Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Birthdays, Sheepdogs, Chris Cuomo, Truth, and Accountability

Today Navy SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy would have celebrated his 37 birthday.  Details of the remarkable  life of service of this American, and the sacrifice he made for his men  can be found here.  Celebrate this day through courage, integrity, and kindness.  The sheep owe the sheepdogs.  We have a responsibility to truth and accountability.

I've had a fun exchange on twitter with Chris Cuomo, CNN's new fair haired morning news boy (hey, he IS a good looking guy).  They are pinning their hopes that he will be able to bring in the viewers.  Chris comes from a family with an impressive history of public service. The viewing public grew tired of CNN morning host Soledad O'Brien.  Ms. O'Brien approached her show carrying quite a bit of water for her agenda.  I suspect that part of her downfall was she refused to accept or admit that she was indeed biased.  Very biased actually.  Ratings would suggest that viewers tend to be more forgiving of a host who acknowledges a bias and acts accordingly over one who claims to be an actual reporter who then spouts off talking points pulled off one of the web site of one of the political parties PAC.  Even to the end she insulted her viewers by signing off with the words, "...facts matter and we shouldn't be afraid to have tough and honest conversations...".  Of course if you ever watched her panel discussions or interviews, they were anything but 'tough and honest'.  Plus I doubt she spent much time fishing.  You'll have to refer to my twitter feed for that one.

'Fox and Friends' mixed some news, friendly banter from the hosts just to remind you that you are watching Fox, and the occasional human interest story that usually involves cheerleaders or girls in bikinis.

'Morning Joe' used to engage in some very serious and interesting discussions on politics and foreign policy.  Former Republican Joe Scarborough surrounded by moderate liberals were able to bring in interesting guests  and engage in conversation without interrupting and shouting at each other.  But since the election Mr. Scarborough seems to taken on a role of playing 'red-on-red' critic of the Republican party.  I understand his position of wanting to expand background checks, but while the world events continue to expose the gaps between the right and the left (Gosnell abortion trial, sending arms to Egypt) his show has turned into a single topic, bashing opponents of expanded background checks.  I'm sure that pleases his handlers at MSNBC, who are more than happy to ignore the growing Benghazi scandal of a possible lies and cover-up. Co-host Mika created a buzz when she refused to report any more Paris Hilton stores, and actually burned the printed copy rather than read it. But I suspect she would rather interview Ms. Hilton then bring on Darrell Issa to discuss why Hillary Clinton told the families of the Benghazi victims they were going to 'arrest and prosecute' the man responsible for the youtube video.



America lost four good men in Benghazi.  Two were public servants performing their jobs at the direction of the Secretary of State of the United States of America.  Two were killed while protecting our diplomatic station and the people stationed there.  The details of those events, and the heroism of our 'sheepdogs' has been reported elsewhere, mostly in the British press and on the internet, and those details are not the reason for this post.  However the actions of our government after the attack is.  As much as the Obama administration and the willing U.S. media has wanted to sweep the entire incident under the same rug as Fast and Furious, there have been a tenacious few that kept asking questions while the major networks went on 24/7 Amanda Knox news cycle.

So here's my wish for Chris Cuomo.  What if your father or brother had been tapped to lead the U.S. station in Benghazi?  What if those SEALs had died while trying to save him?


You wouldn't care about reporting the latest scandalous trail of some girl who may have killed her boyfriend, or whatever hot topic the low informed voter was following.  You would want to find the truth and report it.  You would want to shout it from the rooftop and make people care. Even if that truth was harmful to those in power or seeking power.  Regardless of party. Regardless if I found that truth to be painful. Just the truth.

So my request to Chris Cuomo is this:  Give us the truth. Hold people accountable.