Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Daily Mirror (UK) silently deletes article blaming Israel for child death
Saturday, November 24, 2012
I have previously discussed the case of Mahmoud Sadallah, the 4-year old boy whose the world media blamed on Israel - when in fact he was killed by a Hamas rocket.
One of the examples I gave was the Daily Mirror (UK), which showed a
photos the grieving Egyptian prime minister Kandil cradling the head of
the child, and had written "Egypt's Prime Minister wept today as he kissed the forehead of a boy killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza."
CNN and others made the same accusation, but they sort of retracted (reluctantly) when confronted with the facts. The Daily Mirror did not, as far as I know.
So I was surprised to find out today that the link to that article is now broken, and cannot be found using the search engine on the Mirror website.
Instead of admitting the mistake, the Daily Mirror consigned the article
to the proverbial "bit-bucket." It simply erased the article and
pretended that it never made the mistake to begin with.
Puts your faith back into journalism, doesn't it?
It always amazes me that major, reputable media act with such immaturity
when faced with their mistakes. They don't realize simplepsychology: properly issuing corrections does not detract from their
reputation, it enhances it.
The original CNN video with the same mistake is still online.
Some 1350 people "Liked" it on Facebook. There is no indication that
the report is based on a lie on that same page. People can Google it a
decade from now and the lies that Sara Sidler spouted will still be
there. CNN's retraction/clarification, as it were, is not even placed on
the same page as the original video, where people can see the full
picture. Instead, it was buried in paragraph 16 of an unrelated article.
The impression that one gets isn't that CNN doesn't care about
accuracy, its reputation is the driving force behind its correction
policy and instead of doing proper fact-checking they instead try to
minimize and hide their mistakes.
People understand that the news media can make mistakes. But when the
same media is seen trying to hide or bury those mistakes, they appear
small and petty. The obfuscation is in some ways worse than the errors,
because it shows that the outlets care more about their reputations than
about the accuracy that they pretend is their primary goal.
I don't know which is worse - the Daily Mirror pretending that the
mistake never happened, or CNN which buried its clarification but which
still features the mistake in a video that people can watch in blissful
ignorace on their site.
Either way, though, it explains why people increasingly do not trust the
mainstream media and are relying more and more on alternative outlets,
like blogs. Elder of Ziyon