Quick random thoughts on Nightline's The Fallen

Published on April 30, 2004 By russellmz2 In Blogging

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
Ecclesiastes 9:11

Just finished watching it a short while ago, did not catch the beginning.

I thought I was young, but I'm older than most of the guys they mentioned.

There were two guys named White, a black guy and a white guy.

There were two guys with the last name Bush.

My brother-in-law and sister didn't know until tonight that over 700 troops had died so far.

The Marines had nice photos of themselves, the Army had various random ones.

They mentioned two separate Mike Adams’s, coincidently I knew two separate Mike Adams’s in college.

I disagree with the company that made the seven ABC stations not show the episode.

Rest in peace. May your brave sacrifices not be in vain.

Comments

Anthony R

on May 01, 2004

A memorial is a good thing, but the memorial seemed to have had an agenda. Koppel is obviously biased; he appeared on airhead America and said as much. Look at the picture from the nightline site; they call Cheney “the Quiet American.” It’s not an arbitrary choice of words; the Quiet American was a novel by Graham Greene, about Vietnam, during the colonial French war. The story became prophetic, it foretold future American involvement and how the effort of democratization would inevitably fail. The actual title the “Quiet American,” relates to the fact that the American in the story, (Pyle) was dead. Pyle was a real quiet American. There is an obvious agenda behind “the fallen” episode of Nightline. I think it was an attack on Cheney and Bush’s policy.

Gene Nash

on May 02, 2004

Anthony R., Interesting thoughts on the hidden message about Graham Greene and The Quiet American. Thanks for your input.

russellmz2

on May 02, 2004

did you see it? at the end he said some people think he's doing it because he's against the war in iraq...then he said "i'm not."

Gene Nash

on May 02, 2004

And God knows journalists never lie or backpedal.

Personally I didn't see it. (ABC station here is too hard to pull in.) Is that all he said-- "I'm not" then out? Did he mean he's not against the war? or he's against the war but that's not why he's doing it? or he's not against the war and that's also not why he's doing it?

Because just "I'm not" then out sounds kind of ambiguous to me. A journalist being that purposefully ambiguous would raise suspicions in my book. Since he felt the need to defend his motivations a fuller explanation -- even if only a couple more sentences, or on a follow-up program -- would be better. I could see where he wouldn't want to go into too much detail for the sake of not detracting from the power of what they intended, but still... a couple more sentences? Maybe he didn't want to define his position over some misguided dedication to "impartiality?" He threw that out the window when he decided to defend himself. Maybe, "Some people mistakenly believe this is about being anti-war. It's not. Our job is to impartially report the facts. Our only intent: to honor the fallen. Goodnight."

But, again, I'm speculating on something I didn't see-- a fairly worthless pursuit.

russellmz2

on May 03, 2004

not sure what you consider long enough, but here is what he said, don't remember if it is all of it:

transcript:
============================
At the end of the broadcast, host Ted Koppel addressed the political controversy.

"Our goal tonight was to elevate the fallen above the politics and the daily journalism," Koppel said in his closing thought.

"The reading tonight of those 721 names was neither intended to provoke opposition to the war nor was it meant as an endorsement.

"Some of you doubt that. You are convinced that I am opposed to the war. I am not, but that's beside the point. I am opposed to sustaining the illusion that war can be waged by the sacrifice of the few without burdening the rest of us in any way."

Koppel explained that 16 names of fallen service members -- including two Marines killed Friday -- were not released, and not included in the program.
======================================

Gene Nash

on May 03, 2004

That sounds good. Works for me.

Thank you for the clarification.

I forgot ABCnews.com has transcripts. I could have just gone there and looked it up. "Duh" on me.

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"At times, there is no alternative to war." -- Ted Koppel

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