). Still, I’m up for a two-week stint as “reserve editor.”
Terry Moran’s interview on Hugh Hewitt will be the first cover story. Every story in the issue will feature– with respectful photos and generous details– the reporters and media magnates with the “anti-military bias” Moran mentions. The on-line edition will link to the “Bias Battalion’s” past reports and the consequences of those reports. I admit I have a mainstream model for this issue — my model will be the NY Times report of May 20 on the prisoner abuse in December 2002 at Bagram Airbase. Each story will sport a “chain of command” analysis similar to the one the Times ran at the bottom of Page 12A in its national edition. Every member of the”Bias Battalion” (and I may ask Mr Moran to help me get a gauge on membership) and his/her editors and publishers will get the same glorious face time as Bagram’s “chain of command.”
If I’m still alive, how do I follow that up?…If that issue’s Hiroshima…okay, this one may be Nagasaki.
The second issue will be devoted to American developmental aid projects and support for such projects around the globe. We’ll look at USAID (US government) but also the thousands (tens of thousands, actually) of privately sponsored relief, recovery, and developmental aid efforts funded and run by Americans. The cover story will have a simple, non-inflammatory, direct headline. “Who cares? America cares? Who acts? America acts.”
After those two issues, I’ll resign but ask the publisher if I can keep my Newsweek office for one additional week. Manhattan hotel rates are astronomical. I can save a ton of money as my wife and I take a few days to do the museum tour and catch up with old friends. We lived in Manhattan for eight years and it’s a fun place to visit. ..Except –on second thought– forget it. My wife will want to stay in a decent hotel. So I’ll request a one week extension on my editor-in-chief’s lux-level expense account. Let’s hope the publishers and owners at the Washington Post Co express their pleasure with my ground-breaking and horizon-raising editorial work— by being generous.
Do it, if you have the time and inclination. It would be fun to watch the MSM duck and cover. But don’t expect many column inches in the pages of our nation’s free press. Heck, those guys don’t seem to have much interest in UNSCAM. Or much of anything else except Saddam’s knickers, and dirty holy books.
Comment by Black Jack — 5/21/2005 @ 3:03 pm
I think your project has tremendous potential. I might suggest that if there are any inadvertent errors in the news media chain of command, no problem, mistakes are made and you will not be held accountable. I would also hope you rely on numerous anonymous sources, and if they are wrong, no problem. I might also suggest a sidebar story tracing the modern history of news media hostility towards the military. Of course there should also be prominent mention of New York Time’s Walter Duranty and his Pulitzer Prize for covering up Stalin’s crimes. I look forward to seeing your final product. Keep up the great work. Runner
Comment by Runner — 5/21/2005 @ 4:51 pm
Historians of the German POW camps that dotted Texas freely tell stories about occasional brutal treatment of the hard-core Nazis and soldiers from the infamous SS. They also tell how this “abuse” was surpressed by the U.S. media so as not to endanger American POWs held captive by the Germans. As a former member of Houston’s MSM, I can personally testify that many, if not most, of my fellow journalists didn’t put their duty as American citizens ahead of some juicy scoop that would embarrass our government. Even in a time of war. Sad sad commentary.
Comment by Ed McIntosh — 5/21/2005 @ 5:08 pm
The second Nagasaki edition should also have a contrast article about how “global good guys”-Canada have not even come close to paying the money they promised for tsunami relief efforts. Canada the little brother who has no responsibilities, who is rarely asked for assistance, and resents America -for what? Being a good neighbor. Speaking about neighborliness loved their Air India verdict and the welcome mat that extended to like-minded terrorists. Thanks.
Comment by madawaskan — 5/21/2005 @ 6:39 pm
How about a little analysis of what we get for all that money? The lefties believe we should defund the military and put all those dollars toward foreign aid. It may be that we’re doing nothing but facilitating bad international behaviors. Maybe they’ve got it exactly backwards. The Iraq war may turn out to be one of the biggest humanitarian successes in history.
Comment by fustian — 5/21/2005 @ 9:05 pm
Ed Mc’ Thanks for that history and knowledge that there was a time when journalists considered themselves Americans. To flesh out the picture of German POW’s though there is a book about Wisconsin POW camps with very positive relations between the American captors and the German prisoners. Some Germans decided to stay. I don’t know how they handled the SS and hardcore threats.
Comment by gogipper — 5/21/2005 @ 9:55 pm
Sir, The Left and MSM has been plowing this ground for years, using the horrifying atrocities at My Lai as their grain of truth. Since then, the MSM has tried to recreate that situation as the template. The first instance of this, IMO, is the “Winter Soldier investigation” that propelled John Kerry to stardom. These stories were preposterous, obvious frauds but were repeated time and again. I think Jug Burkett’s book ‘Stolen Valor’ documents the results of this quite well. Subsequent to his book unmasking CBS Reports’ ‘Wall Within’circa 1982, we’ve seen CNN’s ‘Tailwind’ fiasco, Seymour Hersh’s unsubstatiated attack on Gen McCaffery’s conduct in the ‘91 Gulf War and even a Pulitzer Prize awarded to the AP for the No Gun Ri ‘massacre’. The military and government hasn’t helped by stone-walling over POW/MIAs, Agent Orange, Gulf War Syndrome and ‘Friendly Fire’ casualties. When the facts are finally released in the first three examples, they don’t matter to the entrenched victims’ lobby and conspiracy cottage industry (to include Hollywood’s Rambo and other farces). In the case of the latter, friendly fire is deeply shameful to everyone involved and handled with the utmost circumspection that the MSM (contemptous of military virtue and pre-disposed to the leadership lying) immediately deems a cover-up (Watergate template).
Comment by Pedantius — 5/21/2005 @ 11:51 pm
COL, You continue to serve us well. If you can find someone in the MSM to write those two articles you mention, that would be heroic indeed. I completely agree with those who view all these stories as reflective of the Vietnam/Watergate template. I post more at You Don’t Support Us. Dadmanly OIF III
Comment by Dadmanly — 5/22/2005 @ 1:03 am
You Don’t Support Us As a member of the U.S. Military in Iraq, let me say something very clearly to Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, CBS, ABC, and any other media organization of any integrity.
Trackback by Dadmanly — 5/22/2005 @ 1:05 am
Sir, Do your thing, but if you don’t mind spartan (not renovated in a while) try this for your NYC lodging.
Comment by Chap — 5/22/2005 @ 1:17 am
That’s Good Editing So, Austin Bay decided to audition for the job. I like what he has in mind. Maybe he should start his own news weekly.
Trackback by Blogotional — 5/22/2005 @ 8:47 am
gogipper, Your remark about Wisconsin’s German POW camps is timely for me. I very recently met a former German-POW at a Veteran’s Memorial groundbreaking ceremony. After being sent back to Germany, at the end of the war,he made the decision to come back to America to the very city where he was held captive. His son is helping to create the memorial.
Comment by WiscBadger — 5/22/2005 @ 9:09 am