Apr 03 2007
Crooks and Liars only tells half the story RE: Bill O’Reilly vs Ret Col Ann Wright
Crooks and Liars, a fairly overtly leftist site, takes Bill O’Reilly to task for his conversation with Col Ann Wright (US Army Ret) when he had her on his show the other night.
According to the CnL story, Bill brought Ann on, harassed her as Un-American and then cut her mic to prevent her response.
Bill O’Reilly abuses and cuts the mic of retired Colonel Ann Wright, 29-year veteran of the US Army, after she refuses to fall victim to his leading, dishonest questions and smear tactics. Apparently in Bill’s demented world, criticizing the actions of President Bush in explicitly violating international law — something Col. Wright spent years teaching — constitutes “blaming” America.
They provided a partial transcript:
WRIGHT: “I want to make sure the United States treats people properly..”
O’REILLY: “Sure you do. Sure you do.”
WRIGHT: “I surely do. That’s what I spent 29 years of my life trying to do.”
O’REILLY: “Sorry. No you didn’t. You know what happened to you…somewhere along the line you started to dislike your own country….“
WRIGHT: “I served 29 years. How many did you serve? Where did you teach the Geneva Conventions?”
O’REILLY: “Cut her mic.”
Damning indeed, except that they left out a few things. O’Reilly brought her on as a teacher of Geneva Convention law from her Army days. He asked her what appeared to me to be a simple question. Quoting the UN as saying the Iranian hostage situations was “an unprovoked act of aggression” and a “violation of the Geneva convention”, he asked her if she agreed.
She ducked the question, and instead urged caution about the circumstances of the Boats location. She rightly noted that the Brits and Iranians need to not allow this to get escalated. But she did duck the question. She then danced around it a second time, and even point out we have no moral high ground because we did worse in Abu Ghraib.
As the segment plays out, he tried to get her on record for the question again, but the segment then deteriorated to her saying the US has done bad things and avoiding any mention of the Iranians being at blame, and Bill questioning her patriotism.
It ended when he closed the segment, with her still trying to talk over him, and he did indeed order her mic cut off: to close out the segment. Video of the whole segment is at the bottom.
Bill was typical Bill, when she danced the issue, he went after her. No shock there. But I have to say that she was typical An Wright herself. I have heard her do the same thing in numerous interviews including several concerning disgraced LT Ehren Watada. In fact I heard her go toe to toe against Bryan Suits, also a Military Officer, about the legality of the war. It was hilarious as she danced the question repeatedly and ignored the realities of the oath she abided by for 29 years, which Watada violated. She refused to even admit her own arguments logical fallacies. It was pathetic to see how someone’s partisan nature and ambitions can leave them logically and intellectually bankrupt.
Here is a quote of her regarding Lt Watada:
“Refusing to participate in military operations that violate international law — the war of aggression, the use of torture, the use of illegal weapons and purposeful targeting of innocent civilians will save Lt. Watada his sanity and his soul.”
I hope that is a comfort as he breaks big rocks into little ones in Leavenworth.
CnL makes great hay out of this:
Can anyone argue with a straight face that FOX doesn’t engage in pure agenda journalism?
ON Bills show, no one has ever argued he was not opinion based. it is HIS show after all. CnL like so many others takes this to insinuate that all of Fox News is partisan, something patently untrue and frankly boring.
Bill knew exactly who Wright was and had the intention of painting her as an America-hating kook the entire time.
Then perhaps the Col, whom he introduced as an expert in the GC, should have addressed the specifics of the Iranian Hostage crisis in terms of reference of the GC. If she had clearly answered his question, either agreeing with the UN or not, he would have been disarmed completely.
Maybe they are right, and Bill brought her on not only with her credentials as a GC scholar, but knowing her propensity to dance tough questions and to blame shift against the Bush administration. He is not stupid. But if that is true, then she was a useful idiot for falling for it, because she ruined her credibility by not answering a simple question.
But when she very reasonably explained that you can’t talk about the Iranian situation without talking about how the United States treats it’s own captured prisoners,
Hold it, stop the presses. News Flash to CnsoL: Yes you can. There is no US involvement in the situation, and no realistic accusations against the Brits for mistreatment, so it was NOT RELEVANT. It was nothing more then a partisan distraction away from the situation at hand. And it was blame shifting. It was saying that we cannot blame them for mistreating the prisoners as they clearly have because we have lost the high ground.
The problem with this argument is that it denies the fact that the GC represents a greater good in law and humanity, and it relies on the proposition that if we were bad, we cannot expect anyone else to be good.
The problem is that Ann was not the US or the soldiers at Abu Ghraib. She has a perspective on the GC that should allow her to objectively assess the relevant facts and to evaluate the UN’s position based on the actual realities of the GC. She refused to do so, and instead used every chance to slip in criticism of the US.
Yes, we get it. She feels the US is bad for what it has done. SO WHAT!?!
This is about Britain and Iran. Deal with it.
Bill ends up losing it and accusing her — a 29 year Army veteran — of hating America. When did serving your country and demanding it abide by the Geneva Conventions become “hating America”? And when did cutting the mic of an Army veteran and accusing her of “hating America” become loving America?
Sorry, but if you can criticizes him for falsely accusing her of hating America it won’t make your case stronger by accusing him of the same thing. In reality, the fact you don’t like him and his methods does not make him Un-American. The absurdity of your logic is further compounded by the hypocrisy of you complaining about someone else’s.
The fact is her service, which I applaud, is not a shield against her ideas. Her service is not a badge granting her moral authority. She is like the rest of us in that her actual words determine what people think. Bill thinks she is Un-American because she take every opportunity to talk smack about America.
I would not be willing to go that far, but I would have to say that her refusal to deal with facts leaves me not wanting to consider her a great patriot. I can support anyone hating war.
But you do not have to lie or participate in lies to do it.
Thanks for the civics lesson, Bill.
Whatever. CnL is just making their usual biased partisan attack against anyone they dislike.
Had they actually dealt with the interview fairly I would have been happy to ignore this. The reality is that Bill O’Reilly is a big target and does more then enough blustering and rhetoric to warrant criticism. You don’t need to misrepresent it to make your case.
And Ann certainly did not help by refusing to answer a simple question, but they seem to be so starry eyed of her rank and service that they felt compelled to ignore her actual comments.
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Mark My Words, guerrilla radio, basil’s blog, DragonLady’s World, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, LaTogaStrappata®, stikNstein… has no mercy, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
25 Responses to “Crooks and Liars only tells half the story RE: Bill O’Reilly vs Ret Col Ann Wright”
Leave a Reply
You can track future comments on this post via this RSS feed. You can trackback this post by pinging this URL.
Allowed HTML: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
I don’t particularly like Bill O’Reilly. I think there are plenty of occasions when he gives his detractors more than enough rope to hang him. Even so, he’s always been more than fair and given both sides a chance to state their cases.
Usually, he comes out ahead in these things. Frequently the extremists end up talking themselves into a corner.
Every now and then though, and especially with the people on the left it devolves into a shouting match. Bill was right to cut her microphone.
I wish a few other show hosts would do the same when the “discussion” devolves like this.
Yea, that was my thought too. that he is fair game for his actions based on what he does. But in this case, I saw no reason he should give her a platform to launch her latest Anti Bush attacks.
She had a choice to show herself as a champion and expert of the GC, and instead she acted like a shill for Moveon.org.
Radical Madrasses in Pakistan…
Hat tip, LGF This is going on the the capital of Pakistan, not just in remote areas. The girls don’t get out much… Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, Rightlinx, third world county, Adam’s Blog, basil’s blog, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink…
[...] MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson’s Website, guerrilla radio, Adam’s Blog, basil’s blog, Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, LaTogaStrappata®, Rightlinx, third world county, [...]
“takes this to insinuate that all of Fox News is partisan, something patently untrue and frankly boring.”
Not nearly as boring as the unproven claim of left wing mainstream media bias. Come on Karl…it’s documented fact. Fox’s hosts routinely interject opinion throughout their news hours. 90 percent of Fox’s programming is driven by right wing opinion folks. John Gibson, Neil Cavuto, the entire Fox and Friends team. They will in the midst of discussing nwes routinely make snarky commentary about left wingers and democrats. To even try and argue that Fox is is NOT partisan is akin to arguing the sun revolves around the earth.
[...] radio, Adam’s Blog, basil’s blog, DragonLady’s World, The Bullwinkle Blog, Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, LaTogaStrappata®, Rightlinx, third world county, [...]
Thom….it is a documented fact that CNN, ABC, NBC CBS and MSNBC do the exact same thing.
See this story about when Boxer got Snarky with Inhofe: http://hotair.com/archives/2007/03/21/video-boxer-squares-off-with-inhofe-to-defend-goracles-honor/
I can readily admit that Foxe’s editorial content is right driven, and that that focus may taint their news coverage, but the other five lean farther left by far in porportion and make no apologies for their bias nor really any effort at all to appear objective.
The only truly unbiased news coverage is cspan which just shows raw footage and lets you deal with it.
But the rest, apart from Fox are canted to the left as are most of the major newspapers. Fox may have a right wing focus, but it is in the clear minority.
Pic of the Week, plus Blogs for Borders update……
Reid and Pelosi ready to rumble? And “illegal alien” “criminals”? Isn’t that redundant?…
IBM Supports Donates Tech on Behalf of a Veteran!…
I’ve half a mind to drive to the IBM headquarters and personally salute the CEO!…
[...] the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, The Random Yak, Adam’s Blog, basil’s blog, Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, Pursuing Holiness, LaTogaStrappata®, Rightlinx, third world county, [...]
EPA took the wrong position on global warming…
The Bush administration’s approach to the challenge posed by the state of Massachusetts et.al. was to proclaim that the EPA has no authority to regulate CO2 and other so-called greenhouse gasses. This was a poorly calculated error. Now the SCOTUS has….
Pelosi Seeks Political Soulmate…
Tired of being beheaded, hijacked, kidnapped and terrorized? Try Dhimmitude! It’s 100% submissive and guaranteed to appease the enemies of freedom. Well, temporally anyway. Because that’s all we have to do you know, is just be nice to them. U.S….
Liberals Demand Troop Increases for Iraq…
That’s right, this headline “Liberals Demand Troop Increases for Iraq” is precisely what every major American newspaper would carry if Islamic Imams declared tomorrow that Allah wants Capitalism instituted throughout the world.
…
Truth and Hope Report: Monday Night Talk…
Tonight on the Truth and Hope Report:
-Can and should Congress force Regional Primaries?
-Congressional Pork Games
-A Listerner Asks About Hate Crimes
-A Senseless Ban
-Most Americans Believe “Palestine” would be a Terror State
-Baseball Roun…
Warning!!…
To all passersby and ships at sea……
Here’s how the Iranian dailies viewed the British in regards to the whole captive situation:
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL0370726220070403
…By the way, the statement that Britain had a hand in the overthrowing of Prime Minister Mossadeq back in 1953, is 100% correct. See for yourself:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html
Please research. We all need to wake up here.
The Knucklehead of the Day award…
We have three excellent winners today.
Our first winner is Sweden’s National Tax board….
The Knucklehead of the Day award Part Two…
Today’s second winner is the San Mateo County Times newspaper and its reporter, Christine Morente….
The Knucklehead of the Day award Part Three…
Today’s third and final winner is Keith Richards….
Peaceful Students Attack Rove…
……
[...] Adam’s Blog, Big Dog’s Weblog, basil’s blog, Stuck On Stupid, Wake Up America, Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, The Bullwinkle Blog, Conservative Cat, LaTogaStrappata®, Pet’s Garden [...]
Yippi-kay-ya, Mother F*****…
Another Die Hard movie is coming out. While it would be nice to see John McClane taking on Islamofacists, it still looks to be good fun….
BorN Believing?…
Is the feeling for a Supreme entity thus inborn?
A belief in something greater than ourselves….
……
That’s because Crooks & Liars is what’s known as a left gatekeeper blog. Their job is discourse control, keeping the discussion within parameters “safe” for the regime, while simultaneously giving simpletons the illusion that America has free, open discourse. It’s part of the overall programme of perception management, and serves roughly the same purpose as other well-known and lesser-known left gatekeeper blogs like Daily Kos, Democratic Underground, MyDD, Moxie Grrrl, Cannonfire, Huffington Post, Mother Jones, Sadly No!, The American Prospect etc.
What a waste of blogspace this site is. Can you pandering, self-congratulatory conservatives a$$ki$$ers be just a little less obvious in your ridiculous rightarded slant? Doubtful. Leaning Straight Up? Hardly. Laying Prone Submissive is more like it.