Was I guilty of some kind of great journalistic faux-pas when I posted the General Giap quote - which turned out to be of questionable origin?
Anonymous said - and I appreciate his counsel -
Sean,
Please don't take my comment the wrong way. I'm a big fan of your blo9g (sic) which I read daily. However, I'm a bigger fan of truth as I believe you are as well. what you posted about General Giap is essentially an email that has been circulating for years. I've been on the receiving end of it many times and have researched it quite a bit. I posted the link to Snopes simply as the shortest and quickest way to the heart of the matter. I agree that Snopes has a liberal slant but that doesn't make them wrong anymore than your conservatism makes you wrong. Truth is truth whether we like it or not.
I agree with the above sentiments - STORMBRINGER is about Truth and Honor - it occurred to me that the place I might have seen that Giap quote before was in the same email trail that Anonymous refers to above - such is the nature of the modern Internet-based media where urban myths cross with fact. Of course, such fooling with fact & fiction is not new in the media; there was once a time that if it was printed in the paper or uttered on TV it was taken as Gospel Truth regardless of the truth of the situation.
Walter Cronkite Defeated America on TV in his coverage of the Tet Offensive. The 1968 Tet Offensive was actually an overwhelming American victory and a tactical defeat for the Communist Viet Cong, yet Cronkite reported Tet as an incredible loss, fueling for the anti-war movement Left its allies in the Congress.
Military historians regard Tet as the decisive battle of the war because it shifted American public opinion against the war; this was directly due to Cronkite’s flawed reporting.
The difference nowadays of course is that we can sort it all out so much more quicklier. Consider when Cronkite's protégé and darling of the Left-leaning Mainstream Media Dan Rather floated his infamous George Bush National Guard memos during the 2004 Presidential Elections:
Respected news anchorman and darling of the Left Dan Rather and his Nemesis.
Who got re-elected and who got fired as a result of manufactured news, Dan?
The irony of it all is that ten or fifteen years ago Rather would have gotten away with his legerdemain - but it's a whole new ball game these days, and it cost Rather his job and worse; his reputation, and he can never get that back. Never mind the fact that Dan Rather was a respected newsman who climbed to the top of his profession, earning the respect of an entire nation; he was consumed - as was the rest of the the Left - in his personal hatred of George Bush that it drove him to present forgeries as legitimate news. And as if this wasn't bad enough; when he got busted out on it, he stuck his OTHER shoe in his mouth by DEFENDING HIMSELF; pressing involved parties to claim that even if the memos weren't true, this was the way people THOUGHT it should be.
This is the Left-Leaning Mainstream Media's modus operandi.
Anonymous is right; this is the modern Blog-o-Sphere and we Conservatives now own the high ground. We fought long and hard to gain this strategic advantage, and to maintain it we must be staunch defenders of the Truth. We don't have to like the Truth; but we are honor-bound to present it, and to call out falsity wherever and whenever we see it.
SEAN LINNANE SENDS
Thursday Bird HERE
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Sean, we are guided by the Three Great Lights:
ReplyDeleteThe Holy Bible is given us as the rule and guide of our faith and practice; the Square to square our actions; and the Compasses to circumscribe our desires and keep our passions within due bounds.
There is no other way to live.
If Rather had pulled that in 2000, it's likely that Al Gore would have won. The world has changed in 10 years, for the better if you love truth. The Lame Stream Media can no longer act as the gatekeeper of the news.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I hope that Cronkite burns forever in the Hell in which he no doubt did not believe. On his hands is the blood of millions of Vietnamese and Cambodians.