The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.
Dumb story du jour
: NPR send a reporter to the riverfront in Vietnam where Kerry served in his swift boat to discover that — surprise, surprise, surprise — the Vietnamese neither know nor care about the alleged controversy here. Somebody has too much time or money.
I think it’s very instructive that the Vietnamese don’t “know” about the controversy. I’ve travelled to Viet Nam extensively over the last 10 years, and it’s like walking into a time machine. It’s 1940 in Ha Noi, and it will likely stay that way for a long time. (The government recently began yet another crackdown on Internet cafes.)
Many Vietnamese get their news, not from the traditional sources, but from family members who are not in Viet Nam any more.
Did NPR expect some old guys to have taken pictures of Kerry and the Swifties? And my tax bucks go to this loony bunch!
If this is the way NPR is going to spend their McDonald’s windfall, it’ll be gone in another month. How foolish!
I’m usually an NPR fan (cue derision), but I swear when I heard this story this morning, I had an extreme WTF reaction. I honestly wondered if the reporter just wanted a free trip to the area. It actually could have been a good satire bit, if it hadn’t been serious.
I’ll echo the “what were they expecting to find” sentiment. I mean, if there were any Viet Cong around on the river bank to see them, don’t you suppose the Swifties would have shot them all?
Ok, that’s a bit of annoyed exaggeration, of course, but this was still a rediculous job to send a journalist on.
I’ll keep this in mind next time my local public radio station has a pledge drive. If they’d drop the money-wastin’ fools at NPR (who charge a king’s ransom to their affiliates for the privelege of broadcasting such tripe as described above), then perhaps they wouldn’t be at my aural doorstep, begging for change so often.
I am so surprised they didnt find someone with the images of that day seared into their memory. They should have sent Michael Moore, he would have done a better job.
I would imagine the common belief is to think that the citizens in the Mekong are completely unaware of the world around them. To find that there are people there that still remember the swift boats, that still remember attacking and fleeing the swift boats, and that have definite views of the presidency is enlightening.
Also interesting is to find that the Vietnamese interviewed still/now/again consider America to be their friend, and to learn that the Vietnamese themselves harbor different beliefs as to who they would prefer to be president. And then to find that they hold many of the same beliefs on that idea that you and I hold and have read/heard the same reports. All of this probably plays contrary to most people’s views of what life in the Mekong is like.
Is this a global world or what?
And the average Iraqi-on-the-street couldn’t care less about the Abu-Graib “scandal”, compared to the thousands of lives taken by Saddam & Sons. But the American mainstream media…well that’s another story.
Yes, I heard this report this AM.
The reporter made sure he got a couple of quotes from a Viet that he hoped Kerry would win, because he could find ways to avoid wars, unlike Bush.
And of course the closing part about how “some” people in Vietnam saw the many parallels between the US in Iraq and in Vietnam thirty years ago.
Utterly predictable
Me was in Vietnam back then- sorry missed NPR person, but me live L.A. now- not so many bugs.
Yes- me remember Kerry soldier. We all know him then, but not his name- we call him “Mighty White Warrior”. He legend among my peoples.
Me & Pok & Cho wait ambush swiftie boat one day, hide in mud at night, wait for dawn patrol. Along come boat, we all aim, Pok and Cho wait me signal start shooting evil imperialists.
Me see man riding prow, like Washington crossing Delaware. So many war-criminals among enemy, so many cowards… Me wonder who is this man standing so fearless? Why he have mighty dog by his side? Why he wear funny hat? And me see funny passenger- man in dark suit and shades- look like 3-pc Brooks Brothers pinstripe in classic American cut with room for silenced pistols.
Me look at face of fearless man in scope- he have hero jawbone, so strong, yet so nuanced. Then he turn, me see his eyes, me see soul of warrior man, then me know.
This not bad man, this good man, man with honor. He not want shoot me wife and me son- he only want serve commander with honor, go home fast-quick.
Why me and this great man must fight? Why good communists and good Americans not live together?
Me humbled. Me cannot shoot this man. Me lower rifle, boat pass, me go home.
That me story of Mighty White Warrior. NPR man use my story no money no problem. Me assume no legal liability.
If NPR had turned up a witness who supported the SwiftBoatVets for Calumny you would all be touting the great work NPR had done in doing some actual reporting.
I missed this. I listen to NPR because they can have interesting programs, but this is crazy. I could easily have believed this to be something found in ‘The Onion’ and not on NPR.
Did NPR happen to ask if anyone there cares about GWB’s Guard service/non-service? The feedback on that would have been of equal value.
I’d be VERY interested to have the Vietnamese who came here interviewed. Remember the ‘boat people’?
The various peoples who fled the slaughter that took place. These people should have an interesting perspective. I’d like to know if they believe our troops were ‘baby killers’, as some have claimed.