ThinkProgress.org: Right Wing Mocks Reporters In Egypt: Not "A Great Deal Of Sympathy For Those Who’ve Been Attacked"

[Major Harris]

so bac are you suggesting that's it's a homophobic stereotype that gay people like to get beat up?

sorry, guys, i agree with most everything about how ridiculous the right wing nuts look here, but i fail to see any homophobic comments. making fun of dudes part and saying he liked getting punched in the head, sorry not seeing that.

[DieselPwr44]

Human decency isn't asking a whole hell of a lot.

Human decency isn't asking a whole lot....except when one puts him or herself into a situation where there is none.

So you and your camera crew stick your nose into an angry crowd/mob(they have clubs,rocks and molotov ****tails to sling about) and expect to come out unscathed??

Especially after lies are spreading that the foreign press is there trying to start trouble??

That's like "Don't touch the stove, it's hot" and you touch it anyway.......

[Baculus]

so bac are you suggesting that's it's a homophobic stereotype that gay people like to get beat up?

Why would Gallagher say, "With your little perfectly quaffed grey hair and your little delicate features . . . It almost sounds like he enjoyed it a little bit"? What do you think that means?

I am not the one who made the statement, so maybe you should ask Gallagher what he meant by it. That isn't even the main focus of the issue here, as it is. We're more concerned with why Gallagher would think that it is OK to beat on reporters -- that it is something amusing.

sorry, guys, i agree with most everything about how ridiculous the right wing nuts look here, but i fail to see any homophobic comments. making fun of dudes part and saying he liked getting punched in the head, sorry not seeing that.

That isn't even the main issue at hand. This thread ain't about Anderson Cooper and his hair.

[Veretax]

First I'm sad these folks got hurt over there. Violence is reprehensible in any form.

However, my level of sympathy is not as high as it could be. These are supposed to be knowledgeable reporters. We've been trying to tell them to take the partisan glasses off and start seeing the truth. Anyone with half a brain knew violence was coming here. It was just a question of when. In this estimation they should have realized how bad things were, and perhaps taken precautions. That doesn't change the fact that its sad they got hurt though.

[GoSkins561]

Reporters willingly take risks, but that doesn't mean they are "asking for it." Why is Cooper somehow guilty, but the people who attacked him (or the other journalists) aren't?

Isn't he putting himself among terrorists that would love to lop his head? On his first day of getting punched in the head they stopped the video of someone holding a knife? So what does Cooper do on the second day? Go out into the same crowd?? IMO, that's just stupid.

[Burgold]

First I'm sad these folks got hurt over there. Violence is reprehensible in any form.

However, my level of sympathy is not as high as it could be. These are supposed to be knowledgeable reporters. We've been trying to tell them to take the partisan glasses off and start seeing the truth. Anyone with half a brain knew violence was coming here. It was just a question of when. In this estimation they should have realized how bad things were, and perhaps taken precautions. That doesn't change the fact that its sad they got hurt though.

I don't understand this logic. It really is blaming the victim. Reporters go into hostile environments. That's part of the gig. I've done it (though not to that degree) and you take reasonable precautions, but you can't get the story, you can't tell the story from safety. Do you have no sympathy for a soldier who is shot? Do you have no empathy for a fireman who dies in a fire? Would you say that a teacher who chooses to teach in the inner city knows that there was a potential for violence and it's their fault if they got hurt.

There's just a coldness to this thread that I find disturbing.

[Baculus]

Human decency isn't asking a whole lot....except when one puts him or herself into a situation where there is none.

So you and your camera crew stick your nose into an angry crowd/mob(they have clubs,rocks and molotov ****tails to sling about) and expect to come out unscathed??

Especially after lies are spreading that the foreign press is there trying to start trouble??

That's like "Don't touch the stove, it's hot" and you touch it anyway.......

So are you saying that we should let despots and mobs on the street control the press and the information flow?!

Sorry, but I disagree.

I have respect for anyone who has the balls to go into those situations armed with only with a camera and a microphone. If it weren't for people trying to report the news -- war correspondents and investigative journalists -- then we wouldn't know some of the many tragic stories from the darkest spots in the world.

Situations like Egypt require MORE journalists, not less, but it would appear that the "cut and run" right-wing would prefer the opposite. They would hate Thomas Paine if he were alive today.

[Bang]

Isn't he putting himself among terrorists that would love to lop his head? On his first day of getting punched in the head they stopped the video of someone holding a knife? So what does Cooper do on the second day? Go out into the same crowd?? IMO, that's just stupid.

It's stupid for a cab driver or a shoe salesman or a computer programmer. For a reporter it's their job.

I'm with Burgold on this,, the coldness is disturbing. These folks are risking their lives to bring US the story from as close to the truth as they can get.

To mock them or treat them with scorn is shockng, and in my opinion, completely anti-American.

~Bang

[Larry]

That's like "Don't touch the stove, it's hot" and you touch it anyway.......

Do you feel the same way about our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Hell, they stuck their nose into a Muslim country and tried to conquer the place! Should have known better, the idiots! Think they're better than everybody else!

[Baculus]

Isn't he putting himself among terrorists that would love to lop his head?

The ONLY "terrorists" threatening anyone are the thugs of the state. It was the real demonstrators who protected Cooper once he got to their lines. Those demonstrators want the press -- the state police do not. And it wasn't the "second day," because the demonstrations had already been going on for a half a week by that point.

On his first day of getting punched in the head they stopped the video of someone holding a knife? So what does Cooper do on the second day? Go out into the same crowd?? IMO, that's just stupid.

What "same" crowd? Things got crazy after several days of protesting, when the pro-Mubarak goons were unleashed. That is when things got bad for the press.

[thebluefood]

So, I'm guessing Edward R. Murrow didn't deserve any sympathy when he was in the bomb shelters in London, too.

[Larry]

However, my level of sympathy is not as high as it could be. These are supposed to be knowledgeable reporters. We've been trying to tell them to take the partisan glasses off and start seeing the truth. Anyone with half a brain knew violence was coming here. It was just a question of when. In this estimation they should have realized how bad things were, and perhaps taken precautions. That doesn't change the fact that its sad they got hurt though.

And there you have the reason for why they deserved to be assaulted. Because they aren't right-wing reporters.

[Major Harris]

Why would Gallagher say, "With your little perfectly quaffed grey hair and your little delicate features . . . It almost sounds like he enjoyed it a little bit"? What do you think that means?

I am not the one who made the statement, so maybe you should ask Gallagher what he meant by it. That isn't even the main focus of the issue here, as it is. We're more concerned with why Gallagher would think that it is OK to beat on reporters -- that it is something amusing.

That isn't even the most issue at hand. This thread ain't about Anderson Cooper and his hair.

i fully acknowledge my question isn't directed at the main issue here. i did state i agree with you about the absurdity / ridiculousness of cheering for / condoning beating up a reporter. sorry for taking the thread off a bit, it's a habit of mine.

[aREDSKIN]

I tell ya, making the media the enemy was the most brilliant marketing move ever by the right. If you can convince people that all news reports are lies (except the ones they already agree with) then you never have to deal with pesky things like new information or dangerous alternative opinions. You never have to question assumptions or mythology. You get to live in a happy land where you are always right, and everyone else is evil and wrong.

The people on FreeRepublic would cheer their brains out if Anderson Cooper got curbstomped by a Mubarak thug.

I'm sure you ventured over to DU & the Daily Kos to see all the get well wishes expressed to Greg Palkat didn't you.

[Baculus]

i fully acknowledge my question isn't directed at the main issue here. i did state i agree with you about the absurdity / ridiculousness of cheering for / condoning beating up a reporter. sorry for taking the thread off a bit, it's a habit of mine.

It's OK, man. I am inflicted with that same habit. :-)

[Larry]

I'm sure you ventured over to DU & the Daily Kos to see all the get well wishes expressed to Greg Palkat didn't you.

"Look! Somebody else is bad, too!!!"

[Baculus]

However, my level of sympathy is not as high as it could be. These are supposed to be knowledgeable reporters. We've been trying to tell them to take the partisan glasses off and start seeing the truth. Anyone with half a brain knew violence was coming here. It was just a question of when. In this estimation they should have realized how bad things were, and perhaps taken precautions. That doesn't change the fact that its sad they got hurt though.

"Partisan glasses"? Huh? So, what is the "non-partisan" view on this? "The protesters are Islamic radicals who want to establish a caliphate"? Do you even realize that most of the reporters being attacked, threatened, etc., aren't even American, so they aren't partisan?

Perhaps you and the right-wing need to take off YOUR partisan glasses, eh?

What an absurd argument.

Yes, we know violence was going to probably come, and we know this from the decades of revolutions that reporters have covered. But isn't that the irony of this? You are probably using a mental catalog of past events formed by the reporting of those same sort of reporters under threat in Egypt.

But gee, wouldn't it just be better if we got our news from state sources? Then we wouldn't hear about all those gosh-darn ugly stories.

---------- Post added February-5th-2011 at 12:23 AM ----------

"Look! Somebody else is bad, too!!!"

Didn't you know that internet forums are more dangerous than thugs with knives?

[mardi gras skin]

Do you feel the same way about our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Hell, they stuck their nose into a Muslim country and tried to conquer the place! Should have known better, the idiots! Think they're better than everybody else!

Typically, troops need to be in the middle of the conflict in order to end the conflict. They are the story. I don't think a reporter HAS to be in the middle of the conflict to report on it. Really, when reporters place themselves in the middle of the conflict, they risk making themselves the story rather than reporting the story. If a reporter is going to put themselves in the middle of the conflict, they need to be very careful to keep the spotlight off themselves. Cooper became the story and it diminished his effectiveness as a reporter.

[twa]

Bac is this thread about bashing the Right or concern for the news crews?

You'll forgive me for being confused?

[aREDSKIN]

"Look! Somebody else is bad, too!!!"

Which came first the chicken or the egg? You know what's funny is that Bal creates a thread about his or his sources' perception of right wing mocking/meanness and all throughout this thread is his name calling, belittlement and invective. Classic.

[Burgold]

Typically, troops need to be in the middle of the conflict in order to end the conflict. They are the story. I don't think a reporter HAS to be in the middle of the conflict to report on it. Really, when reporters place themselves in the middle of the conflict, they risk making themselves the story rather than reporting the story. If a reporter is going to put themselves in the middle of the conflict, they need to be very careful to keep the spotlight off themselves. Cooper became the story and it diminished his effectiveness as a reporter.

Forgive me for saying this, but that's bull. You can't tell the story using secondary sources and you can't really tell the story without meeting the people and being there. It's the difference between being at the concert and listening to a cd. From a distance you may get the notes and hear the words, but you certainly don't get the same understanding as when you're there live.

[mardi gras skin]

Forgive me for saying this, but that's bull. You can't tell the story using secondary sources and you can't really tell the story without meeting the people and being there. It's the difference between being at the concert and listening to a cd. From a distance you may get the notes and hear the words, but you certainly don't get the same understanding as when you're there live.

And if you can't get the story without becoming the story, you have no story.

[Larry]

Bac is this thread about bashing the Right or concern for the news crews?

You'll forgive me for being confused?

twa, is this post about trying to label disgusting behavior by right-wingers (including yourself) as "bashing the Right", or about attempting to deflect attention away from the people who are doing it?

---------- Post added February-4th-2011 at 07:34 PM ----------

Which came first the chicken or the egg? You know what's funny is that Bal creates a thread about his or his sources' perception of right wing mocking/meanness and all throughout this thread is his name calling, belittlement and invective. Classic.

Which came first, the disgusting behavior or you trying to justify it?

[Burgold]

And if you can't get the story without becoming the story, you have no story.

That's not entirely true either. Clearly, the fact that reporters are being attacked is a worthy news story. Otherwise, we wouldn't be yacking about it. Now, it makes it tougher for the reporter to report esp. while being attacked, but this is one of the few circumstances where a reporter's personal involvement and interpretations is always a part of the story. Look at how reporters in England talked about what was going on around them during bombing raids in WWII. That insight is most definitely a part of the story. It has to be.

When a reporter is out in a hurricane... it is always a part of the story what they are feeling, what's happening to them, and what it's like. There are some stories where the reporter must become a character in the story their reporting... and you have to understand that while listening. You also have to understand that when the reporter is that close to the action he gains a level of intimate knowledge that is important to convey, but also may be so close that some of the big picture stuff is lost.

[aREDSKIN]

Which came first, the disgusting behavior or you trying to justify it?

Well, I wouldn't classify Bal's' behavior as disgusting, boorish & rude is much more accurate.