August 19, 2005
Heisenberg Goes To War
Via Atrios, this Hardball transcript brings up an important point on the covering of the war in Iraq:
MATTHEWS: Let me go, Paul, before you start. What I keep doing here is asking people on and off camera who come on this program, high-ranking officers, enlisted, former officers. I get sometimes, not all the time, two different versions, the version they give me on the air and the version they give me the minute when we're off the air.The version they give me when we're on the air is gung-ho, we're doing the right thing, everything is moving along. The version they give me off the air is, Rumsfeld is crazy. There aren't enough troops over there. We're not taking this seriously enough, or, we shouldn't be there, sometimes.
RIECKHOFF: Yes. Well, the reality is...
MATTHEWS: It isn't always a straight scoop when you go on television with people, because they want to be loyal to their units and to their service.
RIECKHOFF: That's exactly right.
And, Chris, I'm no—there's no one more loyal to the troops than I am. I am still in the reserves. There's a likelihood that I'll go back, while Ms. Morgan is back at her radio show.
So, what I really want to do is educate the public about the truth of what's happening there. And I think the reality is that, when people like her go over there, there's a public affairs officer standing right next to that young soldier. And he‘s on active duty. And he wants to support the cause. And he can‘t speak freely. That's a fact.
My father greatly disliked Bill Clinton from the start of the 1992 presidential campaign. He thought the man represented everything that was wrong with government and politicians. But he largely held his tongue, even (or especially) amongst his immediate family. What would that tell his kids, to be constantly hearing him bad-mouth his boss, the leader of our country? Today, he disagrees with a lot of what the Bush administration is doing and has done (though he voted Republican both in 2000 and 2004 anyway), but getting him to criticize policy decisions or goals is still akin to pulling teeth. Perhaps that will change now that he's retired and heading to work at Harvard.
Comments by active duty troops on politics or policy are always to be taken with a large grain of salt. Part of being a soldier is that you follow orders and you don't second guess your superiors in front of others. It's insubordination. The armed services place a high premium on loyalty, in part because it's essential for survival on the battlefield. You have to be sure that your fellow soldiers will back you up, that your superiors will bail you out, and that troops under your command will execute and order when you give it. If you have a problem with the way things are being done, you take it up the chain of command. But if you know others are watching and listening, you button it up and put on your game face.
All this leaves aside, of course, the jaw-dropping candor from Chris Matthews. That he knowingly lets people come on his show and bald-facedly lie to his audience about what they think - just jaw-dropping. And depressing. How prevalent a practice is this in journalism today, that he doesn't even think enough of it to try to hide it?
Posted by ben at August 19, 2005 07:30 AM