The increasing viewership for MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann proves that there’s still space in the media market for a New York-based liberal. But who’s not watching Olbermann’s evening show? Seemingly, MSNBC’s Saturday morning host Chris Jansing. This weekend, she began a piece with the following:
“An outspoken critic of the war in Iraq is backing off a statement he made while visiting troops there. Pennsylvania congressman John Murtha now says that his statement Thursday that quote ‘I think the surge is working’ might need further clarification.'”
Which is sort of true, but only if you don’t realize that Murtha wasn’t back-pedaling, but asking journalists like Jansing to run the full, nuanced quote:
“I think the surge is working but that’s only one element. It’s working because of the increase in troops, but the thing that has to happen is that the Iraqis have to do this themselves.”
His argument was that, without the political reconstruction required (and proven to be essential by minor examples like, oh, the long-term pacification of Germany and Japan after WWII) this was just boots on the ground creating the illusion of progress. And who was one of the first members of the mainstream media to point out that Murtha’s stance was being misrepresented? Keith Olbermann on Friday night.
This article appears in November 30 • 2007.
