Laura Ingraham was not in the least derogatory or insulting to anyone's memory when she appeared on "The Today Show" on March 21, 2006, notwithstanding Keith Olbermann's "unforgivable", "desperate", "stupid" and opportunistic charge to the contrary. Ms. Ingraham clearly, cleverly and courageously commented on the bias of the mainstream media in reporting the bad in Iraq ad nauseum while neglecting to report much of the great good that has been done and challenged "The Today Show" to do the kind of reporting in Iraq that she herself had done.
Ms. Ingraham's powerful point: if tens of thousands of American soldiers help Iraqis to reconstruct their countries, it's not newsworthy; but if a handful behave badly, it's the news of the day, or the week, or the month. The American people need and deserve CONTEXT AND COMPLETENESS. Ms. Ingraham said so, passionately, but politely.
After Ms. Ingraham's richly deserved lecture that embarrassed, but did not shame, shameless NBC, it was to be expected that opportunists at NBC would rush to try to do what NBC's fair-haired boy, David Gregory, had not done while interviewing Ms. Ingraham: refute her irrefutable charge that NBC and the rest of the leftist mainstream media manipulators had been presenting an excessively negative picture of conditions in Iraq.
Keith Olbermann is host of MSNBC's “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.” “Countdown,” a newscast that counts down what MSNBC designates as the day’s top stories weeknights, 8-9 p.m. ET.
Mr. Olbermann despicably declaimed that what he called Ms. Ingraham's "balcony crack" was "unforgivable."
It was UNFORGETABLE, Keith. Ms. Ingraham should be acclaimed for what she actually said. SHE did not say anything requiring forgiveness.
YOU need to repent and to seek Ms. Ingraham's forgiveness for misrepresenting what she actually said.
YOU said: "....that hotel balcony crack was unforgivable. It was unforgivable to the memory of David Bloom, it was unforgivable in considerable of Bob Woodruff and Doug Vought, unforgivable in light of what happened to Michael Kelly and what happened to Michael Weiskopf. It was unforgivable with Jill Carroll still a hostage in Iraq. And it was not only unforgivable of her; it was desperate and it was stupid."
THIS is the pertinent part of the transcript of Mr. Gregory interviewing Ms. Ingraham:
Gregory: "....Laura, Laura what's your take on this, because obviously the White House has made a determination that speaking about the war candidly as they can is what's important now and yet it's clear that the President's having a hard time being heard."
Ingraham: "Well here, here's what I think David. I think with all the resources of networks like NBC. The Today show spends all this money to send people to the Olympics, which is great, it was great programming. All this money for Where In The World Is Matt Lauer? Bring the Today show to Iraq. Bring the Today show to Tal Afar. Do the show from the 4th ID at Camp Victory and then when you talk to those soldiers on the ground, when you go out with the Iraqi military, when you talk to the villagers, when you see the children, then I want NBC to report on only the IEDs, only the killings, only, only the reprisals. When people are on the ground whether it's recently, David Ignatius of the Washington Post, whether it's recently..."
Gregory: "Okay but, but Laura let's be, hold on, let's be..."
Ingraham: "Let me finish David because you got, you guys are, no, no, let me finish, let me finish..."
Gregory: "Wait a minute Laura! Wait a second! If you want to be fair. First of all the Today show went to Iraq. Matt Lauer was there, he reported there."
Ingraham: "Did he do a show, did you do a show from Iraq?"
Gregory: "Okay and we, and we've got a bureau there so..."
Ingraham: "Yeah. David, David to do a show from Iraq means to talk to the Iraqi military to go out with the Iraqi military, to actually have a conversation with the people instead of reporting from hotel balconies about the latest IEDs going off. It is very difficult in Iraq. People are struggling..."
Gregory: "And you, and you think Iraq is safe enough to, have you been there long enough to venture outside the hotel balconies?!"
Ingraham: "David, yes I did. I wasn't in a hotel balcony I was out with the U.S. military and it can be done in any part of the country. It is dangerous in the Sunni triangle..."
Gregory: "So, so Lau-..."
Ingraham: "...but NBC and networks of the United States..."
Read the entire transcript at Newsbusters.org.
Read it carefully, Keith.
NBC's David Gregory apparently did not know (or recall) that Ms. Ingraham had done her radio show in Iraq last month and been with American and Iraqi troops and Iraqi villagers.
To repeat:
Gregory: "And you, and you think Iraq is safe enough to, have you been there long enough to venture outside the hotel balconies?!"
Ingraham: "David, yes I did. I wasn't in a hotel balcony I was out with the U.S. military and it can be done in any part of the country. It is dangerous in the Sunni triangle..."
Keith, Ms. Ingraham was downright gracious to Mr. Gregory under the circumstances.
There was nothing unforgivable, or desperate, or stupid about any of Ms. Ingraham's remarks.
What is unforgivable is any part of the American news media being vested in American failure in Iraq.
What is unforgivable is American media manipulators making the situation in Iraq look much worse than it actually is.
What is unforgivable is you claiming that Ms. Ingraham disrespected David Bloom, or Bob Woodruff, or Doug Vought, or Michael Kelly, or Michael Weiskopf, or Jill Carroll, when she did no such thing.
Ms. Ingraham challenged "The Today Show" to do what she herself had done instead of to treat that as much to dangerous to do.
The lady had practiced what she was preaching.
Nothing desperate, or stupid, about what she did or what she said..
What was desperate, and stupid, was your pitiful attempt to disparage Ms. Ingraham in order to discredit her message and to deflect her challenge to "The Today Show."
Read the transcript. Look at the videotape. They show that Ms. Ingraham was superb. YOU were slimy.
