[Rhodes22-list] Politics: Zell Miller on news coverage

Tue Oct 12 20:34:57 EDT 2004

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The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com

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Iwo Jima, if covered by media today
By Zell Miller
Published October 12, 2004

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What if today's reporters had covered the Marines
landing on Iwo Jima, a small island in the far away
Pacific Ocean, in the same way they're covering the
war in Iraq? Here's how it might have looked: 
    DAY 1 
    With the aid of satellite technology, Cutie Cudley
interviews Marine Pfc. John Doe, who earlier came
ashore with 30,000 other Marines. 
    Cutie: "John, we have been told by the
administration that this island has great strategic
importance because if you're successful, it could
become a fueling stop for our bombers on the way to
Japan. But, as you know, we can't be sure this is the
truth. What do you think?" 
    Pfc. Doe: "Well, I've been pinned down by enemy
fire almost ever since I got here and have had a
couple of buddies killed right beside me. I'm a Marine
and I go where they send me. One thing's for sure,
they are putting up a fight not to give up this
island." 
    Cutie: "Our military analysts tell us that the
Japanese are holed up in caves and miles of connecting
tunnels they've built over the years. How will you
ever get them out?" 
    Pfc. Doe: "With flame throwers, ma'am." 
    Cutie (incredulously): "Flame throwers? You'll
burn them alive?" 
    Pfc. Doe: "Yes ma'am, we'll fry their asses.
Excuse me, I shouldn't have said that on TV." 
    Cutie (audible gasp): "How horrible!" 
    Pfc. Doe (obviously wanting to move on): "We're at
war ma'am." 
    (A Marine sergeant watching nearby yells, "Ask her
what does she want us to do -- sing to them, 'Come
out, come out, wherever you are. Pretty please.' " 
    Cutie: "Pfc. Doe, what's that mountain in the
background? Is that the one they say is impregnable?" 
    Pfc. Doe: "I don't know what that word means,
ma'am, but that's Mt. Suribachi, and we're going to
put a flag right up on top of it just as soon as we
can. I gotta go." 
    Cutie to camera: "No one has yet really confirmed
why this particular battle in this particular place is
even being waged. Already, on the first day, at least
500 Marines have been killed and a thousand wounded.
For this? (Camera pans to a map with a speck of an
island in the Pacific. Then a close up of nothing but
black volcanic ash). For this? For this?" (Cutie's
sweet voice becomes more strident as it fades out.) 
    DAY 2 
    At 7 a.m., Cutie's morning show opens with a shot
of hundreds of dead bodies bobbing in the water's
edge. Others are piled on top of each other on shore.
After a few seconds, one can see Marines digging
graves to bury the dead. 
    Cutie: "There is no way the Marines could have
expected this. Someone got it all wrong. No one
predicted this. This has been a horrible 24 hours for
our country. This is a slaughterhouse. After all this
fighting, Marines control only about a mile and a half
of beach and the casualties are now over 3,500 and
rising rapidly. We'd like to know what you think. Call
the number on the bottom of the screen. Give us your
opinions on these three questions: 
    1. Were the Marines properly trained? 
    2. Is this nothing of an island worth all these
lives? 
    3. Has the president once again misled the
American people? 
    "After the break, we'll ask our own Democratic and
Republican analysts, both shouting at the same time,
of course, what they have to yell about all this. It
should make for a very shrill, provocative morning. 
    "But before we leave this horrible -- some will
say needless -- scene, let us give you one more look
at this Godforsaken place where these young Americans
are dying. Volcanic ash, cold, wet miserable Marines
just thankful to be alive. And still no flag that we
had been promised on that mountain. Things have gone
from bad to worse in this obviously misguided military
operation. One thing is certain, there should be and
there will be a high-partisan -- make that bi-partisan
-- congressional inquiry into this." 
    DAY 3 
    Cutie: "Marines continue to be locked in a
life-or-death struggle over this worthless piece of
real estate in the middle of the Pacific. The word
'quagmire' is being used in the U.S. Senate, a body
very familiar with quagmires. Senator Blowhard has
called it 'a colossal military blunder.' And Senator
Bombast maintains it was a fraudulent scheme hatched
while the president was on his sixth vacation at the
Little White House in Georgia. 
    "The recently organized Senate Squeakers Group may
ask for the president to resign. They maintain that
politics should not stop at the waters edge in times
of war, calling that tradition an old-fashioned idea
that has no place in the new century of dysfunctional
government. Over forty special interest groups
concurred and all issued identical news releases." 
    "We now turn to our politicalanalyst,James
Crankville." 
    (James):"Cutie,the overnight poll numbers have hit
this president right between the eyes. Nationwide, an
overwhelming 98 percent said that if possible, they
would like to see this country fight a war without a
single American casualty. That is nearly the same
percentage we saw three days ago when the American
public said they would be in favor of going to war if
we could win without firing a shot. So, you can see
there is a trend developing here that spells trouble
for this administration." 
    "That this president is going ahead with this war
is just unbelievable. The witty New York Times
columnist, Myscream Loud, wrote in her inimitable
fashion that 'The president's policy is as crippled as
his legs.' (giggle) Last week she said he had reached
the point where no one will 'Fala' him. F-A-L-A, his
dog, get it (more giggles)? Has that woman got a way
with words! Go girl." 
    DAY 4 
    Cutie (holds up front page of the New York Times):
"This morning, the New York Times had this photo on
the front page. As you can see, the Marines have
finally raised a flag on Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima.
The fighting is still going on but it looks like this
battle is over. We tried to find Pfc. Doe, the young
Marine I interviewed that terrible first day, but he
was unavailable. Here is Corporal Smith though. (With
girlish enthusiasm). "Well, we see that flag flying.
It's pretty much over isn't it?" 
    Cpl. Smith: "Oh, no ma'am, it's not over by any
means. We've got weeks of fighting and dying to go
yet. This place is a long ways from being secured. But
we did get that flag up there and it sure makes us all
proud." 
    Cutie: "I can't tell much from the photo. Their
faces are not even visible, making it impossible for
us to descend upon any of their families. Corporal
Smith, do you know any of the flag raisers? And do you
know who ordered it put up there? Did the order come
directly from the president for political reasons?" 
    Cpl. Smith: "All I know is that I heard some
colonel put the word out that he wanted 'a flag put up
there where every son of a bitch on this island could
see it.' Excuse me, ma'am." 
    Cutie: "We know you've been in the heat of battle
so,..." 
    Cpl. Smith: "Still am, ma'am." 
    Cutie: "Yes, of course, but it's all over.
(Nervous giggle). Except here on Capitol Hill, of
course. Corporal Smith, I wonder if you know the
gender, race and ethnicity of the group that put the
flag up. In other words, did that group 'look like
America?' " 
    Corporal Smith: "Look like America? They are
Americans, ma'am. United States Marines." 
    Cutie: "Any females?" 
    Cpl. Smith: "No, ma'am." 
    Cutie: "Any African Americans?" 
    Cpl. Smith: "I don't know, ma'am. But there is an
Indian in Easy Company." 
    Cutie: "You mean Native American?" 
    Cpl. Smith: "Whatever, ma'am, I've got to cut out.
My outfit is moving on and we've got a lot to do." 
    Cutie: "And we've got a lot to do here too. Spring
training has started and the sun is shining brightly
in Florida. But first this word from our sponsors." 
    Historical note: In one of the bloodiest battles
of World War II, when it was said "uncommon courage
was a common virtue," 6,000 Marines were killed and
18,000 wounded. Some 21,000 Japanese were killed. The
island itself is still barren and only a handful of
people live on it. But after it was secured by the
Marines, B-29s made over 2,200 emergency landings on
it, saving the lives of more than 24,000 crewmen. AP
photographer Joe Rosenthal won a Pulitzer Prize for
the flag-raising photo. Of the six men in the photo,
three were buried in that black volcanic ash, one came
out on a stretcher. Only two walked off the island. 

    Zell Miller is a Democratic U.S. senator from
Georgia. 

Copyright © 2004 News World Communications, Inc. All
rights reserved.

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