Powerful column in my local paper on the duty of the press.

This is a column in my local paper from a local columnist. She is supposed to stick to local issues. I'll bet she draws some flack for this one. I highly recommend it. I'm not sure, but registration may be required. If so, let me know and I'll post a longer snip.

http://www.dailypress.com/news/columnists/dp-00438cm0apr29,0,1863698.column?coll=dp-news-columnists

<snip>

We Must Show War's True Face
by Tamara Dietrich

April 29 2004

After the shock comes the fury. After the funereal drumbeat, the barbaric yawp.

We discuss. We debate. We anguish. We shake our little heads and wonder what, oh, what shall we do.

This is what we do: We take the damn pictures.

We take pictures of military caskets with pretty flags on top. We take pictures of civilian truck drivers post-ambush, incinerated or not, dismembered or whole. We take pictures of body bags. Of bloodstained dog tags. Of boots with stubs still in them. Helmets with bullet holes. Of bodies on a battlefield. Of legless, armless, faceless veterans in physical rehab. Of the blind, the deaf, the brain-dead. Of the collaterally damaged.

We aim, we focus and we shoot.

We as the press document warfare as we find it, and we as the public take a hard look.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

As most Americans sit behind their computers or drive across town in their SUV's, this administration wants you to believe that girls are walking around Bagdad buying ice cream cones and that children are back in school drinking clean water and all is just fine and dandy.

War is ugly. It is the ugliest thing we can do to each other. While we sit behind our computers and drive our SUV's people are dying and we need to see the reality so we can make our judgements made on facts and not lies.

:) Remember when you used to see the "school painting marines?" the tumbling statues? They're gone aren't they? You know what else is missing? An apology from the same media who sold us this war, the media we used to rely on for the truth.

p.s. Not one paper I submitted this article to printed it. Maybe my writing actually sucks.

It is probably to intellectual for the masses to handle. Like Bill Maher said on Hardball, the real axis evil is the brilliance of marketing combined with the stupidity of the people.

At least someone gets it.

At what point in our history did comedians become more intelligent then our politicians?

Nixon wasn't that good of a stand-up.

If newspapers don't want it, try magazines. Try Salon. How about front page on DU?

DU was my first submission, they turned me down so fast I cried. :)

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
news source.


Thank you.

DU Moderator

I only used a few quotes, I wrote most of that article. I'm sorry if I gave people the impression that the article was a reprint from somewhere else, most of the article was written by me.