Backing Down From Michael Ware
By Erick Posted in Blogosphere — Comments (15) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Perhaps it was all an April Fool's joke gone terribly wrong. Drudge put up a nice little blurb about CNN reporter Michael Ware heckling Senator McCain at a press conference in Iraq. The news got picked up by the blogosphere, but after two days and nothing further from Drudge, it appears it probably did not happen. Video from the press conference does not seem to indicate Senator McCain was heckled.
Of course, Michael Ware should probably realize he makes an easy target for something like this and people were readily willing to believe he heckled McCain. First there was the voice over he so graciously provided to terrorists out peddling a propaganda film of the terrorist snipers gunning down American soldiers. To Ware and CNN, that was news. To everyone else, including the terrorists, it was a propaganda film that CNN and Ware were all to willing to be a part of.
Next there was Ware on Bill Maher's show condemning the war, talking about what a failure it is, and saying he tries to stay drunk because of it. Then there was the sound bite from just yesterday. Instead of engaging in news, he engaged in opinion commentary for CNN to slam John McCain, claiming, in effect, that McCain was lying about conditions in Iraq in a propaganda effort to get people to support the surge. Ware went on to say that there were signs McCain should focus on to show the surge is working, but he didn't. Well, I can't help but notice Ware has not either.
Michael Ware did not heckle John McCain it seems. Drudge should make that clear. But it makes Michael Ware no less of an agenda pushing anti-war stooge hiding behind his label of "journalist."
[UPDATED:] The AFP ran this article on Sunday after the press conference and noted this:
"I studied warfare. I'm a student of history. If you control the capital city of a nation you have a significant advantage," countered McCain as one reporter giggled at the back.
Perhaps that was Mike Ware. This would also explain why the press conference ended when Ware then tried to ask a question. Hmmm . . . . maybe everyone is being too quick to back away from this.
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Backing Down From Michael Ware 15 Comments (0 topical, 15 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
McCain didn't say the neighborhood was safe for him to walk in. He said there were areas where is was safe for Iraqis. And that is true.
"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition." -- Rudyard Kipling
BLITZER: Everything we hear, that if you leave the so-called Green Zone, the international zone, and you go outside of that secure area, relatively speaking, you’re in trouble if you’re an American.
MCCAIN: You know, that’s where you ought to catch up on things, Wolf. General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in a non-armed Humvee. I think you ought to catch up. You see, you are giving the old line of three months ago. I understand it. You certainly don’t get it through the filter of some of the media.
I think its clear that he means that Americans can walk around some parts of Baghdad:
BLITZER: Here’s what you told Bill Bennett on his radio show on Monday. “There are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods today. The U.S. is beginning to succeed in Iraq.”
Everything we hear, that if you leave the so-called Green Zone, the international zone, and you go outside of that secure area, relatively speaking, you’re in trouble if you’re an American.
MCCAIN: You know, that’s where you ought to catch up on things, Wolf. General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in a non-armed Humvee. I think you ought to catch up. You see, you are giving the old line of three months ago. I understand it. You certainly don’t get it through the filter of some of the media.
But I know for a fact that much of the success we’re experiencing, including the ability of Americans in many parts. Not all. We have got a long, long way to go. We have only got two of the five brigades there to go into some neighbors in Baghdad in a secure fashion.
Perhaps that was Mike Ware.
Gee, perhaps. Or perhaps it was the tooth fairy. Seems like you have the same evidence either way.
If it had been Prior, we would have heard all about how his giggling mechanics are perfect, only for him to cough in mid-chuckle.
Our uncertain facts are more solid than the 'certain facts' of the folks who supposedly do this kind of thing for a living.
If you can't see how that's relevant, then I really wonder what you're doing on this site.
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Internet member since 1987
Member of the Surreality-Based Community
You're calling it outright speculation.
If you don't have anything to contribute, again I ask you, why are you here?
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Internet member since 1987
Member of the Surreality-Based Community
You're calling it outright speculation
Of course I am, because Erick used the word "perhaps". This indicates to me that he didn't know that Ware was giggling, but rather that perhaps Ware was giggling.
How is that not outright speculation? What other usages of the word "perhaps" are there?
The article identifies the giggling as coming from the back of the room. The video of the PC shows that Ware was at the front.
And McCain deserved to be giggled at, anyway. He made a fool of himself, and showed himself to be either deluded or dishonest. Given that his main appeal has always been as someone who sees things as they really are, and tells it how it is, that is the last thing he can afford.
This is the point I'm prepared to conclude that he can't win the presidency.
McCain zips into Baghdad, is escorted by 100 troops, armored vehicles and helicopters into a market that has been specifically swept for him & tries to play it off like he just went for a stroll in a "safe" Baghdad neighborhood.
Sorry, I might have had trouble stifling a chuckle too. The Iraqi's in the marketplace saw it as no more than a dangerous (for them) publicity stunt.
Ware has made mistakes in the past, but I have no problem with him pointing out that the Emperor has no clothes.