Where the bullets fell...

Bill Moyers is currently getting a lot of credit from liberals (and a lot of heat from conservatives) for lambasting the media's pro-war coverage leading up to the Iraq war. Eventually, perhaps, he'll gain the courage of Ashleigh Banfield who spoke out four years ago about the continuing pro-war coverage of the conflict.

In case you don't remember, Banfield was a reporter who became an instant media hero when she was caught up in the twin towers destruction on 9/11/2001. She built on that by first going to Afghanistan and then to Iraq to report on the wars there. Her fame evaporated after she spoke at Kansas State University on April 24, 2003 following the now famous "Mission Accomplished" speech by George Bush. The reason she was immediately demoted by MSNBC was because she dared question the way that the media had and was continuing to politicize the war.

Something she mentioned in that speech really stuck with me. She said that because of modern technology, the viewer at home got to see "what it really looks like when they're firing those M-16s rapidly across a river, or across a bridge, or into a building". Then she said: "That said, what didn't you see? You didn't see where those bullets landed. You didn't see what happened when the mortar landed. A puff of smoke is not what a mortar looks like when it explodes, believe me. There are horrors that were completely left out of this war."

If you want to see the entire speech, go to: http://www.mediarelations.k-state.edu/WEB/News/NewsReleases/banfieldtext42403.html but I warn you, it will leave you with unsettling thoughts. Like, where did all those bullets land?

I know I’m only a little bear, but surely things can be better…