Laura Ingraham comments on the courage of journalists in Iraq

[Cocoa]

(in passing, while puffing up her own imagined bravery)

Ingraham went to Iraq a couple of months ago for a week, and came back with this frightenly grandiose idea of how her trip transformed her into this unassailable authority on all things Iraq. On her radio show she used her trip like a new toy, pulling it out at every possible opportunity. Talking with guests and callers, whether they agreed with her about Iraq or not, whether they were even discussing Iraq or not, she would say "you should go to Iraq like I did, you'd really know what's going on."

She also used her trip as a license to assail the media. To the media that wasn't in Iraq, she would of course say, "you should go to Iraq like I did..." And to the reporters that were in Iraq, she uttered her famous lie about how they only report from hotel balconies. See the links below, especially the Lara Logan one, for background.

So I was very interested to see how she would respond to this recent tragic story about the three journalists who were killed or injured in Iraq:



I even emailed her to ask her to discuss the attack in light of her previous comments.

So I tuned in this morning and she didn't disappoint. She did perfunctorily mention how brave some journalists are in Iraq, though she didn't address the obvious contradiction between that and what she said about the hotel balconies.

Then she went on to read a letter from a soldier in Iraq who wanted to give his own bronze star medal to her, Ingraham, to honor her precious 8 day trip to Iraq.

Then she went on to agonize about whether to accept the medal or not, and asked her listeners to call in and advise her. She devoted a significant amount of her program to this self-indulgent exercise. Guess what, she got a lot of calls from soldiers who urged her to accept the medal, to which she would respond, "I don't know if I should, I'm not the real hero, the troops are..." :puke:

Douglas and Brolan are dead, and Dozier is struggling to stay alive, and Ingraham takes the opportunity to congratulate herself at length on her own bravery. What a nut. :crazy:



Background on Ingraham and Iraq and on Kimberly Dozier's reporting...


A nice background on Dozier's work in Iraq:

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_149123740.html


Ingraham "hotel balconies"

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/03/21.html#a7608


Lara Logan mocks Ingraham: "eight days, lol!" (This video is especially good).

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/03/26.html#a7669

[Scriptor Ignotus]

1. My only question is

why do you listen to her at all? She's completely insane, just like O'Reilly. Part of the reason their ratings are so high is because normal people listen to them just to see what new and outrageous thing they will say. Ingraham, Coulter, O'Reilly, Limbaugh are the new "shock jocks". I think they saw what Howard Stern accomplished and modelled their careers after his. These people aren't stupid.

Don't feed the beast. Don't give her sponsors a reason to spend money on her show.

[Cocoa]

2. I disagree

I don't think she's in the shock business like Coulter is. I think she's trying to persuade people.

But I agree she's insane. :-)

To answer your question, I listen to her show, and Bill Bennett's, because I want to.

[Trouser Trout]

3. I love that video clip of Lara Logan

doing the smackdown on Ingraham and her type, not just because she is INCREDIBLY sexy, but for that laugh at the end when informed that Ms. Ingraham had spent all of 8 days in Iraq.What an idiot!

[frylock]

4. i loved that moment..

Lara's great (and incredibly sexy). Did you happen to catch her last night talking about Kimberly Dozier and the two journos who were killed? You could tell she was deeply effected.

[Scoody Boo]

5. For the most part...

Laura Ingraham is correct. Most, hell almost all of the reporters in Iraq will not venture out of the Green Zone. You could have the biggest story of the year taking place a few kilometers out of Baghdad and they would not dare to go.

We used to invite them along on our convoy escorts for the hell of it. It got to the point that when they saw us coming, they would turn away.

When they do venture out, they usually go to places that are in control of the Coalition and the danger is minimal. The roads have usually been cleared of IEDs before hand, though obviously, you can't always find them all.

Every once in a while you get one who goes out more, like the CBS crew, but they are not the norm. If anything, it bloggers going out into the shit more than anyone except the troops.

[Yollam]

6. But her criticism is the height of hypocrisy.

She is an ultra-right-winger who supported an illegal war in which she stands to lose NOTHING personally. She has no business attacking reporters in the Green Zone from her air-conditioned stateside studio.

[Supersedeas]

7. a point that can be conceded...still, she could have said more about

the journalists who have been injured outside of the Green Zone

[Cocoa]

8. I don't believe it

I don't believe the troops are asking journalists to tag along and the journalists are too chicken to go.

I believe Lara Logan's version, where she asks the military to tell her about "good news" stories like rebuilding projects and they tell her they can't because of the security situation.

[Scoody Boo]

12. I was not there as a "troop."

I was there with RamOps Security, escorting contractor convoys. The reporters never wanted to go with Contractors.

[dancingme]

9. Ingraham is completely self obsessed

Always has been. It's always about me, me, me. If she did not have a radio show to talk about herself for a few hours a day and have people tell her she is wonderful, she would be in a psychiatric hospital. She cannot function in the real world.

[Roland99]

10. She's the epitome of the defintion of ****

[KamaAina]

11. KamaAina comments on the courage of Laura Ingraham

She cut her far-right teeth at Dartmouth by infiltrating gay/lesbian student meetings and then writing letters to their parents outing them. I jive you not.

Come to think of it, I'm surprised no one's offered her a job in the Bush** "Administration". I'm sure KKKarl could put that kind of sniveling weaselly skill to use. :puke:

edit: not enough letters in 'letters'. :shrug:

[Skittles]

13. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

THAT CHICKENHAWK WARMONGERING PIECE OF *SHIT* ACCEPTING A MEDAL? PLEASE TELL ME YOU MADE THIS UP.