Comments on: The AP Rewrites History (Updated X2)

By: A Second Hand Conjecture » The Great Sock Puppet doesn’t like Brit Hume, but loves Murtha

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 15:29:28 +0000

[...] An even more important point, who says “real journalists” are not allowed to give their opinion? He mentions the case of Michael Gordon, who as we discussed here and here, was rather unfairly singled out. That however is the New York Times. Other journalists and anchors, including ones that the Unraveling Sock himself likes to use as grist for his mill, give their opinions on a regular basis. They do this all the time, but the most famous anchor of them all, Walter Cronkite, did it and Michael has the video here. Dan Rather did it on a regular basis as well. Do they not make their opinions known on “60 Minutes.” I say, so what? The real problem of bias isn’t the clearly marked commentary of Cronkite, Rather, Brit Hume or the investigative advocacy of “60 Minutes,” it is the bias hidden within supposedly objective reporting. It is the actual manufacturing of stories and evidence. Rather’s career was ended by his willingness to play with falsified evidence. [...]

By: Lance

Lance — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 20:31:41 +0000

Don,

I would go even further, the VC essentially died, and the NVA had to wait pretty much for five years for a new generation of fighters to come of age before they could launch another major offensive push.

By: Don

Don — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 20:14:40 +0000

Aaron,

Also consider Walter Cronkite’s broadcast, where he indicated he thought we were loosing. In ’68 his opinion carried a lot of weight.

It is also worth considering that the military’s claims set it up for embarresment when the Tet offensive occured.

The fact that the VC essentially died as a fighting force in Tet is not well known. After Tet, the NVA had to pick up the slack.

By: MichaelW

MichaelW — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 19:31:36 +0000

Ahh … thanks, Jeff. I’ll bet that’s what Aaron was thinking of. And thanks for the link, although I would encourage people to read past the hagiography presented as the lead-in there.

By: Jeff Shultz

Jeff Shultz — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 19:16:08 +0000

The American Embassy was assaulted at the beginning of Tet. 5 Americans and 2 Vietnamese civilians were killed, as well as all 19 of the attackers (who were held off long enough for the 101st to reinforce the embassy by helicopter).

This is probably a pretty good account of Tet:
http://www.vwam.com/vets/tet/tet.html

By: MichaelW

MichaelW — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 02:48:06 +0000

I may be wrong, but you may be thinking of when we pulled the last of our troops from Vietnam in 1975, and we airlifted them from the roof of the Embassy in Saigon. I don't think our Embassy was taken during the Tet offensive. In fact, nothing was really taken (although, I think we vacated Khe Sanh not long thereafter). Keeping in mind how lopsided was our victory in the Tet offensive, just view this "report" by Walter Conkrite giving his assessment of the war.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 02:03:16 +0000

I was not alive to see the Tet Offensive coverage on TV. I’d be interested to hear an account of it.

I would guess that its the invasion of the Embassy that was so shocking. Have the insurgents in Iraq overrun any US bases at all?